Outrage! Is Now | Death From Above: Album Review

Artist: Death From Above
Album: Outrage! Is Now
Release date: 2017

The Toronto hard-rock duo, Death From Above released their new single, “Freeze Me” earlier this year, the same day they announced their name change. Death From Above was locked in a legal dispute since 2004 with James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem’s record label, which was also called Death From Above. To appease Murphy, the band affixed 1979 to the end of Death From Above but have now since dropped the suffix just in time of the release of their new album on Sept. 8, Outrage! Is Now.

The 10-track album starts off with a flashy track that’s danceable while also flaunting the band’s ability to create hard guitar distortions as well as lead singer (and drummer) Sebastian Grainger’s contagious vocals.

Though lyrics are not necessarily this band’s strength, it is evident that they’re trying to balance some of their lyrical clichés with sharp wit in other verses.

The third song on the album, “Caught Up,” tries and fails miserably to adopt a more “funk” sound while droning simultaneously, but the band returns to their fail-safe of shredding in the title track.

This album overall is more poppy than their previous works, though Death From Above is known for their signature ability to teeter between pop and punk. It sounds almost like a rebrand, though it comes o less as a reinvention and more as cranking up the dial on buoyant pop.