Band:	If Hope Dies
Album:	Life In Ruin
Style:	Metalcore
Release date:	2006
A review by:	jupitreas

01. Burned Out
02. Anthem For The Unemployable
03. Dead Reckoning
04. Time Is Not On Our Side
05. Fear Will Keep Them In Line
06. Water Into Winecooler
07. The Ultimate Nullifier
08. Marked For Death
09. Some Skynyrd
10. Nuked From Orbit
11. Life In Ruin

It's somewhat hard to review metalcore albums. Most of the bands overpopulating the airwaves these days are actually fairly proficient musicians that are quite capable of making an impressive racket. The problem is that they all sound the same and to me, no matter how good the instrumentalists might be, if they are not able to come up with something that is at least a little original, they don't deserve all that much praise.

Life In Ruin is unfortunately exactly one of those formulaic metalcore releases that introduce absolutely nothing new to the scene. The band does have the musical chops but they choose to use them for playing the exact same riffs as those of Killswitch Engage, Unearth, As I Lay Dying, Frail Words Collapse, The Stings Of Conscience, Dryline (and the list goes on). This familiar formula worked once but if it's beaten to death, it just becomes boring and let's face it, if we are to listen to metalcore, we might as well listen to the pioneers and masters and not to some sub-par carbon copy. Although the guitar work here is awesome, the drummer sounds inhuman and the production is absolutely crushing, it all simply fails to make me want to come back and listen to it again.

Let me illustrate my point. Let's assume this is a fairly well written review. Now go and read my Dryline [url=review.php?review_id=2728]review[/url]. Pretty boring, huh? Well, this is exactly how Life In Ruin makes me feel.