SHIT AND SHINE
Cherry
(Riot Season)

THE DEVIL AND THE SEA
Heart Vs Spine
(AND)

LATITUDES
Bleak Epiphany in Slow Motion
(Shelsmusic)

THE GATES OF SLUMBER
Conqueror
(Profound Lore)

DEICIDE
Till Death Do Us Part
(Earache)

MOURNING BELOVETH
A Disease for the Ages 

(Grau)

AVSKY
Malignant

(Moribund)

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This band is fucking great. And this record is even greater. I had tons of heavy handed fun with their previous Erase All Name and Likeness. At the time I thought it was refreshing to hear such well-crafted balance between rage, deafening volume and immediate hooks. Transistor Transistor had to me found a point where hardcore (not of the burly super macho tough as nails kind) met a couple of pop sensibilities. They had mastered some of the loud to quiet and back and forth -a couple of times- dynamics that Refused created and had checked most of the rhetoric at the door. They were representing themselves through the most immediate display of short riffs, tempo shifts, swift exchanges, irate screams and deadpan yet enjoyable vocals and had bridged a gap no one had bothered to fill because no one had ever noticed it. Music can be fucking boring…

Does this read like I am sucking up too much? Perhaps. Perhaps Transistor Transistor won’t get as much press as they deserve, and judging by their luck (from getting their equipment stolen a few years back to the recent appendix surgery of their vocalist/guitarist that just forced them to cancel their tour) this foursome might walk under a really dark cloud. But the truth is Ruined Lives is even easier on the ears than Erase All Name and Likeness. Not that Transistor Transistor has become an easy listening combo, but these songs flow between each other, and inside each of them the band has deposited miles of power and gallons of melody. “Harvest” pummels with heaviness, its eardrum-busting bashing lumps the listener into a corner to witness a jaw dropping close. It’s quite impressive to say the least. And halfway through Transistor Transistor are kind enough to offer us a break, “Irreversible” and “Letter of Resignation” chill things down a bit. Surely, is not a permanent thing, its time that must be used wisely to recharge all batteries. Because believe me when I say you want to make it all the way to the sweeping riffs of “Pillar of Salt” and the rock on meth of “The Price of Gasoline”. Ruined Lives is enervating from all angles.

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