Enemy of the World will always be my favorite, I actually think Brain Pain sounds a bit too sterile sometimes and a couple songs don't work as well for me, but this band doesn't really miss.
This is In Some Way, Shape or Form erasure, because that one did indeed miss, but that has proven to be the anomaly, so I have faith in the band these days.
Oooo I smell a rank coming on.. Enemy of the World > Brain Pain > Rise of Die Trying > Go Down in History > S/T > Explains It All > In Some Way..
The new song has a lot of EOTW feelings The band has been really hit or miss on every release since EOTW (outside of GDIH, which is incredible). Hope they have something great in them still, because the talent is there
I think ISWSOF is pretty good honestly, so yeah I stand by what I said. Haven't heard the new song. Also, S/T is great for those not giving it the love! Brain Pain is the only album where I even think about skipping a song and I usually don't.
I revisited ISWSOF sometime within the last year, around the EOTW re-record. Half of it is really solid and the other half feels like the definition of half baked, totally phoned in clutter. I really really went to bat for it back in 2011 though lol. It’s not a great record, probably their worst imo, but it has some very electric moments
I don't have any really strong feelings about ISWSOF one way or the other but "Fairweather Fan" is a bad song with bad lyrics and I still can't quite believe the band willingly released it.
Same can be said for the lyrics on RODT, EOTW and their respective b-sides/rarities. Still have a big soft spot for those records but jeez they're mostly cliché central lyrically and haven't aged well... like, Bad News Bears? C'mon man. If we're ranking, the 7" version of Cavalier sits above all else.
Half of ISWSOF definitely rules in a cheesy radio rock way Infected, stuck in the middle, just drive, fairweather fan, falling on you and heaven
These guys were one of my favorite bands before they put out ISWSOF. All I wanted from them after EOTW was more easycore but then they kicked out Josh which pissed me off. Though it sounded like they were trying to write a bunch of half assed Foo Fighters songs. Wasn't huge on most of it at the time but listening back now it has some solid tracks in the front half. This new song is kind of a bore to me. That acoustic intro sucks so hard.
Oh man Stuck in the Middle is a banger. The bridge at 2:35 is heaven for 20 seconds, especially when the riff goes half-time.