God Save The Gun

The hard-fought glimmers of hope in the pain (“I guess I’ll stay,” he concludes, breaking into tears) prove the very point of the record, in its openness as brutally difficult as it is cathartic.

The album ends suddenly and uncertainly. We’re left with plenty to mull over but, equally importantly, a great desire to hear those ginormous hooks all over again.

God Save the Gun feels universal and uniting in the way the best records often do. It is an invitation for all those who have caught themselves feeling like burning their life down to release those feelings together, transmuting that negativity into something vital and deeply cathartic.

The pop-hardcore energy first teased on Life Under the Gun is ever-present, but it’s evolved into something sharper and more refined—a version of the band that feels fully realized. It’s a record that turns struggle into something anthemic, the kind of rock album that demands to be felt as much as it is heard.

They’ve expanded their scope: synths creep in, melodies swell, and the hooks land so big they feel like catharsis stumbled into, punchy like the loud headers on a brochure for a new treatment center — you know, the one that’ll finally do the trick this time.

The record sounds enormous, but not overproduced, and the flourishes that the band adds to its signature mix of aggression and accessibility never feel like they are reaching past their grasp.

Mixing hardcore punk with pop rock is a tricky proposition, and it’s definitely a dog who’s had his day, but Militarie Gun play with such sincerity and passion that it becomes infectious.

Part of why it feels like such a beast is Shelton’s total frankness and vulnerability across these songs, which, while welcome and galvanising, also feels exhausting in the way watching someone run a marathon does.

Out of Ian’s time of crisis, Militarie Gun have made themselves a silver lining, a record that’s not just a tremendous step up but one that could be their defining moment.

The overstuffed nature of its production choices means that ‘God Save The Gun’ perhaps lacks some of the raw, impactful lucidity of the band’s debut, but it nonetheless overflows with singular, soaring and soulful energy.

God Save The Gun is a daring yet rewarding sophomore effort from a band seeking solace in the hectic pace of creative success, coming to terms with its pitfalls, and crafting a honed 14-song collection of brutally self-analyzing, immersive rock.

Genre-defying angst never sounded so good. [Nov 2025, p.80]

Save the Gun is certainly Militarie Gun's most "mainstream" record, with synths, strings and studio tricks co-mingling with distortion and Shelton's caustic, confessional roar. Unfortunately, not every song is a winner, with a number of uninspired tracks in the second half of the record plodding along without the energy or muscle of the first. .... Thankfully, the final act is positively anthemic, with Shelton's voice and the band's booming sincerity keeping the songs from entering derivative "stadium rock" territory.

The ultimate compliment for Life Under the Gun wasn’t “catchy,” but “punchy,” their songs direct and delivered with a stiff jaw and clenched fist. The exact opposite is true on God Save the Gun; half the time, if a song reaches two minutes, it might as well add a bridge that gets it to three.