Review by Daniel for Unbroken - Life. Love. Regret. (1994)

I’ve been meaning to get around to checking out San Diego metalcore outfit Unbroken for a long time now. I don’t mind me a bit of 1990’s metalcore on occasion & these guys seem to be known as one of the more prominent examples of that sound so I had a funny feeling that they might be something I’d dig. Their 1993 debut album “Ritual” seems to receive generally positive feedback but it’s Unbroken’s classic 1994 sophomore album “Life. Love. Regret.” that receives the bulk of the attention so let’s see if it warrants the lofty praise that is inevitably heaped upon it then.

 Unlike many of the more widely celebrated metalcore releases, “Life. Love. Regret.” doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel, instead taking a tried & tested direction that lives or dies by its attitude & authenticity. Thankfully though, it has both of those attributes in spades which has no doubt pleased the hardcore purists to no end. The relatively short 35 minute album doesn’t try to be anything that any good hardcore band shouldn't aspire to be. The production job is fairly raw but is still chunky & heavy while the performances are left pretty loose with no attempt having been made to clean up any timing concerns. Those things simply don’t matter all that much when it comes to hardcore music. It’s a more about the visceral urges they inspire in the listener & a general lack of fucks being given.

From a musical point of view, “Life. Love. Regret.” might as well be a guidebook for new players on what 90’s metalcore was all about really. Simple yet crunchy power chord-driven riffs? CHECK! Mosh-worthy breakdowns? CHECK! Angry & aggressive screamed vocals? CHECK! Occasional post-hardcore experimentation? CHECK! In saying that though, there’s an honesty & integrity about this music that places it above the sum of those tick boxes. There’s a purity in Unbroken’s sound that I find to be really easy to buy into. It didn’t quite sink in on first listen but I found myself liking this record more & more with each revisit & that has a lot to do with its consistency as the quality of the song-writing as it rarely dips below the really solid platform that’s set right from the offset with only “Blanket” feeling a little less essential even if it still generally enjoyable.

The two elements that drive this album are its clear points of strength. The riffs are the first of those components with Unbroken seemingly rewriting the manual on metallic hardcore crunch. I can easily imagine how intense this band would have been live because these anger-fuelled guitar parts seem to have been born for mosh pit mayhem. As a guitar nut myself, I found it hard not to buy into Unbroken’s selling point in that regard as I live for the sort of amplifier reverberation they possess in spades, even if the riffs are kinda basic a lot of the time & aren’t exactly performed with precision. The other major highlight can be found in the vocals of front man Dave Claibourn who steers away from that gurgly hardcore tone that I’ve always found to be a little weak by giving himself a little more of a natural sound. It gives his stories of life on the streets some added believability & he does a fantastic job at drawing the listener in through sheer fire & vitriol. In fact, it’s hard to deny that he’s the major calling card for the album overall & I’d suggest that he’d have to one of the more appealing hardcore vocalists out there.

A four-star rating was always on the cards from the first second I pressed play on “Life. Love. Regret.” to be honest as it stays predominantly at that level throughout its nine songs. While “Blanket” may have seen the quality curve dipping just a touch, the biggest talking point for the album comes in the form of a total game-changer that sits right at the end of the tracklisting. The nine-minute epic “Curtain” is nothing short of a devastating, tension-building beast of a track that I’d suggest should rightfully sit amongst the absolute elite examples of the metalcore genre. Its use of repetition & dynamics to draw the listener in from both a physical & cerebral perspective is astounding & I’ve found it hard not to allow my passion for this one piece to dictate my feelings on the holistic package to tell you the truth. I genuinely feel sorry for people that don't have the patience to connect with a piece like this one.

Despite the lengthy classic that dominates the B side though, I still can’t see “Life. Love. Regret.” as a classic release. Essential? Oh definitely, particularly if you’re a die-hard metalcore or hardcore fan. But I don’t think the majority of the album is different enough for it to command the loftier scores in my ratings system. Perhaps I’ve simply come to it a little late in the game but I can’t help but feel that “Life. Love. Regret.” doesn’t really do anything terribly different to a lot of metalcore release. Perhaps Unbroken are the source of all of that in the first place though? I dunno but what I can say is that I’ve rarely heard a better example of this type of music than this record & I can easily see why those metalheads with a stronger affiliation with the metalcore genre than I would tend to gush over it as I’ve been surprised at just how much I've enjoyed the experience.

For fans of Rorschach, Starkweather & Racetraitor.