Life In Vacuum

All You Can Quit

BY Beth BowlesPublished May 4, 2018

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Toronto-based Life in Vacuum's newest full-length album, All You Can Quit, begins with the slight ringing of a symbol. As "Jazz" begins to build, it evolves into a mixture of calculated and mathy noise rock, post-punk and post-hardcore. As one of the strongest tracks on the album, with the strongest intro, it was the obvious choice to lead with.
 
It's been four years since the band have released a full-length album, and they're back sounding more polished and concise than they did on their 2014 album, 5. While they still maintain their classic math-rock/post-punk roots, All You Can Quit explores mixing sub-genres a little deeper, with definite surf rock guitar riffs that are complicated by vocalist Sasha Chornyy's screams.
 
"The Screaming Fish" maintains those strong surf-rock guitar riffs, while also presenting a good mix between Chornyy's two singing styles. After that third track, All You Can Quit begins to get repetitive; it isn't until "Sinker" — a song that creeps into ballad territory — that the album's repetition appears to be disrupted, only to fall back into it again.
 
While Life in Vacuum present really strong and polished guitar riffs and a unique mixing of genres, their composition boxes them in; the tracks on the second half weave into each other as opposed to finding their own identity. For a band that's still fairly young, this shouldn't be considered a downfall, more a sign of promise for the future.
(New Damage)

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