Every Time I Die

Every Time I Die frontman Keith Buckley was gearing up for a book release party in Toronto late last year when he received a call that both his wife and unborn child were in danger, a result of a life-threatening complication that resulted in an emergency delivery.
 
While mother and child have since recovered, the "sights that no man, father or husband should ever have to see" fuelled the lyrical scope of Low Teens, resulting in Buckley's most personal lyricism to date. "Untimely ripped into this world, I was born again as a girl," he shouts in ending the gutting "Petal," one of many lyrical instances that swap his trademark acerbic wit for to-the-point earnestness.
 
Feelings of helplessness and hopelessness course through Buckley's ruminations on life, death and love, and while the band aren't hell-bent on recreating the spastic aural chaos that marked predecessor From Parts Unknown, the feeling is still immediate thanks to the band's crushing riffs. Even a feature spot from Panic! at the Disco's Brendon Urie sounds better on record than it might look on paper.
 
If Every Time I Die's consistency hasn't impressed you these past few LPs, Buckley's bout of unbridled emotion on Low Teens certainly should.