Militarie Gun’s 2023 debut album “Life Under The Gun” was received by fans and critics as a step in a more melodic direction from the band’s grittier, hardcore-informed EPs, but bandleader Ian Shelton said it was the way he’d heard Militarie Gun in his head the whole time. It was during the making of the album that Ian discovered how to hone in on his pop sensibilities, and now, Militarie Gun are back with a new album that presents them first and foremost as an alternative rock band.
This sounds like the work of a band who’s found their comfort zone, and who’s still able to change things up enough to incorporate cheerleader chants (“B A D I D E A”), jangle pop guitars (“Laugh At Me”), hip hop interludes, and a string-laden acoustic emo ballad (“Daydream”). It’s also the work of an artist who’s gone through some shit and is ready to open up about it. After abstaining from alcohol for the first 30 years of his life, Ian says he started drinking and developed an unhealthy relationship with it relatively quickly, and those experiences shaped this album.
The songs vary between desperation, melancholy, and self-sabotage, and it doesn’t take long to realize how dark this subject matter can get. Even before you hear the lyrics, you see such track titles as “Maybe I’ll Burn My Life Down” and “I Won’t Murder Your Friend.” big hooks and big feelings from a noticeably more tortured narrator.
It marks a bold leap forward for the Los Angeles based band, conceptually and artistically, pulling in new sounds, raw reflections on self-destruction, and some nineties ethos. At face value, it’s a concept album about hitting rock bottom and the arc of that crashing, burning, rebuilding, and repeating.
“Pt. II” kicks things off with a distorted spoken word piece of Shelton responding to how he’s been. Judging by his bruised, defeated face on the album’s cover, it’s not good. It is “B.A.D,” to be exact, as it drops straight into lead single “B.A.D.I.D.E.A,” an arena-sized power-punk anthem Shelton originally wrote for Doja Cat, when she expressed interest in making a hardcore punk album two years ago. That might sound odd, but Militarie Gun has been hovering at the edge of pop culture for a while.
The Fat Angel Sings 