Behind the volume, Every Time I Die is respectable

Every Time I Die is a metalcore band that older folks (say, people over 30) might be inclined to give a chance if they could get past their paralyzing fear of convulsive rhythms, screamo vocals and snarling guitar throwdowns.

The volatile quintet's music is informed by hardcore punk's blistering brevity, mosh-pit machinations and occasional concessions to melody, and ETID's lyrics are often witty.

Frontman Keith Buckley, who supplies the yowl atop the squall, understands that there are rock fans who might quail at the thought of encountering ETID's ear-battering exchanges — "people that just don't get it," he calls them. But the 28-year-old musician and former 10th-grade English teacher adds philosophically, "It's not our job to lull them into getting it."

In the early part of 2008, Buckley, along with his guitar-playing brother Jordan, guitarist Andy Williams, drummer Mike Novak and bassist Josh Newton, is touring to promote "The Big Dirty," ETID's fourth CD, which was released in September.

Buckley says the recording of "The Big Dirty" was "off the cuff. We knew what we were going after — the punk rock and live feel of our older stuff."

As to compare the disc to those that preceded it, Buckley cracks, "We started off sounding like (Boston-based punk-metal act) Converge and ended up like Led Zeppelin. That's what years of nonstop touring will do for you."

Buckley says futility is a major theme of "The Big Dirty." It's there in such songs as "A Gentleman's Sport," inspired by a book he read on fox hunting and "about something you go after but can't catch," and "Pigs Is Pigs," "about not wanting to give up what you know, and people trying to make you give up what you know."

Buckley says his interest in music has been lifelong, and he credits his father, a teacher at the University at Buffalo, with turning him on to James Taylor, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd as a child.

"I sat in on one of his classes in May, and one of his students came up to me afterward and asked for an autograph," recalls Buckley. "Because of me, he's the man on campus."