When was the last time you played an album by a rock or metal band you'd never heard before, and were completely blown away by the first 30 or so seconds of the first song? Not just impressed or entertained, but overwhelmed, galvanized, even daunted by the power of the sound?
Chances are, it's been a while. (Or at least since Mastodon's Remission came out.)
Classic heavy-music records like Metallica's Master of Puppets or Guns 'N' Roses' Appetite for Destruction or Slayer's Reign in Blood were able to provoke such intense emotional responses though a combination of originality, chance-taking production and sheer ballsy personality.
The sounds of those records are almost frightening in their intensity and strangeness. Putting one of them on the turntable or into the cassette player for the first time inspired a feeling not unlike being strapped into an imposing amusement park ride you're still not sure you're up to taking.
It was fucking thrilling.
As the years and the hundreds, perhaps thousands of EPs and LPs and tapes and CDs have gone by, however, many of us have found it increasingly hard to get that thrill out of a first listen. Sure, having been exposed to so much music is part of it, but let's face it — a lot of heavy bands suck. And many of the ones that don't suck are either following trends or emulating their influences. Which in many cases is good enough. But it isn't going to bring back the feeling you got the first time The Cult's "Wild Flower" or Deftones' "Bored" smacked you in the face.
On the other hand, "Apocalypse Now and Then" — the first track on Every Time I Die's nearly flawless Gutter Phenomenon — just might.
"You listen to great rock records — listen to High Voltage by AC/DC," offers guitarist Andy Williams. "It's a raw record with awesome songs. You don't have to ask questions. That's one thing we've tried to accomplish when we record."
Generally speaking, the nearly 6-year-old Every Time I Die, hailing from Buffalo, N.Y., is at the forefront of the burgeoning underground metalcore/screamo scene now established as both an extension of, and violent reaction to, emo's hooky, lightweight angst.
But to simply call ETID a metalcore band, and let it go at that, is like saying a Porsche is just a car. The band is among the elite of its kind, a true original in a crowded and often disappointing field.
The first 30 or so seconds of Gutter Phenomenon bear this out, particularly when compared to the discs being released by ETID's peers. Most of these new-generation-of-metal albums deal heavily in clichéd gothic atmosphere, guitar harmony lines filched from Iron Maiden records, and a slick, heavily compressed production more suitable to pop than pummel.
But Gutter Phenomenon — the unit's third and best full-length — is raw and loud and angry and barely contained by the medium through which it's delivered. "All the recordings are scooped out, so the vocals are the main focus," says Williams of his peers' records. "Everything's quantitized. There's, like, five different guitar tracks doing different melodies, keyboard in the background to make it thicker. We didn't want to be a part of that garbage. We're not gonna put things on the record that you can't hear live."
For all its brutal heaviness, speed, fucked-up time changes and decidedly unmelodic vocals, Gutter Phenomenon is as much about primal punk and rock 'n' roll as it is about technical blitzkrieg hardcore. It's another element that sets Every Time I Die apart from, and a cut above, the screamo throng.
While many acts have taken to sporting skintight black pants, mirrored cop shades and suspiciously pristine Motley Crue T-shirts, precious few evince any of real rock's danger or rebelliousness; what the look suggests, the music can't deliver.
Not so with Every Time I Die.
"That's one thing we've always tried to uphold, a punk-rock attitude," Williams says. "We're here for the music 100 percent. You're not gonna see us put makeup on or dress in a stupid way to get girls or sell records. Right now, I look like a lumberjack. I'm not trying to get 12-year-old girls to buy my album. Of course, if they do, that's awesome."
The band's let-the-music-do-the-talking policy has served it well, earning Every Time I Die a throng of unwaveringly loyal fans who aren't likely to switch their allegiance to whatever's coming through the speakers at Hot Topic in six months. Though ETID was among the first of the current wave of hip metalcore names, that particular scene has become saturated with acts over the last couple of years. Williams says the group is confident that its sound and reputation are enough, but is aware there are a lot of bands out there working a similar style.
"I know on Gutter Phenomenon, it was kind of hard because there were so many bands that were doing a similar thing, not ripping us off, but doing what we're doing," he says. "I think we upped the ante on the rock stuff. It was kind of an unconscious thing, but we knew we had to do something different."
In this case, different truly does translate into better. Gutter Phenomenon may have been the best metal full-length released last year; it was certainly among the most unique, and it definitely made the most powerful first impression. And those who haven't yet seen the band live can expect to be blown away by the show, as well — Every Time I Die puts as much into its set as it does into its records, often to the point of personal injury.
"We all have chiropractors," Williams says with a laugh. "At the end of a tour, you go to the chiropractor, and the chiropractor says, 'What have you been doing?'"
This article appears in Mar 22-28, 2006.
