Boy is this sound hip and up to date! The whole mixture of hardcore, metal, pure rock sounds and melodic vocal lines versus screams. It's hip, it's 2005 and it's very average even. Death By Stereo, it has to be said, has been doing this for longer than today so bitching about the originality of this record would be wrong. So let's take it as it is.

Death For Life is your 100% moshpit record that balances between Hatebreed, Merauder and lives and thrives on breakdowns, super speeds versus downtempo solo parts and serves a nice showcase of what good metalcore can sound like. Throwing some interesting rythms here and there (check out the cool opener Binge/Purge), and contains a lot of clean parts that many will not appreciate. So be warned. Personally, I am not a fan of the "unexpected" burst of clean melodic parts, but Death By Stereo does it well and Efrem Schulz's voice is acceptable compared to many others in this genre. It never gets sentimental.

Other highlights can be found in the form of tracks such as Nostros Controlamos Todo, the punky W.W.J.D.? and Entombed We Collide. Songs that never really reach out above anything you've ever heard, but it is all very decent and (I nearly forgot to mention) produced very, very smoothly and crystal clear. Once again, a feature you either love or hate, make up your own mind on this.

So all in all, what can one say? The record never goes places we have never heard before, but maintains a constant quality. The one truely remarkable aspect has to be the ballad, Forever And A Day, that is not extremely interesting as it is, but it does make Death For Live stand out a bit more in the stagnant trendy genre that is metalcore. It goes to show that Death By Stereo aren't interested in sounding trendy, they're just who they are. And for that alone they comply with what I define as the attitude that makes hardcore music.

Nice record for a louzy afternoon, this one. Buy it or check it out if you like bands like Maroon, Caliban, Killswitch Engage, if you're a hardcore lover or a modernating metal favorist. Worth checking out.

Line-up:

Efrem Schulz: Vocals
Dan Palmer: Guitar & Backing Vocals
Tito: Guitar, Backing Vocals
Tyler Rebbe: Bass, Backing Vocals
Todd Hennig: Drums, Backing Vocals

Tracklisting:

01. Binge/Purge
02. I Give My Life
03. Forget Regret
04. Entombed We Collide
05. Forever And A Day
06. This Curse Of Days
07. Middle Fingers
08. Nosotros Controlamos Todo
09. W.W.J.D.
10. Don't Piss On My Neck And Tell Me It's Raining
11. This Is Not The End