Sin Vida / Life Without

Split release from two Bay Area hardcore punk bands—Life Without broke up and 2/3 of them became 2/4 of Sin Vida. (You’ll find that fairly amusing if you’ve ever taken a Spanish class.) Sin Vida is mostly female-fronted, with bewilderingly fast songs, not quite as abrasive as fellow Bay Area lady-punx Voetsek—maybe Avengers after drinking too much coffee laced with speed and getting a drummer that only listens to Discharge LPs on 45. Life Without conspicuously reeks of a much higher testosterone level. Clearly these guys listened to a lot of DRI and Cryptic Slaughter back in high school, and probably don’t consider Slayer to be punk enough.
FCCs: A 5, 11 / B 2, 4, 6, 7, 8

“This Side”—Sin Vida
1. Short, fast, loud
2. Shorter; fast, loud
3. Fast, loud, some menacing midpaced interludes that build sick tension
4. Midpaced pummeling thrash; then fast again
5. Slow intro, then holyfuckfastsmashyourskullonconcrete. FCC “bullshit” clearly audible from sampled movie dialogue at the very end, segues into…
6. Short, fast, loud
7. Heavy, slow, rumbling—then fast again!
8. SHORT! + fast + loud
9. hard rock intro riff leads to some solid rocknrolling punk, never gets quite that fast
10. yet another track on the more rockin’, not so fast side of things
11. FCC “get the fuck out of my face!” short fast face-punching tune
12. suddenly the singer sounds like a hardcore version of Exene, fast and vaguely 12-bar blues but really really pissed

“That Side”—Life Without
1. Various spoken samples, segues into Slayer-esque midpaced riff, then raging mosh-worthy hardcore punk, angry rant about how reality sucks and you can’t get by without society’s drugs.
2. Angry, fast, interspersed with mid-paced chugging thrash riffs. FCC “fuck”
3. Starts with various spoken-word samples about how America loves drugs. Reagan impersonator says, “Nancy and I are hooked on heroin.” Then the song attempts to smash your face into the wall.
4. FCC: a lot of f-bombs. Fast, pissed, schizophrenic.
5. Heavy intro riff lumbers menacingly, then they pick up the pace and rock out with some tasty guitar leads. Metal!
6. FCC “fuckin” midpaced aggressive thrash like it’s 1985, before abruptly speeding up
7. FCC “motherfucker” fastfastfast <1min
8. FCC “fuckfuckfuck” Midpaced punk-rawkin’ badassery, less metal influence but no less raging
9. FCC “fuck” midpaced angry arggg fuck everything