Death By Stereo
"Death For Life"
Epitaph Records

Death by Stereo have raised the bar significantly high for themselves with previous releases, it is really hard to imagine anything surpassing those efforts. When listening, you hear that their sound is truly unique for music that is not mainstream at all. They manage to fuse the punk/hardcore sound with the occasional metal part thrown in.

The album begins with a crowd chanting, right into "Binge/Purge." A good song to get people moving to. And from there you get the idea of the type of songs DBS is giving you on the album. A lot of the songs do have a real metal feel to them, and breakdowns a plenty to hold over those hardcore fans of theirs. Other notable songs that just rock very hard are "Forget Regret" and "Entombed we Collide." "Entombed we collide" is just a brutal song that will get everyone's attention.

My only real complaint with the album, from a song standpoint, is "Forever and A Day." It's the typical cheesy rock ballad, with a DBS sound. It's their "Every Rose a Thorn," where if played in front of a big enough venue in front of people who haven't heard them before, lighters will be in the air, and that's when I'll stop listening to Punk Rock.

The band work really well together, but Efrem Schulz's vocals just define this CD, as it does on all their releases. His vocal range is surprisingly well defined. I would compare his vocal style to Howard Jones of Killswitch Engage/Blood Has Been Shed Fame.

The Artwork is top notch for "Death For Life." Spread inside the insert is the glossy hard to see logo of the band, of a skull in between two lightning bolts. Just awesome work there, one of the better inserts I've seen in some time, that hasn't been from Jacob Bannon.

While it's clear I'm not a huge fan of Death By Stereo, I did enjoy older releases from them, but got turned off by later stuff they released. "But Death For Life" is a good CD to listen to if you're a fan of theirs. Fans looking to get into them may find this album a bit hard to get into if it's your first time listening to Death By Stereo.

Reviewed by: Chris Buehler
Reviewed on: June 6, 2005