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!