Own Your Life and The Debut Self-Titled.
Own Your Life – St. Neots, England, United Kingdom.
Sometimes, just sometimes you need external anger in order to soothe your own. You need the cathartic release of others to help assist or act as the catalyst of your own. This exactly how I felt after pressing play on the debut EP from Cambridgeshire Thrash laden Hardcore band, Own Your Life.
The band’s debut consists of a five-track short blast of NYC Hardcore heavily encumbered with a Thrash Metal guitar tone and an adapted blueprint from the likes of Sick Of It All, Terror, Hatebreed, Decapitated and Raised Fist.
With ‘Saviour’ and it’s thudding breakdown orientated NYC Hardcore Punk you enjoy the pangs of speed but feel some of the chugging guitars may assert themselves for a little too long. However, with that said they do sit as a perfect foundation for the mid-to-fast burst of rage filled tempo.
If ‘Saviour’ isn’t too sure of itself as it flirts with multiple aspects of Own Your Life’s sound then ‘Pendantic’ is the song it was trying to be. With this second track the band opt for the more breakdown and Metallic Hardcore approach again but this time have a far more noticeable coherence.
However it isn’t until the mid-point and the track ‘Cretin’ where the Thrash Metal guitar tone and deep cutting riffage “shine” as they inject themselves with a glimpse of old-school Hardcore followed by heavily set contemporary groove.
Vocally, Sam Curtin’s verses and chorus’ are strong and a product of the direct rage of the lyrics but do falter albeit only slightly on any elongated screams. This is in part likely due to the recording and mixing but also the age of the band in regard to their career.
One crucial and pleasantly (for Hardcore) noticeable characteristic of this EP is how its sonic strength and grounded feet feel all the more firm as it moves towards its end. Vocally speaking it has found its niche and is busy improving it, while musically a more even NYC Metallic Hardcore sound is dominant and confident by the time of ‘Escapist’.
Lyrically, it is bare honesty straight to paper but you cant help but feel a reorganisation and or different set words could have been used as it can fall into Hardcore cliche at times. With that said however, and to use the example of ‘Escapist’ again, the band do certainly have their path laid out both in this case and indeed across the board.
Own Your Life are well on the way to owing their own so do try to pay attention.
Find the band below:
- For updates, head to Facebook.
- The band’s music can be found on bandcamp and SoundCloud.
