Quick: Name one hardcore punk album from the past 10
years—hell, make that ever—that opens with a lilting flute solo followed by a
chorus of electric guitars so dense, pealing, and overtone-rich, they could
make minimalist-rock architect Rhys Chatham's neck hair stand on end. That's
just the first of many moments on Fucked Up's second full-length where the
Canadian band pushes hardcore beyond traditionally accepted limits of
artfulness. The rest of The Chemistry Of Common Life heads even further into left field,
often with staggering results: Neu!-esque motorik grooves, philosophically dense
lyrics about the birth/death cycle, up to 70 simultaneous guitar tracks, and
waves of Eastern percussion and melody, all powering 11 hugely textured songs
that still hit as hard as a 90-second Negative Approach jam. While it's offset
on a few songs by "clean" female vocals, Damian Abraham's glass-gargling roar
remains the primary source of Fucked Up's visceral energy. From this point on,
it'll be more exciting to see how much farther beyond gut-level the band is willing
to go.