Today, Armageddon Label announces October 4th as the international release date for Life Abuse's highly anticipated debut album, Systematization, on vinyl LP format.
Life Abuse is a new band based primarily in Albany, New York. Their list of "ex-members of" could easily be described as a "supergroup," boasting past members of Self Defense Family, The Oath, Male Patterns, Under Attack, Devoid of Faith, Libyans, End of A Year, and Limp Wrist, just to name a few from the seemingly endless list. However, it really boiled down to Mark Telfian and Dan Barker wanting to reconnect and play music together again. They had last played together in 2004 when, Deathsquad, their band at the time, broke up.
Deathsquad formed in 2001, and they released a 7" on Youth Attack Records in 2003 and a second 7" on Bonus Choke in 2004. They kicked around the idea of trying to do some type of project together since Telfian had gotten back into playing music in 2018 with Under Attack. Since Mark had moved to Richmond, Virginia, the idea of doing a band from that distance seemed unfeasible.
They figured the closest they would come to playing together was having their bands Male Patterns and Under Attack do a split 7", which came out in June of 2022 on Shock to the System Records. In October of 2022, Under Attack broke up, and Telfian was trying to figure out what to do and who to play with. Since he had started playing music again, he always gravitated back to playing music more in line with Deathsquad. He had written about a dozen songs that he felt were in that same style. After sending a few songs for Barker to check out, they decided to start playing music again almost 20 years later.
As fate would have it, Barker had run into Sean Doody at a Male Patterns show. This was, in fact, the record release show for the Male Patterns / Under Attack split. They had talked for a bit and gotten caught up. Doody had moved away from Albany for a few years and had stopped playing music for a while. Dan immediately suggested getting Sean, as he, too, was very into playing that style of music and wasn't currently playing in a band. The final member was longtime friend Nate Wilson. Wilson had played in various Albany bands with every other member of Life Abuse, including Deathsquad with Telfian and Barker. Their idea was simple: play Euro-style crust in the vein of such epic bands like No Security, G-ANX, and ABC Diabolo while blending Telfian's Negative Approach-influenced riffs and a hint of early Megadeth. Nate brought a metallic edge to everything with his lead work and solos. The end result was old friends making the most brutal music they could in what seems to be the most brutal times.
In the meantime, hear the brand-new track "Life Cycle"
HERE at Armageddon Label's Bandcamp, where the album can also be preordered. Cover and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Life Abuse's Systemization
1. Life Cycle
2. Systematization
3. Poisoned Chalice
4. Threnody
5. Strategy of Tension
6. Reconciliation
7. Chosen Path
8. Failure By Design
9. Give Rise
10. No Perspective
