We Never Learned To Live – ‘Silently, I Threw Them Skyward’ [Review]
First things first. Arrangement- and mixing-wise, this album is fucking awesome. It seems like post-hardcore fans have plenty of bleak, grim albums to get stuck into this summer – and Silently, I Threw Them Skyward is among the best of them so far. Ominous, haunting, and unrelentingly foreboding, this could easily work as the soundtrack to a 28 Days Later-style horror movie. It really is a journey.
“Post-apocalyptic post-hardcore” isn’t a genre yet – but it’s the most fitting label you could stick on this one. While the likes of Palm Reader and Employed To Serve plumb the depths of the soul, We Never Learned To Live have their sights set on something epic in scope – something truly cinematic. Shadows In Hibernation swells into existence before churning grooves and precisely defined vocals intertwine and give way to an early and almost serene dynamic shift…and you’re looking at consistent mood shifts from there on in. Listening to this album feels like reading an epic novel: you start, maybe apprehensively; you get hopelessly sucked in; and when it’s all done, you’re left dazed and impressed.
Somewhere between the aforementioned British hardcore up-and-comers and Australian prog titans Karnivool, you’ll find We Never Learned To Live. It’s not a comfortable space, but it’s worth investing time there…
TMMP RATING: 91%
Links / Listen / Video
Silently, I Threw Them Skyward drops June 22 via Holy Roar Records. TMMP talks to WNLTL about the new album and more in this interview!
We Never Learned To Live on Facebook and Twitter.
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