#against-me — Public Fediverse posts

Against I are neither a one-sided I Against I nor a Rastafarian Against Me!, but a Swedish blackened death metal trio of vocalist Fredrik Keith Croona (Cynical Existence, ex-Menschdefekt), guitarist Mathias Back, and drummer Anders Ström. Founded in 2022, Against I have been busy preaching disillusionment towards man’s better angels across two LPs and and two EPs. Into their third year, Against I are back with their third full-length album Anti Life, an anthem for everyone bitter against the world, religion and, probably, their parents. This kind of intense workload in such a short time could mean a variety of things. It could mean Against I are an exceptionally driven bunch. It could also mean they’re on a fast track to burning out on Anti Life. What could it be?

I won’t faff about: Anti Life embodies the worst qualities of both black and death metal. Across nearly an hour of music, Against I slop out grooveless grooves (“Darkness Within,” “Where We Lay to Rest”) and flat tremolos (“In Death’s Grip,” “Descend”) at an unhurried mid-pace under tepid rasps and admittedly hefty gutturals (“Empire of Bones”). Against I occasionally crack out a slick drum groove (“Sacrifice,” “Empire of Bones”) but mostly stick to punky d-beats (“Built to Destroy”) or double-kick plods (“Symphony for the End”). Anti Life is heavy on gain, light on bass, and borderline bereft of dynamics or variety. Faux choirs and synths play chords to enforce its blackened aesthetics. Rinse and repeat, and you’ve got Anti Life in a nutshell. With such a limited toolbox stretched out over such a long runtime, Against I shaped a blackened death album with none of the majesty or atmosphere of black metal’s greatest hits nor the depraved brutality of death’s best.

Anti Life by Against I

Anti Life is made worse by simply clueless songwriting. Against I stick to an overly limited scope regarding song structure, with almost every track ambling between segments with little urgency or patience to let passages evolve. Nearly every chorus is just a two-to-four-bar phrase repeated twice, usually exactly the same way each time. Despite the rigid formatting, these songs feel haphazard. “Darkness Within” has one of the most aimless riffs I’ve ever heard, dicking around a handful of low notes without an apparent goal, while “In Death’s Grip” features completely random pitch-shifted vocal blips, and “All Hope Is Gone” opens and closes with electronics tacked on with little regard to the song in between.1 And then there’s the lyricism, unfortunately apparent due to Anti Life’s discernible rasps. Amidst the incessant wave of banal metal, the constant diatribes of surface-level social commentary (“Throne of Tyranny,” “War Never Ends”), tiresome nihilism (“Anti Life,” “Symphony for the End”) and premium edgelord lines like “In the land of rape and honey, only the stupid survive” (“Tempel of Greed”)2 turn Anti Life from a rough listen to a near insufferable one.

But worse than Against I having lots of bad ideas, Anti Life just doesn’t have much of anything at all. So little happens across so much time that recalling any particular moment from Anti Life is laborious. It’s telling when “Throne of Tyranny”‘s milquetoast melodeath riffing or “Greed”‘s3 guitar harmonics in its bridge—standard features in most any generic metal album—are standout highlights on Anti Life. Just constant knuckle-dragging chugs and spiceless tremolo riffs. There aren’t even any guitar solos. Or anything solos. Nothing to break up the monotonous patterns Against I are totally hellbent on maintaining. Typically, musicians strip back their sound to highlight certain aspects of their sound, but Against I don’t have anything to highlight on Anti Life. This is the most frustrating thing to write about: not the disaster album that swings and misses horrendously but doesn’t swing at all.

I don’t think Against I are inept—an inept group wouldn’t have gotten this far—but Anti Life is just terrible. Against I are spared from the dreaded AMG Unlistenable/0.5 Hall of Shame by the virtue that Anti Life at least executes the basic mechanics of metal music proficiently, if not exceptionally. This is a joyless, deeply tedious listen, and fans of both death and black metal can find anything on Anti Life on any number of other, better records in far more interesting iterations. I’m glad Against I released Anti Life close to the start of spring because this record’s uninspired negativity has got me seeking out fresh air and sunshine out of pure spite against it. I’m anti-this.

Rating: Embarrassing
DR: 3 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps MP3
Label: Twisted Flesh Recordings
Website: facebook.com/againstIband
Releases Worldwide: March 13th, 2026

Baby, I'm an Anarchist! - YouTube

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=k-1jhOtyNVM&pp=ygUNYWdhaW5zdCBtZSAsINIHCQkLCgGHKiGM7w%3D%3D

#music #musik #musica #musique

#AgainstMe #BabyImAnAnarchist :anarchistflag:

#QueerRadio :heart_trans: :pride:

#WeAreTheRadio #tootradio #pouetradio

https://open.spotify.com/track/5HhbHz7Z4HVPZQMDVNhXtM #AgainstMe #punk #PunkRock @punk #music

#AgainstMe Revisit this great 2014 punk #DailyRecords - although I didn’t mention specific tracks in my write up check out my playlist for my faves off this album https://www.auditorymusings.net/transgender-dysphoria-blues-by-against-me/

This is such a great song and great video #music #AgainstMe #LauraJaneGrace https://youtu.be/rzJ21OpFnZ0?si=vAwq0ghuQFYNjGJD

🎶 HOLD ON AND PRACTICE https://www.youtube.com/shorts/XNFePLRpHMU #againstme #bass #basscover #music #punkrock #punk 🤘 💙 😏

