''Ex Lives'' is the sixth studio album by American

metalcore Metalcore (also known as metallic hardcore) is a fusion music genre that combines elements of extreme metal and hardcore punk. As with other styles blending metal and hardcore, such as crust punk and grindcore, metalcore is noted for its use of ...

band Every Time I Die.

Background

In early 2011, vocalist

Keith Buckley Keith Buckley (born November 19, 1979) is an American singer, best known as the vocalist and lyricist of the now defunct hardcore punk band Every Time I Die and the heavy metal supergroup The Damned Things. He is also a published author. Earl ...

went on tour with the Damned Things. ''Ex Lives'' was recorded at JOHC in

Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. I ...

; producer

Joe Barresi Joe Barresi (nicknamed "Evil Joe") is an American record engineer and producer who has worked with Kyuss, The Melvins, Tool, Chevelle, Queens of the Stone Age, Coheed and Cambria, Tomahawk, L7, The Jesus Lizard, Parkway Drive, New Model Army, Ba ...

also served as an engineer, with assistance from Morgan Stratton and Sean Oakley. Barresi later mixed the recordings.

Josh Newton Josh Newton (born June 8, 1973) is an American musician, perhaps best known for his tenure as the bassist in Every Time I Die. He is also the singer and guitarist of The Great Fire of Sixteen Sixty Six. Newton was a member of the following rock ...

left the band five months after the recording, and was replaced by former bassist Stephen Micciche for touring. According to Buckley, for him to write the lyrics to "Underwater Bimbos from Outer Space" he had to "pay attention to the defeatism that the music suggested."

Release

On January 3, 2012, ''Ex Lives'' was announced for release in March, and the album's track listing and artwork was revealed. In addition, a music video was released for "Underwater Bimbos from Outer Space", directed by Buckley. According to

Blabbermouth.net Blabbermouth.net is a website dedicated to heavy metal and hard rock news, as well as album and music DVD reviews. Blabbermouth.net was founded and is run by Borivoj Krgin. The first version of the website was launched in March 2001; in October ...

, the video "features a barrage of startling visceral images which perfectly match the raging brutality of the track." Buckley said that to make the video he needed to "acknowledge the masochism I wrote of

n the lyrics N, or n, is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''. History ...

to myself. You don't get rewarded for your faith and you don't get celebrated for your heroism." On January 25,

Epitaph Records Epitaph Records is an American independent record label owned by Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, most acts signed to the label were punk and pop punk acts, while there are many post-hardcore and emo bands ...

began posting a series of videos to YouTube offering viewers a behind the scenes look into the making of ''Ex Lives''. On February 22, a music video was released for the song "Revival Mode", which was directed by Robert Schober. Buckley said the video had a "very ambiguously creepy

David Lynch David Keith Lynch (born January 20, 1946) is an American filmmaker, visual artist and actor. A recipient of an Academy Honorary Award in 2019, Lynch has received three Academy Award nominations for Best Director, and the César Award for Be ...

vibe to it" and that it features a "story line that exists outside of us as members of a band. It's dark and weird and while not completely adhering thematically to the lyrics, it sets a larger, broader mood which marries the song perfectly." Schober said the video is a "surrealist crime drama set on a lost highway...the story loosely interprets key phrases from the song...the guys were awesome and put up with many hours of freezing temperatures in the middle of the desert." ''Ex Lives'' was made available for streaming on February 28, before being released on March 6 through Epitaph Records. In October, the band went on a tour of Australia. In January 2013, the band toured Australia as part of the Big Day Out festival.

Reception

"Ex Lives" debuted on the

Billboard 200 The ''Billboard'' 200 is a record chart ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States. It is published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine and is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of art ...

at No. 20 selling around 14,300 copies.Every Time I Die Ex Lives Billboard sales
Lambgoat (2012-03-14). Retrieved on 2012-08-15. This is their highest charting position to date.

Track listing

All songs written by Every Time I Die. ;Bonus tracks

Personnel

Personnel per booklet. Every Time I Die *

– vocals * Jordan Buckley – guitar * Andrew Williams – guitar * Ryan "Leg$" Leger – drums *

– bass Additional musician *

John Christ John Christ (born John Wolfgang Knoll on February 19, 1965) is an American musician best known as the original guitarist for the metal band Danzig. He has been known for his bluesy hard rock sound and frequent use of the pinch harmonic. Chris ...

– high caffeine lead guitar on "Revival Mode" Production * Evil

–

producer Producer or producers may refer to: Occupations *Producer (agriculture), a farm operator *A stakeholder of economic production *Film producer, supervises the making of films **Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

, mixing * Morgan Stratton, Sean Oakley – assistant engineers * Nick Pritchard – design * Christopher Pike – photos

Chart performance

References

External links

*http://blowthescene.com/reviews/every-time-i-die-ex-lives-review-and-full-stream.html {{Authority control 2012 albums Every Time I Die albums Epitaph Records albums Albums produced by Joe Barresi