Life Right Now - Avant Garde REVIEW

I do not enjoy listening to bad music. Granted, “bad” is an objective term, and what some may find intolerable, I find beautiful and vice-versa. But regardless, the act of listening to music that one does not want to can be a challenge, and what a task it was listening to supergroup Life Right Now's debut, Avant Garde. Melodic metalcore sure isn't my genre, and the tag "partycore" should not exist, yet Attila and many others have really rubbed in that stain enough to make it an actual subgenre. Look, I saw Of Mice & Men open for Slipknot years ago, and I had a quick two-week phase of repeatedly listening to 'Second & Sebring' and 'Bones Exposed', but we all go through that with some genre or another. However, I would rather listen to any of the worst cuts from that band than any “great” song from this album.

Without having a single experience with this despicable genre other than "classic" melodic metalcore and 'About That Life', I had to go off of the word of a friend. I wasn't interested in listening to this atrocity until I heard the first track, 'Two Wrongs Don't Make A Wrong (But Three Do)'. I will refrain from uttering the opening lines to this track, but as a metalhead, it is unironically the cringiest thing I have ever heard, and from the get-go, I knew I had to tear this thing apart. Annoying knock-off djent riffs litter this album, with suspiciously whiny sounding drums to accompany their wonderful thumping. The clean vocals are nasally, processed, and almost as ear-piercing as the blaring electronics in the background. The lyrics, however, are perhaps the absolute worst aspect of this album. Sampled one-liners and poetry found inside your angsty 13-year old brother’s private journal are spewed over all these baffling tracks, but my least favorites are on 'Something More', 'Wolfpack', and 'That Dress Don't Lie', each of which contains lines that are moronic, dumb, and misogynistic respectively. 

‘Wolfpack’ is the first single from this band, and it really shows their immaturity as an artistic collective. The chorus is campy both lyrically and structurally, the verse is far too thumpy, and in the middle of the track arises an electronic record scratch that is absolutely eye-rolling. The bridge/third pre chorus has been written thousands of times before, and the seeming lack of effort given by the vocalists on this song in particular is amazing. It’s odd that this song was picked to be not only the band's first single, but also their first release of any sort. With such a weak cut, it is odd to me that this song was emblematic of what was to come on the album, as both ‘Something More’ and ‘Two Wrongs Don’t Make A Right (But Three Do)’ showcase more of what the band is about.

While the electronic record scratches are groan-inducing, the single thing that I could possibly credit on this album are the electronic breakdowns. I said before that they are overpowering in the mix, but when a trope this distasteful is used, at least as an unseasoned listener of partycore, it's refreshing to hear something different than your run-of-the-mill Attila rip-off. However, this is where the compliments end. Another cardinal sin this band commits, (if you've read my other reviews you know I love to harp on this) is stuffing their album chock full of abrupt endings. Like, in the middle of a verse abrupt endings, irking me to the point of actually having to pause the album, and I hate not listening to albums in full. 

If you love partycore, this album is probably for you. There are songs that work within the very strict confines of the genre, like 'Something More', 'Take A Picture It'll Last Longer' and, unfortunately, 'That Dress Don't Lie', but the majority of the tracks on this album come across as pretentious, obnoxious and mind numbing. Once you have heard one verse on this album, you have heard every single one. The vocalists can at least adequately pull off what they are going for, but compared to any iconic vocalists like Ihsahn and Mikael Akerfeldt, they are chumps. If you think I'm not being fair in my comparison, fine. In that case, go listen to early (RIP Austin) Of Mice & Men, where the vocalists do a far superior job on cleans, and manage to accent the heavier side of melodic metalcore with stunning harshes. If you are looking for less hip-hop and deathcore in your partycore, you've found your next favorite band. But if you want to listen to actual music, check out any of the non-core bands on this website. Let's hope you find something in there more enjoyable.

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Final Score: "YEAH! THIS IS LIFE RIGHT NOW! TWO THOUSAND NINETEEN BABY! LET'S GET IT!"

Favorite Tracks: None. Yup, this album is that bad

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You can buy the physical of this album of the band's Facebook here