I've recently discovered the latest release by Every Time I Die entitled Gutter Phenomenon. I have to say I rather enjoyed it. I have been listening to Every Time I Die since Last Night In Town which was released in 2001. I must say, I enjoy the Hardcore scene a lot, and these guys are awesome. I have always appreciated their music and was happy to see they came out with a new CD last year, I just wish I would have listened to it sooner, but let me say, It was well worth the wait!

Every Time I Die was conceived by Keith and Jordan Buckley in 1998. After meeting Andy Williams and Michael Novak, Buckley and Buckley decided to ask them to join Every Time I Die. The band recorded a demo with a temporary bassist while they had their eye out for the new member, which later became Chris Byrnes. After joining Goodfellow Records, they released their debut, The Burial Plot Bidding War. After touring with bands such as Bane, Walls of Jericho, Eighteen Visions and Buried Alive, the guys switched labels and joined with Ferret Music. Soon after the switch, the guys came out with Last Night In Town, Hot Damn! and the recent album, Gutter Phenomenon.

Gutter Phenomenon is the first album from these guys to show a great deal of clean singing, not that it was entirely out of their music realm. Buckley kept his signature call for the most part of the album, but throws out a lot of verses with beautifully solid melodies.
 
There are a lot of riffs that Hot Damn! contained, which isn't a big factor to me, because I like their music so much. They do however revert back to their old come and go metalcore that the fans including myself have grown to know and love. It's an excellent album, but it slightly hard to pin point a musical style. It varies with a combination of metalcore, catchy hooks, clean vocals, and with a slight Deftone/Emo influenced change of vocals. Overall, the pace of the album is fast in a hardcore sense and to keep it interesting each song has a number of tempo changes throughout the entire album.
 
Gutter Phenomenon opens with a fast, yet short song entitled Apocalypse Now and Then, which is one of the tracks that doesn't have too many changes though mixed with the screaming and melodic sound of reminiscent of Chino Moreno from Deftones I think personally. Kill the Music, really isn't one of my favorites, but I can see how it has potential due to the breakdown at the end. I didn't really like the sound too much for this song, I think it was too much at one time. A couple of other songs I really, really enjoyed were Guitarred and Feathered, Tusk and Temper and Gloom and How It Gets That Way. They are by far the most metalcore which is what I look for and love. Great pace and some wicked groove with each one. Probably my favorites on the album. Surprisingly, The New Black has a little southern rock pitch to it, which shocked me a bit, but I found it rather catchy. It was an interesting change during the middle of the album I believe.
 
Overall, Gutter Phenomenon is a kick ass album to say the least. It has a lot of different sounds that you wouldn't normally hear mixed together, nor would you think that would combine as well as it did on this album. To sum it up, the changes, mixing of screaming and melodic vocals was a success for this album. It definitely has some good metalcore and a variety of change-ups, which I think made their new sound ten times better. It is an album you should definitely pick up.