Modern Life Is War –
My Love My Way (2003)

Who is your favorite hardcore band from Iowa?  No, Slipknot is not a hardocre band.  Who else is from Iowa? The Everly Brothers?  Well, Slipknot is fine if you’re into that sort of thing, no disrespect to the nine masked men of that group, and the Everly Brothers are pretty cool, but I’ve never seen a video of them covering “Nervrous Breakdown” by Black Flag at CBGBs.  No, the best band from Iowa is clearly Modern Life Is War.  Taking a unique take on hardcore that like… punk.  Remember when punk came before hardocre?  Remember when hardcore was sort of shorthand for “hardcore punk.”  Well, I don’t either, I’m not that old.  But, I was just the right age when this record came along with it’s themes of being an angry, lonely, angsty kid in a midwest town, and boy did it resonate with me.  The guitars riff in a solid mid tempo, almost arrogant way.  The riffs are played with such feeling and emotion, and to cap it off, the vocals of Jeffrey Eaton, who sounds like he’s an eternally angry kid, just feed into the explosion that is this record.  Every song has a lyric you could get tattooed on your chest.  It’s that type of energy.  I love it.