They say you have your entire life to write your first record, and only months to complete your second. But for Spark Of Life, the malleable post-hardcore band that formed in the suburbs of Los Angeles almost 25 years ago, this life has been anything but predictable.

In their original formation, the band-comprised of various musicians over the years, but always centered around the songwriting nucleus of singer Steve Jennings and guitarist Nicholas Piscitello-found themselves an outlier in the pre-social media, pre-everything-at- your-fingertips world of punk rock in the early '00s. It was here that Spark Of Life first honed a sound-and a fanbase-that leaned more melodic than the hardcore set, and proved far weightier than what was happening in the world of melodic pop-punk.

By the early aughts, they had amassed a respectable following regionally, and had befriended Russ Rankin, an intensely thoughtful singer who came from another band that knew a thing or two about walking the margins between hardcore and punk, Good Riddance. Their friendship resulted in Spark Of Life's restless 2003 debut, Promises Made Promises Kept, which was both produced by Rankin and released on his Fat Wreck Chords-backed subsidiary Lorelei Records. And then, as often the case with this band, life took a different turn. Over the next two decades, Spark Of Life all but disappeared. There was no acrimonious break up and no public acknowledgment of their dissolution. They simply went on with their lives. For a spell, Jennings and Piscitello reunited with former Rise Against guitarist Chris Chasse and Ignite bassist Brett Rasmussen to play in a short-lived, melodic rock act called Last Of The Believers. But in truth, it wasn't until 2018 that Jennings and Piscitello began to seriously think about kickstarting the band once again.

That fall, Jennings had convinced his friends Rise Against to play a secret show at the same skatepark he worked at in high school. The show was to double as his birthday party and, for the occasion, he offered up reuniting Spark Of Life for one night to open up for Rise (something they did countless times in in the early '00s, before the Chicago band became one of the most reliable hit makers in modern rock history). Looking back, no one uses the somewhat ironic word "spark" to describe what was rediscovered that evening. But their brief reunion undoubtedly reignited the creative spirit between Jennings and Piscitello, who began writing off and on for the next few years. By early 2022, an idea was hatched to record a few of the songs that they had gotten to a point of near completion. They just needed a drummer to round out their new work.

Ultimately, Jennings and Piscitelllo enlisted their friend, Fred Armisen, who had come up playing drums with the frenetic art-punks Trenchmouth. The result was the band's first EP in nearly two decades, 2023's Song Of Hope, which partially featured Armisen behind the drum kit and, in the title track, birthed one of the poppiest entries in their entire history - a jangling new wave-indebted blast that shimmers and shines like a vintage '80s singalong from The Cure. Song Of Hope also served as the hard launch of Spark of Life 2.0, which in the coming years would be rounded out by second guitar player Steve Sain and bass player Chris Sprat-both seasoned hardcore vets, with Sain cutting his teeth in bands like Social Justice and Downset. And, ultimately, the band was made whole again, when Nick's brother Anthony returned to the fold to once again take on drum duties - permanently.

After 2023’s Song Of Hope a second EP, 2024’s I Am The Arsonist, followed, but all of this newfound activity ultimately just paved the way for Spark Of Life’s bloodletting new record, Plagued By The Human Condition, due out in early 2025. Both EP’s and the full length are released on seminal hardcore record label New Age Records. New Age Records has been responsible for some of the most influential hardcore bands in the scene over the last three decades including Outspoken, Lifetime and Unbroken to name a few. Recorded at famed West Coast institution Cherokee Studios (where everyone from David Bowie to Slayer have cut albums), Plagued By… is a body of work rife with both musical and personal transformation. Lead single “No One Hates Me More Than Me” not only retains the band’s ongoing history of long and sardonic song titles, but it chugs along like a mid ‘90s Bay Area post-hardcore anthem, all brawny guitars and melodic breakdowns.

On Plagued By…, the members of Spark Of Life, particularly Piscitello, who has always had an ability to turn a diverse array of influences into his own, push the band’s sonic boundaries even further—as evidenced by the searing “Note To Self,” which starts with a tender, twinkling guitar line before it absolutely explodes. Meanwhile, “In Pursuit Of” turns an instantly memorable heartland rock riff into a devastatingly sung admission of regret and loss. “Will I break you down,” Jennings asks over the song’s increasingly catchy intro, sincerity dripping from his voice, “or will I just break down?” The new full length even features another song with Armisen once again behind the drums while Spark Of Life covers “Never Say Never” originally performed by 90’s cult favorite That Dog.

In the end, it’s not how the songs on Plagued By… sound as much as the emotional weight that they carry that shows the real progression Spark Of Life has gone through since its humble beginnings a quarter century ago. The lens that Jennings’ lyrics are so often put through on the album—all adult pain and middle-aged reflection—display just how much hardcore can hit later in one’s life. At the album’s absolute crest, Jennings exhales a series of revelations in the face of a devastating separation. “I lost it all,” he screams, not sounding like he is pointing a finger but actually wiping a tear from his eye. “But I won’t give up.”

The songs from Plagued By… are raw, anthemic, and painful all in the same instance. They also miraculously sound like a band being reborn. This is certainly not the way that Jennings, Piscitello and their bandmates imagined this particular group’s history—or hell, even their own personal lives—would have turned out when they started playing in a suburban So Cal garage all those years ago. But these days, you will also find no one more grateful to see their creative spark rekindled than the five of them.

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Spark Of Life