Make Yourself Sick – Boys Night Out

Boys Night Out returns with an expanded form of the sound it debuted on the 2002 EP Broken Bones and Bloody Kisses. Make Yourself Sick (Ferret) initially paints the Canadian combo as a pop-punk band, with an upbeat pace and catchy tunes about soft-focus stuff like youthful love and heartbreak. However, the band also shares metalcore's love of jarring aesthetic shifts, not to mention screamo vocals. The result is a song like "I Got Punched in the Nose for Sticking My Face in Other People's Business" (only the first of many cheeky song titles), which begins as an exuberant Get Up Kids-style anthem full of giddy lead guitar and boyish lead vocals, but is periodically visited by the tortured, shrieking spirits of screamo. "First Time It Shouldn't Taste Like Blood", "Decent Human Beings", and "I Was the Devil for One Afternoon" all follow suit, tempering their rousing emo and slick punk revivalism with tooth-shattering yowls and severe sonic shifts. Tracks like "Anatomy of a Journey" and "Hold on Tightly, Let's Go Lightly are even more ambitious, incorporating elements as disparate as drum programming, pious church organ, digital vocal tuning, and solemn choirs alongside the usual banshee screams and sweeping melody. ~ Johnny Loftus, All Music Guide