This Will Be The Death Of Us is pop punk for driving fast in a music video, but not too recklessly. No Sex, no Drugs, and Rock n’ Roll though, even if you don’t understand the lyrics its positively rated PG without even capitalizing on a chic visual sales image. All fast beats, tight lightcore metal throughout the Mike Green produced album, these cheerleading guys don’t aim for something deeper but they don’t need or want to as it will find an all-ages and sexes market just as it is.

In “Make way for Man” I hear the hardcore and complement of deeper rappy singing, and in “Our Ethos: A Legacy To Pass On” there’s heavier bass but I don’t quite hear the Motorhead as some have talked about. But the young today are so bombarded and familiar with a range of sounds, that maybe they pick up on that little bit and that is enough for skate punking. Vocalist Matt Wilson and Jordan Brown must need deep breaths to sail through these young sounds. This bubble gum metal fits a niche, and the band has talent that with this album fits a scene with the college crowd when not everyone wants to always mosh pit violently.

This is the long awaited follow up from Epitaph Records of their first album ‘Mutiny’. Borrowing slightly from elsewhere, ‘This Will Be The Death Of Us’ made Billboard’s top 200 placing at #65. An anti-societal song asks us to see through the lies and “Look Closer” at your world and life. “Summer Jam” has potential as a hit with its welcome rap lines and in the “The Few That Remain” Haley Williams of Paramore adds a little girl power. Nice riffs balanced towards some slam dance. I will rock, I will overcome!

I feel somewhat teased with this album it feels a bit like a dress rehearsal for something more powerful. “Gaia Bleeds (Make Way for Man)” has tougher yells with the addition of hardcore John Gula, and the eleventh track is a brief acoustic interlude before “Our Ethos: A Legacy to Pass On” with guest vocals from New Found Glory’s Chad Gilbert for a raspy touch and a change of tempo. All these guest singers suggest the band needs the range, you wonder why they don’t just do it themselves. Parental guidance warnings usually result in more attention than taking the honourable route of trying to avoid the label. So, it isn’t quite Green Day or The Offspring either, but it does grow addictive the better you know the words.

Track Listing:

1. This Will Be the Death of Us (feat. Vinnie Caruana)
2. With Hoffman Lenses We Will See the Truth
3. Look Closer
4. Summer Jam
5. Like You to Me
6. The Fallen...
7. The Few That Remain (feat. Hayley Williams)
8. Equals
9. Gaia Bleeds (Make Way for Man) (feat. Jon Gula)
10. Flawed Methods of Persecution & Punishment
11. Arrival Notes
12. Our Ethos: A Legacy to Pass On (feat. Chad Gilbert)