ALBUM REVIEW: This Is All We Ever Get – Spaced

The hardcore community is inundated with releases at the moment, making it all the more difficult to discern what’s good and what’s just okay — it’s pretty easy to tell what’s bad. What separates a release, or a band, from being just mediocre? Well it’s something along the lines of what SPACED are doing, exciting blends of hardcore with flecks of unexpected textures that deliver just enough brow-raising additions to keep things fresh. Their debut album, This Is All We Ever Get, offers everything you’d hope and more, in just 20 minutes of hardcore fun.

SPACED avoid falling prey to mundanity by giving it an elasticity, the shape of their sound changes from track to track but always keeps up the pace. There isn’t a moment incapable of making you foam at the mouth, enthralling you with calls to action and battlecries of the everyday. You got some haters? Downfall is for you, resilient by nature and animalistic out of necessity, it brims with confidence amongst swaggering tempo changes and caustic drum beats. If you need to be kicked in to gear or remind you of your purpose, look no further than Rat Race, Lexi Reyngoudt’s shouts will muster even the faintest amount of motivation and spirit from the deepest of despairs, even on a track that circulates on unity in defiance, making us little hardcore fans feel like an even match in a David vs Goliath knife fight with as little as a plastic spoon. 

Start to finish, Reynogoudt’s demeanour makes it clear that even the smallest of hopes and desires aren’t insignificant, she conjures an insatiable fervour that just doesn’t give. Cosmic Groove provides wriggling riffs to give it that SPACED flair between bursting chants, and despite being so far out there, cosmically at least, it lyrically couldn’t be more trapped, regardless of all the drive that fuels SPACED there’s moments of vulnerability. Breaking down the macho hardcore veneer for just a few short-lived breaths, they see you and match your flaws and insecurities. They even close on thumping and anxiety-inducing Running Man, enclosed in a cycle of escapism with no way out, it welcomes a cathartic finish of melodic vocals that float into dissonance guitar feedback. 

Teetering between fear and confidence, This Is All We Ever Get is a record of contradictions that grows into an intimidating poignant monster as the runtime gets longer. When you sit on the title, and digest it, the lack of support in almost any aspect is just as obvious as that monster, because the arts are underfunded and said artists are making pennies to survive. The biggest showcase for grassroots artists is being funded by armies that produce weapons for genocide whilst people die in spite of said wars. SPACED couldn’t have timed their debut better to get people talking about big pictures, and little ones, in a time where the world is about to begin burning. A debut to soundtrack your own defiance.

Rating: 9/10

This Is All We Ever Get is set for release on March 22nd via Revelation Records.

Follow SPACED on Twitter.