Album review: Better Lovers – Highly Irresponsible

‘So am I where I’m supposed to be?’ begs Greg Puciato on Lie Between The Lines, the suffocating first track on Better Lovers’ fascinating debut. ‘See you pressed ’bout the way that I’ve gone / Some would rather see you die than be free / But the killer is me / And the night lives alongside the dawn.’

History can be a hell of a thing. On one hand, the Buffalo supergroup’s bringing together of ex-Every Time I Die men Jordan Buckley, Stephen Micciche and Clayton ‘Goose’ Hollyoak with definitive Dillinger Escape Plan vocalist Greg and Fit For An Autopsy legend Will Putney consolidates decades of learning from heavy music’s cutting-edge and a fanbase ravenous to tear into some truly brilliant, unhinged sounds. On the other, it invites impossible comparisons to past records which will, frankly, never be topped.

Fearlessness burns through this collective, though. In the live arena already they’ve recycled the incendiary energy of old, and that stage-diving, pit-spinning fire is vented into the rampant riffs of Your Misplaced Self and Everything Was Put Here For Me – celebrated, even, it in the album’s explosive artwork. But it’s moments where they dial it back that set everything off. The rock’n’roll swagger of lead single A White Horse Covered In Blood, for instance, is deliberate proof of their dynamism, while At All Times veers from almost folky twang to grungy high dramatics – reminiscent of some of Greg’s solo work to an extent, but also hinting at untold melodic possibilities.

It’s not an upbeat record, by any means. Song titles like Deliver Us From All Life, Drowning In A Burning World and Superman Died Paralysed (dropped almost exactly two decades since iconic actor Christopher Reeve’s tragic passing) find the themes of nihilism, betrayal and psychological darkness writ large. Regardless, Highly Irresponsible will kindle warmth in the hearts of fans who thought these players’ berserk heydays were behind them.

‘How can we survive / If love has become an act of rebellion?’ laments one of the gnashing final lines. Only with rebels like these fighting for a hopeless cause.

Verdict: 4/5

For fans of: Every Time I Die, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Cancer Bats

Highly Irresponsible is released on October 25 via SharpTone