Alkaline Trio is back with a vengeance with their seventh album, “This Addiction.” Released on Feb. 23, the Illinois punk rock band returns to darker lyrics about love, death, addiction, suicide and war more so than their previous efforts for their first full-length album on Heart & Skull/Epitaph Records. Alkaline Trio signed with Epitaph to partner with the Hollywood independent record label to create their label, Heart & Skull in November 2009 after a falling out with RCA records.
Being an Alkaline Trio fan already, I knew what to expect, yet I loved what I heard mostly throughout the whole record; classic Alkaline Trio, with dark lyrics describing the troubles of life, death, love and drugs. If already a fan, one would enjoy this album as much as I did, but if one is not, then I suggest older material to get acquainted with the Trio from Chicago. This record is not for the optimist. It is for the realist.
The first track, which shares the album title, was the first video released from Alkaline Trio since 2008’s “Help Me” off of their 2008 Epic Records release, “Agony and Irony,” and the songs play no tricks and is straight-punk rock. This pleased me as the band got down to business just like they used to on older albums.
“Dine, Dine, My Darling,” a play on words and a homage to 1980s New Jersey goth punks the Misfits’ song, “Die, Die, My Darling,” was similar to the Misfits’ songs, as Alkaline Trio displayed their vocal abilities through harmonies.
The next few tracks on the album pleased my ears as I nodded along until one song changed the tempo.
“Draculina” takes the speed down a bit to possibly relax a listener, but I wanted to hear more of the same, as odd as it might sound. Lyrics from the song pay homage to Alice in Wonderland and twist the story around, as lead vocalist/guitarist Matt Skiba sings: “What ever happened to Wonderland; Where’d Alice go? / Oh,?I took a night dream with knife in hand/ And cut out to the next show, back in her living hell/ I wish to dwell, I long to be, in the blood and the guts with the birds of prey and the stinging of bees; and bullets baby.”
“Piss and Vinegar” could be heard along with any of the band’s older material as it sounded in sync with their signature sound.
The album’s last two songs, “Dorothy” and “Fine” are the mellowest tracks on the album, to possibly end of a softer note for the album, but I was expecting more from the band on tracks such as these. Overall, I was happy with what I heard.