Touché Amoré is a progressive/melodic hardcore band hailing out of Los Angeles, best known for their excellent song structure and heartfelt lyricism that is simple and direct in delivery, largely dispensing with cheap metaphor or abstraction. Along with lightly distorted guitars and plenty of memorable melodies, Touché Amoré have established themselves as a who's who of the hardcore scene.
Previous efforts have been nothing short of great. Their amazing debut LP on A389 Records …To the Beat of a Dead Horse was a dark, brooding, burning, raw trip that, when played, peeled paint from the walls and stripped rooms of their features. It was the kind of album you'd expect out of a band with more footing. Their sophomore release Parting the Seas Between Brightness and Me was an album of much more polish, but still retained the sound the band had come to be known for.
The opener “Just Exist” sets the tone of the album both lyrically and musically. Instead of acting as some ambient intro track that I feel like we come across all too often, the band gently weens us in. Elliot Babin's slow drumming and the lightly distorted guitar work of Clayton Stevens and Nick Steinhardt is almost swoon-like. If anything else this sounds even more polished than Parting the Seas.
The most prominent thing about Touché Amoré is probably the lyricism of front man Jeremy Bolm. Is Survived By is an album where you start to feel like there's that light at the end of the tunnel. If …To the Beat was Bolm at his darkest, and Parting the Seas was the need for escapism and the awkwardness/despondence of human encounters (as a general impression), then Is Survived By is moving past that. Songs like “Non Fiction” feel almost hopeless but there's a larger idea here as summarized in its final words “With time we'll all be gone / But how you live can live on.
Other tracks feel more like stories than troubling philosophical debates. Pieces like “To Write Content” have excellent onslaught parts, especially the attack after the distant cut out that sounds like Bolm screaming into the microphone from the other side of a room.
Other tracks like “Kerosene” and “Blue Angel” are shorter pieces, both clocking in at under two minutes. “Kerosene” has excellent little punches in its middle that make it sound frantic between the breakdowns. “Blue Angel” is similar in its structure staying a little more upbeat. It's more traditionally punk almost lacking a breakdown, but featuring a few towards the end of its run time.
The most different tracks on the album are “Non Fiction” and “Praise / Love.” “Praise / Love” is a minimalist, barely one minute track of guitar progression and soft chords. It acts more as a lead in to “Anyone / Anything” but it feels fragile and burned out in its knowledge… even guilty in its confessions. As it stands it is a good track but had it been stretched a little more it could have had an epic feel to it.
The album concludes on “Is Survived By”, a track that serves as both advice and as a thank you note to listeners. “So write a song everyone can sing along to / So when you're gone you can live on / They won't forget you.” It seems as though Bolm sees himself in us as we see ourselves in him. It's the song of hope, the song that says thanks because this is what makes every trip to the stage worth it and its the closest damn thing to immortality. It's legacy through love and labor.
Is Survived By is an excellent album and the most accessible in Touché Amoré's catalog, though its song structure isn't as varied as previous albums. A few fans may still be basking in the bleak light that …To the Beat of a Dead Horse shed, hoping that maybe the band can capture a fraction of their darkest again. Not happening. Is Survived By is an album of hope, of surprising courage, of acceptance, of thanks, of love, and of change. Featuring songs that surprisingly go over the three-minute mark and plenty of memorable hooks, melodies, and lyrics, Is Survived By is a great album from a very hard working band that isn't losing their grip.
8.5/10
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