Death By Stereo – We’re All Dying Just In Time LP (Indecision Records)

I could easily say I am into a long term relationship with the discography of this longstanding Californian band. My fascination with earlier works by Death By Stereo lasts for nearly two decades. The albums such as If Looks Could Kill, I’d Watch You Die, Day Of The Death, Into The Valley Of Death, Day Of Death survived the test of time and became instant classics among the hardcore punk scene. Later on, I’ve lost track and missed Death Is My Only Friend and Black Sheep Of The American Dream, but I gave them a chance as well, and they’re pretty much decent recordings.

One thing is for sure, Death By Stereo never strayed from the path and always delivered top-notch records, mainly because of experienced musicians that were an integral part of the group at the time. Like on their previous recordings, Death By Stereo succeeded once again with their latest offering to the broader audience, called We’re All Dying Just In Time. The band provides ten blistering numbers performed in their recognizable manner, enhanced by outstanding production. Like their previous works, Death By Stereo solely focuses on the foundations of melodic hardcore, supplemented by the skate punk harmonizations and catchy metal solos. But this time, everything sounds even better.

Death By Stereo ages like a fine wine, each new recording exceeds expectations with loads of innovations, improvements, and virtuosities. The essence of their music is still there, but somehow these experienced musicians keep pushing it to an entirely new level with each following recording. The guitar shreds are even tighter, basslines are more hearable, and excellent drumming still provides enormous dynamics to the table. Besides thoughtfully defined riffages, arpeggiated harmonics, enormously melodic themes, guitars are still managing to amaze with exceptional dualities. Dan Palmer’s marvelous solos are pairing to the delicate shreds liberated by the rhythm guitar, while the remaining portion of the group provides maniacally energetic performance at the very background.

The bass guitar fulfills the abovementioned maneuvers with rich, dense low-end tones, but also maintains the connection between powerful guitars and extraordinary drumming performance. The drumming on this one goes beyond comprehension, and it’s almost impossible to grasp all the drumming acrobatics at one sitting. The dynamics at We’re All Dying Just In Time are mindblowing, and the rhythmical segments are getting even more energetic as the album passing by. Efrem’s vocals abilities are sounding better than ever. Ferocious screams are maintaining aggression throughout the album, but still, Efrem implements crispy clean chants at more melodic parts of the songs. We’re All Dying Just In Time levitates somewhere between modern hardcore and skate punk, with compelling melodies being the constant throughout the entire album.

We’re All Dying Just In Time represents Death By Stereo in all its brilliance. It’s a desperately needed material we all awaited with anticipation, and once again, these guys put a lot of effort to amaze the admirers of their sound. We’re All Dying Just In Time comes on a beautiful marble green vinyl that is currently available at Indecision Records. Grab this banger if you’re profoundly into crossover sounds of Death By Stereo.