Everyone has an opinion of anger. Mahatma Gandhi called anger “the enemy of understanding” while Albert Einstein opined that “anger dwells only in the bosom of fools.” Go back a little further in time, and Roman statesman Marcus Porcius Cato claimed that “an angry man opens his mouth and closes his mind.” All of those observations are sound appraisals made by learned men, but Every Time I Die has successfully managed to merge them all on their new album, Ex Lives, and prove that anger and aggression can both make for a good time and yield positive results too.
On Ex Lives (the band's sophomore effort for Epitaph), Every Time I Die doesn't continue the thread they began un-spooling with New Junk Aesthetic so much as soak the same length in gasoline and set it on fire; the band doesn't break any new ground here, but they make the stuff they've already covered glow red with angry, better-honed power and passion. That said, as soon as “Underwater Bimbos From Out Of Space” explodes to open the record, everyone listening will be simply knocked flat. Singer/screamer Keith Buckley starts at a point that could best be characterized as a totally unhinged shriek and never softens below that; howling, barking, bellowing and just plain screaming like a series of outtakes from The Exorcist, Buckley appears as a caustic and imposing forces of nature while guitarists Jordan Buckley and Andy Williams battle back and forth, lobbing incendiary hardcore and metal lines at each other and the rhythm section (manned by Ryan Leger and Josh Newton) just seeks to bludgeon the last remaining listeners who are trying to decide if this might be for them into submission. It's a perfectly caustic and shocking introduction, even for those listeners who were won over by New Junk Aesthetic; it embodies all that record had to offer, but amped up several levels further.
Every Time I Die offers listeners no quarter or reprieve as “Underwater Bimbos For Outer Space” slides easily (or maybe it just collapses – who can tell?) into “Holy Book Of Dilemma” and on through Ex Lives' run-time. It does need to be said that anyone (including the bandmembers themselves) with the stamina to make it through the quintet that this album represents in one shot should be commended; the pace ETID sets and the power with which they execute songs like “Partying Is Such Sweet Sorrow,” “The Low Road Has No Exits,” “Drag King,” “Revival Mode” and “Touch Yourself” is harrowing and when Buckley's voice (his vocal chords have to be ironclad) and those guitars, bass and drums come together, the effect can only be regarded as an achievement of modern hardcore.
So what does Ex Lives represent in the grand scheme of things? While it's true that the album does not blaze any new ground for Every Time I Die, it does successfully prove that New Junk Aesthetic – the power and the fury of it – wasn't a fluke and wasn't a one-time deal because this album is very similar. That's a fact that fans can take home and revel in too; with Ex Lives, Every Time I Die proves that the metallic hardcore sound they won fans with on New Junk Aesthetic is sustainable and won't be blanched by the added attention that being on a bigger label has drawn. They're going to be around a while, Ex Lives is the proof of Every Time I Die's plan.
Artist:
www.everytimeidie.net/
www.myspace.com/everytimeidie
www.facebook.com/everytimeidie
www.twitter.com/everytimeidie
Album:
Ex Lives is out now. Buy it here on Amazon .
There are times when, even from the very beginning of an album, it's very easy to tell where a band is from. That is not to say that it's simple to geographically profile a sound – most large city centers have a wide array of sounds at work in them and a wildly varied musical palette – but there are definitely some staple sounds that are inherent to some locations and bands from elsewhere have been known to lift them in order to either pay tribute to or masquerade as a member of a scene. Look at Detroit; it has an enormous musical history, but there are a few bands – like Alice Cooper and The Stooges (neither of whom were actually from there, but they came to exemplify the sound after moving to Detroit), Ted Nugent and even The White Stripes (to name only a few) – whose sound has become inextricably identified as being from The Motor City. David Bowie and T.Rex lifted it at one point to sound a little more American or perhaps even pass as being from the proverbial neighborhood to those not in the know. What's the point? Sound has power and some come to be identified with the fabric of the locale and perceived values of it. Detroit isn't the only such example, there are many the world over; at different times, London has had a “sound,” as has the Mississippi Delta – Holly Springs, Mississippi too for that matter – Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Cleveland, Toronto and Manchester are only a couple of examples of this kind of trend.
Does it always work? Of course not but, after hearing New Junk Aesthetic, would you be surprised to learn that Every Time I Die it from an industrially driven, perennially struggling and frustrated city like Buffalo, New York? Having been born and raised just across the Niagara River from Buffalo (Niagara Falls, Canada) and very familiar with the city's economic situation from year to year as a result, I can safely say that it doesn't surprise me in the slightest.
From the wash of grainy, hard-panned feedback that opens “Roman Holiday,” Every Time I Die unloads a fatigued, attenuated form of punk rock that that calls to mind images of lots of pollution, crumbling buildings and cracked streets traversed by a rogue's gallery of unsavory characters including marvelous sluts, Russian soldiers and a battalion of the disenfranchised living dead. I's a terrifying and ugly place – certainly not one most want to visit. This is the landscape that Every Time I Die calls home and, on New Junk Aesthetic, it quickly becomes apparent that, rather than issuing a series of scathing indictments, tracks including “The Marvelous Slut,” “Wanderlust,” “For The Record” and “Honest Disorder” are a celebration of it. While singer Keith Buckley never drops the volume of his delivery below an exasperated howl during the record's entire run-time, listener's can't miss the general sense of bliss at most and appreciation at least as he relishes in his band's own fetid undercurrents and crapulence as they issue one jagged and desperate salvo after another after another into oblivion.
As they move along too, Every Time I Die manages to inspire others to come along for the ride and Buckley loosens his grip on the mic to let the likes of Pete Wentz (of Fall Out Boy), Matt Caughthran (of The Bronx) and Greg Puciato (from Dillinger Escape Plan) wallow along with the band in their filthy quagmire (while it goes uncredited, it's hard not to believe that Alexisonfire singer Dallas Green doesn't chime in a few times sporadically too) with him and their ecstasy mirrors that of the band; in fact, no matter which voice it is that registers on these eleven songs, they all sound uncharacteristically content – the question will remain if they actually are though, or if it might just be that the backdrops churned out by guitarists Jordan Buckley and Andy Williams, bassist Josh Newton and drummer Michael Novak are just that dark by comparison. Regardless, the combination of and contrast between words and music here is incredibly potent (some would say 'toxic') and will even hook those listeners initially repelled by the sheer intensity of the band's barrage.
In the end, Every Time I Die closes the book hard, tight and quickly as closer “The Sweet Life” suddenly snaps shut, but that jarring conclusion also leaves the band's future wide open for future releases. Because there are no loose ends left dangling, Every Time I Die will be left free to start over anywhere they choose on their follow-up album. And, yes, there's no doubt that there will be more to come; that inevitability is the only lingering impression left by New Junk Aesthetic – a glorious, terrifying inevitability.
Band:
Official homepage/myspace, www.myspace.com/everytimeidie
Album:
New Junk Aesthetic comes out on September 15, 2009. Pre-order it here on Amazon .
