Radical

Every Time I Die

I'll come right out of the gate saying that I've never been the biggest fan of Every Time I Die. That's not to say I think they are bad or anything, they've just always been one of those bands I've tried on a few occasions to get into, but nothing really stuck heavy with me. With the release of their new album Radical, I knew I wanted to try again, and that's because this seems to be somewhat of an important record for the band. Singer Keith Buckley has stated that this record was an opportunity for him to speak on and excise his destructive behaviour. On tracks like Post - Boredom and AWOL (among others), Buckley shares rather intimate reflections on his alcoholism and how it has ruined many precious relationships. "Go down together, get drunk at the bottom, and tell you some bullshit like 'Baby, our scars are the same'," he desperately screams on the latter; just now clueing in that the other party's scars might in fact be inflicted by him.

Aside from the personal reflections, the record also touches on the toxic politics of the right. Refusing to consider sensible gun laws even after horrific school shootings, continuing to defend the racist Confederate past in the name of preserving history, are just a few subtle jabs on Planet Shit. I particularly like how Buckley co-opts Trump's "there's good people on both sides" comment to cram in one more snide and nefarious stab at the very end. Buckley shows just how much contempt he holds for modern man by quite literally praying for plagues on Dark Distance, a song that was coincidentally written before coming into our current pandemic. I don't make the rules, but I think that makes Keith Buckley some sort of prophet.

The subject matter is heavy, and of course - seeing as it is an Every Time I Die record - the music is as heavy as ever too. This record boasts super punchy drums, thick chugging riffs, and spans multiple flavours of metal music. The band's flavour of southern hardcore - which stretches all the way to the band's earlier days - still pops up on tracks like White Void. The band goes full-tilt into thrash metal on Distress Rehearsal; and just as a quick sidebar, it is by far and away the best tune on here. One amazing riff after another, unbounded aggression, devastating breakdowns; this track is truly spectacular. Carrying on, Every Time I Die gets into utterly disgusting post-hardcore territory on the first few moments of All This and War, employing some unsettling panic chord slides that scramble my insides just a little.

Now... while I do hear some subtle variety in the styles of riffs and sounds, it is hard for me to not see this record as sounding a bit one-dimensional. This record is sixteen tracks, just over fifty minutes in length, and I feel like the band has one gear. By the time, I reach the album's last legs, I find myself getting a little impatient and bored. It's not just the instrumentation that sounds one-note as Keith Buckley's screams - which sound great - also tend to be quite static. In fact, the one moment on the record where he plays around with his vocal inflection is on the track Hostile Architecture. The added sassiness creates one of the record's most memorable moments for me, and I just wish I had more of that on this record. As it turns out, Radical is another one of those situations where if you take any song out of the context of the album, it slaps. But listening to the whole record from start to finish is a little fatiguing. Thing With Feathers does try to offer a bit of a reprieve from the album's relentless nature, but once all the instrumentation comes in, it is still too similar in sound to create an impressionable contrast. The final track, however, I will say is quite sweeping; bordering on serious rock opera levels. It has that crushing aggression that by now we should be fully accustomed to, but it also has these incredibly melodic vocal passages with some lovely chorused bass, and an ominous free-formed freakout before closing out with hellish chaos.

There's lots to like about this Every Time I Die record, but for me personally, I'm not completely on the bandwagon. I still have nothing but respect for this band as they continue to sound so heavy and crushing even twenty years into their career. I will continue to check out their albums in the future as I can always count on them to deliver at least a few honest to goodness hardcore bangers with every offering. As well, a part of me is holding out hope that the band will knock it out of the park for me one day, and I will finally see the greatness that their devoted fanbase sees.