A Life Once Lost - _Iron Gag_
(Ferret Music, 2007)
by: Jackie Smit (8 out of 10)
Hot on the heels of Every Time I Die's latest opus, comes another impressive release from a stable whose quality control in recent years has at times been less than stellar. Whether this means that the fine folks at Ferret have turned their backs on the legions of emo-core nerds who foul city streets the world over with their carefully side-swept hair, polished fingernails and glaring lack of personal hygiene is anyone's guess. One thing's for certain, however: with the exception of an uncharacteristically demure turn on "The Wanderer", their effeminate sense of aesthetics will almost certainly be repulsed by Philadelphia's A Life Once Lost.

With nary a trace of anything remotely histrionic across the eleven tracks that make up _Iron Gag_, and an underlying blitheness that can't help but rear its head on more than one occasion, this quintet play it like they mean it in every sense. The acerbic grind of "Detest" and mid-tempo beatdowns on "Worship" turn out to be merely a taste of things to come. Later, "Meth Mouth" injects an engagingly outré sense of melody into an already satisfying alchemy. "Others Die" tips its hat to the vintage thrash stylings of Exodus, while "Silence" combusts in a flurry of technical start-stop riffing. In fact, by the time the record plays out with "Ill Will", you may just about be ready to scrape your jaw back off the linoleum.

Contact: http://www.alifeoncelost.com/

(article published 26/9/2007)


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