Review / 200 Words Or Less
At the Drive-In
In•ter a•li•a

Rise (2017) Kevin Fitzpatrick

At the Drive-In – In•ter a•li•a cover artwork
At the Drive-In – In•ter a•li•a — Rise, 2017

Interminable slack-ass Omar Rodriguez-Lopez only released 12 solo albums this year on Ipecac Records. So to alleviate the presumed guilt, he’s gotten the old band back together again. That band is At the Drive-In and as far as “reunion” albums go, In•ter a•li•a is a monster. 

While not quite a complete reunion, in a presto-change-o move, guitarist Jim Ward has been replaced by Sparta bandmate Keeley Davis, who does a more than admirable job keeping pace with Lopez.

In•ter a•li•a is the first album of new material for At the Drive-In since 2000’s Relationship of Command and the band, still fronted by human dynamo Cedric Bixler-Zavala haven’t lost a single joule of energy. Tearing through tunes like "Governed by Contagions" and "Incurably Innocent", the band has clearly gained enough momentum and goodwill through their absence that one can only hope and pray that AtDI is back for good.

At the Drive-In – In•ter a•li•a cover artwork
At the Drive-In – In•ter a•li•a — Rise, 2017

Related news

Record Store Day: At The Drive In

Posted in Records on October 21, 2017

Recently-posted album reviews

Physicalist

Self Titled
Dirt Cult (2026)

F.Y.P is one of the rare bands that I'd say nobody sounds like -- but in the past two months I've caught myself making that comparison twice. First while listening to the new Dumpies LP (spoiler alert: they cover F.Y.P on that same record) and now as I listen to the Physicalist debut EP. The interesting thing here isn't the … Read more

Dylan Thomas

Todo se desvanece
Burnt Toast Vinyl (2026)

When bands spend months slowly piecing together an album with cheap gear, limited time, and apparently an alarming amount of terrible beer, it’s kind of romantic. Not romantic in the polished indie film sense. More romantic in the sense that you can actually hear people chasing a feeling before life pulls them in different directions. That tension sits at the … Read more

Adam Steiner

Darker with the Dawn: Nick Cave's Songs of Love and Death
Rowman & Littlefield (2023)

Adam Steiner doesn’t just break the earth with a spade with this book; he actually digs deep into the fertile soil to enter the cobwebbed crypt. He approaches the catalogue like a forensic scientist examining the maggots on a corpse—meticulously analyzing the rot and the details of decay to chart exactly how long the body has been decomposing. He gets … Read more