Review: Bug Heaven - We love to live in Hell (EP)

Label: DIY

Music is a key to the heart. Lyrics are important too, just like the whole process while recording songs, and everything afterwards like mixing and stuff. Still, sometimes I don't care how stupid the words that dude sings are, or how shitty the production is, when the music touches me...

...with the BUG HEAVEN-debut "We love to live in Hell" I did have a different experience. While doing some housework I gave it its first spin, and I wasn't blown away. Some would call this 5th-Wave-Emo possibly. Could someone tell me which wave of Emo hits us currently, is it the 5th or are we already underneath the 6th or 7th? I lost track. I just call this Pop-Punk with lots of Emo-aesthetics. It's in the vein of ORIGAMI ANGEL, KHAKI CUFFS, HAPPY CASE SCENARIO, STARS HOLLOW, and some other bands whose names I forgot. I'm down with this style sometimes, hell, I loved that last ORIGAMI ANGEL-record to death. But as a whole, it's not my favourite ignition of Emo. 

Musically BUG HEAVEN do a more than solid job. It's down to earth, catchy but also a bit demanding, and as a whole a nice middle ground between Pop-Punk and Emo. The voice and singing harmonies sometimes even remind me of BLINK-182, but that's not all too bad, as I quite love their selftitled. Generally this feels like a more in-depth version of what BLINK where doing. But back to my main story: When I was about to give up on that record, the lyrics hit me. I guess it was the "The more we change, the more we stay the same"-line from "Quitter" that dragged me in. Going through quite the phase in my life and starting over (or am I still in this phase? I don't know, but what in the holy fucking Wave of Emo do I even know?), I totally could relate to that line. On the second, more committed spin of "We love to live in Hell" I spottted a few other, really good lines. I decided to definitely sit down, leaving all the dust in my flat behind me, listening once again to this record, while reading the lyrics. 

I connected to that wonderfully told stories about heartaches, self doubt, loneliness, friendship, and the huge fucking beast inside of me the singer. The singer is Drew Shuck, a guy from Nebraska and something like the brain child of BUG HEAVEN. He sings, he plays guitar, he plays the drums and he co-produced these 7 tracks. And most importantly, he wrote those neat lyrics. Yes, at times they may be quite juvenile, quite cliche, and quite foreseeable if you know this kind of style longer than 6 months. Then again, I personally expect such lyrics, and here they are done pretty cleverly. A song like "Alone Time" is pretty cheesy, especially in the chorus, but they make up for it musically. Then you got songs like the already mentioned "Quitter" or the jawbreaking title track "We love to live in Hell", who are clear homeruns. 

Therefor, this time around the lyrics where the key to my heart. They even were able to raise my passion for the music. Not everything on "We love to live in Hell" is something I could listen to all day, but now I identify myself with BUG HEAVEN. They have a lot of character and that's a cool thing looking forward...

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