{"id":1873,"date":"2017-07-06T12:30:30","date_gmt":"2017-07-06T12:30:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-lay-it-on-the-line-the-black-museum\/"},"modified":"2025-06-11T22:15:57","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T21:15:57","slug":"review-lay-it-on-the-line-the-black-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-lay-it-on-the-line-the-black-museum\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Lay It On The Line &#8211;\u00a0The Black Museum"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure class=\"tmblr-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/78.media.tumblr.com\/65bbd1542f244d3d6157b0ec52eb689b\/tumblr_orrffuubTP1r8no6so10_r1_1280.jpg\" width=\"250em\" alt=\"\" title=\"\"><\/figure>\n<p>Hardcore punk should be one of the most exciting and urgent styles of music in the world, where every double kick drum beat should provide more substance than other artists can provide in a full album. This need for sensation that makes it far worse for a hardcore record to simply be \u2018okay&rsquo; than terrible. Unfortunately for South London five-piece <b>Lay It On the Line<\/b>, it&rsquo;s difficult to say anything more about their debut album <i>\u2018The Black Museum&rsquo;<\/i> apart from \u2018it&rsquo;s okay.&rsquo;<\/p>\n<p>An indictment like this isn&rsquo;t fun to make, as <b>Lay It On the Line<\/b> have persevered numerous lineup changes and personal issues as described in <i>\u2018A Serious House on Serious Earth&rsquo;<\/i> to get to the release of this album, but considering this record a standout in a stellar year of hardcore releases would feel disingenuous.<\/p>\n<p><!-- more --><\/p>\n<p>Needless to say, <i>\u2018The Black Museum&rsquo;<\/i> does present a selection of competently written melodic hardcore songs fuelled by a fiery aggression brought on by vocalists Alice Hour and Mike Scott, who rip their way through the uncompromising bursts of speed on opener <i>\u2018Level Up&rsquo;<\/i> and <i>\u2018120 Days&rsquo;<\/i> with a heightened confrontation, while tracks like <i>\u2018Serious House&rsquo;<\/i> and <i>\u2018Oreo Speedwagon&rsquo;<\/i> ushers in more melody to their performance with a sense of menace, which makes for interesting listening.<\/p>\n<p>However, the impact of the vocalists&rsquo; is marred by the rigid performance of the rest of <b>Lay It On the Line<\/b>, who spend most of their time rehashing Bane riffs. And while this should be an enticing prospect for hardcore fans, it&rsquo;s hard to feel any anticipation for a variation on the genre that felt cutting edge a decade ago. There&rsquo;s a good chance songs from <i>\u2018The Black Museum&rsquo;<\/i> will slay live, but on record, it&rsquo;s a perfectly decent performance of a musical style that should be nothing less than 100% in the thrill department.<\/p>\n<p>2.5\/5<\/p>\n<p><i>\u2018The Black Museum&rsquo;<\/i> by <b>Lay It On the Line<\/b> is out now via <b>Disconnect Disconnect Records.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Lay It On the Line<\/b> links:Facebook|<a href=\"http:\/\/layitonthelineuk.tumblr.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tumblr<\/a>|<a href=\"https:\/\/layitontheline.bandcamp.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bandcamp<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Words by Andy Davidson (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AndyrfDavidson\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@AndyrfDavidson<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hardcore punk should be one of the most exciting and urgent styles of music in the world, where every double kick drum beat should provide more substance than other artists can provide in a full album. This need for sensation that makes it far worse for a hardcore record to simply be \u2018okay&rsquo; than terrible. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":16502,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[15033,15021,224,1434,1433],"class_list":["post-1873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-album-reviews","tag-andrew-davidson","tag-andy-davidson","tag-disconnect-disconnect-records","tag-lay-it-on-the-line","tag-the-black-museum"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Review: Lay It On The Line -\u00a0The Black Museum - Already Heard Staging<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Hardcore punk should be one of the most exciting and urgent styles of music in the world, where every double kick drum beat should provide more substance\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Review: Lay It On The Line -\u00a0The Black Museum - Already Heard Staging\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hardcore punk should be one of the most exciting and urgent styles of music in the world, where every double kick drum beat should provide more substance\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-lay-it-on-the-line-the-black-museum\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Already Heard Staging\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AlreadyHeard\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-07-06T12:30:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-06-11T21:15:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/tumblr_orrffuubTP1r8no6so10_r1_1280.