Band:	Life Or Death
Album:	Abomination
Style:	Hardcore
Website:	http://facebook.com/lifeordeathsd
Release date:	2011
Guest review by:	Mindheist

01. Spirit Of Pain
02. Hammer To Teeth
03. Backslasher
04. Skeptic
05. Saint Satan
06. Sixes
07. Humanity's Demise
08. Assassins
09. Dwelling Lies
10. Abolitionist
11. Human Threshold
12. Allegory Of The Slave
13. Withered And Beat

Shining in a scene where the likes of Heaven Shall Burn, All Shall Perish, Caliban and Unearth are held as the pioneers of the genre, wouldn't, in my humble opinion, be as grueling as getting blood out of a stone. I'm talking about metalcore, the devil's acre, the genre that saw thousands of bands crash against its cursed gates, wither like autumn's wheat through lack of innovation and disappear into the billows of oblivion; sightless, scorned and left for Lethe to feast on.

Life Or Death must be the least annoying metalcore band I've heard in a while . They actually offer what the aforementioned bands failed to - establishing homogeneity and harmony within the mantles of their sound with a decent combination of scattered thrash-y and death smatterings.

Those of you who liked Unearth's The Oncoming Storm will get blown away by Abomination for sure, in fact, it'll probably wipe out every Unearth-y grist of grime left clinging to your brain cells. But if you didn't, keep reading.

Think of it this way, Life Or Death is like a diamond dust with hundreds of glittering particles soldered to it. Now, replace "glittering particles" with "chaotic hybrid coalescences of anemic thrash, mellow death and vociferous metalcore gyres" and then "metalcore gyres" with "highly distorted guitars, ear-impaling solos, repetitive riffing, unobtrusive drumming and blatant growls" and boom! You've got Abomination.

However, Songs like "Sixes" or "Saint Satan" are what makes this band stand out above others. They may sound monotonous at times but their thrash-y background makes Life Or Death more than just a rip-off metalcore band overusing similar riffs over and over again.

It's not easy to survive the "metalcore curse", only a handful of bands did it. Life Or Death are among the lucky few who, despite being still unsigned, have shown that they have what it takes to tangle minds to knots. And unlike the rest, they have tried to be innovative by injecting thrash and death into their metalcore spine, and to be fair, their conquest wasn't entirely a failure. This album has some razing shredding and promising riffing instilled into it that shouldn't be overlooked. If you're into metalcore, this is definitely your new bible, but if you're not, there's no harm in trying. Give it a listen, you might like it.