
26 July 2023 – EP review by Lucas Bell
April 18th, 12am on the dot. I remember that time very well. I opening my phone to my entire news feed on Facebook going ballistic. A new band called Better Lovers just dropped their first single. Now normally, you wouldn’t see this level of hype for a band, from one song. So I was curious to deep dive it more. Much to my surprise and delight, Better Lovers is the long gestating project, teased by former Every Time I Die guitarist Jordan Buckley for at least the last six or so months, featuring former Every Time I Die (ETID) members Steve Micciche, and Clayton Holyoak, affectionately known to the ETID fans as Goose. What I didn’t expect though, was who was joining them on this project. Joining on guitars (and I assume in some kind of production capacity), is Fit For An Autopsy’s Will Putney, and one of the greatest living vocalists today, Greg Puciato. Greg is the former The Dillinger Escape Plan vocalist, and current vocalist of synthwave project The Black Queen and the other massive metal supergroup Killer Be Killed, on top of being a pretty successful solo artist. This announcement absolutely floored me. And not only that, but a song was ready for release, AND an EP was announced, AND a US tour. And now, the EP is out. So let’s give it a crack.
The EP opens with the song ‘Sacrifical Participant’. From the opening riff, it immediately brought a sense of nostalgia of two of my all time favourite bands. The guitars, bass and drums reek of that gorgeous Every Time I Die style arrangement, but then having a man that sits on my “Mount Rushmore” of all time greatest vocalists, Greg Pucaito, throwing that Dillinger Escape Plan level vocal intensity over the ETID instrumentation immediately transports me back to my early 20s, moshing in my bedroom to The New Black and Milk Lizard. The high point of this track, as is most of the EP, is the chorus. No joke, but if you took an Every Time I Die song, and swapped out Keith’s vocals for Greg’s, it’s exactly the same. I don’t say this as any kind of cop out to either man. I don’t think either man is interchangable for the other, but instead a perfect marriage of styles, as both men give a very similar output of quality, while making it feel like their own style.
Track two is the song they surprised dropped on us back in April, ’30 Under 13′. Hearing this song for the first time absolutely blew my mind. Hearing four-fifths of this band being from 2 of my favourite bands, plus Will Putney joining them, this was something I could not fathom. This track is much more of a mathcore-y Dillinger inspired track, which is right in Greg’s wheelhouse, vocally. The song also has this really interesting injection of southern rock/metal that Every Time I Die are known for. Overall, a very solid track.
‘Become So Small’ is up next, and I actually think of the four songs released, this might be my favourite. The immediate need to throw my body around, even while standing, to the opening 30 seconds, shows how much of a banger this track is. Again, this feels like a very Dillinger inspired track, even getting this deep, sexy bass line that sounds very much inspired by something that Liam Wilson from Dillinger would do. The last minute or so of this song is where it shines. The song transforms into another slow, body melting jam. Where the frenetic energy of the first two minutes was, the last minute becomes this very slow beatdown of a track, that I just adore.

The final track of the EP is ‘God Made Me an Animal’. Don’t let the southern blues inspired intro riff fool you though, this one is a face melter. The “GOD-MADE-ME-AN-AN-NI-MAL” line feels built to sing along to, and this is the song I could see a bunch of stage diving done to. Much like the last song, there is a bit of a genre change at the midway point of the song, but it doesn’t stick aroung for long, as it slowly plunges you back into the heaviness, to end the EP on a total high.
Overall, this has been personally one of my most anticipated releases since it was announced, and it lived up to, and beyond, to any hype I had for it. I hope with a Greg Pucaito tour in 2024 happening, we can see the boys come out for a tour around that time.
Rating – 9/10