Born from the Los Angeles hardcore scene around singer Ian Shelton, Militarie Gun first existed as feverish EPs before delivering, with Life Under the Gun, a debut album that frankly widens the horizon. The band extend the energy of hardcore but temper it with a melodic sense inherited from power pop and indie rock, at times even evoking the great hours of American alternative rock.
The critics (an 83 average across nine reviews) hailed a record at once nervy and accessible, where the original rage opens onto song. The tracks, brief and compact, bet on immediate hooks rather than on intensity alone. This is a hardcore that has absorbed the lesson of the melodists without renouncing its urgency.
Shelton’s voice, at once frayed and strangely gentle, traces choruses that stick in the head, carried by cutting guitars and a dry, unadorned production. Beneath the apparent simplicity surfaces a careful writing, attentive to detail, that refuses the ease of the gratuitous scream.
One might reckon that Militarie Gun invent nothing, that they walk in steps already traced by a generation of bands who reconciled punk and melody. The grievance is admissible: Life Under the Gun is worth less for its originality than for its constancy. But rare are debut albums of such standing.
Verdict: 8/10. A balanced, endearing record placing Militarie Gun among the names to watch in contemporary melodic hardcore.
