Dying For It - Born To Deny [Review]

Artist: Dying For It

Title: Born To Deny

Release: 10″ EP / Digital

Year: 2018

Label: Safe Inside Records

This one comes out swinging with a decent recording and a powerful mix of melodic hardcore and heavier breakdowns. Dying For It is a hardcore band from Redding, CA, formed in 2015 and this is their second release to date.

Born To Deny is sometimes heavy, sometimes bold and aggressive, but overall it stays a catchy and compelling record. Musically, it draws influences by everyone’s favorite hardcore bands like American Nightmare, Modern Life is War, Go It Alone, and The Suicide File. The lyrics revolve around the idea of self and body image. It’s about the struggle to accept yourself and embrace the fucked up things in life that destroy you. Loneliness, isolation and self-hate are recurring topics throughout the songs, as well as personal accounts of emotional trauma experienced in abusive relationships.

In “Predator” the singer Rikki V. screams “Eat shit, sex predator”, making a bold statement in a very straight-forward way. The closing song “Under His Eye” deals with the organized religion and how misogyny, rape and denial of basic human rights have all been justified under faith in God.

Born To Deny is a dynamic, driving and cohesive hardcore punk record that will both musically and lyrically resonate with a lot of you. At first glance and listen I wasn’t that much impressed, but after reading the lyrics I’ve come to realize that this is a honest and powerful effort by a band that actually have something to say. I guess, it’s because there are so many of these so called melodic or modern sounding hardcore bands sending me bandcamp links for review, but just a few of them really stand out. That’s why I’m kinda skeptical on that first spin. So give it a chance and see if it works for you.

Fortunately, Dying For It are touring extensively and share the stage with well-known bands like Rats In The Wall, Shelter, and Fireburn. Also thanks to Safe Inside Records for putting out some of the best melodic hardcore bands out there.