#The Crucible Of Life

[sorixa]

THE CRUCIBLE OF LIFE 🏆🌿

fanart for the home team band :) can you tell how much i like the album!!

[a-fix-of-muses]

Currently Listening To: "Turn You Off" by The Home Team

[shade-astray]

The Home Team // Walk This World With Me

[thisaintascenereviews]

The Home Team - The Crucible Of Life

I swear The Home Team is alternative’s best kept secret, because how are these guys not way bigger? I remember finding them a few years back, when they dropped the deluxe version of their second album, Slow Bloom, and it was a killer mix of pop/rock, but I revisited them again when my buddy Jake and I started up a series where we recommend something to each other. He picked that, which I coincidentally had heard before, but I wanted to revisit it and spend more time with them. I was eagerly awaiting the follow-up, which we ended up getting in the form of The Crucible Of Life. They announced it a few months ago, but it’s been out for a hot minute now, so how is this thing? Has the wait been worth it, or is this a disappointing follow-up?

Oh, yes, this record’s wait has certainly been worth it, because it’s fantastic. I would say that this is better than their last album, partially because their sound is a bit more honed in and they sound stronger because of it. I don’t know if it’s a top album of the year for me, because the more I’ve listened to it, the more I have some problems with it, although it’s nothing really to do with the music itself. There are a lot of things that work with this album, though, namely vocalist Brian Butcher, and how he’s able to bend his voice at will to match the sound of a song. Their sound is also really unique, taking elements from pop-punk, metalcore, pop, and R&B to become what I consider the spiritual follow-up to Issues.

Their sound is rather inventive, especially for this brand of R&B-core being around for the last decade or so, but it’s still relatively niche. I will say, however, that this record, kind of like their last album, has a tendency to become derivative and repetitive, despite the hooks and the overall energy being really awesome. It’s tough, because I’m having a blast when I listen to this album, but only a few songs really stick out, such as “Loud,” “Brag,” “Hell,” and “Turn You Off,” but a couple of other tracks stick out that actually have a bit of a different sound.

“Somebody Else’s Face” and “Walk This World With Me” are back to back on the album, but they’ve both got a pop / R&B sound and tone down the heaviness and energy slightly. Ollie Baxxter of Broadside actually guests on the former, and he sounds fantastic, but these are surprisingly a couple of highlights. It’s just kind of a shame, because for being a 35-minute album, you’d think more songs would stick out, but its repetition can be a bit of a hindrance. My favorite albums of this year are memorable throughout their runtime, regardless of how short or long they might be, and I’ve desperately wanted to put this up there, but some songs just are so forgettable, it kind of hurts.

They’re still really good songs, so it’s not like anything is boring, bland, or bad, but a lot of the songs sound the same. The highlights really stick out in that case, and there are only a few songs that stick with me after finishing the album every time. I go back to it hoping that it’ll stick more, and as great as it is, it just fails to stick with me in the same way that other records have this year. I don’t know, I still love it, and it’s still a highlight of the year, so it’s worth the listen, but it does blend together a lot and they only have a couple of tricks up their sleeve. The Home Team are still a band worth watching, so give them some time, and they’ll be a force to be reckoned with.

[sapphicslut777]

MOST IMPORTANT SONGS TO ME FROM THE ALBUM DROPPED TODAY:

love when you’re used

brag

somebody else’s face

roommates

loud

honest

all squeezed out

overtime

hell

turn you off

love & co

walk this world with me 

[seeking-tanis]

OH YOU KNOW I WAS ON THAT SHIT AT THE STROKE OF MF’IN MIDNIGHT

[sicklyseraphnsuch]

It's DNA

I was watching Smough's video, and he featured this sacred seal from the Erdtree peoples who were inspired by the Hornsent peoples.

The Land of the Tower (Hornsent) considered helixes as some kind of divine geometry/symbol. The double helix is notably calls to mind either the Caduceus symbol of medicine (twin snakes in a double helix - wink nudge nudge) OR...

It looks like a strand of DNA.

The Crucible wasnt just the primordial form of the Erd Tree. It was the primordial form of Everything - all living beings. To be Crucible blessed like the Hornsent is to acquire a mixture of active genes that would be have been recessive otherwise- thats why you get wings, horns, tails. (We share 90% or so of our DNA with like flies or bananas!)

Everyone is technically born from the Crucible and (as Marika proves by birthing OMEN sons) the Hornsent/Shaman are the same species!! Again recessive genes that get activated maybe?

And guess what? Splicing, grafting - that could be done to trees... or DNA... Godrick's prized practice is essentially a revised version of what the Crucible does naturally to living creatures.

The Crucible = The Gene Pool

[a-fix-of-muses]

Currently Listening To: "Overtime" by The Home Team

[syn0vial]

funniest part about the bounty hunter wars by K.W jeter is how palpatine thinks he's screwing boba fett over by hiring him to take down the bounty hunters' guild, completely ignorant to the fact that boba is a sicko who thinks making himself public enemy #1 of every bounty hunter in the galaxy sounds like the most fun he's had in ages.

it's literally like,

palpatine: that fool boba fett doesn't know that he is but a pawn in my nefarious plot to sow desperation and discord among the bounty hunters of the galaxy. he will be completely unprepared for the torrent of violence and retribution he is about to unleash upon himself. how wonderful it is to make a creature complicit in the workings of its own destruction! >:) boba, like 2 pages later: i can't wait to sow desperation and discord among the bounty hunters of the galaxy 😊 it's going to be sooo fun when my actions unleash a torrent of violence and retribution against me 😃 can't wait!

[thegollux]

this is off topic to that other post so i’m not adding it there but i just want to add...

if it took agony to make you great, I wish you had stayed mediocre. if it took surviving others hatred to make you funny, I wish you had had the chance to stay boring. there is no art so beautiful that i would not trade it in an instant for setting the artist free from cruelty. But I don’t think any of that suffering gave you your moments of genius; it was inside you all along.

it’s true that many people DO create beauty out of their own pain, and i applaud them for it. I just wish they lived in a society that let them create beauty out of joy, instead.

And mostly I can’t help but think of all the people whose greatness, genius, art, and beauty was instead snuffed out by the world before it got a chance to shine

[spacetimeaccordionfolder]

Dainix: I have concerns about Erin's leadership and lack of listening to the other people in the team.

Alinua, who has lived through chapter 6, early chapter 7, and Erin's idea to go to a library in Zuurith: oh you have no idea

[sapphicslut777]

NEW HOME TEAM DROPPED TODAY!!!! I CABT BELIEVE THST IM SEEING TGEM IN 16 DAYS!!!

[amberitedragon]

What cooking in the culinary crucible looks like