For a way-too-long moment in the mid-'00s, too many hardcore-offshoot bands boasted names about days/months/seasons or some form of the verb "to die." The music too was a similarly broad, indistinguishable mishmash of screaming alternating with singing alternating with breakdowns and back again. Buffalo-based lifers Every Time I Die were unfairly lumped in with the rest.
The quintet, led by brothers Keith and Jordan Buckley, had not only already been around the block — first forming their band around 1998 — but most important, their sound never relied on tired notions of "metalcore" or whatever. From the gate, ETID set itself apart with a rebel rock 'n' roll, dick-swinging attitude that was more about partying and punching faces than crying over feelings.
The badassery, which every write-up is required to say is influenced by classic Southern rock, has continued apace into the millennium. The band's latest album, New Junk Aesthetic, was released last year on Epitaph and reached Billboard's top 50. The guys continue to tour behind it, despite a spate of recent legal troubles stemming from a Twitter promotion campaign that faked celebrity endorsements. Damn it, we were hoping Diddy really was a fan.
