The Flatliners
Dead Language
Fat Wreck/New Damage – September 17th 2013
By Joshua Khan (@blaremag)
Find it at: iTunes | Insound | HMV Digital
8.5
Any band can pick up a few instruments and write tunes that take influence from Against Me!, The Replacements, and a platoon of other blue-collar names, but it takes a special amount of heart for a group to do it with even more blood and tears. What makes Dead Language more than just a circle around ambition is The Flatliners preternatural skill for balancing the highs of cathartic, hard-nosed alternative with gutting narratives. They do everything in their capacity to peak your enthusiasm, rustling up poignant sequencing, fixating hooks and a “destined for greatness” attitude that traces punk for the honest types. Songs like “Sew My Mouth Shut” and “Hounds” are straightforward and sharp, but the four-piece’s general vibe – wake up, do the 9-to-5, and hit every note like you fucking mean it – is the perfect medium to their peeling edge (“Quitters”) and direct compassion (“Birds Of England”). The Flatliners know what it’s like to be cut open, to be anxious and stifled and in shambles, and they ease it all in the only way they know how: by cycling through an exceptional record that will make you cry, yell, and find some sort of solace.
Listen: “Sew My Mouth Shut”, “Tail Feathers”, “Resuscitation Of The Year” || Watch: “Drown In Blood”