Review / Multiple Authors
Death By Stereo
Into the Valley of Death

Death by Stereo strike again with this new offering of their signature metal influenced melodic hardcore sound. This CD is filled with windmill-inducing finger-pointing fun. The lyrics contain the angst and political commentary you've come to expect from any hardcore band, but the typicality of the lyrical content is completely overshadowed by Efrem's insane and unique vocals. Buy it, dance it.

Death By Stereo's newest release and they have shown no sign of slowing down. They have taken their classic style and improved upon it in many ways. The intro to "Beyond The Blinders" is enough to get anyone head-banging. "You're a Bullshit Salesman Without A Mouthful of Samples" has some backing vocals reminiscent of AFI. A couple songs have slow acoustic intros that they work in very well. Overall, if you were a fan of this band before, you won't be disappointed in the least bit. If you weren't maybe it's the time to consider a second chance.

The first song I heard from this was "Wasted Words" from a Punk-O-Rama compilation. A good song, but it reminded me of their other stuff a lot. After having a complete listen to this album, I must say, first impressions from Punk-O-Rama compilations are not good. This album isn't dramatically different than If Looks Could Kill I'd Watch You Die and Day Of The Death, but somewhat different. There is more metal on this album than the previous ones. If you haven't heard Death By Stereo before, don't let that comment give you the wrong impression, they are not metalcore. They are punk hardcore with metal parts...Well maybe they are metalcore, but they don't sound like any of the other bands categorized under metalcore. Efrem, the vocalist, has a voice that fluctuates as much as Jello Biafra, but is deeper and doesn't sound like him. On this album he does more things with his voice such as running it through a megaphone, which makes him sound like a Cuban dictator. The beginning of "The Plague" sounds like Cave-In, and the song "Let Down And Alone" has a part where Efrem and a choir go back and forth! Experimentation! But they hit up their roots with a solo here and there, and the newly added higher screaming backups are nice, which could be Efrem! Just don't listen to this too many times on repeat, because it doesn't have the highest replay value.