#Drink This Music

[doomedandstoned]

DIE LIKE GENTLEMEN Return with Fiery Double Album ‘Hard Truths’

~Doomed & Stoned Debuts~

By Billy Goate

“Ocean at Night with Burning Ship” by Marcus Larson

DIE LIKE GENTLEMEN have always represented to me the ideal fusion of rock and metal. Drawing on their sludgey roots, the Portland, Oregon quartet adopts progressive and dramatic elements for a punchy sound that is, in the band's words, "new and original, yet familiar." This is no less true on their fifth album, 'Hard Truths' (2021).

In the opener "Guts of a Beggar," a homeless man proclaims: "How can you just step over me? I'm still a man. Even stewing in my own filth, I’m still a man." It is sung with lusty aplomb by the throaty vocals of frontman Adam Alexander. High drama at its best, the first chapter of what feels like an epic adventure as the record spins along.

This takes us to the apocalyptic, "Last Night On Earth," which bemoans our blithe attitude towards this place we call home, as we tear it away little by little.

We’ll pay by degrees plastic tides recede mountains of debris

"Whipping Boy" begins with a chugging gallop and vocals that reach levels of epic doom, mingled with elements of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. The verses and choruses here are hearty and robust, something that's become a Die Like Gentlemen trademark.

whatever crimes the kings devise the whipping boy will pay the price

"Letting in the Rain" is another standout track, coming later in the album. It captures the gloom, uncertainty, and paranoia of isolation during a long Northwest winter ("Did I leave these footprints on my floor? Did I unlock this door?").

There is sardonic humor on the record, too, as on "Bury Me." If you've ever wanted to watch the world burn, then perhaps you can relate to this dying man's plea:

Bury me but only up to my eyes so I can see the world and watch the spool unfurl

Bury me but only up to my nose so I can smell the smoke and hear the living choke

Lyrics seem to touch upon matters relatable to our time, yet strangely removed from it, as if coming from the realm of dreams. It's like a Dr. Suess poem full of odd characters, unusual turns of a phrase, and whimsical illusions. Not quite a Neil Fallon word salad (Clutch) or a Serge Tankian spittoon (System of a Down), Die Like Gentlemen nevertheless traffic in the urgent, carnal, and bizarre.

The music itself seems to pull you right out to sea in an undertow of brash vocals, bold tonal choices, progressive stylings, and frenetic unease. When I search for the nearest anchoring point, I compare it with Mastodon's Leviathan.

In the end, vocalist/guitarist Adam Alexander comments:

We just write what we write. We all share a lot of influences – classic rock, death metal, doom, grunge. I guess it’s where we feel most comfortable: darkness, anger, anxiety, depression and doom. We’re not the first band to find freedom in dwelling on darker aspects but we’re always following different inspirations to keep things interesting.

Hard Truths is Die Like Gentlemen's most robust effort to date. It releases March 17th and will be issued on CD and 2xLP in addition to digital via Drink This Music (pre-order here). For fans of Mastodon, The Lord Weird Slough Feg, and Melvins.

Give ear...

Hard Truths by Die Like Gentlemen

SOME BUZZ

It’s remarkable to think that almost ten years on from the release of their 2013 debut, 'Romantic Delusions of Hell,' venerable cult rockers Die Like Gentlemen remain one of Portland Underground’s best kept secrets.

Born into the city’s heavy music scene; distinguished, eloquent and steeped in the spirit of Priest and Sabbath, for too long the Pacific Northwest’s gain has very much been the wider world’s loss.

However, this year all that should change. The band makes a thunderous return and with it bring their progressive rock leanings, deft song writing, heavy metal riffs, and well-warranted self-confidence on 'Hard Truths' (2023), their fifth studio album and most ambitious and cohesive work yet.

Photograph by Stephanie Savenkoff

The last few years have been a challenge for everyone in our little town of Portland: the politics, the pandemic, the isolation, the wildfires, the protests, the crime, the poverty, the addicted, and the toll of all this upon our collective mental well-being.

This album, years in the making, was written against this backdrop of turmoil, always keeping in mind that we cannot defeat our demons without first staring them in the face and acknowledging them for what they are: an aspect of ourselves.

'Hard Truths' is a swirling tempest of heavy metal and classic rock, in keeping with the band’s Odysseus-like approach to exploration, rocking hard against prevailing winds of change. A full hour of twists and turns, wails and screams, passion and precision, and through it all, grappling with some very hard truths about ourselves and the world.

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[kiivg]

.Tip: always kiss your LI after big boss fights to receive HP boosts.

