Recommended for fans of: Comeback Kid, Shai Hulud, Rise Against
One of the best things about a band announcing a new album – especially a band as seminal to their scene as this – is that it often acts as a prompt to go back and re-listen to their previous works, which often (in my case, at least) results in you developing a new appreciation for their earlier material.
Case in point, when prodigal Punk/Hardcore legends Modern Life Is War announced their upcoming fifth album (set for release this Friday, some twelve years since their last full-length record) I took it upon myself to revisit their discography just in case I wanted to write something about them to commemorate the occasion.
And not only did I end up rediscovering the band – while also developing a greater appreciation for the impact that legendary acts like Minor Threat, Rancid and Black Flag have had on their music – but I also found myself connecting even more deeply this time around with their intensely personal, yet intimately relatable, lyrics and their distinctly dystopian (yet not hopeless) take on modern life (it’s war, don’t you know?).
Now, a word of warning… I’m off to Islay this weekend to spend a couple of days touring some of the island’s many distilleries (it’s my stag-do, if you were curious), so this article will be a little different to most of its predecessors as I’m going to focus my attention mostly on my favourite songs on each of the band’s albums, rather than trying to cover them all comprehensively.
But the one positive side-effect of this of course is that – if you like what you’re about to read and/or hear – you’ll still have lots to discover and appreciate on your own time!
2003 – MY LOVE. MY WAY.
Opener “Breaking the Cycle” definitely makes a statement with its chunky, chugging guitars and dark, disconsolate overtones, but it’s “Late Bloomers” that really gets things going (for me, anyway) with the song’s primal, unpretentious intensity, bullish gang-shouts, and catchy-yet-cathartic cries of “Adapt / Outlast / At Last!” all combining into something that, for all its relative simplicity, is much more (and much more effective) than the simple sum of its parts.
“Clarity” is another more urgent and up-tempo number, which marries punky aggression and moody melody in equal measure, whereas the doomy, noisesome squall of “War” showcases a much heavier, harsher side of the band (albeit only for a fleeting one minute and twenty-one seconds) which they would go on to flirt with a little more on subsequent albums (but we’re not quite there yet).
The bleak, beaten-but-not-broken, vibes of “By the Sea” make the song – a rough ‘n’ ready Melodic Hardcore anthem whose opening line (“We were young, numb, and violent all at once“) quickly sets the tone for the rest of the track – a major stand-out of the album’s mid-section, while the back half of the record plays host to the similarly captivating “Momentum” (whose raw, emotive vocals and underlying sense of melodic melancholy combine to create an appropriately irresistible sense of forward motion as the track barrels towards it cathartic conclusion) and the anthemic call-to-arms that is “First and Ellen” (“Scrape your heart up from the bottom of the barrel / Keep your faith in the path that’s growing narrow“), both of which should work their musical magic enough to want you to keep reading, and listening, in order to find out what the band did next!
2005 – WITNESS
Bookended by “The Outsider (AKA Hell Is For Heroes, Pt. 1)” and “Hair Raising Accounts of Restless Ghosts (AKA Hell Is For Heroes, Pt. 2)” – the former a raging hymn of recognition for the ones who don’t belong, the latter a dark ‘n’ doomy downer of a track which asks the question “What can we do when the war is all around?” (and which was, until very recently, the longest song the band had written) – Witness showcases a darker, weightier sound (and, arguably, a darker, more discontented world-view) that definitely gives off a few hints of Shai Hulud (especially in the thicker, moodier guitars).
That being said, the band clearly haven’t abandoned their punk roots, as while the crunch and clatter of “John and Jimmy” might flit between “Melodic” and “Metallic” Hardcore in the course of just under two minutes, the prominent, pulse-raising bass-lines and supple lead guitar licks of “Martin Achet” continue to serve as a welcome reminder of where the band came from (and where their hearts still belong).
At the same time, however, you can see/hear clear signs of the group’s progression since their debut in the gloomy grooves and minimalist melodic misery of “Marshalltown”, which reflects upon the irresistible march of time and the seeming inevitability of small-town decline (“All the bars have long closed down / There’s no one but me in the streets of my hometown“) in a way that helps make it an easy (albeit an extremely melancholy) favourite of mine.
Similarly the vocals (and lyrics) of “I’m Not Ready” (“Sometimes the boys that should be yours best friends become strangers with familiar faces“) are delivered with such real, raw emotion – backed by a series of bristling, bitterly-melodic guitar lines – that it’s hard, if not impossible, to be moved by the sentiments being expressed, while the hefty, hooky riffs of “Young Man Blues” almost (but not quite) disguise the track’s embittered, almost nihilistic, nature (“As boys we were taught to dream in stacks and rows / Cause to dream any bigger is to dig yourself a hole“) which reaffirms this as perhaps the bleakest – and arguably best – album in the band’s back-catalogue.
2007 – MIDNIGHT IN AMERICA
By the time of their third album (which, if memory serves, was the first of the band’s albums I actually heard, and thus still has a special place in my heart because of that) the group had developed into a tighter, more polished unit, with the unpredictable twist ‘n’ stomp of “Useless Generation” and the swaggering, give-no-fucks grooves of “Screaming At the Moon” (an easy early favourite) showcasing a crisper, cleaner sound which – nevertheless – still retained the essence of the band’s Punk Rock roots (especially during the latter’s resolute refrain of “I drag my chains, they don’t drag me“).