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Andrew Davidson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@alreadyhearduk\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@alreadyhearduk\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Andrew Davidson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Review: Lay It On The Line -\u00a0The Black Museum - Already Heard Staging","description":"Hardcore punk should be one of the most exciting and urgent styles of music in the world, where every double kick drum beat should provide more substance","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Review: Lay It On The Line -\u00a0The Black Museum - Already Heard Staging","og_description":"Hardcore punk should be one of the most exciting and urgent styles of music in the world, where every double kick drum beat should provide more substance","og_url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-lay-it-on-the-line-the-black-museum\/","og_site_name":"Already Heard Staging","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AlreadyHeard\/","article_published_time":"2017-07-06T12:30:30+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-06-11T21:15:57+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/tumblr_orrffuubTP1r8no6so10_r1_1280.jpg","width":1,"height":1,"type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Andrew Davidson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@alreadyhearduk","twitter_site":"@alreadyhearduk","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Andrew Davidson","Estimated reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-lay-it-on-the-line-the-black-museum\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-lay-it-on-the-line-the-black-museum\/"},"author":{"name":"Andrew Davidson","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/person\/e32d2500b34afa459324477cb4410353"},"headline":"Review: Lay It On The Line &#8211;\u00a0The Black Museum","datePublished":"2017-07-06T12:30:30+00:00","dateModified":"2025-06-11T21:15:57+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-lay-it-on-the-line-the-black-museum\/"},"wordCount":370,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-lay-it-on-the-line-the-black-museum\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/tumblr_orrffuubTP1r8no6so10_r1_1280.jpg","keywords":["Andrew Davidson","Andy Davidson","Disconnect Disconnect Records","Lay It On The Line","The Black Museum"],"articleSection":["Album Reviews"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-lay-it-on-the-line-the-black-museum\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-lay-it-on-the-line-the-black-museum\/","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-lay-it-on-the-line-the-black-museum\/","name":"Review: Lay It On The Line -\u00a0The Black Museum - Already Heard Staging","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-lay-it-on-the-line-the-black-museum\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-lay-it-on-the-line-the-black-museum\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/tumblr_orrffuubTP1r8no6so10_r1_1280.jpg","datePublished":"2017-07-06T12:30:30+00:00","dateModified":"2025-06-11T21:15:57+00:00","description":"Hardcore punk should be one of the most exciting and urgent styles of music in the world, where every double kick drum beat should provide more substance","inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-lay-it-on-the-line-the-black-museum\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-lay-it-on-the-line-the-black-museum\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/tumblr_orrffuubTP1r8no6so10_r1_1280.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/tumblr_orrffuubTP1r8no6so10_r1_1280.jpg"},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#website","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/","name":"Already Heard Staging","description":"Covering the best in alternative music as best as we can","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#organization","name":"Already Heard","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/AH-relaunch-logo-white-bg.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/AH-relaunch-logo-white-bg.jpg","width":500,"height":500,"caption":"Already Heard"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AlreadyHeard\/","https:\/\/x.com\/alreadyhearduk","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/alreadyheard\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/already-heard\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/AlreadyHeardMusic","https:\/\/tiktok.com\/@alreadyhearduk","https:\/\/www.threads.net\/@alreadyheard"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/person\/e32d2500b34afa459324477cb4410353","name":"Andrew Davidson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1b774e73ef804d6bb950dfb8ec4e94556e9d5d7e5ca82ec6c7b1a459877d2ea5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1b774e73ef804d6bb950dfb8ec4e94556e9d5d7e5ca82ec6c7b1a459877d2ea5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1b774e73ef804d6bb950dfb8ec4e94556e9d5d7e5ca82ec6c7b1a459877d2ea5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Andrew Davidson"},"description":"This is for the hearts still beating","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/author\/andrewdavidson\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1873"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37354,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1873\/revisions\/37354"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}