Review: Unearth - The Stings of Conscience

artist: unearth album: the stings of conscience label: eulogy recordings released: 1/16/01 by: eduardo moutinho Let me be blunt here, I don’t like metal. I don’t like cheesy solos. I don’t like whammy bars, and I sure as hell don’t like Yngwie Malmsteen. I’m not into new school metal either. You won’t find me at a Meshuggah or Children of Bodom show. It’s pretty cut and dry with me. Kind of… When I first heard of Unearth, and what they’re all about, I was really turned off. I heard about their amazing guitarists and ridiculous talent, and thought that I would absolutely hate them. I held this mentality until I went to a show last December, the self-dubbed “Cancelfest 2002.” At this show, Unearth became the headliner by default because A Static Lullaby, Hope Conspiracy, and From Autumn to Ashes didn’t make the show due to the weather. I was left there, angry and irritated. I didn’t want to sit through a show like that in my wildest imaginations. Amazingly, after watching the mass of hair, sweat, and technical prowess known as Unearth, I was converted into a fan. Unearth manages to do the impossible. They bridge the gap between those who love metal, and those who love hardcore. They take a little bit from hardcore, like the non-guttural screaming vocals and devastating breakdowns, and combine it with a few hints of metal, like blistering leads and power ballad verses. It’s a relatively simple concept that is difficult to explain. In layman’s terms, they take the good stuff from hardcore and metal and put it together into something nice. While this music takes incredible musicianship to play, there are no odd times or experiments going on here. This music is pretty straightforward. It’s the kind of music you want to listen to while beating on something. This is as “Headbanger’s Ball” as hardcore gets. In actuality, this is the definition of metalcore. Anyway, this review goes over Unearth’s latest full-length, The Stings of Conscience. This is a relatively old release, yet I think it’s an important album to review. Each song on the album can be described as a jumble of heavy segments, lead segments, interludes, and breakdowns. While this is somewhat general, you won’t be seeing spontaneous moments of brilliance by the band here. A pattern is being followed, and it works, for what the band is trying to accomplish. Songs like “Only the People,” “One Step Away,” and "Fuel the Fire” start out violently and stay the course. The hard intros lead into complicated string bridges, where a scale is being dexterously executed by one of the band’s guitar players. It’s ridiculous. On many occasions I found myself with my mouth wide open, imagining how difficult it is to play some of these parts. Other impressive guitar feats, such as finger tapping, are evident as well. The two guitarists in this band are incredibly talented. The title track of the album serves as a résumé for these two individuals. A good 75% of the song is all lead. It’s pure insanity. What’s even more impressive is that the songs are faithfully reproduced on stage, and in some cases, one of the players has his guitar behind his head. Unbelievable. You might be wondering, “I remember you saying that you hate lead parts, what gives?” Good question. I believe my previous statement of Unearth’s music being a good mix of hardcore and metal answers this question. While these crazy lead parts are going on, the vocals and drumming are keeping it from sounding like Exodus. The vocals are well done and the drumming is quite proficient. Unearth sounds hardcore, to be quite honest. They manage to do it. Plus, the lead parts are balanced out by nasty breakdowns. This band delivers some of the hardest breakdowns I have ever heard. I mean, this is the kind of hard that can render someone into a Cro-Magnon man. I’ve seen it happen before. In addition to all the heaviness, some songs actually have hints of power ballad-like interludes. Songs like “My Desire” and “Monition,” while very heavy in their own right, have instances of slow and tinny interludes, which would make Whitesnake proud. There is no singing, at all. But these interludes are there, and almost out of place. Sometimes, in the case of “Monition,” they act as transitions to blistering heaviness. There’s not much more I can say about this album, outside of it being a good escape from reality, if you’re angry or in the mood to get your heart racing a little bit. It won’t challenge your brain, unless you play guitar and wish you were as good as the individuals in this band. favorite song: "stings of conscience" rating: 83%/100% listen to unearth

