March 3rd, 2012 
Tyler Osborne 
Artist: Every Time I Die
Album: Ex-Lives
Genre: Hard Rock
Label: Epitaph
I’ve never listened to Every Time I Die before I listened to Ex-Lives. I have no preconceptions of what this album should sound like, what albums they are drawing influences from, or if they sold out, bought in, or masterfully blended their different sounds. I have no idea about any background of this band before I wrote this. If you wanted an unbiased opinion, this is it. Now let’s start the review, shall we?
I WANT TO BE DEAD WITH MY FRIENDS
“Underwater Bimbos from Outer Space” (hilarious title) kicks off the new Every Time I Die album with a very loud declaration. And when I say loud, I mean punching you in the face repeatedly with a force that can only come from a really frustrated group of individuals. The album pushes the tempo throughout, and the musicality follows suit. It consists of lots of of chord changes, that is a good fusion of metal and hardcore. There were parts of this that were too metal-influenced for my taste (the clean singing by what seemingly is a guest vocalist), but as someone who when I want to listen to aggressive music will listen to hardcore, there are plenty of tracks on Ex-Lives that will satisfy me. The first stand-out track on this record is most certainly “Partying is Such Sweet Sorrow.” Deliverance-style twang comes in out of NOWHERE and all I can picture is the guitar player saying to himself while tracking “Yeah, right” and then immediately starts to slay the bluegrass opener on his electric guitar. Every Time I Die very effectively takes influences from other styles of music and incorporates it into their loud style, which is very admirable in a genre of music that is saturated with music that sounds relatively the same at times. I still can’t get over the seemingly thrown in mariachi band on August Burns Red’s new album; it seems ETID took note and actually integrated the different sounds.
WHEREVER I GO, THERE TOO SHALL BE GRIEF
Ex-Lives has some pretty solid lyrics. For me, it’s song to song. As previously mentioned, I really like “Underwater Bimbos from Outer Space”, it’s very honest and deals with a lot of emotions about feeling disconnected and being conflicted with his obvious negative feelings about himself and others. After looking up a little about Every Time I Die, I got the impression that they write mostly about positive things, or rather, talking about living positively. If that is the case, this opening song and the album is a confession of sorts, decrying himself not as positive as he preached to be. If i’m wrong, disregard that previous comment. “Typical Miracle” is a great track where the song builds and then kicks off in a really great way. If you’re looking for two step beats this song is asking for you to mosh from side to side and into one another. The record is brutally honest, and while this is generally a standard within hardcore, they do a good job of separating themselves by going above and beyond.
WE ARE GIVEN TOO MUCH ROOM TO BE EXPECTED TO DO ONLY GOOD WE ARE MORE CURIOUS THAN BOLD
While this is the sixth full length from Every Time I Die, Ex Lives is a great introduction for me to the band. They have drawn me in and make me want to discover the rest of their discography, and sometimes this is hard to get me to do. I listen to a ton of music, so finding a band that I generally want to seek out more is really awesome. Make sure you go pick this album up available now if you want to feel like busting through your bedroom walls.
SCORE: 7/10
Written By: Tyler Osborne (Twitter)
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