Chaos Theory,
Life SentenceBefore I'd even started listening to this I was quite impressed that for a self-released EP Life Sentence had put a lot of love and attention into this release. The CD is fully pressed and printed, something that always impresses me from a young band, while their accompanying press sheet was well laid out and informative. If only all bands were quite this helpful. 'Chaos Theory' is a six-tracker from the Kent quartet, a self-proclaimed metal-core band. Now I'm not one for silly genres, but if this had come out three years ago it would have been dubbed nu-metal - while there are probably nods towards Thrice, Thursday and the usual suspects, Life Sentence sound a lot more like Linkin Park. That means there are lots of melodies and hooks, which for a young band, is very impressive.
I did debate whether to include this review or not, mainly because it really borders on that fine line between what should we review and what shouldn't we review, but the simple fact is this band are very, very good. It's just what they do isn't my thing any more. The vocalist sounds like a young Daniel Johns and the guitars sound huge - whoever produced this has a really bright future because the sound is amazing. The drums are solid and the bass work is impressive too, while the song structures, maybe a little predictable, keep close to the verse/chorus pattern that their peers tend to hit. It means songs like 'Silence Says It All' are slightly generic, but truth be told it's very well performed.
Life Sentence are a band that have the potential to go a long way, but I don't think aiming at the Punktastic crowd is the way to go if this is the evidence. This is a very impressive EP if you like your metal to be melodic and poppy, or sound like early Silverchair with more modern post-hardcore influences. Sadly I 'grew out' of that a few years back - but that's no reason not to give these guys a chance because they are very good at what they do.
www.lifesentence.co.uk
Paul
