Kirin's kick-ass column: Every Time I Die kills
by Kirin Furst
Thursday November 29, 2007
If you heard the band Every Time I Die five years ago, you weren’t impressed—unless you had a weakness for hardcore that is solid but unexceptional. Last Night in Town (2001) and Hot Damn (2003) weren’t bad albums, but they did not offer anything especially creative or original. The first two albums either emphasized a chaotic, furious rampage set to Dillinger Escape Plan-esque time changes, which buried Keith Buckley’s strangely poetic, growled lyrics, or stuck to fairly regimented, fast, chunky metal riffs. The composition was tight and the instrumentation was impressive on its own, but Every Time I die had yet to transform into what it is today: an incontestable achievement for rock’n’roll.
The quintet’s third full-length album, Gutter Phenomenon (2005), went in a surprisingly different direction. Suddenly Keith Buckley’s howls and cocky, aggressive verses became the selling point. With a southern twist on guitar riffs, ETID was no longer afraid to trill a little blues in between the chug-a-chugging hardcore sections. Another major strength of the album was its cohesive theme: Buckley’s reoccurring lament (or challenge) “I’m wrong”, “get wronged”, etc. Every Time I Die became much more impressive. They were no longer a talented foursome stuck in a true-to-the-genre box. Suddenly, they were an innovative force.
The only disappointment I found in Gutter Phenomenon was that when branching into new genres, much of the anger and brute metal force that listeners found so appealing in Last Night in Town and Hot Damn was sacrificed. ETID inserted too many catchy, repetitive chorus hooks and a little too much pop melody.
The band’s fourth album, The Big Dirty, was released in early September of this year, and I am still freaking out about it. All that genuine anger and violence missing in Gutter Phenomenon was back full force—to the tune of more driving southern licks. Keith Buckley’s lyrical talent here blows me away; it reads like deranged poetry. His words are an intoxicating mixture of arrogance and self destructive violence with cleverly veiled social commentary. He has a talent for defiling common phrases in the wittiest ways possible. Every song is well written, and Buckley’s growl has been honed to absolute pant-wetting perfection. The mixture of southern blues and metal influence in the guitar parts creates a hard biting, wickedly driving effect that is bound to impress fans. The force of the album is unabated throughout the entire twelve tracks. And with lines like, “In the wild kingdom you don’t live till you’re ready to die; which one of you sons of bitches is going to make me feel alive?” and, “You know I’m no good, you know I’m no good at court ordered goodbyes” Every Time I Die has epitomized the mindset and sound of genuine rock’n’roll.
