Band: The Riot Before
Album: Fists Buried in Pockets
Genre: Indie Punk Rock
Label: Say-10

Tracks:
1. Fists Buried in Pockets
2. Threat Level Midnight
3. 5 To 9
4. You Can’t Sexy Dance To Punk Rock
5. I Have My Books
6. They Rode On In The Friscalating Dusklight
7. We Are Wild Stallions
8. Words Written Over Coffee
9. Numero Seven
10.  Election Day
11. Capillaries 

Okay, before I begin this review, I’m just going to say it. The Riot Before sounds exactly like a more indie version of Against Me. There! Now that we have that out of the way, I feel like I can talk more about the album and less about how similar they sound to Against Me…

Fists Buried In Pockets summed up is basically fast, upbeat, catchy punk and indie rock. The music was solid. The lyrics pay mind to various social and political issues, as well as some personal ones. Break ups, illegal immigration, class divisions, and religion are just a few topics to surface throughout the demo. Intelligent and Politically Consciousness would be two ways to describe the lyrics that make up the album. Did I mention that they were catchy? However, the one thing that bothered me was their vocalist’s tendency to sound like Tom Gabel (Against Me!), and I had a hard time getting past it at first. 

There were only a couple of songs that I could have done without. Mainly, “I Have My Books.” The song consisted primarily of vocals, with a strum on the guitar sparingly placed throughout. I think the idea was just to convey the raw emotion in the vocals without anything else getting in the way, but something just doesn’t work about it. The emotion is definitely there, but my desire to listen to it was definitely not. The song just seemed a little ridiculous, with his gravely, raspy voice wailing on in the emptiness. 

Some the song titles are hilarious, with a movie reference or two in there. “They Rode In On Friscalating Dusklight,” “You Can’t Sexy Dance To Punk Rock,” and “Threat Level Midnight,” were a few of my favorite names. None of them had anything to do with the songs necessarily, though. But I digress. All in all, Fists Buried In Pockets is not too shabby. The Riot Before did an alright job on their first full length album. It’s worth checking out. 

*Written By: Kyle Viana*
Grade: 7/10

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James Shotwell

James Shotwell is the founder of Under The Gun Review. He loves writing about music and movies almost as much as he loves his two fat cats. He's also the co-founder of Antique Records and the Marketing Coordinator for Haulix. You should probably follow him on Twitter.

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