Death By Stereo - Into The Valley Of Death

If you routinely peruse this website looking for fresh music, you will probably not prefer Death By Stereo. Hint: the word “death” is used both in the band name and album title. That should clue you into the hardcore sound Death by Stereo promotes. But the album has its merits. The following is a critique of Into the Valley of Death found on another site. I will highlight the key words. I will also highlight the fun words. “Somewhere along the line, Death by Stereo lost the chaos and are now resorting to recognizable song structures… Some tracks are nice and have some cool shit. "I Wouldn't Piss in Your Ear If Your Brain Was on Fire" is an enjoyable little ditty. And “Shh, It'll Be Our Little Secret” has some great guitar fills and a pretty solo (which begs the larger question, do guitar solos belong in hardcore?). "Good Morning America" is a fast and brutally unintelligible track and for those reasons alone is a highlight.” Herein lays the problem. Hardcore is expected to be chaotic and unrecognizable, and for the most part, it is. But when a hardcore band defies expectations by performing “recognizable song structures,” do they lose creditability? I vote: NO Into the Valley of Death does, in fact, contain “ditties” with “chaos,” “cool shit,” and “brutally unintelligible” tracks. Lead singer Efrem Schulz’s baritone voice enunciates his words well enough so that his political lyrics are recognizable. Ironically enough, his most political song, “Good Morning America,” is also the most lyrically difficult to understand. Into the Valley of Death remains true to hardcore form by offering a gracious supply of vocal screams, heavy guitar distortion and head banging drum crashes, but this album distinguishes itself from its peers in the tempo variations it employs between songs. Death by Stereo created a hardcore album filled with 13 distinguishable and debatable tracks rather than another hardcore album that simply is what it is. [www.deathbystereo.com]