Liquid Death
Greatest Hates Vol. 2
Where to even begin with an album like this? How do you even explain it? And why is it even on the Vinyl Vlog? Sometimes, life truly throws you a curve ball, and it’s best if you just embrace it. If you do that with Greatest Hates Vol. 2, chances are you’ll think someone up above or down below is smiling on you.
The concept of this album needs to be explained to understand just how outrageous it is. Liquid Death is a brand of canned water. It’s just water – flat or carbonated. It comes in tall boys and not plastic bottles, because apparently that’s more eco-friendly. This isn’t alcohol. Their marketing strategy is to adorn these cans with dubiously metal/punk rock artwork and make outrageous statements like “this will murder your thirst.” Apparently, this whole idea of Liquid Death made people on Twitter FURIOUS, to the point where they blame the brand for the decline of our culture and dooming the souls of the innocent. Liquid Death is clearly aware of their over-the-top marketing and they embrace this hate head-on. So, they released an album full of metal songs inspired by these tweets. This was Greatest Hates Vol. 1. That album was a success, and now they’ve proceeded with a pop punk rock sequel called Greatest Hates Vol. 2. Are you getting all that?
And what business has such an album – a joke gone too far – being reviewed on the Vinyl Vlog.? Because this album is actually quite good. And it’s good for a number of reasons. First off, the music on this album is written and performed by an all-star band of sorts with members from Anti-Flag, The Lawrence Arms, and The Bombpops, with the help of even more members from Rise Against and Alkaline Trio. If you’re familiar with these bands, then you know exactly what to expect. Second, this album SOUNDS really good, with a perfect production that suits pop-punk music. Third, and most importantly, these songs are damn catchy and full of great riffs. Part of me thinks it’s a shame tthis A+ songwriting was “wasted” on these joke songs, and another part of me think it’s actually a perfect match. The songs on Greatest Hates are pop punk gold, full of great harmonies, catchy melodies, hilarious lyrics (provided by angry tweets, of course), but delivered with full conviction. It’s truly a showcase of the talent involved in this project.
The vinyl release of Greatest Hates Vol. 2 is simple but pretty damn cool as well. Of course you get that amazing cover nice and big so you can appreciate the detail on it, and it even comes in blood red swirly vinyl. Liquid Death succeeded there as well.
If you’re a pop punk fan and give this album a listen, chances are you’ll be impressed with how good the content is. It’ll find its way in your heavy rotation for sure. What a bizarre highlight for some of the best music out this year.
Get your copy at Liquid Death.
