Rating:
Genre:
Rock
Release Date: 10/13/2009
Every Time I Die became one of America's more popular metalcore bands by injecting its unrelentingly brutal, snap-tight brand of heavy music with heavy doses of humor and Southern/stoner rock-style chugging guitar.
New Junk Aesthetic, the group's debut on
Epitaph Records (after a long tenure on indie
Ferret Music), found the group further refining its signature approach with a new sonic clarity and an occasional focus on melodic hooks. That said, the Buffalo, NY-based combo remains bone-crushingly intense, with songs such as
"The Marvelous Slut," "Organ Grinder," and
"Who Invented the Russian Soldier" characterized by math rock-like stop-on-a-dime rhythmic shifts and vocalist
Keith Buckley's surprisingly comprehensible throat-shedding. Other tracks, however, such as
"Turtles All the Way Down" and first single
"Wanderlust" draw a bit more from a traditional rock bag, with radio-ready, old-school, grunge-esque choruses, and catchy, relatively straightforward six-string riffs. Throughout,
Every Time I Die sounds energized and passionate, delivering its blend of old and new sounds with a directness that gives the ferocious music an unusually broad appeal.
~Pemberton Roach, All Music Guide