album review ! :3
if i die first - they drew blood (2021)
xxherlastwalkxx 11/29/2023
woah! an ep that was released in the past few years! i don't only listen to music from the 2000s, aren't you so proud of me for paying attention to modern music...
this was actually one of the first releases that i listened to when i was starting to really get into emo, and i can't say i was the biggest fan of it at first, so i just forgot about it for a while. a good few months later i would find both seeyouspacecowboy's the romance of affliction (which featured if i die first on the closer) and, more importantly, a sure disaster, a five-song split ep between the two bands. on that ep, each band had two of their own songs and the epic of a collab song in the middle, "bloodstainedeyes." please please please go check it out, it's one of the best emo/metalcore releases i know of, and i can't recommend it enough. the full version is on bandcamp, so go listen to it, maybe be a cool diy music fan and buy it or something...
overall, it's a really great ep, but there are only 6 songs so i probably won't have too much to talk about so this one'll be short. i think that one of the best things the band has going for them is the way they use multiple vocalists, mainly two but they have a third singer occasionally (he only sings once on this ep, if i'm not mistaken). because of this, i've heard a lot of people compare if i die first to underoath, and i guess i agree as far as the dual vocalist thing goes, but if i were to compare them to any 2000s band it would be from first to last. the way the songs can be chaotic and noisy but are still always melodic and even poppy at some times really reminds me of aesthetic especially, but there are also hints of the classic dear diary, my teen angst has a body count. like one of these days they're bound to accidentally write "my heart your hands" note for note and word for word. while i think that sometimes their sense of harmony can sound a little awkward or even forced, most notably many parts of "glass casket" and the kind of weird guitar intro "40 days & 40 nights," they're kind of nice the more you listen to them, and the latter specifically makes a lot more sense when you get the context of the whole arrangement later in the song. i think that it's easier to get into their first ep, my poison arms, for this reason, but i'm going to try not to base my opinions too much on comparisons.
i don't really listen to this ep much anymore, and i think that's mainly just because i've since found other emo releases that scratch the same sort of itch. i think that ultimately i just don't find this ep super exciting for the most part, whether that's due to the clean production, the songwriting or both. also the very midi-sounding drums, which seems weird to me because they have a touring drummer, but it sounds like they're just programming their drums for all of their studio recordings. and while i'd say that the sound that if i die first has on this ep is relatively unique, i guess it's just not something that stuck with me super well, other than maybe the closer, "time moves faster when you're dancing in a graveyard," which is easily my favorite song off the ep. that being said, it's wonderful to see a band continuing the emo traditions of long song titles, whiny singing and prettyboys. seriously, the relative lack of beards for a modern emo band is so refreshing. of course, they're not bringing back the swoop or anything, but it's still an important development for the scene i think.
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