Still Alive: Choices

Artist: Still Alive
Title: Choices
Format Reviewed: MP3
Format Released: 27th August 2015
Reviewed By: Homer Kelly

Well let me first come right out of the gate praising this albums artwork. I mean what the fuck is going on there? A giant spiral-eyed skull bursting through a smaller skull split down the middle with tongues wagging and a giant lazer-shooting eyeball in the chin! No idea what is happening there but I fucking love it. Aaaaaanyway...

So here we have the debut album, Choices, from Chicago-born hardcore band Still Alive and my word if it isn't both fast and furious. As a casual vacationer in the land of hardcore some of the songs are just too much for me but I think already this album has the potential to become a cult classic amongst the genre's rabid fans. There are all the hallmarks of hardcore punk and ska of the 90s, given a modern kick up the ass with metal riffage and guitar tone. Even in the songs that are "too much" the pure energy and force of their ska-tinged hardcore is somewhat undeniably appealing even if the raw-ass screaming is not your deal. 

The album opens with two frantic social commentary songs: the scorching Almost There, a scathing commentary on the war on drugs; and The Televangelist, a post-hardcore tinged rant against evangelical scam artists. Both of these songs register on the heavier end of the spectrum for this already heavy album, showcasing all the features of the blinding hardcore punk that you'll be hearing over the next thirty minutes. However I'd say that with track three being more of the same this is the album's weakest point. Though these are three good songs, they vary little in pace, energy and tone so you just get a bit swamped in the noise and the songs kind of wash right off.

Things pick up though once we get to the fourth song, Suffocating, mixing things up by bringing in some major chords and writing what this band's equivalent of a modern pop-punk song would be which I think comes off really well and features the album's first instance of sung vocals.

Then we come to my favourite track of the album: Actors & Puppets which is, unsurprisingly, one of the lightest, most ska, most sung songs of the album. But that certainly isn't to say that it's light by any means, just that I think that when the guys pull back a bit from the absolute fury-storm of riffs and screaming for a section or two replaced with melody and more discernible skanking and rhythm it makes much for much more memorable songs that fire you up rather than overwhelm you. This song is a banger, I really fucking like it.

From here on the album stays on this path with little variance but never again returning to the over-saturation of hardcoreness that the first three tracks had; keeping everything coherent with their raw heaviness but every other song or so lightens things up with some singing or skanking rather than relentless 100% "GO GO GO" all the time.

For a genre that I am not super enamoured with I am really fucking impressed by this effort from Still Alive. This is a cracker of a debut album, having filled a void for new raw, heavy ska in my world and warmed me up to the hardcore genre in general. Top notch work lads! Nice one!