XL-Life – The Boogie Down South

At first glance/listen XL-Life are a hardcore punk band that seem to fit the badly perceived mantra that hardcore is a male dominated chest beating genre, but thankfully this is 100% not the case, this band has angst, it has plenty to say, the empathy and conscience can be felt like a stake to the heart, oh and yes there are way more fully inclusive bands now that buck that archaic thought.

I remember the days when punk first arrived (yes that old), it was a time of standing up and out, it gave a voice to those who never had one, it gave a stepping stone into the world for those who wanted to be heard and those who wanted to create change.  XL-Life have within this album, given time to say the things that still matter today, the things that still need fighting for, but the also show that softer thoughtful side, its not all anger and rebellion.

The Boogie Down South album kicks off with a kind of jazz led intro, which does sits well with the controlled chaos within ‘Shout’ is a song that says I’m here, and as long as I am, I’ll live and breath and be thankful for it.  Then you get to ‘Baby Steps’ which if you listen to the lyrics and message, it will come as no real surprise that it feature the powerful Bob Vylan, a song that says what this band are all about, rock/punk/hardcore musically, but more importantly this music is the vehicle for change, slowly slowly catch the ears of the people who matter, the ones who can fight for everything that life stands for, a world to grow with, a world that can be with time and effort, somewhere for all to live together as one human race.

We have only touched on the musical side of this album so far, and that’s for a reason, its does feel that it is only a container for the words, but without a magnificently adorned container, the words word just get lost, so to this end, XL-Life have in spades given you a sound that fires like a machine gun across your horizon, its growls and snarls with some stunning bass lines ‘Grey Place’ for example, it fires incendiary guitar riffs like in ‘Just Do It’ and also fills a room with pure atmosphere ‘These Days’ does this and is the stand out of the album for myself, it says everything a life should be.

Punk never died, it just grew up and kicked the fuck out of the system, it learnt how to dream bigger and shout louder!

Out today via Venn Records

Go buy, go listen, go do!!

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