Review Summary: I got the best of them, i'm now the main event
As much as it's unbelievable to myself, I've found myself reflecting on
Get Scared's sophomore effort
Everyone's Out To Get Me nearly a year after its tenth anniversary (and damn do I feel old for typing that). It was recorded at yet another strange time for the band; they had just dumped Joel Faviere to bring back their original singer Nicholas Matthews, which ultimately turned out to be for the better for a multitude of reasons—some of which didn't become apparent until years after the fact, but suffice to say even with him being on six songs, his currently ongoing stint in prison as of this writing did enough damage. The album that resulted from the chaos, however, feels like they had already gotten at least half the album through pre-production with Joel, because
Everyone's Out To Get Me sounds like a cross between
Built for Blame, Laced With Shame, recorded with Faviere, and
Best Kind of Mess, recorded with Matthews. In essence, it's a very confused album...which, ironically enough, caused the end result to be the best of both worlds. And that's why I think the album has endured so much.
The seeds for future releases had been planted with
Built for Blame, but with Matthews back, the band decided to cut a half-and-half deal rather than going all in on increasing heaviness as they did with
Demons;
Everyone's Out To Get Me is quite metal-influenced for what it is, at least instrumentally for the most part; Matthews is still riding his
Best Kind of Mess vocal style, and the theatrics present on that album are on full display in opening track "Told Ya So"; Matthews very aptly yells "welcome to the s**tshow", which is more or less a perfect summary of what the album is all about. "For You" (co-written with
Falling in Reverse main man Ronnie Radke) sees the group take a stab at the aforementioned controversy magnet's signature style, only with a more "emo" tinge to it; shockingly enough, they pull it off quite well; rather than seeking redemption, Matthews seems more or less content to wallow away in his self-pity; "One more shot for all my f**king failures", he declares, before musing "might just end my life" to a
swing beat. But he also wants life to give one more shot at showing him why it's worth it—"At My Worst" has him discuss his previous suicide attempt during the
Best Kind of Mess era, stating that "if it's you I cared about, you know I'd tell you first". But the crown jewels of the album have to be the two ballads; "Us In Motion" sees the band deciding that it's best to forge onwards with each other despite their love/hate relationship towards the world, even if they wish to do their best to just shrink into the background: "we are in for the long run, we're all just getting by, without a sign, looking for the nearest place to hide", while "Stumbling In Your Footsteps" is a harrowing piano-driven track dealing with loss and the grief that comes with it, asking "when the kingdom has lost its king, who's left to lead?".
It isn't just Nicholas who's bringing his A-game; guitarists Johnny Braddock and newcomer Adam Virostko show that they're ready to unleash their full insanity that would eventually be realized with the follow-up albums, while Bradley Iverson breaks out of the "nobody loves the bassist" trope by providing some of the most audible bass you will ever hear in the genre; the bassline for the aforementioned "Us In Motion", in particular, is bound to get stuck in your head. Dan Juarez brings a fantastic backbone with his drumming; he keeps things interesting by switching things up and provides some of the best beats of this band's career, but never overplays. The mixing isn't too bad either; Erik Ron did a fine job making sure everything is audible and successfully glued everything together. The only real problem, as usual, is the mastering; it's super compressed, but the other aspects are superb enough that it can be forgiven (especially if you know how to use a declipper tool).
Everyone's Out To Get Me is absolutely phenomenal and an underlooked classic of an underlooked band, knowing exactly which spots to hit and what exactly it needs to set out to do, despite the copious amounts of insanity going on around the musicians who are playing it.
