“Past Lives” totals eleven songs, at just under forty-four minutes from beginning to end, and allows a small piece of each accomplished member to shine through when all is said and done. The group consists of Circa Survive’s Anthony Green on vocals, My Chemical Romance’s Frank Iero, Coheed and Cambria’s Travis Stever on guitar, Thursday’s Tim Payne on bass, as well as their Tucker Rule on drums.

The last two years have seen a sudden shift in music trends, with many artists attempting a move from the mainstream into the alternative scene due the influence and demand of social media. While growth is inevitable from artists, many attempting this switch fail to realize that it’s paradoxical—to be alternative requires a distinction from the mainstream, and it will always grow in an opposite direction, branching out further and pushing away those that seek popularity within it. 

These are the very foundations of the culture that surrounds the music, and success relies on the approval of the culture that one wishes to infiltrate. L.S. Dunes has been extremely effective in aiding the revival of the alternative genre and culture, given that, before uniting, its members helped found emo and hardcore scenes of the late 1990s and early 2000s from past projects.

Although this could be considered technically “uncomplicated” compared to other contenders within the genre, Green’s range and ability is highlighted splendidly by the melodies that his bandmates provide. His vocals achieve true guttural status on track ten, “Permanent Rebellion” as he laments about loneliness and victimization. Track eleven, “Sleep Cult,” is a stark musical contrast to the rest of the album, but still carries the same cynicism and bleakness lyrically that its predecessors do. 

The songs build off of each other to comprise an album essential to the future of post-hardcore, and one can only hope that L.S. Dunes continues to work with one another in the future to pioneer new landscapes of music as they’ve been doing for decades.