Of all the bands to have popped up as part of ‘the Wave’ in American hardcore, Defeater have probably become the most universally celebrated. La Dispute may have the more deliberately obtuse song structures and Pianos Become the Teeth may have just a touch more self-pity, but Defeater have got the combination of both spot on since the release of their debut full-length, ‘Travels’, back in 2008.
‘Empty Days and Sleepless Nights’, released in 2011, was something of a point of no-return for the band. Its choruses were often direct and its four acoustic songs identified more clearly than ever that Defeater were unafraid of pissing off genre elitists.The band set their stall out to travel even further from the basics of hardcore into more varied, melodic territories.
‘Letters Home’ comes as a bit of a surprise, then. This is Defeater’s most straightforward, traditional record to date, bursting out of the traps with Bastards and keeping up the intensity pretty much throughout.
There are changes in pace and volume, certainly, but ‘Letters Home’ is, by and large, the sound of a band proving themselves perfectly capable of matching the legends of US hardcore at their own game. No wonder vocalist Derek Archambault has described it as the sound of Defeater returning to “why we started this band in the first place”.
The lyrical content once again revolves around a working class family in post-World War II America and, with Archambault’s words inspired by the experiences of his own grandparents, the passion is apparent in his voice throughout.
On the appropriately-named No Relief, his vocals even manage to sound considerably angrier than the fantastically furious musical backdrop provided by his colleagues, and on Rabbit Foot his screams threaten to dissolve into nothingness as his vocal cords are strained to the limit.
Musically, this is Defeater at their most uncompromisingly focused. Somehow, the cleaner moments are even more emotionally savage than the heavier sections, as evidenced by the opening to closer Bled Out. The lack of new musical ideas may be a negative point for some listeners, but then again it’s debatable whether the band have ever executed their plans as effectively as they do here.
By becoming more predictable, Defeater have proven themselves more unpredictable than ever. This is hardcore of a more refined nature than the ‘80s progenitors of the genre, but it’s also more comfortable in its own skin and all the more convincing as a result. Once again, Defeater have proved that they exist right at the apex of hardcore in the 21st century.
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