Melodic hardcore as we knew it is pretty much dead. Strongarm has passed, Hopesfall is no longer Hopesfall, heck, even Beloved is no longer around. Their music bred a bunch of second and third generation sucky knockoffs, but finally someone looked past these knockoffs for influence. Life in Your Way are a young bunch of guys from Connecticut with a lot of buzz building about them, and I believe it is deserved.
Ignite and rebuild offers the key element that so many hardcore albums are missing: dynamic. Each song on Ignite and Rebuild brings a mix of breakdowns, screams, tempo changes, memorable melodic lines, and time signature changes. Pretty parts emphasize breakdowns, screams cue you in that much more to the melodies, the contrast between the slower and faster parts gather your attention at the transition, time changes prove the technical ability of the band to stay together. A few examples are described below.
Four minutes into "Threads of Sincerity", a quietly sung part is broken by slightly intensified music and the introduction of a few screams here and there. Very tastefully done. "This, The Midnight Fight" transitions seamlessly from naked twinkly guitars to a screamy breakdown. The end of "More than Efforts" brings a dueling guitar lead and a quickened drum pace kicks into a Stretch Armstrong sounding breakdown. Moments abound throughout and each is a little different from the next.
Lyrics deal with living on a day-to-day basis, relying on God's grace, while not harming yourself in the process. The words are encouraging, and not so transparent to invalidate varying interpretations.
Things to work on: The songwriting and structures by this band are great, but there is a lot of room for improvement in the instrumentation. The guitar lines are sometimes empty and they take none of the liberties that a recording environment offers to layer and mix and fill up the tracks. The creativity level and talent could go way up. Also, the bass doesn't really fill the mix, and the drummer succeeds at keeping time, but the method is not all that extravagant. This is what is really holding the album down from being an incredible, possibly classic record. Give them some time to improve and find their niche.
3/4
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