My Heart the Dreaming Memory by Life

From the same astoundingly prolific artist who brought you Sadness, Trhä, and many other aliases, Life and their new album My Heart the Dreaming Memory reinvents old-school skramz from the ground up. Initially, emocore bands saw themselves as outside of, and potentially even diametrically opposed to, the expanding influence of metal within the hardcore scene. However, with this ancient subcultural drama firmly in the rearview mirror, Life fearlessly applies their ample metal experience to this already intense genre, adding blast beats and metalcore riffs to the form’s existing chugging guitars and screamed vocals. Lyrically, the album laments a memory littered with references to and entanglements with an ex lover, making recalling virtually anything bitterly painful. Breaking from the skramz tendency towards the esoteric, these lyrics bring a bluntness that pairs well with the vocal intensity, remaining poetic but ultimately obsessing over the same clearly articulated point to no end. At the end of a relationship, these memories really feel all-consuming, and the white-hot intensity mimics our reaction as our subconscious tortures us with flashbacks to the good old days.