ALBUM REVIEW – “Love Is A Liar’s Game” EP by Youth In Revolt

Armed with all the weapons necessary to take contemporary post-hardcore by storm, Youth In Revolt come out all guns blazing on an EP that hits as many targets as it can in a short time. With a sound that falls somewhere between Sleeping With Sirens (the closeness of frontman True Arahill’s voice to Kellin Quinn’s is uncanny), Memphis May Fire and early Asking Alexandria, the group concoct a heady mix of high-octane pop rock and violent, but well-refined metalcore breakdowns that push the extremes of both how melodic and how aggressive a band like this can be. Though at times the divide is disconcerting, at their best the songs on Love Is a Liar’s Game show that it need not be.

Frontloaded as it is, the highest quality material on the EP comes from its two opening songs. ‘There For You’ immediately sets out their stall with a surging riff and melodic vocal patterns, broken up by buzzing heavier sections before the chorus takes to the sky. While this opener centres mostly on its hook, the formula is well executed across the board on title track ‘Love is a Liar’s Game’, a tour-de-force of soaring woah-oh vocals, another killer chorus and an impressively intense bridge section. The strength of this opening brace of tunes isn’t reached again, but the point has been made that Youth In Revolt are a group with potential.

Both ‘Never Stay’ and ‘When Its Over’ suffer from being somewhat inferior versions of the preceding tracks. The former gets tangled up in overused glitch effects that detract from the interesting guitar work, while the latter shows a notable understanding of dynamics but lacks memorability. This noticeable if certainly not total decline continues into the EP’s black sheep inclusion, acoustic number ‘For the First Time’. An odd way of wrapping things up in that it suddenly halts the high energy of everything before it, it’s an interesting taste of alternative avenues for the band but feels shoehorned onto the end of this release, and perhaps should have been saved for a full-length.

An intriguing set of songs that begins excellently before tailing off (though remaining quite enjoyable) towards its end, the Love Is a Liar’s Game EP shows a broad spectrum of different talents and clear songwriting nous, if not considerable originality. Youth In Revolt cover enough ground to remain consistently interesting without much in the way of innovation, and in just 18 or so minutes cram a surprising number of angles into their music, just managing to avoid overkill. The band’s youthful energy is obvious – whether they’re good enough to inspire revolt remains to be seen.

Rating: 7 / 10

[Michael Bird]

‘There For You’