 
As soon as Alkaline Trio completed their UK tour
in May 2012 then headed straight back to America
to start work on their ninth studio album and
as the months passed there was no update on how
work for the album was going or anything until
out of the blue Alkaline Trio released a lyric
video for ‘I Wanna Be A Warhol’ back
in February, the video took the internet by storm
with fans of the band leaving mixed comments on
the comment section of the You Tube video and
various different social media sites, a day later
Alkaline Trio announced that their ninth studio
album is to be called ‘My Shame Is True’,
they also revealed the album track listing, artwork
and release date and since then they have been
teasing their fans with various different lyric
videos for songs off the album such as ‘Torture
Doctor’, ‘I Pessimist’, ‘I
Am Only Here To Disappoint’, ‘The
Temptation Of St Anthony’ and many more
which gave an insight into how diverse sounding
‘My Shame Is True’ is sounding.
‘My Shame Is True’ is due to be released
on the 1st April through their own label Heart
And Skull records which happens to be a joint
venture with the legendary punk label Epitaph
records and after all the teaser videos the bands
fans must be counting down the days to the 1st
April and after listening to the album a few times
over I can confirm that it has been worth the
wait and is easily the bands strongest album since
2003’s ‘Good Mourning’.
The album opens with ‘She Lied To The FBI’
and as soon as the catchy nature of the song kicks
in with Matt Skiba’s fast flowing vocals
you just know that Alkaline Trio still have the
knack to write new songs that quickly become fan
favourites, the song is quite a simple pop-punk
song yet it features the same vibe and feel of
classic Alkaline Trio material and you can’t
help but bop along to melodic sounds coming through
your speakers.
‘I Wanna Be A Warhol’ is the first
single taken from the album and also the first
song Alkaline Trio premiered from the album a
couple of months ago, the song is a little darker
sounding from the opening track and features a
solid amount of electronic work and synths, vocally
the song is extremely catchy and leaves me wondering
if Skiba is itching to reform his old side project
The Heavens due to the electronic effects running
through.
‘I’m Only Here To Disappoint’
is a beast of a track and is the first track on
the album to feature Dan Andriano on lead vocals,
the song comes at you like a whirlwind with big
bouncy bass lines and fast guitar riffs whilst
Andriano really give it his all with upbeat vocals.
‘Kiss You To Death’ see’s Alkaline
Trio go down a dark sounding depressing road,
Skiba takes on lead vocals here and his vocals
add to the overall darkness of the song as he
sings “Kiss you to death tonight”
in such a slow way whilst the rest of the band
come in with backing vocals of “woahh woahh”,
whilst the song does sound dark and depressing
throughout the guitar work gives out just enough
power to mix things up a bit.
Instrumentally ‘The Temptation Of St Anthony’
sounds a lot different from previous Alkaline
Trio material as they mix things up a big and
go all out creating sounds that some people would
never expect from the Trio, vocally the song is
catchy as hell especially when the chorus kicks
in and Skiba really goes for it.
Out of all the teaser videos that Alkaline Trio
released to promote the release of ‘My Shame
Is True’ the song that stood out the most
was ‘I, Pessimist’, the song features
Tim McIlrath from Rise Against and is a fast as
fuck punk rock number where Mciirath and Andriano
battle it out with their vocals complimenting
each other on the way, the song is a short 2minute
blast of energy and is a big middle finger salute
to anyone who claims Alkaline Trio have lost their
punk edge.
The later part of the album features some cracking
songs such as the slow paced dark themed ‘Only
Love’, the ever so classic Alkaline Trio
sounding ‘Torture Doctor’ which would
easily make the track listing of a greatest hits
compilation if they ever decide to release one,
and not to forget the epic closing track ‘Till
Death Do Us Part’ which is lyrically a Matt
Skiba masterpiece.
Now I know ‘My Shame Is True’ will
be met with mixed opinions across the board as
each and every Alkaline Trio album always is,
it may not be the strongest album they have ever
released but it is the best album they have released
in the past ten years and is easily up there in
my list of top three Alkaline Trio albums, the
only negative point I can find with the album
is that Dan Andriano is not vocally featured as
much as I was hoping but this has no effect on
the overall quality of the album.
5/5
Review by Trigger
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