Boysetsfire - After The Eulogy - VINYL LP

Boysetsfire may not have been the first political band I ever heard, but the Delaware outfit were undeniably one of the most accessible. They weren't tucked away in academic theory or shouting from unreachable pulpits_they were on the road, playing local VFW halls and grimy all-ages venues that you could actually afford to be in. They brought the revolution to the people, $10 at the door_ and After the Eulogy was my introduction. Yes, they were political. Absolutely. And I happily credit Nat Gray's lyrics specifically for helping me break from the hollow conservatism and half-hearted Catholic guilt that formed the background noise of my upbringing. After the Eulogy wasn't just music, it was an ideological rupture. Without this album or BSF, I might very well have ended up as one of those incomprehensibly frightened and angry uncles on Facebook, raving about microchips in vaccines and confusing memes for peer-reviewed sources. My father would probably say Boysetsfire turned me into pinko commie scum; I'd argue they just helped me become a functional adult with empathy and a working moral compass. But hey, that's a conversation for the Thanksgiving table, not here. After the Eulogy is a near-perfect record. If someone asked me what made Boysetsfire great, this is the album I'd hand them without hesitation. It's where their strengths matured beyond In Chrysalis (see what I did there?). This is the record to showcase the urgency, the catharsis, the blend of fury and melody, and above all, their unflinching sincerity. More than just a political document, Eulogy was a portal into screamo, into post-hardcore, and into the radical notion that vulnerability wasn't weakness but strength, in other words After The Eulogy was a portal beyond the toxic masculinity that ate at my mind like in early adolescence and helped me see beyond the small town walls built for me. Gray, never a