Normally I’m a fan of bands taking their vocals to cleaner pastures. There’s just only so much screaming a person can take after awhile. EVERY TIME I DIE has been moving in this direction over the past few releases, and New Junk Aesthetic has Keith Buckley’s voice sounding more lucid than ever before. But I’m not sure that it’s working in the band’s favor this time around. Buckley’s howling voice is monotonous. There’s no edge to it… no yelping, personal flourishing, or a modicum of spontaneity. It sounds like it has been digitally dismembered and reassembled to its most understandable capacity. The matter is made even worse when he sings in his best Josh Homme immitation, and only there does it feel vibrant. And not to pile on, but with rare exception (“Wanderlust”, “After One Quarter of a Revolution”, and “Buffalo 666″), New Junk Aesthetic has a maddeningly repetitive feel. EVERY TIME I DIE could probably prove me wrong, but in my head, it seems like I keep hearing the same handful of guitar riffs over and over again. I appreciate the band going back to more blistering speeds, but the faster New Junk Aesthetic gets, the more it blurs into sameness.  EVERY TIME I DIE isn’t to blame for the hundreds of bands have aped their southern-tinged hardcore sound that has made the style as distinguishable between bands as specks of sawdust, but for the first time in the band’s lengthy discography, the group sounds like one of the bored imitators, and not the trailblazers that set speakers on fire with releases like Hot Damn and Gutter Phenomenon.

Epitaph