Skip to main content

ALBUM REVIEW: "Only Death Is Real" by Stray From The Path

   Stray From The Path have never been the embodiment of mature and measured political commentary, but even by the band's well established standards Only Death Is Real is particularly hard to take seriously - lyrically, that is. Granted, they are one of the most assured and confident voices in hardcore today, but with lines like "everything has a price, but the price is wrong, bitch" getting repeated nine times in a song and a sample of Trump's "they're not sending their best" speech it is sometimes hard not to roll your eyes at some of the messages. There's a pretty funny critique of lead single "Goodnight Alt Right" on YouTube (which is kind of just as cringy as the song itself) which you can see here, and that kind of says all there is to say about the lyrical content of this album. Having said this, one classic band I can draw similarities to, Rage Against the Machine, were sometimes criticised for the same thing (go and read about BBC's accidental broadcast of the uncensored version of "Killing In The Name"). Musically, though, Only Death Is Real is a hell of a lot of fun, if not entirely a game changer for the genre. There are hardcore riffs and breakdowns aplenty, and at 29 minutes it never outstays its welcome. As we have come to expect from the band, there is a strong emphasis on groove, and this was and still is the strongest element of the Stray's music. Drew York's vocals are still incredibly powerful and pissed-sounding, but some vocal features provide some welcome variety from his sometimes one-note delivery. In fact, one-note describes this album pretty concisely - which isn't necessarily a problem, depending on what that one note is. I had fun the first time through, but some might not enjoy Stray's music enough for that to distract from the lyrics, which could be enough to turn you off from their music completely. Basically, it's another Stray From The Path record. 

   Favourite Songs: Loudest In The Room, Strange Fiction and The House Always Wins

   Least Favourite Songs: Goodnight Alt-Right and Let's Make A Deal

   Rating: C

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Response To 'Christian' Views On Secular Music

Is there such thing as music that Christians shouldn’t listen to? Should we be dismissive of music with either explicit language or sexual, violent or substance oriented themes? Should anyone even be telling anyone else what they can and can’t listen to? These are questions that are thrown around a lot in Christian circles, and given what I do here on this blog and how that overlaps with my job working for the church, I thought I would share my thoughts on this topic. I’ll say this at the outset so that we’re on the same page – I think any attempt to dictate what people should and shouldn’t listen to is stupid and disrespectful on a fundamental level. I’ll go into detail about why I think that later on, but for now here are some thoughts I have on some of the “Christian” opinions I come across pretty regularly. The first and most ludicrous thing that seems to follow me around is the idea that because I listen to underground genres, particularly on the heavy metal ...
2 comments
Read more

1 YEAR LATER: "22, A Million" by Bon Iver

   Bon Iver's third studio album turns 1 in about a week (where did that year go?), so I thought it would be interesting to talk a bit about how my impressions of the album have changed - or how they haven't - over the last 12 months. When this album was released I was more excited than I think I ever have been to hear a new album. For Emma, Forever Ago is one of my all time favourites, and I love his self-titled second album too, so I had huge expectations for this album, but was also wary that expectations might ruin my experience of the music. This was particularly the case for 22, A Million , because it is unlike anything else Justin Vernon has released. There have been hints at this more processed, electronic direction previously, like the song "Woods" on the Blood Bank EP and occasional flourishes on Bon Iver , but 22, A Million is a drastic departure from the Bon Iver sound we had grown accustomed to at this point in time. Or at least, that's what I thought...
Post a Comment
Read more

Should Brand New be in my top 20? (CONTENT WARNING: sexual abuse)

    For those who read both top 20 albums lists that I did - one here on thatmusicnerd and one over at Kill Your Stereo - you will have noticed, I'm sure, that one had The Ongoing Concept's album Places at number 1, and the other had Brand New's Science Fiction at the top. Full disclosure, I initially had Brand New at the top of just the one list, but the readership of Kill Your Stereo reacted very strongly against the allegations of sexual misconduct against Brand New frontman Jesse Lacey and so I removed it entirely. In fact, none of the  KYS contributors' top 20 lists featured Science Fiction at all. Of course I was happy to follow the general consensus in regards to whether or not an artist accused of such things should be promoted by a music publication, but I still stand by my opinion that Science Fiction was the best album of 2017 and as such it was number 1 on my thatmusicnerd top 20 list.    2017 has been a pretty crazy year in terms of the ...
Post a Comment
Read more