Although Every Time I Die achieved legendary status a long time ago, they aren’t a band to rest on their laurels. After a slew of consistently great releases, the Buffalo five-piece are back with their eighth full length, ‘Low Teens’.
Right off the bat, ‘Fear And Trembling’ lets you know you’re in for an unsettling ride. It’s discordant, uneasy sounding guitar intro sets the mood for a record that is quite consistently dark in tone. As the song builds towards chaos it leads seamlessly into the following track, ‘Glitches’, which has the usual stomping pace that Every Time I Die can seemingly achieve in their sleep.
‘C++ (Love Will Get You Killed)’ changes up the vibe a bit and shows glimpses of Keith Buckley’s vocal range. His screams are as gutteral as ever throughout ‘Low Teens’, but this is the first taste of him sliding in and out of clean singing – something he doesn’t do much on the rest of the album. The swagger is upped on the following track, ‘Two Summers’, which brings back the southern rock elements (not to mention, cowbell) in a big way and is very reminiscent of what the band was doing way back on ‘The Big Dirty’.
Tracks like ‘I Didn’t Want To Join Your Cult Anyway’ and ‘1977’ fill your thrash metal needs, while ‘Map Changes’ and ‘Petal’ serve as stand-out moments. The latter sees Buckley at his most intense while the band explode around him with Dillinger-esque riffing. The former is the most conventionally structured song on the record and also contains the most grandiose chorus.
Death and mortality are constant themes running in and out of ‘Low Teens’, adding to the gloom of the musical canvas Every Time I Die has produced. It rattles along at breakneck speed and when combined with the huge production, the record sees Every Time I Die at their most uncompromising and emotionally charged. With each release, the New Yorkers constantly stand out from their contemporaries and ‘Low Teens’ is no different.
4/5
‘Low Teens’ by Every Time I Die is released on September 23rd via Epitaph Records.
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Words by Shane Sanderson (@shanoscapanos)
