I recently remarked to my fellow Punktasticans that maybe we were a little soft with the ol’ reviewing lark. Too many albums being reviewed were getting great scores and there was seldom a bad record in sight. Unfortunately, I am going to add another one to the list, but this little gem deserves all the praise you can heap on it.
Death By Stereo are stalwarts of the hardcore scene and have won fans over from here to Timbuktu (possibly). This, their third album and their second on Epitaph, continues the trend of impressively fierce hardcore combined with cartoon like operatic vocals and the kind of melody that their contemporaries can only touch upon. Ask any member of Avenged Sevenfold, for example, and I bet they’ll tell you exactly how good this band are.
A distant sound of a guitar being strummed leads into metallic hardcore opener ‘The Plague’ which showcases Death By Stereo‘s trademark brutality spliced with frantic riffs and the frankly ludicrous vocals from Efrem Schulz. ‘Into The Valley Of Death’ is my first proper taste of the DBS sound and I wasn’t quite sure what to expect having only heard a couple of songs from samplers, but from the outset, you can’t fail to be impressed by the sheer quality of the release.
From the lead song off the album, ‘Wasted Words’, to the crunching monolith that is album closer ‘Wake Up, You’re Dead’, this CD just screams out to be played loudly and danced to crazily. The 40-second onslaught known as ‘Good Morning America’ seems a little pointless and is unremarkable except for a gunshot guitar solo and if listened from start to finish a number of times, the songs to tend to blend into one, but these are the only major flaws I can point out.
A talent that Death By Stereo possesses in abundance is the ability to incorporate one or two vividly memorable snippets into each song. For example, I find myself repeatedly listening to the ‘You take another one in the back/you take another one in the teeth’ bit from ‘Beyond The Blinders’ and the anthemic, chanting interlude in ‘Let Down and Alone’ is another unforgettable standout.
The fact is, this is quality metal influenced hardcore in 13 perfectly paced bursts. The lyrics (when read from the lyrics sheet as Efrem’s vocals, while being terrifically theatrical, generally make the words unintelligible) deal with important issues, both personal and political, with grace and the, in particular, the guitar solo’s are absolutely out of this world. Hard, fast, brutal music from one of the undergrounds most significant and much-loved bands.
Ross