It's hard to rank for sure, in fact I kind of view it as moot given the amount of albums and consistency. For me, Hot Damn! Remains no. 1. But for many reasons: -I don't need to talk about how hard hitting and aggressive the album is, you know it. -The fact that they went from what they did on Last Night In Town to Hot Damn! is remarkable. The songwriting, structuring, and lyrics all took major, drastic leaps forward. -Absolutely no one was doing this style or sound at the time and anyone who has tried to recreate it has come up short. -I don't think an album title has ever better described the music it contains or been more bad ass. -The difficulty in time signature changes as well as rhythm switches between the drums/guitar are unreal. I don't know how to write a song like those. One of my favorite interviews from Keith he talked about when they were making this album and how he heard The Used's s/t release as they were preparing to release Hot Damn! He said he was comparing and thinking "This is what people like and this is a rock album. What are we doing in the studio?" Forever thankful they stuck to their own style and never let up.
ETID are one of the few bands that I honestly couldn't rank their discography because having any of these records being on the bottom half of a list would be a disservice.
Yeah, Hot Damn! rounds out my top 3 for them and it and Low Teens can switch places depending on the day. Low Teens is just so hard hitting, from a lyrical and emotional standpoint, and Hot Damn! is great for all the reasons you describe. TBD just fits my personal tastes so well. Heavy, but still catchy, and I love that southern rock influence.
Round 2 is coming to a close as this album gets harder and harder to vote on. GL with these! @okayibelieveyou @DeRRek @StormAndTheSun @aoftbsten @Sean Murphy @RunInTheFront @JaytotheGee @truelovewaits THE BIG DIRTY ROUND 2: No Son Of Mine - 12 A Gentleman's Sport - 4 Pigs Is Pigs - 4 INRihab - 12 Leatherneck - 4 Imitation Is The Sincerest Form Of Battery - 12 We'rewolf - 15 Cities And Years - 1 THE BIG DIRTY ROUND 3: No Son Of Mine VS INRIhab Imitation Is The Most Sincerest Form Of Flattery VS We'rewolf
INRIhab We'rewolf Tough to vote against No Son Of Mine but INRIhab is probably my favorite track on the album (right up there with Rendez-Voodoo). Plus, No Son Of Mine is going to win this round anyway!
I do wonder if any time they played that live, he was there to sing his part. I know ETID and Alexisonfire toured together during the Crisis album run, but i'm not sure if The Big Dirty was out yet?