by Myles Tiessen
Coming out of the ferocious Vancouver punk scene, Lié dives headfirst into a chaotic, exciting, and confident album, which brings the listener into a world of tight-knit thrash-punk, ushering you along an energetic journey. At the same time, you try and hold on for dear life.
Heavy bass lines drive many songs on You Want it Real, while the guitar and drums work symbiotically to produce an unconstrained yet simultaneously steady album. The band sounds as good as ever, and you can feel the creative compatibility between the band members as they effortlessly bounce between meticulously crafted tracks.
From the first track, “Digging in the Desert,” you can feel the band’s unrelenting power. Singing through impressionist metaphors, lead singer and bassist Ashlee Luk yells, “I’ve been wasting all my precious time digging, digging in the desert,” before yelling at the song’s antagonist, “You’re so righteous.” Lié don’t waste any time proclaiming their hostility towards a society so oppressive to those pushed furthest to the margins. A feeling of discontent and call for change run through the album and display the discharge of that rage in classic hardcore fashion.
You can feel that energy explicitly on “Bug.” The band bounces back and forth between sludgy metal riffs and fast-paced Anarcho-punk, further displaying their disillusionment toward society. At the same time, “You Got It” transports you to a vicious moshpit where you can practically feel the punches flying and taste the metallic flavor of blood running down from your broken nose. They might not be reinventing the wheel, but Lié shows precisely how great deliberate, voracious punk music can be.