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Lame: Lo Que Extrañas Ya No Existe 12” (La Vida Es Un Mus) La Vida Es Un Mus brings us the second album by this European hardcore group. I didn’t hear much chatter about Lame’s first record, 2023’s Dejad Que Vengan—with members spread across a few European cities, I don’t think Lame played a ton of gigs in the interim—but I hope people take more notice of Lo Que Extrañas Ya No Existe because it’s a unique and interesting record. The backbone of most songs are the sturdy, often mid-paced riffs that leave a lot of breathing room for dynamics. Take, for instance, “El Palco Del Horror,” which trudges along with a chunky, Fang-esque groove, walking that line between being simple enough to sound classic, yet not reminding you of anything in particular. For me, though, the stars of the show in Lame are the drums and vocals. Like the riffs, the drum patterns are spacious rather than dense and never showy, but when you listen closely they’re filled with interesting rhythmic accents and always complement the riffing in unexpected ways, giving these songs a textural richness that more straightforward drumming would surely lack. And Lame’s vocalist is a ball of charisma, with a ranting style that reminds me of early Negazione because it sounds like she’s winding herself up, each line growing faster and more impatient until she reaches a breaking point. This pattern forms another axis of tension in the songs that can complicate what’s happening instrumentality in interesting ways. Take the title track, where the vocals slowly ascend a ramp of intensity while the instrumental parts cycle through iterations of quiet/loud, the patterns overlaying one another in a way that gives the track a kind of cinematic breadth. Like the album as a whole, it’s vicious and punk as fuck, but with subtle artistry that reveals something new with each listen.