July 6th, 2012 
Adrian Garza 
Artist: Everyone Dies In Utah
Album: +//- (Polarities)
Genre: Post-Hardcore
Label: Tragic Hero Records
Every now and then, you come across an album that for the better or worse, totally catches you off guard. Whether it’s the artist’s musicianship, their overall sound, or even their lyrics. Up until this point, I literally had no knowledge of Everyone Dies in Utah, but now I really wish that I did. This six-piece plays great style of post-hardcore mixed with some electronic and ambient elements.
“Factor X” starts the album off with a few simple hints of what’s to come (apart from the slower songs) in a matter of 3 minutes. One of the things that bums me out about the album is just how quickly the band jumps into many of the common hardcore songwriting conventions, like breakdowns. But really, a breakdown less than a minute into the very first song on the record?
One of my favorite parts of the new album was the band’s ability to kick off songs with huge time and tempo changes. Take for example the chaotic, jekyll and hyde feel behind “A Glowing Core Through the Glass Floor”. It isn’t until nearly 3/4 of the song that the screamed vocals are introduced, but that doesn’t even slightly take away from the heavy aspect of it.
It appears that the band has pretty much faded out of their dance-heavy synth jams that were prevalent in EDIU’s older material. Though you’ll still catch some synths leads here and there, it’s done in such a way that’s somewhat reminiscent of James Baney’s work in The Devil Wears Prada. While on the topic of electronics, there is a strong presence of the various production tricks that a band of this kind would use. You’ll catch hints of auto-tune, but nowhere near as much as some of the other artists in the mainstream scene.
My favorite part about EDIU is the variation between the band’s two vocalists. Both Danny Martinez and Justin Yost display some great talent behind this album more than they ever had before. Danny’s harsh, yet shrill screams can hold their own when compared to many others out there. Youtube cover vocalists need to take notes off of this guy. I’m not going to lie, Justin’s cleans don’t exactly remind me of any other singers in the scene but Jonny Craig himself.
Polarities has all of the makings of a great post-hardcore record that can propel forth the career of a previously mediocre post-hardcore band towards scene stardom. My call is this, if you’re looking for a breath of fresh air from the many other bands that are in-genuinely attempting the same thing, this is a great pick… albeit not the best one.
Score: 8/10
Reviewed by Adrian Garza
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‘Ive never heard of EDIU, but I’m going to reference their old songs.’ I don’t get it. Weird review, awesome album!
I was writing about my general background knowledge of the band going into the interview, but of course I’m going to compare what I’m listening to with what I’ve gotten out of the band’s past work.