A Way Of Life revisited

After I posted the AWOL demo someone requested a post of their other records. It's been in the back of my mind for quite some time, and finally I've come around to it. Sorry for the huge delay, what can I say, I'm a lazy piece of shit. I ripped their vinyl output and the tracks from 2 compilations they appeared on. I believe that, together with the demo, this represents a complete discography for this amazing and underrated French band.

As you will notice if you download this stuff, A Way Of Life (AWOL) changed their style a bit from their demo. They added more metal influences to their style and dropped the mosh parts. While I think their demo is their best stuff, and it is still easily one of my favorite demo's ever, I do love this period of AWOL as well. The 'Deep Thoughts About The End' 7" from 1997 however, released on Braveheart Records, is not their strongest release. It starts off with a re-recording of 'The Last Scream' from the demo, which unfortunately doesn't add much to the demo-version, it even suffers from a somewhat thin production which lacks bass and heaviness. The B side shows a band that is trying to find a new sound. It's more metallic than the demo but it just doesn't sound right, the band seems to have thrown too many ideas into one song and it doesn't come out too well. Easily the worst AWOL track.

'In This Cold Weather' from the split 7" with Headway, released in 1998 on MoshXBart, shows a huge progression from the 'Deep Thoughts...' 7". Over 7 minutes long, this is a great track that shows AWOL successfully moving into a new direction. An impressive effort. Only 2 months after recording this track they went back into the studio and recorded 3 more tracks, 2 were to appear on the 'The Nightmare Begins... In This Other Land' 2xCD compilation (Overcome Records, 1998) and 1 on the 'KDS Crew: Rise & Fall' compilation (The Age Of Venus, 2001). These 3 tracks are again awesome, especially 'Signs Of The Downfall'. Unfortunately these also happened to be the last official recordings. As I also mentioned when I blogged about the demo, there were plans to release more stuff, but this never happened unfortunately. So enjoy these tracks, and if you haven't done already, also download the demo. I cannot recommend this band enough.

Live picture courtesy of the KDS Crew myspace.

A Way Of Life revisited
A Way Of Life myspace

A Way Of Life - 1997 demo

In the mid to late '90s I went to a lot of shows in Belgium. And often times Alain (Out For Blood) who ran R.P.P. Records would be there with his distro. Awesome guy, awesome label and awesome distro. He always had a large selection of demo's, typically of bands in the harder/tougher NYHC/NJHC style, what people now refer to as moshcore and beatdown. And if you're into that style, and I was/am, the demo's he carried would almost always be quality, only the good shit. So when I saw this demo at his distro at some fest in the summer of 1997, and I read they were part of the infamous K.D.S. crew from Rennes, France, I bought it instantly. K.D.S. stands for Karate Dance Style btw, the most well-known K.D.S. band was Stormcore.
After the first listen I was hooked on A Way Of Life, or A.W.O.L. for short. After the excellent and eerie intro, 'KDS In Action' shows what this band was all about, (very) metallic hardcore that alternates between up-tempo and mid-tempo parts and is extremely 'violent dance-able'. This was back when violent dancing was almost an art-form on the dance-floor around these parts, the pits were hard but people were also showing off moves. Good times! The few times I saw A.W.O.L. they did not disappoint, their guitarists especially were damn good musicians.

After this demo the band started to become more technical and more metal, but they still ruled and had their own sound. They released a 7" called 'Deep Thoughts About The End' on Braveheart Records and a split 7" with Headway (also from France) on MoshxBart Records and were on a couple of compilations. Their guitarist had plans to release an A.W.O.L. 12" but as far as I know, that unfortunately never happened. I guess the 7" and split 7" are near impossible to come by these days, so if anybody wants me to rip those, just leave a comment. In the mean time, enjoy this awesome demo. And remember: 'Religion is a lie... Move it!'.

A.W.O.L. - 1997 demo
A Way Of Life on Myspace