Laura Jane Grace's Tiny Desk set list with her band, the Mississippi Medicals, kept changing right up to showtime, and no wonder, since she needed to cram more than 20 years of music into 15 minutes. NPR producer Lars Gotrich writes of the first time he heard Grace's former band Against Me!, as a college student. "Walking back to my dorm room afterward, beaming and bruised, I had a realization: Punk is complex and contradictory; it will fail and frustrate you… but it will also set you free. That paradox still haunts and challenges me, but I wear these songs — and all that have come after — like armor."

https://flip.it/-ptNE9

#Music #TinyDesk #PunkMusic #Punk #LauraJaneGrace #AgainstMe #MississippiMedicals

This week's #TuneTuesday theme is #SongsToTestSpeakers and I want to suggest a couple:

"Damage Suppressor" by Black Dresses
https://song.link/i/1579703070

"Transgender Dysphoria Blues" by Against Me
https://song.link/i/1210620267

#BlackDresses #AgainstMe #TransMusicians

On today’s #ThursdayFiveList we are discussing the lost, the lacking, the missing, and #TheAbsence

Come on and…

Ache With Me #AgainstMe !
https://youtu.be/X7CtiqoZ6Eg?si=CySkos42h_J2SBc5

Sometimes #Ash
https://youtu.be/R2FLSTlGWqw?si=85iSWS_dvuaKIcm9

Gone Again #PattiSmith
https://youtu.be/gYnneOm1YfE?si=abeQ6kMyexvPSFWs

I Miss You (Sunshine Mix) #Bjork
https://youtu.be/A9puhIaAC9A?si=JGuDYNMSYy7Ztjkl

Galaxy of Emptiness #BethOrton
https://youtu.be/uqCY9dB3WSo?si=fRqfyPMzQgNlVzKj

"Transgender Dysphoria Blues" by Against Me! is 10 years old. Hannah Jocelyn writes for Stereogum about its impact on her. "I don’t know what the future holds for transgender people, if things will get better, worse, or anything else," she says. "But in 2014, [frontwoman] Laura Jane Grace showed there was a future, whatever it took to get there."

https://flip.it/GHHNd6

#Music #AgainstMe #LauraJaneGrace #LGBTQ #TransRightsAreHumanRights

"Protest songs in response to military aggression
Protest songs to try and stop the soldier's gun
Protest songs in response to military aggression
Protest songs to try and stop the soldier's gun
But the battle raged on"

#DieWichtigenSongs #AgainstMe #fuckwar
https://open.spotify.com/track/53S5rCt8LFsocU95QXoK1X?si=fdgWDvItRIuMLeR6e4ktpw

#TheMetalDogArticleList
#MetalSucks
Laura Jane Grace Drops New Single, "Cuffing Season"
Indie, punk, and queer darling Laura Jane Grace has just dropped a new single, "Cuffing Season," perfect for the oncoming winter weather.

https://www.metalsucks.net/2023/12/08/laura-jane-grace-drops-new-single-cuffing-season/

#LauraJaneGrace #CuffingSeason #AgainstMe! #Bloodloss_Records #NewSingle #GuitarPop #GuitarRock #LGBTQRights #MusicNews #RockNews

Laura Jane Grace announces new album, releases "Hole In My Head" video

https://www.punknews.org/article/81375/laura-jane-grace-announces-new-album-releases-hole-in-my-head-video

#music #punk #punkrock #againstme #laurajanegrace

This Against Me! record has some great guitar riffs, try out the tracks in the replies #music #DailyRecords #AgainstMe! https://www.auditorymusings.net/transgender-dysphoria-blues-by-against-me/

Laura Jane Grace receives Key to the City of Gainesville

https://www.punknews.org/article/81301/laura-jane-grace-receives-key-to-the-city-of-gainesville

#music #punk #punkrock #againstme #LauraJaneGrace

#Gainesville, #Florida Is Giving #Trans #Punk #Legend #LauraJaneGrace the #KeyToTheCity.

The #AgainstMe! #frontwoman said she was “#stunned” by the #news.

#Women #Transgender #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA #Florida #Entertainment #Music #Punk #Representation #Culture #RoleModels
https://www.them.us/story/against-me-laura-jane-grace-key-to-the-city

#NowPlaying #TheMetalDogIsNowPlaying
#AgainstMe!
As the Eternal Cowboy
T.S.R.

YouTube Search:
https://youtube.com/results?search_query=Against+Me!+As+the+Eternal+Cowboy+T.S.R.

Lyrics:
https://genius.com/Against-me-tsr-this-shit-rules-lyrics

#punkrock #punk #folkpunk #AgainstMe #rock

It's Friday and the beginning of a long weekend (in the US) - here's a great song to get ready https://youtu.be/rzJ21OpFnZ0 #music #AgainstMe!

#againstme #BabyImAnAnarchist #music #LoveMusicHateFascism #youtube

https://youtu.be/dm_q9dtXOeU

#NowPlaying #AgainstMe! #TransgenderDysphoriaBlues

#Music #AgainstMe #Live
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WrLLhk0CmY

I can't stop giggling. At least I make myself laugh.

https://www.tumblr.com/autogynamelia/707925401173983232/do-you-like-laura-jane-grace-ive-been-a-big

#socialmedia #tumblr #americanpsycho #patrickbateman #trans #transgender #transfeminine #transwomen #transwoman #transgirls #transgirl #againstme #laurajanegrace #transgenderdysphoriablues

How Low

#AgainstMe !

https://youtu.be/9NEQsJ444gQ

And I'm sick of feeling like I'm losing my mind
Sick of doing the same thing night after night
Sick of self-loathing and self-absorption
Self-destructive narcissism
I'm sick to death of being constantly fucking sick of
I don't know who I can trust
Thought there was us, now there is no one