Every Time I Die's Low Teens is fierce and emotionally wrought, the kind of album made when faced by mortality. Vocalist Keith Buckley's then-pregnant wife was hospitalized and their daughter was forced into a premature birth. Everyone's okay now — it was awakening not just for Buckley it seems, but also for the long-running band, whose heavy music has always been pulled this way and that, taking detours into metalcore, pop-punk, post-hardcore and post-whatnot. But Low Teens focuses the band's desperation.
"Map Change" is the album's fervid closer, searingly melodic as it sways and swaggers between urgent Converge-style hardcore and an arena-sized chorus. Buckley, in particular, gets to show off his vocal range, singing with new eyes, "Chaos is drawn to silence like life is drawn to death."
"This video is our love letter to Buffalo in all its bleak glory," Buckley tells NPR. Fist fights, strip clubs, abandoned churches, bingo halls, joyrides on chop-shopped cars, police dog training, drug use, high school wrestling — Kyle Thrash directs this stark portrait of the band's New York hometown and the place where Buckley's daughter was born. It's a remarkably intimate video that's neither damning or sympathetic, just honest, with the song's breakdown synced to a beautifully shot line dance.
Low Teens is out now via Epitaph. Every Time I Die goes on tour this summer, including dates with Taking Back Sunday in July and August.
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