#the crucible of life

[under-the-knife]

The Home Team // Walk This World With Me

[sorixa]

THE CRUCIBLE OF LIFE 🏆🌿

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

[youresofucking-lovely]

Makin' it easy to lose my mind

'Cause maybe I'm a mess

Maybe I've been hard to find

There's nothing that I would rather do

Than make you fuckin' proud

Show you something brand new

[a-fix-of-muses]

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

[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.

[punk-rock-pig]

a perfect 34 minutes

The Crucible of Life album by the The Home Team is a perfect 34 minutes! I listen to it all the way through at least once a day. It has a good narrative about struggling with holding different parts of yourself together at the same time and trying to do what you love when it's not always easy or profitable.

The songs in the first part of the album blend together just enough so it feels cohesive and I sometimes don't notice the song changing. Then a little intermission with some different themes and sounds Then bangers!

[akwardlyuncool]

Class Favorites: Albums

___________________________________________________

State Champs - State Camps

This album came out in October, so I wasn't sure that it would even kinda qualify, that was until I spent the whole end of the year with it. I 1000% believe that this record deserves the Self-Titled name. It does them all of the justice, produces hit after hit, and even the tracks that I thought aren't as good as the others during single time, turn out to be favorites when paired with the whole record. (I'm looking at you Light Blue.) Y'all know that I love my State Champs and I kinda slacked on their last album when it first came out, but this one I didn't wait to be proven right. My only soft regret is that they were on tour a week after the album released and I didn't go because it was set to be cold and I didn't know the album yet. Mistakes all around, cause even if I didn't know much from this one, I would have known just about everything else on that set list and I still would have gotten to hear my new faves. But hey there's always next tour.

This album is some of modern Pop-Punk's finest. If you've been following State Champs and if you haven't, I'll tell you that they keep getting better. Their first album The Finer Things will always be top tier, but they've consistently worked to be their own best competition and this album just furthers proves that. Don't sleep on it.

Top 4 Tracks: (This was harder than I thought.)

Clueless (Track 3)

Too Late To Say (Track 5)

Hell Of It (Track 6)

Light Blue (Track 4) - I'm just so in love with that opening bit.

PS: Trust me I hear you on the song Sobering and if I wasn't so in love with the first part of Light Blue, it would have made top 4.

________________________________________________________________

The Crucible of Life - The Home Team

If you didn't catch what I said about this album in one of my Sitting To Know Your Collection roundups for 2024, I'll just let you know that it's a really groovy album. You're gonna dance and get a little spicy at the same time. It has the heavy elements many of us want as well. There are a few songs that I'm still fully learning, but I wasn't going to let the year pass without giving this album it's proper shout out. I spent so much time catching TikTok teasers and playing Walk This World With Me on repeat until I got the CD and really sat with it. The Home Team had a really great 2024 and I was actively paying attention. Like with State Champs I didn't get to see them live, so that's a bummer, but singing in my car had to have been some sort of show if you ask me.

PS: To whoever made the album artwork, your placement of "The" in The Home Team irritates me to no end.

Top 4 Tracks:

Walk This World With Me (Track 8)

Love & Co (Track 3)

Brag (Track 2)

Somebody Else's Face ft. Broadside (Track 7)

________________________________________________________________

SHIMMER.SEASON- Not My Weekend (Released November 2023)

I placed this as a secondary album in 2023 because it came out super late.. Fast forward to 2024, I felt it deserved to be moved up a notch. Lightning was my most listened to song on one of my Spotify's and I just kept going back to this album and finding pockets of time to have it on repeat. Similar to the last time I talked about SHIMMER.SEASON, I rarely if ever listened to it in order. I either play all the songs I have saved and then go search the ones I'm "missing" or just have it on shuffle. It's only playing in order as I'm writing this review. Regardless though, I think I've grasped the vibe enough and if I haven't, I still have, because almost every song has had it's full day in the sun and them some. I'm not tired of this thing and I'm actually a little upset because they won't give it to me on CD. If you need something fun, something you can jump and dance to, Pop-y Pop Punk, this is definitely for you.

They did release a deluxe edition in 2024, but that no CD deal still bothers me, so I haven't checked it out yet. Maybe in 2025 I'll get with the program.

Top 4 Tracks:

LIGHTING ft. Brian Butcher (Track 7)

AMERICAN.DREAM (Track 8)

SHUT.UP (Track 9)

KNOCK.ME.OUT ft. Kellin Quinn (Track 4)

[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 

[beardedmrbean]

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DHTfoMhJoIF/?igsh=MW45M2MzcHV1MTI2aA==

One of these days Goody Proctor is gonna finally turn on him in order to save herself and he'll finally be exposed for practicing witchcraft.

[hyuckonia]

another godly crucible lineup. these ghosts cant catch a break when the whole damn school is full of fucking FREAKS

bonus:

[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!