What better way to escape the mudslinging, castigation and vituperation that accompanies Election Day than with a slab of home-grown hard rock? And when that rock comes from Eastbourne’s Amongst Liars, well, there’s no contest really. After setting paces racing with their eponymously-titled 2022 debut album, the pull off a similar trick with their new effort By Design. Featuring eleven tracks of the best in modern rock, Amongst Liars are sounding familiar, but fresh, and show why things are better by design.

In the past year or so the album as an art form is making a comeback rather than just being a collection of singles, and it is a development of which I thoroughly approve. An album should ululate and take the listener on a ride between heady highs and loquacious lows and that’s precisely what By Design does. After placing us on life support with the brief preamble that is ‘Prelude’, Amongst Liars soon shock us back to reality with opening blast ‘Ready For This’. Like a defibrillator to the chest it delivers a vitamin shot that could shock even the most ardent somnambulist from their slumber, but the knockout blow is saved for the following ‘You Are Not A Slave’. It’s a rabble rousing anthem, a call-to-arms in these troubled times and throws its weight around like a heavyweight boxer. After sending us freewheeling down a steep incline, Amongst Liars pull the breaks on ‘By Design’ to hit us with a moody rocker and that’s indicative of how By Design works and uses tempo changes and subtle shifts in tonality to subliminally alter the listener’s physiology. So while it is perfectly feasible to dip in and out of this record (several tracks have been released as singles) it is best consumed whole and in one sitting. While not a concept album per se, the themes of anxiety and defiance that reverberate throughout the record help stitch it together into a cohesive whole.

Closing the album with a riff heavy rocker ‘Wolf Machine’ sinks its teeth into your memory bank, gives a good shake and refuses to let go. A solid sophomore album that finds Amongst Liars scaling new heights, you need this album in your life.

• By Design is self-released on 4th July 2024.
• Official Website | Facebook | X (Twitter) | YouTube Channel

Track List:

1. Prelude
2. Ready For This?
3. You Are Not a Slave
4. By Design
5. The Shameful
6. Mind
7. Vice
8. No Control
9. Alibi
10. Say
11. Wolf Machine