American Standards – “Anti-Melody”

Chaos reigns supreme on the aptly-titled Anti-Melody, the latest smattering of noise from metallers American Standards. The 24-minute metal manifesto gets off to a fast and furious start with “Writers Block Party,” a chaotic ode to Every Time I Die’s cacophonous masterpiece Last Night In Town (or Hot Damn! honestly). The turbulent sea of jarring riffs, jolting screams and drubbing drums continues throughout the majority of Anti-Melody (“Carpe Diem, Tomorrow,” “Churchburner,” “Danger Music, #9,” “Broken Culture”). “Bartenders Without Wings” brings back all the feels of metalcore’s heyday, including a stomping 15 second interlude of pure dance pit ecstasy and the album’s best track comes in the form of “Cancer Eater,” a flat out vitriolic concoction of venomous bile. With only eight tracks clocking in at south of half an hour, you’d be hard pressed to find a better way to spend your time, and if nothing else, Anti-Melody serves as a reminder of why we all started listening to heavy music in the first place.

Go Download: “Cancer Eater”