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Game returns after their 2019 full-length No One Wins with the Legerdemain EP. Piercing the listener with nonstop aural carnage, the EP would be an apt soundtrack to the armageddon. Part Venom, part Death Side, all live and loud, Legerdemain offers no restful moments. An instrumental masterclass with blistering drumming from Jonah Falco, weird and wonderful guitar melodies conjured up by Cal Baird, and a rumbling and decapitating buzzsaw bass by Nicky Rat, the release's finishing move is an ever-changing vocal tone by Ola H. Legerdemain can be a rewarding, or punishing, aural journey depending on your perspective.
The new release, which was recorded and mixed by Jonah and mastered by extreme music legend Arthur Rizk finds Game leaning heavily into their metal influences, with sounds of early 80s UK steel given extra ferocity through the lens of Japanese hardcore punk from the same era. Having toured multiple times in Europe and North America, Game, which features members of Fucked Up, Arms Race and Violent Reaction, is equally comfortable playing to punks, metalheads and everyone in between.
‘Legerdemain’ is a magician’s term meaning sleight of hand, a key skill of deception. The term is used as a metaphor for our current post-truth society where governments, technocracies, and financial institutions use smoke and mirrors to create a farcical and bewildering existence where one cannot know if something is real or not in order to cover up social injustice and mechanisms that drive inequality. As Legerdemain progresses, one is being continually dragged along towards an apocalyptic ending on "Release", which reflects on this current predicament as a nuclear explosion approaches with nothing left to do except give into the madness. There is a constant cycle of rising again, fighting against wrong doing, exhaustion, and endings. The lyrics in Polish, English and a sprinkle of French, represent the multinational members of the band, who feel culturally in a no man’s land, which in fact is everyone’s experience in 2021. Legerdemain tries to answer this anomie with urgent metal punk that is hauntingly relevant.
Our take: Game’s previous LP, No One Wins, came out on Beach Impediment Records in 2019, and while I liked that record, after I saw Game live, it was clear they had an even better record in them. Legerdemain gets a lot closer to capturing Game’s live power. I was going to write that Game had changed up their sound since No One Wins, but I went back to that record and the elements are there, but they’re communicated so much more clearly on Legerdemain. No One Wins’ bulldozer sound created a wall of brute force, but Legerdemain’s subtler mix highlights the riffing, which is very metal in style, but also fluid and melodic, with memorable lines and melodies that remind me of Tank’s Filth Hounds of Hades. The riffing anchors the songs, but the other instruments have more room to breathe too, with the drums showing off a propulsive yet heavy, Cro-Mags-esque gallop. The vocals might be a sticking point for some as they have a cartoonish quality, but I like them. Most hardcore vocals are one-dimensional and either fade into the background or, at best, provide a rhythmic counterpoint, but Ola’s vocal lines are memorable, and I was singing along with bits like “revelations of DOOOOOM” by the second listen. With six songs in less than 15 minutes, Legerdemain is all excitement, without a moment that drags or overstays its welcome. The physical packaging is also stunning. The jacket is not only beautifully designed, it’s printed with an old school letterpress, which has a totally different (and far superior) feel to the digital offset printing you see most often these days. There’s also a large, poster-sized lyric insert that follows the package’s red, black, and white design scheme. Exciting, fresh-sounding hardcore punk wrapped in flawless packaging makes Legerdemain a no-brainer. Pick up the US-exclusive white vinyl from us while you can.
The new release, which was recorded and mixed by Jonah and mastered by extreme music legend Arthur Rizk finds Game leaning heavily into their metal influences, with sounds of early 80s UK steel given extra ferocity through the lens of Japanese hardcore punk from the same era. Having toured multiple times in Europe and North America, Game, which features members of Fucked Up, Arms Race and Violent Reaction, is equally comfortable playing to punks, metalheads and everyone in between.
‘Legerdemain’ is a magician’s term meaning sleight of hand, a key skill of deception. The term is used as a metaphor for our current post-truth society where governments, technocracies, and financial institutions use smoke and mirrors to create a farcical and bewildering existence where one cannot know if something is real or not in order to cover up social injustice and mechanisms that drive inequality. As Legerdemain progresses, one is being continually dragged along towards an apocalyptic ending on "Release", which reflects on this current predicament as a nuclear explosion approaches with nothing left to do except give into the madness. There is a constant cycle of rising again, fighting against wrong doing, exhaustion, and endings. The lyrics in Polish, English and a sprinkle of French, represent the multinational members of the band, who feel culturally in a no man’s land, which in fact is everyone’s experience in 2021. Legerdemain tries to answer this anomie with urgent metal punk that is hauntingly relevant.
Our take: Game’s previous LP, No One Wins, came out on Beach Impediment Records in 2019, and while I liked that record, after I saw Game live, it was clear they had an even better record in them. Legerdemain gets a lot closer to capturing Game’s live power. I was going to write that Game had changed up their sound since No One Wins, but I went back to that record and the elements are there, but they’re communicated so much more clearly on Legerdemain. No One Wins’ bulldozer sound created a wall of brute force, but Legerdemain’s subtler mix highlights the riffing, which is very metal in style, but also fluid and melodic, with memorable lines and melodies that remind me of Tank’s Filth Hounds of Hades. The riffing anchors the songs, but the other instruments have more room to breathe too, with the drums showing off a propulsive yet heavy, Cro-Mags-esque gallop. The vocals might be a sticking point for some as they have a cartoonish quality, but I like them. Most hardcore vocals are one-dimensional and either fade into the background or, at best, provide a rhythmic counterpoint, but Ola’s vocal lines are memorable, and I was singing along with bits like “revelations of DOOOOOM” by the second listen. With six songs in less than 15 minutes, Legerdemain is all excitement, without a moment that drags or overstays its welcome. The physical packaging is also stunning. The jacket is not only beautifully designed, it’s printed with an old school letterpress, which has a totally different (and far superior) feel to the digital offset printing you see most often these days. There’s also a large, poster-sized lyric insert that follows the package’s red, black, and white design scheme. Exciting, fresh-sounding hardcore punk wrapped in flawless packaging makes Legerdemain a no-brainer. Pick up the US-exclusive white vinyl from us while you can.