“Stagger Lee”, of course, was the album’s “big” single… and for obvious reasons, as its big, swinging chords and restrained percussive pulse (backed up by some lithe, limber bass lines) make for an irresistibly catchy combination (atop which vocalist Jeffrey Eaton gets to tell the eponymous tale of jealousy and murder)… though, for my money, the brooding, bombastic slow-burn of “Big City Dream” (“I scan the city skyline / smoking like a neon mechanized Christ“) is the better song of the two.
Similarly, while the stripped-down anti-nostalgia anthem “Fuck the Sex Pistols” is a fun little burst of snotty scene-politics, it’s “Pendulum” that hits the ears with more energy and urgency… although this is then left in the dust by the electric intensity of “Night Shift at the Potato Factory” and the chunky heaviness (particularly at the end) of “The Motorcycle Boy Reigns”.
Concluding with the hard-hitting, head-banging title-track, which pulls no punches either musically or lyrically (“There is a reason we feel so small when we’ve lost our reason to thrive / Everyone is fucked. Everyone is damned. But no one will open their eyes“) Midnight In America remains – almost twenty years later – a defiant, and arguably definitive, statement about the nature of the world, and the war, right outside your door.
2013 – FEVER HUNTING
Let’s get one thing straight, by all rights the band’s 2013 comeback album absolutely should have made Modern Life Is War a much bigger name.
After all, many (if not all) of the songs are just that much more focussed, more streamlined, and more melodic – “Health, Wealth & Peace” is easily as hooky, if not quite as poppy, as Rise Against at their best, while the sassy, bassy strut of “Dark Water” wouldn’t sound out of place alongside similarly catchy classics from the likes of Black Flag or Bad Brains – that they could easily have earned themselves some regular prime-time radio play if given the chance (ok, maybe not “Media Cunt”).
That’s not to say, however, that the group have “sold out” or anything like that… since, to my mind at least, as wide as the potential appeal of a punky barn-burner like “Cracked Sidewalk Surfer” might be, it’s the more introspective and introverted tracks on this disc – especially “Chasing My Tail”, “Blind Are Breeding”, and the rivetingly tense title-track – which provide the most impactful moments.
There’s an all-too-real, all-too-raw sense of desperation underpinning the gloomy strains of “Chasing My Tail”, for example (“I live hand to mouth & simplify / The things I can’t afford to lose have multiplied“) that really resonates (and makes the song’s punky pick-up right at the end even more effective), while there’s a bleak beauty and poignant poetry (“The wise are panicked / The blind are breeding / Sing the kings & queens of broken dreaming“) to “Blind Are Breeding” which highlights some of the band’s previously unrevealed musical and emotional depths even further
Don’t worry though, as much as Fever Hunting might seem – and sound – like the most downcast and downbeat album of the band’s career (in stark contrast to its initial, more overtly radio-friendly appearance), there’s still a spark of resistance, and a glimmer of hope, underneath it all… even if only in the last line of the last song (“Armed with love & knowledge and we will find a way“).
2025 – LIFE ON THE MOON
Twelve years is, obviously, a pretty significant gap between albums, and although the band have remained active on the live scene – as well as releasing a series of singles – Life on the Moon is our first real chance to take stock of what, and who, the band have become during that time.
And, let me tell you, their evolution is obvious right from the start, with the cinematic, synth-infused Post Rock of “Invocation” setting a much more measured (and, perhaps controversially, more mature) tone… although the twitchy, panic-stricken strains of “First Song on the Moon” suggest that although Modern Life Is War may be older now that doesn’t mean they’ve gone soft.
As well as showcasing a newfound maturity (while still retaining much of the fire, and frustration, of their youth) there’s also a greater willingness to experiment and expand their sound on display, as moments such as the squalling saxophone which punctuates the anxious aggression of “There Is A Telephone That Never Stops Ringing” and the glimmering electronic pulse of “Empty Shoes” (which recalls Thrice‘s similar digressions into digital seas).
The moodier, more contemplative side of the band is on full display during “Jackie Oh No”, while the piss ‘n’ vinegar Punk of “Johnny Gone” has a real old-school flair and flavour to it… although, from where I’m sat, the bleak melody and brooding melancholy of “Homecoming Queen” is the real highlight of the album’s mid-section, marrying a series of haunting hooks to an overwhelming sense of loss and regret, both of which are designed to get under your skin right from the start.
The vicious, Minor Threat-esque “Bloodsport” is another major stand-out, due to its tense, teeth-on-edge intensity and biting lyrical attack (“If they want war, we’ll meet them!“) which then transitions seamlessly into the moody, sax-infused Post-Punk grooves of “Kid Hard Dub”, after which the album comes to a close with the chaotic electro-clash of “Over The Road” and climactic, Punk-Rock-meets-Post-Rock-meets-Post-Hardcore epic “Talismanic” (which is now the longest track the band have written, as well as one of their best), simultaneously cementing the band’s legendary reputation and marking album #5 as their most eclectic offering yet!