Stick to Your Guns
Disobedient


4.5
superb

Review

by MegaJake1024 USER (1 Reviews)
February 6th, 2015 | 69 replies


Release Date: 2015 | Tracklist

Review Summary: A motivational message written in catchy and passionate melodic hardcore

Orange County's Stick to Your Guns have come a long way since the youthful snarling of 2007's For What It's Worth, but at heart they remain the same. Some may find their incessant preaching distracting and distasteful, but the band somehow manages to preach in a modest and genuine way that has won them a throng of diehard fans, such as myself. With that being said, there's an undoubted bias from which I listen to this album, as the band has a special place in my heart. Still, the maturity and songwriting is indubitably fantastic this time around, and the message remains just as profound.

Disobedient continues right from where 2012's Diamond left off. More Ghandi quotes referring to soul-searching and finding the inner strength and peace within oneself, and more aggressive, melodic, anthemic passion. It Starts With Me grows from frontman Jesse Barnett's melodic clean vocals (which have much improved, though it remains to be seen whether he can keep up in his live performance) into some gang vocals that lead into the first Ghandi passage, calling on listeners to take responsibility for the suffering in the world. The track pulls you right off your chair and onto your feet.

While the next three tracks, and the three tracks released prior to the album, are good, they are not among the strongest on the album. But one can't help feeling turned on by Barnett screaming "*** the message" at the end of RMA. Just another instance of Stick to Your Guns doing something just a little bit different from everyone else, as its something not usually heard of when it comes to the Civil Rights Movement.

The album hits its most passionate point in its middle section with To Whom It May Concern, The Crown, and I Choose No One. To Whom It May Concern hits hard and emotional, ending with a soft reprise of It Starts With Me, and it is maybe my favorite track on the album. The Crown follows and, in my opinion, should've been the record's single. Its catchy and powerful, and when Barnett screams "I understand the feeling of thinking you've failed me, and I understand the blaming and the pain that it brings" followed by some of the album's most adrenalized though not irregular guitar work. And I Choose No One brings the heaviest the album has to offer, beginning with a sample for the Great Dictator and ending with Terror's Scott Vogel bringing the track to a crushing close.

The album closes in the captivating "Left You Behind" which shows Stick to Your Guns as the softest they've ever been. But the track really, really works, telling the story of a young man leaving home trying to find his way.

Stick to Your Guns may have lost a small amount of the aggression conjured in their prior releases, but really, they've stepped perhaps one step back for several steps forward, particularly as far as melody goes. The album’s low point, Nothing You Can do to me, as well as the far better The War Inside, demonstrate STYG taking a couple steps closer to their generic contemporaries, but they still have something no one else has. And that’s an admirable heartfelt message, on top of engaging melodic hardcore.


user ratings (251)
3.4
great
other reviews of this album
buildthewall (4)
Stick to Your Guns claim that their albums will keep getting better until they disband, this album s...



Comments:Add a Comment 
MegaJake1024
February 6th 2015


827 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0 | Sound Off

Album is streaming on Altpress

http://www.altpress.com/features/entry/hear_stick_to_your_guns_new_album_disobedient

Gameofmetal
Emeritus
February 6th 2015


11738 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

Better add the link mate

Gameofmetal
Emeritus
February 6th 2015


11738 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

"But one can't help feeling turned on by Barnett screaming "*** the message" at the end of RMA"



umm what? why the fuck would I be turned on by a stick to your guns song. For the matter, that paragraph doesn't really make any sense to me, idk if I'm just not reading it correctly or whatever.



Also try putting song titles in ""



ok review though overall.

MattTD
February 6th 2015


678 Comments


Decent review. Agree with Game though, "turned on" just isn't the right phrase to use. Could also be a bit more fluent at points.

2CHAINAL
February 6th 2015


260 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

so excited for this to drop

Trebor.
Emeritus
February 7th 2015


60012 Comments

Album Rating: 2.0

band name, album name, album cover, and review summary make me want to stay far away from this

TooLateToGoBack
February 7th 2015


2108 Comments

Album Rating: 3.0

lol at that album cover.

MMX
February 7th 2015


5021 Comments

Album Rating: 2.5

same stuff as the last 2 albums. Nothing all that horrible, but there is nothing all that great about this



album warrant's 1 listen if that

Gameofmetal
Emeritus
February 7th 2015


11738 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

Used to dig the fuck out of this band but I haven't hyped this much.

Spec
February 7th 2015


40136 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5

Diamond was pretty bad so I don't know about this.

dixoncocks
February 7th 2015


3247 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

Yes. Can't wait to get home and listen to this.

Observer
Emeritus
February 7th 2015


9453 Comments


If its catchy I'm in

metalheadrunner
February 7th 2015


343 Comments


Welcome to sput, man, good review.

XxUpinsiderxX
February 8th 2015


122 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

Catchy as fuck and has some brutal moments. I love how passionate Jeese is in this vocals.

nononsense
February 8th 2015


3545 Comments


Bands at their best when they ditch the cleans and go with an onslaught of hardcore fury

Gameofmetal
Emeritus
February 8th 2015


11738 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

Amber is probably their best song

MegaJake1024
February 8th 2015


827 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0 | Sound Off

@Gameofmetal,



Yeah, that paragraph is poorly written. I just mean to say that I enjoy the "fuk the message" while in a song trying to motivate revolutionary movement. Which is very different than most Civil Rights stuff these days, which is a lot of talk and very little action.

MegaJake1024
February 8th 2015


827 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0 | Sound Off

Wish this had a bit more heavy but its just so good, and the choruses are miles better than in the past. The strength of Amber's chorus almost gets recreated many times.

Spec
February 8th 2015


40136 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5

Amber rules yea.

LewisShaw
February 9th 2015


354 Comments

Album Rating: 2.5

Cleans are damn awful, what were they thinking



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