Album review: Militarie Gun – God Save The Gun

Ian Shelton won’t let himself run away from the cold, hard truth. ‘I’ve been drunk every day for a month,’ he declares on Daydream, a song at the midpoint of Militarie Gun’s second album, as delicate textures of strings and distant acoustic guitar chords afford him very little to hide behind. The vocalist went from devoutly straight edge, thanks to the alcoholism of his mother and grandmother, to a person leaving empty bottles and destruction in his wake. He’s sober now, but God Save The Gun finds him looking at the detritus around him and confronting himself.

Lines like the above are par for the course, and a huge factor in what makes this album so arresting. Take this gem that sits upon the choppy riffs of Kick: ‘If I kicked you in the face / I’m sorry, but I will do it again.’ God Owes Me Money finds him joining the dots between his past trauma and his own misery and lashing out at the forces that apparently made this so. ‘You’ve successfully murdered all my goddamn peace / Now we both have this disease,’ he curses, his voice raspy with frustration. But it’s the devastating I Won’t Murder Your Friend that’s the biggest heart-in-mouth moment, ripping apart romantic notions of suicide and thinking of it, instead, as self-murder. ‘How are you gonna say sorry to the person who discovers your body?’ asks Ian.

This cavalcade of gut-punch moments hits even harder thanks to just how much the Californian quintet have evolved sonically. Its hooks are somehow bigger, catchier and more consistent than ever – see the bouncing alt.rock banger Fill Me With Paint and the pacy, self-effacing Throw Me Away – but there’s more fluidity to it, too. Their hardcore roots are present and correct, with lead single B A D I D E A offering the chunky two-step moment the diehards crave, but they happily transcend its frontiers with washes of synths and violins. In fact, there’s a real sense of presentation here, that this is a thematic body of work instead of a mere collection of songs, one which is more considered and creative than ever.

Out of Ian’s time of crisis, Militarie Gun have made themselves a silver lining, a record that’s not just a tremendous step up but one that could be their defining moment.

Verdict: 4/5

For fans of: High Vis, Higher Power, Basement

God Save The Gun is out now via Loma Vista