For this week’s Track Of The Week I’m going to review the lead single off of Every Time I Die’s 2012 album ‘Ex-Lives’, “Underwater Bimbos From Outer Space”.
Being the bands 7th album, this was the last shot that ETID had of grabbing that brass-ring, breaking through that glass ceiling and reaching the beyond, something most hardcore bands never get to do (look at Poison The Well, Eighteen Visions, Anti-Flag, Bleeding Through, ect).
To do this, they needed a track that summed up everything; that summed up the previous 15 years, the fury that is ETID, the lyrical genius that is Keith Buckley, the feel and tone of the band. Simply put, Every Time I Die needed a killer track or else they risked being the big fish in the small metalcore pond.
With “Underwater Bimbos…” they had this track, the second this track was released to the world on the 2nd of January 2012, it was clear that ETID were not fucking around on this record; it was balls to the wall, do or die.
The 154 seconds of chaos starts off with the chilling screams of Keith Buckley; “I want to be dead with my friends!”. No instruments in the background, no prologue, the first thing the listener hears when they play the song (and the album) is Keith screeching these harrowing words.
To most this is a dark, twisted lyric, but to those that understand Keith Buckley’s mind and how his lyrics come about and how much meaning is actually in every word, its actually not. In fact it’s something of a positive note; it scribes the struggle Keith himself is having being around everyone he knows, seeing them follow this set path of life (get a job, get married, grow old, ect.) and how he just isn’t sure it’s for him. Frankly the song tracks his struggles with life and being at the stage in life is now, can he really still follow a life of his own pleasures or should he conform and pursue this idealistic dream of what life is supposed to be.
“Underwater Bimbos…” may just be the heaviest ETID song ever, sure they’re known for their own unique brand of metalcore and have been since debut EP ‘Burial Plot Bidding War’, but they have never had a song that was this dark in sound, never has one of their songs been this brutal; the constant chugging of guitarists Jordan Buckley and Andy Williams and the ear-ringing drum smashes of new recruit drummer Ryan Leger, along with Keith’s visceral vocals, all add up to create a song that is as heavy as any track that’s ever been produced by a metalcore band.
Written during Keith’s World tour with 2009 side project The Damned Things, this placed the entire band out of their comfort-zone, never had there been such a geographical gap between them during the writing process. Add in factors such as the loss of old drummer and long-time member Mike Novak, the loss of bass player Josh Newton and two members of the band actually getting married and all of them reaching the ripe age of 30, this all took a toll on the writing process and added more hurdles to overcome.
Also, as said above, ‘Ex-Lives’ was the bands 7th studio release; this was a make or break album, they had to succeed with this and breakout or they’d forever be the grandfathers of the current generation of hardcore. Since the release of 2003’s ‘Hot Damn!’ the band had sort of floundered around the scene, they were always touring and always just seemed to release great albums but not really get much notoriety outside the same critics and insiders from the scene. The album needed a hook, something to pull in everyone, from hardcore dudes, to metalcore fans to punks, if you liked rock, this song popped up on your Facebook wall, or your Twitter feed account, or your YouTube account. The song was so advertised, to the point that if it hadn’t been such a great track, it could and probably would have caused the album to fall-flat.
The key to this advertising was its music video. Directed by lead Keith Buckley, the music video is a barrage of hard-to-watch imagery; splices of horrific clips and twisted flashes of still pictures, the video is something that could easily cause nightmares. From injured soldiers from Wars, to mentally and emotionally traumatic scenes, though the video maybe doesn’t fit the song 100% lyrically the video does go along more than well with the brutality of the song itself.
In the end, this track proved to help propel the album and existence of Every Time I Die to the next level; no longer were their shows packed full of middle aged men with long scruffy hair and overflowing facial hair, but you got girls and younger guys that wanted to go to enjoy the music as well to have a great time.
“Underwater Bimbos From Outer Space” has already became a staple in the live set of ETID, with shows going crazy the second the words “I want to be dead with my friends!” are screamed (believe me, I know from experience).
Where the band goes from here is unknown, with just how much this one song changed everything for them, you really can’t count Every Time I Die out at this point, and with the touring for ‘Ex-Lives’ starting to wind down a new album can’t be too far away; here’s hoping they can drain the well for another magical track.
"Underwater Bimbos From Outer Space" was released on 'Ex-Lives' and is available below from iTunes and pretty much any other music store/website too.
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