Less Life – Today Will Be Ours

When I came back from a trip last summer, my friends kept talking about this band Black Kites, about how their show with Ghostlimb and Birds in Row was so intense. It made me curious about this band, but before I could check them out I learned they had broken up and their members had already formed new bands.

Less Life is a 3-piece band from New Jersey featuring members of Black Kites. This one-sided 12” is their first record and it’s quite impressive. I had a hard time imagining them playing live as a 3-piece, I was wondering how anyone could stand still enough to play an instrument and at the same time sing in a microphone when the music is so powerful. That’s until I realized that they have no bass player. Just one guitar, drums and a singer. I like that!

Musically they sound like they are influenced by the 90’s “post-Hardcore” scene. They sometimes remind me of a stripped down Coalesce; I sort of find the same darkness and relentless aggression on this record. The delivery is primitive and almost messy, you barely have time to figure out what’s going on and start headbanging when they’ve already moved on to a different rhythm. I really like the guitar parts, they are heavy with some hypnotic notes thrown in there, not unlike Breather Resist or Deadguy. I’m wondering how they would sound with a bass player. The whole thing would probably sound REALLY thick… and even sicker than they already do.

Less Life set the bar pretty high for themselves with this first release. How Soon Is Now Records (gotta love the name!) did a wise thing by putting this out. The vinyl itself is pretty neat, if it wasn’t for the black swirls I’d swear this record was made of glass!

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