no one deserves to be here more than me...

...by blacklisted.

for me, this has been the most anticipated album to come out in 2009. their previous release, entitled "heavier than heaven, lonelier than god", was a huge progression to their sound and some kind of a hardcore masterpiece (my personal record of the year 2008 as well). the final track "wish" was something nobody expected from a band like blacklisted and it easily became one of my most favourite songs of all time.

rumours about the release of a new record have been going around the internet for quite a while now, but the band didn't announce anything but "new record out in november" in their myspace headline. no promotion, no infos or pre-order deals, nothing. and then, literally out of nowhere, they announced its instant release on nov 31st in buelltins on various communities. it's a vinyl only release, and you can't get it anywhere else than in the deathwish estore or on a blacklisted show.

four days after its official release, "no one deserves to be here more than me" got leaked and appeared on some blogspots. my order had been shipped already, but the way to germany isn't the shortest and i just couldn't wait to give it a listen, so i downloaded it.


the first run through "no one deserves..." was a strange, but intense and thrilling one. there is literally no hardcore at all on that record. ok, wait...at least for the generic hardcore kid. blacklisted are going for a very experimental and rock-driven sound and george is singing more than ever. he is barely doing anything else but singing. the first song also features the use of violins already. those violins tend to play disharmonic lines through the progress of the song and record, which pushes the experimental sound even further. with "the p.i.g. (the problem is g.)" the album also features an acoustic track with clean vocals, a little dissonant at times. at this point the record already unfolded it's gloomy spirit, it really gets you after a few spins. the few heavier tracks are pretty cool, but they still include all kinds of strange sounds, weird guitar leads, a lot of feedback and what not. i wish there would have been even more trumpets through the record, but the only real obvious track featuring them is an interlude. the last song is featuring female guest vocals by melissa farley and it's pretty damn intense and gloomy.

i've been listening to that record for a couple of times in a row now and it totally hit me. i also put it on my ipod and listened to it on my way to a rehearsal. it definately got some amazing hooklines and i think it's an overall awesome hardcore punk record, that pushes the borders of what that genre stands for. there always have been bands that did it that way. think of how black flag progressed and especially refused's "the shape of punk to come". hardcore punk wouldn't be what it is today if there weren't bands that redefined the genre with albums blowing the boundaries of its certain style.

nonetheless the generic hardcore kid already started to cry all over the internet about how much he hated that new blacklisted record. i didn't expect anything else. i dropped the band a line, telling them about that and that's their answer:

>>yeah well, we knew 2 things would happen: people were either gonna hate it or really really love it. oh well...we do what we do. can't please all the people all the time.<<

and i totally agree. if you want to be a free artist, you should not limit your creativity for what the people want from you. that's bullshit and it's especially not the original idea of what that genre stands for. i totally see the mentioned generic hardcore kid of today-character sitting in front of his computer with no understanding for what blacklisted is doing on "no one deserves...". >>that's not hardcore<< or >>worst album ever!<< or one of my favourites: >>new record is god awful. what's up with those interludes?<< are things you can read on different blogspots or last.fm. those goddamn morons do not understand a thing.


let me end this with a fact: on "no one deserves to be here more than me" blacklisted are more hardcore than most bands out there. in their music there is a lotta more hardcore attitude than in anything else that's floating around under that banner. so if you can't take off your blinders you should propably put your emmure b-ball shorts back on and mosh the hell out of your children's room, listening to some br00tal breakdowns. if that's the real deal to you...