REVIEW: Everyone Dies In Utah – ‘Neutral Ground’

November 20th, 2013

Kriston McConnell

Artist: Everyone Dies In Utah
Album: Neutral Ground
Genre: Post hardcore
Label: Tragic Hero Records

The first song I listened to by Everyone Dies In Utah was “Bed, Bath And Beyonce.” That single is the reason why I became a fan of the band. The song is from their album Seeing Clearly, and if you haven’t taken a listen to it yet then I recommend checking it out. To this day it’s one of the most memorable songs the band has released.

The group has changed their sound over the course of their career, and Neutral Ground is no exception. They have taken it in a slightly different direction from their 2012 full length, Polarities. Every band needs to grow and change, so it’s no surprise that they’ve tweaked how they sound in each album. How does that change affect the quality of their latest release?

Neutral Ground opens up with the title track, which starts off with a drum intro and then quickly transitions into a short full band piece. The next track is “Infinity & Beyond.” The best thing these guys have going for them on this song, and the rest of the album, is their unclean vocals. He has a unique voice, and he can easily be separated from most other unclean vocalists in the same genre. The clean vocals have changed though, and to be completely honest, there are times that I feel like they don’t belong at all.

One of the best songs on the album is “The Shinies & The Shadows.” At the very least, it is one of my personal favorite songs. The clean vocals fit perfectly, and the song as a whole has a unique sound from the rest of the album. Obviously they can’t make every song sound like this, otherwise we’d be complaining they all sounded the same, but I believe they could have managed to put this kind of uniqueness into all of their tracks, instead of just a few.

What this band does well, and I hope that they focus on more in the future, is their heavier side. While there’s no harm in having some lighter songs now and then, as a lot of hardcore bands tend to do nowadays, I think if a band has a talent for a specific style they should run with it. I generally like clean vocals, but the best parts of most of this album involve the unclean vocals and chugging guitars. A great example of that is “Light Em Up Terrence Peterson.”

Being a fan of the band for a couple of years now, I have to say that I’m a little disappointed with this album. They sounded a lot more unique with their previous releases, and it feels like they’ve lost that. The change in the clean vocal style has me thrown off, and I am sure I’d like it more if the vocals were slightly different. I’d suggest checking out one or two of their singles, and if you like them then it might be worth going ahead and picking up the album anyway.

SCORE: 7/10
Review written by: Kriston McConnell