New Junk Aesthetic

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, found the band further refining its signature approach with a new sonic clarity and occasional focus on melodic hooks. That said, the Buffalo, New York-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 from a more traditional rock bag, with radio-ready, old school grunge-esque choruses, and relatively straightforward, catchy guitar 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.