Death By Stereo

Death Is My Only Friend

BY Keith CarmanPublished Jul 9, 2009

Death By Stereo have always been the subject of a dilemma: they're great at what they do but what they do isn't all that great. In the past, they've been a strange mix of hardcore with melodic and metallic tendencies that was unusual but not altogether substantial. Unfortunately, this situation is far from ratified with latest effort Death Is My Only Friend. Where the band were previously more aggressive and even confrontational, as this album progresses, it grinds itself further and further into a confusing jumble of emo ("The Last Song") and In Flames-ish metalcore ("Bread For The Dead"), with rampant elements of pop punk strewn throughout. It's a massive identity crisis presumably incited by their uneventful displacement from Epitaph. Yet even though shifting over to Serjical Strike will surely maintain their presence, mostly due to it being owned by SOAD vocalist Serj Tankian, this seems to have done nothing other than push the band into a chaotic state of wanting to stay heavy but feeling the urge to embrace overly melodic, and therefore rather uninspiring, tendencies.
(Serjical Strike)

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