All Roads to the Sea

Where Militarie Gun's harder tracks push outward with force and momentum, this one moves inward, the tempo measured and the arrangement given more space to breathe — there's a quality of contemplation in the way the guitars interact, a sense of pausing to take in a long view rather than pressing forward. Shelton's vocal performance is particularly affecting here, carrying a resigned tenderness that suits the oceanic imagery of the title; the idea of all paths eventually converging at the same destination lands differently when the voice delivering it sounds like someone who has genuinely considered this and made a kind of peace. The emotional landscape is bittersweet in a non-clichéd way — there's grief in the song, but also something like relief at the recognition of inevitability, the comfort that can come from understanding that certain things will resolve themselves regardless of effort or resistance. The production has a slight warmth that distinguishes it from the colder end of their catalog, and the way the song builds and then opens up in its final moments has a spatial quality, something that suggests distance and water and arrival. This belongs to the tradition of hardcore bands making songs that are genuinely moving without softening their underlying seriousness. It's a late-night, long-drive song, best heard alone, when thinking about endings doesn't feel morbid but clarifying.