Off With Their Heads - In Desolation
Off With Their Heads make no sense whatsoever...
Posted Thursday, 3 June 2010 in ,
Rating: 9
Off With Their Heads make no sense whatsoever. Frontman
Ryan Young’s honest lyrics are so entrenched in genuine personal despair, and yet they evoke feelings of joy. The follow-up to 08’s ‘From The Bottom’, this is the Minneapolis quartet’s debut for Epitaph, again melding feelings of depression to brilliantly written melodic punk songs. It almost feels wrong bouncing around and smiling to songs like ‘All I Can Do’, in which
Young growls: “I lay in bed, defeated and broken, sick to death of the pain inside of me”. But one would hope this band streamlines his catharsis, and it’s certainly affecting to hear someone who can express these emotions in such poetic style while thrashing out unfeasibly awesome, uplifting tunes. Elsewhere, he addresses the side effects of substance abuse in ‘Trying To Breathe’: “I say things that I can’t take back, I torch bridges while I attack them, I compensate by laying myself out flat”. This isn’t a sorrowful indulgence though; it’s a glorious outburst of emotion expressed in anthemic aggression. ‘In Desolation’ isn’t a record that wails in its trauma, it’s an album that channels its subject matter through an infectious rage. If you feel shit, listen to
Off With Their Heads. If you feel great, listen to Off With Their Heads. Either way, they’ll enhance your mood, because ‘In Desolation’ is great.
Tim Newbound
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