Offering the best of mid 2000s Brand New and Taking Back Sunday inspiration, Standby Records’ newest alternative rock sensation is bound to electrify listeners with coastal melodies and energized melancholic riffs with the September 2nd release of Here’s Your Way Out by Demon in Me.
Lyrics like, “If you’re gonna love me, make it hurt,” in “Make it Hurt” donate an appealing level of sado-masochism to the album to pair with moderately paced drum crescendos and walls of atmospheric guitar tones.
The band’s full length debut contains hues of San Jose living and the suffocation that comes with living in a place or state of mind that is only miles from freedom, much like the distance between the valley and the ocean, which can partially be seen in the album’s cover art.
Here’s Your Way Out is a freedom protest of sorts, illuminating the struggle of escaping, even when you have the necessary means and everything is right in front of you. “Sink or Swim” is a testament to that very feeling and experience. “Bruised Hands” is a steady pulse with rhythmic vocals and driving guitar leads. “Black & White” is a painful collection of memories contrasting the bad and the slightly better with shimmering clean guitars and tribal verses.
Demon in Me is about to be on the radar of alternative music fans around the world. The sincerity in Here’s Your Way Out is refreshingly original while being reminiscent enough of emo’s very best.
