Lucky Stiffs
Gold In Peace, Iron In War

By Keith Carman

Hopping around inside of one’s own genre can be dangerous. For instance, hardcore and gothic still fall under the greater punk rock banner but each side is guarded with such passion that it’s almost more dangerous to cross someone in your own camp than say, be a free-jazz nut. This is the tense atmosphere Lucky Stiffs happily toy with on Gold In Peace, Iron In War. They consciously implement both of the aforementioned in the same song with a strong dose of mid-’90s Fat punk (No Use For A Name and Lagwagon come immediately to mind) to boot. Above it all though, elements of Good Riddance’s coarse personality clash with the melancholy pop punk put forth by Alkaline Trio. It has this aura of tough guys getting in touch with their feelings but without sucking immensely. Throw in a series of chant-a-longs and the occasional pseudo-honky tonk guitar solo and one can see how Gold In Peace, Iron In War is most certainly innovative. Not necessarily what everyone will adore but innovative nonetheless, even the naysayers will be bouncing their heads when the Avail-ish parts come up.

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