Review Summary: It's time fam.
Every Time I Die have somehow found a way to evolve their tried-and-true flavor of metalcore to a level I don't think anyone really expected. The band is known for frantic and relentless riffing and brutal yet fun hardcore vocals, but it tends to come in a package that's still nicely labeled as straight-forward, no frills metalcore. ETID's style is heavy, fast, fun, chaotic, and most of all, consistent; these things haven't changed. Yet, Radical appears to be ETID's way of ascending themselves to a new height that makes them more than just that fun-as-heck band we all loved, but now a band that demands ink-on-paper.
You might first get the impression this album is actually just a prettied up but standard Every Time I Die album, but there's a lot more going on that can keep you paying your fullest attention. The production is indeed brilliant; the sound stage is open, guitar tones thick and balanced, vocals clean, drums clear. The production of the album strikingly has a lot of layering and fine-tuned balance work to it that indicates a level of effort and artistic vision in this respect greater than not just what you tend to see for ETID, but for metal in general. I'm a nitpicker in this respect and there are plenty of albums out there I'd rate half a point or more if production had more put into it, but it's not something every band needs to do.
A really great example of the production work is Desperate Pleasures. The guitar tone at the beginning of the song is eerie and foreboding, harkening back to feelings from Converge's All We Love We Leave Behind. Just the perfect amount of reverb is added to the vocals, with lyrics as follows:
"Wheel out your god, these are desperate times
Talk to your mother, these are desperate times
Dance with your lover, these are desperate times
Surrender yourself, these are desperate times"
The song immediately takes a turn to what ETID does best: fast-paced, sludgy, black-hole destroying metalcore. This fallback to old habits placed side-by-side with the experimentation the band is taking here is absolutely brilliant. If you're in the right mood you're either head banging, dancing, or screaming the lyrics while appreciating the deeper and darker grooves the album has to offer.
Indeed, there's plenty of experimentation to go around here, including some unexpected non-metal moments like Thing With Feathers, which has its place in memory of Keith and Jordan's late sister Jaclyn. The experimentation isn't for ***s and giggles; the band made giant efforts to put together something truly cohesive. Despite being 51 minutes long, the album feels like the perfect length and the song order is essentially perfect. However, you can still listen to the album in shuffle and it will still shake your soul just the same.
One of the exciting qualities about ETID is Keith's lyrics and vocal style. He just has that extra something to him, and in Radical he allows himself to take more opportunities to be different. Post-Boredom is a great example of his growth into self-expression, going up and down his vocal range and being honest in his lyrics in a way that's empowering to listen to. The song is groovy, frantic, and a perfect earworm. Throughout the entire album, Keith puts on a class act that's angry, invigorating and relatable.
As a final word I want to mention how absolutely brutal some of the songs here are. Sly, All This and War, Hostile Architecture, AWOL, and The Whip are intense, cathartic headbangers. The riffs and and musicianship speak for themselves. In the end, that high-energy metalcore sound we know the band for still carries the album, but it does it in way that is truly and forever memorable. This is easily the most excited I have been about an album in a long time.
