Life Long Tragedy

Hardcore is best done as a style of music that has speed, hate and grit. Life Long Tragedy have all the elements of a great hardcore band but don’t use them to their full potential on Runaways. Occasionally it feels like they’ve hit the mark with tracks such as "Harm,” "The Bottomless Hole” and "Ignoring Lessons.” On these tracks, vocalist Scott Phillips presents himself in a purely raw manner and his emotion reigns without question, while instrumentally Runaways is at its highest point of intensity. The remaining musical work focuses more on harmony, lacking the vibrancy this band requires. It lulls to the point of utter disappointment. Drawing influences from Modern Life Is War and Integrity, this Deathwish Inc. band have all the right pieces to stand with label-mates Killing The Dream, Blacklisted and This Is Hell but never assemble them into the cohesive whole. This is certainly not a failure but hopefully a step towards a future higher echelon.