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Jan 24, 2024 Web Exclusive By Frank Valish

Blood, Hair, and Eyeballs is Alkaline Trio’s 10th album. Let that sink in. Since adding bassist Dan Andriano prior to the band’s first full length, Goddamnit!, in 1998, the Matt Skiba-fronted trio has managed to outlast late ‘90s punk, early aughts emo, and all the years after when so many of their contemporaries seemed to outgrow their roots. Over 10 albums, Alkaline Trio has managed to stay true to its core sound while also maturing, subtly enough to continue to appeal to Goddamnit! diehards while at the same time expanding its palette just slightly enough to continue to remain interesting.

Blood, Hair, and Eyeballs is the next chapter. The album opens with a bang with the pun-titled “Hot for Preacher,” a track which is centered around a riff that’s more metal than punk. “Meet Me” features the signature sing-along melodies that Akaline Trio does so well. And at song three, Andriano takes a lead vocal turn in the skittering, furious “Versions of You,” a song that holds up against the best of the band’s catalog.

The rest of the album proceeds similarly. “Break” references the blood-and-gore that was so front and center of the band’s 2003 breakthrough Good Mourning. The title track makes egregious but effective use of the word “motherfuckin’.” And the album closes with “Teenage Heart,” a gigantic melody about the disaffected, name-checking AR-15s and fentanyl. The band’s signature sound is obviously intact on Blood, Hair, and Eyeballs, but the songs are rendered with such immediacy and melodic intensity that the new wrinkles are amplified and any sameness rendered meaningless. (www.alkalinetrio.com)

Author rating: 7/10