SharpTone Records
Out Now
When an EP featuring members of Every Time I Die, The Dillinger Escape Plan and Fit For An Autopsy lands on your desk it isn’t a case of IF you choose to review it, but more how quickly can you clear your schedule to make that happen.
Better Lovers, the newly formed band featuring Jordan Buckley (guitar), Clayton “Goose” Holyoak (drums), Stephen Micciche (bass), Greg Puciato (vocals), and Will Putney (guitar), recently released their debut EP God Made Me An Animal and going by pedigree alone it has to be sensational.
Opening with Sacrificial Participant the unmistakable voice of Puciato explodes from the speakers with a frenetic overlapping guitar riff punctuating the foreground.
The pace is fast and frenetic from the outset with an almost maniacal sense of violence that asks no quarter and gives even less.
As he does, Puciato eases off momentarily, presumably to regain momentum in his lungs before launching into another scathing tirade that drips venomous intent from every orifice.
And then, as suddenly as it assaulted every one of our senses, Sacrificial Participant eases into gentler, almost pleasant territory that gradually pushes the needle back to red before the inevitable sonic bombastic explosion arrives on cue and destroys any hint of peace that may have been suggested.
You can already hear the strong influence of each respective member’s former bands but despite the lack of empathy in the music you can tell these guys are having fun.
Whether it is the fact Better Lovers are enjoying their relative anonymity as a band before the rest of the world catches on or whether they have each cast off the shackles of expectation one thing is abundantly clear.
Sonic war has never sounded so appetizing.
30 Under 13 arrives courtesy of a trademark Puciato scream that oozes anger and contempt but is also strangely comforting.
The stop-start barrage of drums only adds to the urgency while the swirling guitars of Putney and Buckley fuel the relentless fire.
Holyoak continues pounding his kit into submission before changing the structure of the song slightly but significantly which leads Better Lovers down yet another musical rabbit hole that would see even Alice struggling to find clarity.
Without warning the guitars quicken hastily and all of a sudden we are listening to a pure thrash beast of a song that veers things off in but one more haphazard journey of mystique.
There’s at least three or four different songs contained within this one track and to even suggest separating them into single entities would be neglecting the beauty that is controlled chaos.
Become So Small wastes no time in getting to the point with short, sharp, barked vocals from Puciato exploring another musical realm. These guys have definitely decided to enter their band into the halls of metal with a fierce statement. Of what, fuck knows, but I, for one, wouldn’t dare question their methods.
Hell, I’m even angry just listening to this. At what it doesn’t really matter, but right now the world and everything in it can kiss my hairy ass.
Everything about this EP oozes brilliance, and if you were expecting another trial-by-numbers offering by a band many would label a supergroup then you would be gravely mistaken.
And thank fuck for that. There’s too much love in this world right now and who better to kick our collective asses back into line than Better Lovers?
The title track eases out of the gates in comparison to the first three tracks, but that seems to only be a precautionary and false alarm as Puciato soon tires of any suggested niceties and plunges full steam into another powerful slab of metal that had more going for it than a night out at Monster Trucks.
This would have to be the most “normal” sounding piece of music on the EP, with a more traditional metal feel that surely can’t last.
And doesn’t.
Around halfway the pace eases dramatically as the guitars swirl and drums patter more softly which has all the trademarks of imminent destruction simmering close to the surface.
Which comes as expected, but also unexpectedly in the sense that the song veers violently down another tangent before shifting gears again as it leads to a softer conclusion.
Nope, scrap that. Better Lovers wouldn’t dare leave us feeling easy about ourselves.
As if we would want them to.
I haven’t heard a great deal about the band as yet, but after being completely violated by God Made Me An Animal it would almost be criminal if Better Lovers didn’t continue to churn out quality music such as this.
