Low Teens was absolutely next on my list after the wild ride of Radical. I wanted to hear more of Every Time I Die's sound, as well as see if they were really as revolutionary as their reputation suggested.
Having known the familiarity barrier of Radical, I knew Low Teens would need a few good spins before I could start to appreciate it, and so I did despite none of the songs really sticking as well as Radical's on first listens. Fast forward two months and I've spun it enough to start loving the little nooks and crannies of this record, and I have to say that it is quite a formidable record, despite not being as consistently great overall as Radical.
A consistent selling point of their sound is that you'll never expect anything generic. From the get-go with Fear and Trembling's intro riff, you can tell you're in for a very interesting ride. Low Teens as a predecessor shares a lot of similarities in sound, although a subtly stronger influence from their mathcore roots is present.
There's a lot more oddities going around in this record than Radical, and also wilder song names, reminiscent of stereotypical song names of the emo genre. The inclusion of Brendon Urie as a hidden guest on It Remembers is also very cool, and surprisingly I didn't realise it was him the first few times I spun the record.
Low Teens didn't make as strong an impression as Radical, but I'm okay to give it some empathy points for being overshadowed by Radical in my mind. It seems to be a formidable record when it came out and maybe their peak at the time, which can only mean well to imply that they, as a band, only ever get better with every release. I can't say I've played it enough times to be completely and entirely sure of my thoughts on it, but for the most part, there are some bangers and the rest are decent, and I'm okay to leave it at that.
Rating: 8/10