Stray From The Path — Euthanasia — Album Review
Hardcore | Rap | Metal | Punk
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The Long Island hardcore punk band known as Stray From The Path have been a band that I have known for a fair while now. And luckily for me, when my discovery of them was still quite fresh, it was when I was able to witness the band perform live, in support of the Brighton metalcore band Architects.
This show was indeed the album release set that Architects had headlined in celebration of Lost Forever//Lost Together, the Brighton band’s sixth studio album. But more importantly for myself, this was the first ever live gig that I had experienced. And I have to say, the whole thing was a blast!
So going back to Stray From The Path, I decided to give them a listen before said gig arrived. And with tracks like “Badge and A Bullet” and “Damien” to serve as my introductory tracks, it didn’t take long at all for me to become a fast fan of the group.
When it came to the live show, Stray From The Path absolutely smashed it! I would even go as far to say that I enjoyed listening to them as much as I did for Architects. And from there on out, I was keeping my eyes peeled out for all the material that followed.
The next album to follow the amazing Anonymous, apparently the sixth studio effort in Stray’s discography, would be their seventh, titled Subliminal Criminals and released in the year of 2015. I thoroughly enjoyed both this album, and the one that followed, 2017’s Only Death Is Real.
There was an album of theirs, however, that served as a bit of a bump in the road for me. And that would be the most recent album leading up to 2022. I’m not sure what it was about 2019’s Internal Atomics that rubbed me up the wrong way at the time. Even as I listen back on ot now, it doesn’t sound at all bad. Mayhaps I just had my fill of Stray From The Path at that point and found the album repetitive. But either way, I found my love for the band dwindling slightly.
In the earlier part of 2022, Stray From The Path began teasing for their brand new album, titled Euthanasia. And the first teaser track to come to fruition would of course be “Guillotine”. While I went into this track initially with a skeptical mindset, it eventually grew on me, and it’s brutality really reminded me of the days in which I first discovered the band.
And while I was a bit late to the party with the other two teaser tracks, I enjoyed them all the same. We of course got a little bit of fan-service in the form of “III”, the third instalment of the groups “Badge and A Bullet” series of singles, and we also got a melodic, yet no less explosive track in the form of “Bread & Roses”. While “Guillotine” was indeed a reason to be excited for the album, these other two were the final points in which my excitement towards Euthanasia’s release skyrocketed.
And now that the full album has finally arrived, I can confidently give my say, and state that this may perhaps be my favourite Stray From The Path album since Anonymous! In fact, it musically sounds very similar to 2011’s Rising Sun (the album that came before Anonymous). The screeching fuzz-heavy guitar work plays a larger role on Euthanasia, much like how it did on the 2011 album (tracks like “Chest Candy” are a perfect showcase of this).
It is undeniable that Euthanasia is as loud and as explosive as the band’s best works. However, there are a few tracks that deviate from this explosiveness to give the album a unique flavour. I specifically noticed a heavier emphasis of the hip-hop elements of their style a tad more, with tracks like “Needful Things” and “Law Abiding Citizen” being good examples.
In terms of narrative, Stray From The Path cut deep into the effects that the modern-day age, and all of its injustices are having on the people that inhabit it. This is rounded off nicely into the closing track of the album, “Ladder Work”.
And while there are still a few tracks that carry that sense of repetitiveness, they are way too few and far between to particularly matter. Stray From The Path have successfully won back my sheer enjoyment with this phenomenal album.
Favourite Tracks: Guillotine | Chest Candy | Bread & Roses | Law Abiding Citizen
Least Favourite Track: The Salt In Your Spit
UNFD
