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Better Lovers – Highly Irresponsible Review
Image Credit: Sharptone Records
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This review today strays a little bit away from the path that I have been on with my previous reviews up to this point. And truth be told, I was contemplating not even doing this one, but the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to do it, if for nothing else but to display my versatility as a music reviewer for this very site!
Cheap Pop!
So, without further ado, I have just one question for you: Are you ready to be a Better Lover?
Better Lovers – Highly Irresponsible
Release Date – October 25, 2024
Genres: Metalcore/Hardcore Punk
Band Lineup:
Greg Puciato – Vocals/Lyrics
Will Putney – Guitar/Production/Mixing/Mastering/Engineering
Jordan Buckley – Guitar
Steve Micciche – Bass
Clayton “Goose” Holyoak – Drums
Track Listing:
1. “Lie Between The Lines” (4:29)
2. “Your Misplaced Self” (1:32)
3. “A White Horse Covered in Blood” (3:18)
4. “Future Myopia” (3:38)
5. “Deliver Us From Life” (4:28)
6. “Drowning in a Burning World” (2:44)
7. “Everything was Put Here For Me” (3:26)
8. “Superman Died Paralyzed” (3:27)
9. “At All Times” (4:36)
10. “Love as an Act of Rebellion” (3:19)
The term Supergroup has been thrown around more often over the years, and sometimes, the term doesn’t fit with the band in question. For the unacquainted, Supergroup is a term used for a group of musicians who come together from other already established acts and receive a lot of hype and media coverage for it. For me personally, one of the more intriguing Supergroups to come to mind was Velvet Revolver, the group that included three former members of Guns ‘N Roses, and former Stone Temple Pilots lead singer, the late and great Scott Weiland.
For Better Lovers, the term Supergroup does fit (although, to be fair, within the confines of the genres in question, this is not a hard thing to do), and the group shows a lot of promise. Between Buckley, Micciche, and Holyoak, you have three-fifths of the members from the band Every Time I Die, while Putney, who is a member of Fit For An Autopsy, is more famous for producing every other Metalcore or Hardcore record released. But the real gem here is Puciato, who everyone knows as the lead singer of The Dillinger Escape Plan but has become one of the busiest men in all of music, with projects such as Killer Be Killed, Federal Prisoner, Black Queen, Mirrorcell, backing up Jerry Cantrell, and his own solo recordings.
So, given the guys who we have involved here, how does this work? Well, the guys already have a recording under their belt with the release of God Made Me an Animal, a four song EP/sampler in 2023 that gave us a glimpse as to what to expect when the debut full length was released. To say that the band was a perfect amalgamation of the projects which they came from would be an understatement, but they managed to make all their own.
Sometimes, the band sound like they are aping Every Time I Die, namely on, “Drowning in a Burning World,” “Everything Was Put Here for Me,” “Superman Died Paralyzed,” and “Love as an Act of Rebellion.” Meanwhile, on “Your Misplaced Self,” the band sounds like a knock-off of The Dillinger Escape Plan, and then there is “A White Horse Covered in Blood,” where the band somehow manage to sound like a reasonable facsimile of fellow Metalcore/Hardcore band He Is Legend. Of course, the band do try to turn a couple of tricks on tracks like, “Deliver Us From Life,” where Puciato sounds like he is climbing the vocal scale, and on, “At All Times,” proving it to be as close to a slow/ballad type song you will find on here.
Given that three quarters of this band hails from the now defunct Every Time I Die, it should not surprise you that there is a strong level of cohesion between Buckley (the younger brother of said band’s vocalist, Keith, who struck up his own project), Micciche, and Holyoak, with the latter two being the rhythm section backbone for the group for years. Putney was a great addition, even if the music they’re playing is far away from the Deathcore leanings of his own band but, like I said, Will has produced so many albums that it worked out for the band to have him there solely just for that. Puciato, meanwhile, seems to channel all of his projects into this one, as you can find him screaming his lungs out on some tracks, sounding like he’s Southern on “White Horse,” sounding like he is coughing up a hairball on “Everything,” and then sounding soulful on “At All Times.”
As many bands of these genres go, the lyrical content doesn’t really hold the interest as much as the overall chaotic energy and, again in this case, the members comprising the band. The same can be said for the length of songs and how many we have on hand. While three of the songs on this go over the four minute mark, the most effective ones are the shorter ones that get their stuff in and get out quickly. And, once more, given the projects that four of these guys have been around (except for Putney), songs being on the shorter side are a given and expected. I will say, however, that on the longer songs, namely, “Lie Between The Lines,” that they don’t sound as lost or discombobulated as you might think they would.
Recommended Tracks: “Lie Between the Lines,” “Your Misplaced Self,” “A White Horse Covered in Blood,” “Drowning in a Burning World,” and “Superman Died Paralyzed.”
