REVIEW: Living Weapon - Death In The Family
- Noise Leonard
- 2 hours ago
- 3 min read
Heavy and extreme music can sometimes feel paradoxical in nature; there’s something inherently fun about it despite its generally offputting nature to most. For example, there’s something like CONVERGE’s Concubine, a track that runs for just over a minute. Within that 80 seconds, there’s so much to pick apart with the performances, production and dynamics to the point where your tenth listen will still produce different results to your first, and even then occasionally that won’t matter - sometimes that short burst of pure rage is all the catharsis you need. That’s the magic of mathcore, and LIVING WEAPON are here to put us under its spell once again.
Coming off well-regarded 2021 EP Paradise, we’ve been aching to hear more from them. It feels cruel to leave us with six minutes of music over five years, though its worth noting that in that time, band members Jon Lhaubouet, Jeremy Martin and Anthony DiDio have been releasing music as part of VEIN.FM and also, notably, FLESHWATER. Anyone familiar with FLESHWATER’s style might be surprised that there’s any crossover between the groups at all, because the new LIVING WEAPON album, Death In The Family is nowhere near being an alt-metal record.
The First Element wastes no time whatsoever, launching straight into an almost formless riff, the only melodically recognisable aspects being a few chugs and a high-pitched notes. Parts of the track are underpinned by glitchy spoken word vocals, guitar feedback and gut-wrenching, resounding drums. It’s a controlled chaos of course, with the constantly changing meter that leaves the listener completely lost, yet intrigued. Immediately striking, and yet so much detail throughout the relatively short runtime.
Dead Like You is starkly ferocious from start to finish, but the second half’s bitcrushed drums and sliding guitar noises coming from out of nowhere that wouldn’t feel out of place on a FRONTIERER record is what makes it stand out. The isolated sounds of bass-y sustain lead you to never really knowing when the track ends. This is an album that keeps you on your toes just three songs in.
Any perceived weirdness on Dead Like You is nothing compared to the most outwardly experimental cut on here though. Parthenogenesis is an instrumental cut that will leave listeners confused, maybe a tad scared, but certainly intrigued. It’s built around a synthesiser that doesn’t seem to follow any kind of traditional melody, with the drums somehow matching its odd rhythms. It almost feels like jazz, just devoid of any of the instrumentation you’d expect from it. An entire album of this would be fun, no doubt, but thankfully it doesn’t feel out of place compared to the more standout cuts on Death In The Family.
Speaking of which, In Loving Memory is a sludgy hellscape, with distorted bass, a bpm set to a crawl, and this overwhelming feel of evil permeating the extremely short runtime, feeling like its building up to some kind of climax. Lo and behold, it segues straight into closing track When No Light Compared, the only song on here that manages to go over three minutes. It makes sense too, it’s probably the most fully-realised song on here, and also the most traditional. There’s a great moment about a minute in, when another layer of guitar joins over the riff being played. It’s a short moment striking nonetheless. It’s not the only trick they bring out for the grand finale though, the final minute feels like the song tearing itself apart, with the return of the bit-crushed drums leading into a fadeout of nothing but guitar feedback, odd, high-pitched synthesised noises, and a general feeling of dread.
LIVING WEAPON’s debut is an extremely exciting debut record. The title immediately conjures up LES RALLIZES DENUDES’ Heavier Than A Death In The Family, which isn’t entirely fitting (how could it be heavier than itself?), but close enough in the sense that it’s heavy, but in quite an unconventional way at points. It’s insanely relistenable too, in part due to the 23-minute runtime, but predominantly down to the sheer amount of detail in the songwriting. Yet another fantastic effort from some of the most prolific artists in the Boston hardcore scene at the moment - perhaps even their best.
Score: 9/10
Death In The Family will be released on 14th August 2026 via Closed Casket Activities.
Words: Noise Leonard
Photos: Alec Swenor
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