Militarie Gun Comes Out Swinging With God Save The Gun
On first listen God Save The Gun is a rager of an album, bringing back everything that made Militarie Gun’s first album Life Under The Gun a standout for fans of the genre. But under its hardcore adjacent melodies and sharp vocals lies lyrics that are brutally heartfelt and extremely vulnerable. God Save The Gun makes for a curious introspection on how we as humans cope with our personal struggles, emotions, (good and bad), and our ability to break the cycle regardless of who put us in it.
This album has one of my favorite openings of the year, maybe of all time. “Pt. II” really sets the tone of the whole album with the lyrics “I had to say/ things have not been/ have not been great/ honestly I’ve been B A D.”
That feeds directly into “B A D I D E A” and I love a cool transition. This song is so incredibly catchy and I hope it becomes a setlist staple for the band. The lyrics “ Missed by a mile/ could have sworn it was an inch” really stood out to me, unfortunately because it sounds like a sentiment I feel frequently.
“Fill Me With Paint” is an easy song to bop along to, bringing the standard, familiar sound we’ve come to associate with Militarie Gun, but with lyrics that anyone who puts art into the world feels connected to: the feeling of never being good enough for anyone. “I can be what you want till you throw me away” hurt my feelings in a way I wasn’t entirely expecting, but I respect wholeheartedly. “Throw Me Away” is a really good example of how the majority of the songs on this album move in a way that is so familiar to fans of the band and the genre, while being truly kind of bleak lyrically and paint a picture of running headfirst into self destruction. I think the lyrical content of this album as a whole is extremely refreshing and probably quite relatable to a lot of people who dwell heavily in this genre.
“God Owes Me Money” is my standout track on the first listen. There’s something special about the kind of synth wavy background tracks that make it an earworm. I’m a huge fan of Ian Shelton’s voice and his vocals in this track and the following one, “Daydream” are delightfully crunchy and imperfect, while still sounding well rounded and enjoyable.
“Maybe I’ll Burn My Life Down” is what a crash out would sound like if it was a song. The repeating line of “I feel trapped” along with “Think I’ll burn my goddamn life to the ground” fully encapsulates the frenetic feelings of barreling towards a full mental breakdown.
The pacing of this album is well thought out, with tracks that are more laid back musically interspersed throughout in a way that feels like a natural progression. The ebb and flow of aggressive tracks like, “Maybe I’ll Burn My Life Down” immediately followed by the chiller, but still insanely infectious “Kick” and “Laugh At Me” make this album an easy listen all the way through. “Kick” has one of my favorite moments in the album. A spoken word track layers over the chorus of the song and the two together create a really cool listening experience, especially while listening in headphones.
The closest track we get to a ballad is “I Won’t Murder Your Friend” and it may be the heaviest lyrically on the album. At its heart, this song provides a look into suicide and the ripples of consequence for everyone involved. I think this song is beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time. The line “How are you gonna say sorry to the person who discovers your body?/After all you just murdered their friend” absolutely made me cry, and if that wouldn’t have made me emotional the outro to this song would have. I think it’s so important whenever artists speak so candidly about their emotions and experiences, and God Save The Gun does that to an exemplary level for the whole album. Making music at the cost of being so open with your trauma to a large audience can’t be easy, but the way Shelton writes is so relatable to the human experience.
I’ve been listening to “Thought You Were Waving” since it came out last July so I’m no stranger to this album's penultimate track. It fits so well into the context of this album’s themes and general lyrical content.
The anthemic title track “God Save The Gun” closes out this album, and its final line, “If you want to keep your life, gotta let it go” is a beautiful last breath for the album. It manages to tie together the overarching themes of what it feels like to be on track for a head on collision with rock bottom and fleeting hopelessness with a small glimmer of hope that things CAN get a little better.
Not many bands can perfectly nail the levels of raw emotion in their lyrics and then tie them to some of the catchiest tracks in the genre, but Militarie Gun is a true singularity in that regard. God Save the Gun is out on 10/17 by Loma Vista Recordings, and catch Militarie Gun on the second leg of the Bad Idea tour starting on 10/25!