[corellianhounds]

Saw one of those posts where someone was like “Boba Fett was only 37 in Return of the Jedi?? He shoulda been at the clubbb” and like. I cannot stress enough how much he was at the club. He was chilling in the corner but he was AT the club. Max Rebo was there and everything

[queermasculine]

that post lesbian event afterglow.. getting home looking in the mirror sweaty as fuck and alive

[mangodarlings]

─ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ edgar stimboard requested by @down2cowtown, with themes of tech, drinking and music!

─ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ credits ; ☕️ , 📺 , 📼 , ☕️ , 📺 , 📼 , ☕️

[techn0tony]

I present to you: Donnie's design from my Future AU (that still does not have a name-)

Okay so a few things I should mention:

It's hard to see these details, but he has a robotic hand and eye (and one of his legs as well)

He is so fucking tall, he is taller than Leo even (but shorter than Raph of course). And yes he does tease Leo about it

He is the second brother to die, but I haven't decided his cause of death yet

There is a lore reason for places on his skin being blue, but it would be spoilers for my Separated AU if I told the reason x.x

This is the same Donnie from my Separated AU, my AU's are connected

EDIT MONTHS LATER LMAO:

Augh okay so actually I updated this recently: He does not die after Raph anymore, now Donnie is the first brother who dies

And the AU has a name now! It's the Genius Built AU

[nataliliv]

Let the evening bring harmony and peace ❤️ ☕ 🌹

[nanmo-wakaran]

sheet music coffee☕🎼

[nobodysdaydreams]

I don’t know to what extent the “they added stuff to Wicked Part 2” is true, but if they did add stuff, I’m gonna need the Wizard to face the music a little bit more because his story ends with him believing he murdered his own child for the stupidest of reasons and that needs more attention.

Not only is he a deadbeat and a powerless con man, but he puts a hit out on his own long-lost daughter (the witch) who once looked up to him as a hero. He even sends a lost little girl (Dorothy) to do the job, since he’s too much of coward to face the witch himself.

Does he do this because Elphaba is trying to kill him?

No, he does it because she’s calling out his animal abuse and won’t use her own super powerful magic to help her old man trick people into thinking he’s cool.

Do they at least have an “I am your father moment” like in Star Wars?

No, in the musical, she never finds out (though that might be for the best), but when the Wizard does, he had the audacity to act shocked and sad even though he was getting with random women in his youth and giving them all mysterious green beverages so really this shouldn’t be surprising, statistically he likely had a kid out there somewhere and if he “always wanted to be a dad” or cared as much as he claimed, he really should have been on that. But he was only concerned with dodging the child support payments, and now he thinks his only child is dead because of him.

So does he at the very least clear her name, accept whatever punishment the people see fit for his crimes, hold a funeral for Elphaba, or perhaps try to finish what she started by beginning to make right or undo the horrible crimes that he committed?

Nah. He’s just like “welp. The jig is up, time to skedaddle” and sadly gets in his hot air balloon and regretfully lets the breeze blow him away.

Like, no. He should not get away that easy. I want his stupid balloon to crash in the middle of a field where Elphaba and Fiyero find him crying over her green bottle and are like:

“Let me get this straight. You’re swept away to a magic land. Your first move is getting with random women and giving them mysterious magic green liquids before you con your way into taking over the land and silencing all the animals by making them literal scapegoats. Then, you’re looking for someone to help you keep up your charade, and a person whose age + 9 months is equal to the amount of time that’s passed since you got with those random women and gave them green elixirs shows up, a green person, the only green person in this entire realm, who is insanely powerful in a way no one can explain, and it never, never, occurs to you to check whether or not this is your child!???”

The Wizard (through pathetic tears as he lovingly strokes the green bottle): “I said I was a sentimental man. Never said I was a smart one. Someone green’s age + 9 months = time since I last saw a pretty woman and gave her a mysterious green beverage is very, very hard math.”

Fiyero: “Are you sure you’re not the one without a brain?”

[zillychu]

there is a heinous lack of Venti + Mondstadt character content and I'm one category 7 autism event away from filing the void myself

[xo-myloves]

I need to drink how Duffy used too 💋🖤

(Not sexually or making fun of having a alcohol addiction)

[radley-writes]

Odysseus really said 'if you don't drink your Respect Women juice you answer to me in Life Juice (blood)' and he was so real for that

[buglaur]

simself because i made a tank top

[jelepermets]

Shoutout to Kyle Adams for singing "Drink with Me" right at Enjolras. Facing him directly, staring into his soul, his voice breaking. 12/10 I'll never recover

[ecoharbor]

📍Capri, Italy 🇮🇹