Centuries: Taedium Vitae

This album starts with a long introductory section, one that swells the volume of things very gradually. It's a nice atmospheric piece, but it is only a warm up to the pounding assault that makes up the rest of the album. Like most hardcore releases, this album mostly offers short songs that range between two and three minutes at the most. It also blends the songs together in ways that give the whole album a feel of continuity across tracks. The breaks between tracks are almost nonexistent, tiny pauses in this despairing musical journey.

When I say "despairing," I don't mean the album is hard to listen to. Instead, I'm calling attention to the weariness of life implied by the Latin title Taedium Vitae. I liked that title, mostly because it suggests the kind of exhaustion with life that so many people feel these days. There are just too many things pulling at people's attention, especially in weary and bored late-capitalist American routine wherein everything is for sale and very little seems to have any value. Whatever the band means by the label, the hardcore music certainly fits the overall mood.

To me, hardcore is the label we used as kids to describe bands like Minor Threat. A product of the Old School, I've never known what to make of the ways the term "hardcore" is being used these days. To me, it sounds like a highly eclectic mix of punk and metal, one that mixes minimal guitar passages with guttural screams. It isn't the hardcore of my younger years, but I admire the explosive quality of the music and its apparent commitment to admittedly vague but punk-infused concepts like authenticity.

Despite my own need to catch up with the new style of hardcore, I can say that this is a very good album, one that should please fans of this style. If bands like this are meant to carry the torch of an important style, then more power to them. For curious listeners who want to check these guys out, listen to "Pessum Ire" and "Servisse." The other tracks are solid, but those were two of my favorite.

Track Listing:
1. Incipit Tragoedia
2. Caeruleus
3. Gelu
4. Metus
5. Pessum Ire
6. Tabeo
7. Grave Cordibus
8. Servisse
9. Irrita

Added: November 2nd 2013
Reviewer: Carl Sederholm
Score:
Related Link: Band Facebook Page
Hits: 1582
Language: english

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