After nearly twenty years and seven full-length albums, Stick To Your Guns fans know what to expect from the band: explosive breakdowns, anthemic choruses, meaningful, politically-charged lyrics and a willingness to constantly try new things. Their newest album, Spectre is no different. Lyrically, the album finds the band pushing back on the idea of the American Dream and capitalism more than ever before, and sonically, it calls back to their roots in the punishing verses of songs like “A World To Win,” “Who Dares” and “Instruments Of The End” while also proving that they still have new sounds to explore in tracks like the grungy “Open Up My Head” and stunning final track, “No Way To Live”.
Stick To Your Guns have never shied away from blunt, honest and extremely vulnerable lyrics, and Spectre follows suit. Opening the album is the explosive “Weapon”, which finds Jesse Barnett coming to terms with who he is and the constant push and pull between becoming apathetic and complacent or caring so much about something that it hurts you in lines like, “Torn between / You won’t grow from your apathy / Hate is choking the love in me”. Later on in the album, he embraces his convictions in “The Shine,” insisting, “I am relentless in my allegiance Committed to my truth / Dedicated to the obligation / Of what I refuse”.
Meanwhile “Who Dares” introduces a strong underlying theme of the album: “They can’t kill us all”. Songs that follow suit, pointing out the countless flaws in capitalist society include “A World To Win”, “Open Up My Head” “Liberate” and “More Of Us Than Them”, just to name a few. This all comes to a head on the album’s stunning acoustic closer, “No Way To Live,” in which Barnett opens up about his relationship with his father, and his father’s relationship with America. The powerful song merges both the more personal and the political-leaning songs on the album, pointing out that while Barnett’s father gave everything to his country, it will never love him back.
Driving the powerful lyrical content of Spectre home is Stick To Your Guns’ always spectacular songwriting. Songs like “Weapon” “Hush”, “A World To Win”, “The Shine” and “More Of Us Than Them” are total classic STYG songs, complete with absolutely punishing drums, spectacular bass, heavy as fuck guitar and gang vocals that will have fans singing along at a show in no time. But that’s not to say that they’re not trying new things, too. “Open Up My Head” is easily a standout track, sandwiched between “A World To Win” and the aggressive “Liberate”, taking on a more sludgy, grungy quality, meanwhile “Father” is a haunting masterpiece that warns, “True freedom is dead”.
Each track on Spectre is powerful in its own right, making the album well worth multiple listens. Although it can feel a bit choppier than their previous releases at times, especially when the band slows things down in songs like “Open Up My Head”, Spectre as a whole is an absolute success. The album proves yet again why we still need bands like Stick To Your Guns and music with meaning.