Album Reviews

The follow-up to “The Big Dirty” starts off nasty enough with “Roman Holiday”. From there the guys in Every Time I Die don’t ever take their foot off of the gas, they just press it a little harder from time to time. They still like to throw hardcore, metal, punk and southern rock in the blender and come out with a batch of songs that sound like they were written by someone who recently stopped taking his medication and who is now confronting his own delusions and paranoia.

While offering plenty of variation throughout the album by combining Black Flag’s flair for menace, thrashy yet groovy riffs and a couple of surprisingly catchy melodies, no single song really sticks except for the opening track. Songs like “Wanderlust”, “The Marvelous Slut” and “Organ Grinder” are short blasts though that show a sincerely pissed off band. It makes “New Junk Aesthetic” something that should put a smile on all the ADD kids’ faces.

The deluxe edition of the album comes with two bonus songs (‘Buffalo 666” and “Goddamn Kids These Days”) and a DVD about the band before, during and after the making of the album. While the songs fit right in with the rest of the album, the DVD is just a nice extra.