Music News: Every Time I Die Broke Up

It looks like the chaotic tech-hardcore/metalcore group Every Time I Die broke up, about 15 years after one would suspect a band to do so. Honestly, good on them for having that kind of longevity while pedaling music that seemed ripe to be a flash in the pan even when it was brand new. One hell of a run!

It seems like the split was acrimonious, but I’m not going to delve into that here, because I don’t really care so much. Even though I thought that their newest record, Radical, was surprisingly solid and enjoyable (I even toyed with featuring “Planet Shit” on my year-end songs list), I’m really only writing this post because it’s an excuse to talk about…

Ebolarama

This was the first Every Time I Die song that I heard, and I think it’s probably the only Every Time I Die song I ever needed. Hell, this is probably the only song I ever needed out of that whole metalcore subculture. This song is still so, so funny to me.

This completely nonsensical string of riffs and chugging breakdowns is a nonstop riot. I have a real sweet tooth for weird tech-y/math-y song structures, and while I was into the early Dillinger Escape Plan stuff in the opening years of our current millennium, this was the first time I heard a band take that kind of dizzying chaos and make it sound fun. While DEP approached everything in a way that made them seem very serious, ETID seemed like a bunch of goofballs who took math-y hardcore and made it… catchy?

There are handclaps in this fucking song. What more do you want?

Catchy math-y metalcore would be perfected (and then abandoned) many years later by the planet’s current Greatest Band, The Armed. But I give Every Time I Die some credit for getting there first.

Listening now, the bratty/whiney screaming hasn’t aged that well, but I actually think that this guy mewling out lines like “there’s a pail by the bed if you need one” makes this song way funnier and therefore way better. So, I guess what I’m saying is… we’re all going to age, and we’re all going to not age so well, but as long as we’re still kinda funny, it’s all good.

RIP ETID