Introducing More Than Life

Words by Ian Dickinson / photo’s by Chris Ensell

More Than Life (MTL) have come with bleeding knuckles to rip your heart out of your chest and to get you moshing like a mad man in the process. MTL come highly recommend. Pid Payne of the Dead Swan’s recently praised MTL in a national publication, wishing his band could always tour with them and in an interview with Clink Music Magazine, Stu Gili-Ross of the Gallows and Spy Catcher mentioned MTL as a band to look out for in 2010. I would have to agree with him.

It seems common for bands playing heavy rock and punk to pound their chests, flex their guns and make machismo music (Machismocore as I will now call it). MTL are more dynamic than their one-dimensional counterparts. They posses a genuine urgency and passion that is intoxicating and emotive. They are currently signed to the brilliant independent punk/hardcore label Anchors Aweigh Records (Gold Kids, Lighthouse, Dead Swans) in the UK. Their six track EP Brave Enough To Fail was released in September 2009 and the bands first full length overing is in the pipe line. I am certain that any fans of Dead Swans and This Is Hell will go crazy for MTL.

I stumbled across the band a few months back and was instantly hooked. Its morbid, intense and beautifully bleak. MTL combine sorrow and aggression to create a tense and sentimental blast of heartfelt hardcore. This truly is the sound of breaking up. There is a tragic romance held in the harrowing and haunting tone of their lyrics. Here is just an example of some of my favorite; “So look past my skin, look past these scars, look past the glimmer of hope in my eyes. If I’m honest it feels like your only haunting me.” These lyrics are from a track called Fear. A song that exemplifies the gothic, Emily Bronte-esque, mood that makes MTL’s style of hardcore unique.

Lyrically the band deal with notions of fear, hopelessness, uncertainty, life, death and love. Heavy stuff. These are not love songs in the traditional sense mind you. I doubt you will find MTL sandwiched between Celion Dion and Stevie Wonder on some lame Steve Wrights Sunday Love Songs compilation (it would be fucking funny if they did though!). This isn’t the happy, pink and sunny side of life and love. This is morose, black and darkly depression. Holding hands in the park is replaced with holding a hatchet to your partners neck. Their is a macabre beauty in the tragedy. Their lyrics express the horrible feelings that people must suppress or merely choose to ignore. It is hard, hectic and heart breaking. If you have any romantic and bleak tendencies you will find MTL completely captivating. Added to this the fact that they are seriously heavy and play at a brutal pace. The vocals are strong, guttural, desperate and frantic but they are also wonderfully clear and pronounced. I hate having to decipher hardcore vocals, so it makes a welcome treat to actually know what a band is saying.

Even though they are a relatively young band formed merely three years ago their reputation as a live band precedes them. They have played with some of the most revered bands out there at the moment such as Your Demise, Gold Kids, Dead Swans and Ruiner. Luckily they will be touring with This Is Hell in March so If you looking for more than just a standard hardcore band and fancy listening to a band with genuine passion check them out.

Posted on Monday, 18 January 2010 in Introducing, Mainarticles | 1 Comment »
Tagged as Anchors Aweigh Records, Day By Day Records, More Than Life