Review: Dead Poetic - Four Wall Blackmail

artist: dead poetic album: four wall blackmail label: solid state records released: 6/4/02 by: rob tatum I first heard Dead Poetic at their show with Zao in July. I was pretty impressed by the performance. (See my show review) When I got home I did some research and found out some more information. The band is on Solid State Records (one of the biggest Christian labels). This sometimes can put a damper on how much I like a band, but not Dead Poetic. I downloaded an mp3 that night and read the lyrics, surprisingly not preachy. They are Christian, but you probably wouldn’t know from the music. Anyway, this spawned me to go pick up their new album, Four Wall Blackmail. The album opens with the song "Burgundy," a catchy, emotional sing along. Lyrics include, “When you cried, when died, when you told me you’d open my eyes, I believed you.” The music is melodic and simple (as much of the album is). It’s pretty heavy, but it doesn’t sound as heavy because of the vocals, which are very melodic with background screams. This is one of the best songs on the album; my only complaint is that it is so simple. The chorus repeats over and over and the music fails to progress. Second is "The Corporate Enthusiast." A less melodic anthem that describes the problems with the music industry. The message behind the song is justified, but the music is awful. Almost redundant punk at times. The intro vocals are awful as well, like bad screamo. Lead singer Brandon Rike must have forgotten what he was good at because half this song is just obnoxious. The only good part of the song besides the motive of the lyrics is the bridge with some decent guitar stringwork. The third song starts off with some of the problems from the previous. Too much of the screams and not enough melody. But it improves. A Green Desire is one of the best sounding songs on the album, but the lyrics seem to be about God, or coincidentally a girl that would guide you to the answers. Haha. The music is simple, but fits the vocals well in the melodic parts of the song. The screaming has got to go by this point in the album. It just doesn’t work with the music. Next is the title track, "Four Wall Blackmail." This is the longest song on the album. It begins with some string work on the guitar. This song has the best intro of any song on the album. The screaming doesn’t stop, but seems to fit a little better in this song. This is one of my favorite songs from this album, even though the song does involve many references to God. The song is very well arranged and it is very melodic. The music isn’t that complex and the lyrics aren’t to my preference, but this is one song that demonstrates Dead Poetic’s ability to make good sounding music. It’s catchy and pleasing to the ear. Fifth is "August Winterman." The track is another well arranged piece. Nothing amazing musically, but that’s about how the whole album is. Lyrics include “Perfect, as if my wings worked like yours…but I’m falling down…..it’s a disease they’ll never have a cure for.” It’s hard to tell what the lyrics are about in this song, but this is my favorite song vocally (*I’m big on good sounding vocals*). The background screams actually mesh with the music and singer Brandon Rike sticks to what he is good at for most the song. "Ottie Olsen" is the name of the sixth track. It has the worst intro of any of the songs on this album, and the verse isn’t much better. They should have saved the chorus for another song and thrown the rest of it out the window. The vocals in everything but the chorus are terrible. The music isn’t much better. It is plain, fast, and downright annoying. Listening to this song is frustrating because the chorus is really good. The seventh song, "Bliss Tearing Eyes," is an all acoustic track. Very emo in everything about it. Some of the lyrics are “Cause you bleed all the time. The pieces of a broken heart are wasted time. And I can’t forgive myself for all the things I’ve done. But you, you do.” I’ll let you decided what that is about. It’s a toss up, but being from a Solid State band, I am going to go with the song being about God. It’s a nice change of pace and I really like Brandon’s voice. Next up is "Stereochild," which, from the lyrics, is ironically about the problems I speak of with Christian bands and their preaching. Or at least from my perspective. Dead Poetic’s lyrics are hard to interpret but you would have to listen to this album to understand what I am talking about. This is another catchy song, but the background screams are a little overused. "Arlington Arms" starts with terrible, boring driving guitar and those horrible screams. The verse and chorus of the song are a little easier to swallow as it gets a tad more melodic. Another lyrical change as this one is about Suburbia and the American dream. The lyrics are a nice change of pace, but the intro ruins the song. The final track, "Tell Myself Goodbye," is another lyrical enigma in terms of motivation. There is really good drum work toward the beginning of the song, about the only thing I noticed about the drums throughout the record, as it isn’t just builds or blast beats. Nothing special about this song. Typical melodic song with screaming backing vocals. This band has a ton of potential. The oldest member of the band is only 23, and the rest are like 19. If they figure out what is going for them and get rid of the boring redundancy of the screams, they will go far. They are really good at writing catchy songs, but some of the parts don’t fit. I recommend this to anyone who likes emo-core, but they don’t use the screams properly. I am anxious to see where this band progresses. Not a bad album by any means. favorite song: "august winterman" rating: 77%/100% listen to dead poetic

Review: Keepsake - Black Dress in a B Movie

artist: keepsake album: black dress in a b movie label: fearless records released: 6/11/02 by: rob tatum I am not really sure how many of you have actually heard the band Keepsake, but let me tell that it is pretty hard to track down their material. I finally found their new CD. For those of you who haven’t heard Keepsake, the band was emo-core, and they played very catchy songs about girls for the most part. Most of their older material included very poppy vocals mixed with occasional hardcore screams and crazy guitar work. Well, throw half of that out the door. The latest release, Black Dress in a B Movie is about 100% emo. No more cool backing vocals, no more crazy guitar work. This CD really disappointed me. It’s 10 songs with a really cheesy drum solo at the end of the last song. The drumming isn’t terrible, but who puts a drum solo on their album?? The whole album is mellower than any of their previous releases. The aforementioned hardcore screaming really added to the prowessof the band. None of the tracks are really bad, but there is nothing left to surprise you or anything. I don’t have a favorite song because nothing stands out to me. To be honest I thought it was really boring. The lyric writing of Shane Halpern is still really cool, and it has progressed from the basic love song, to deep, thought out feelings. However, it’s not enough to entertain me in the slightest. If any of you have heard their full length right before this, The End of Sound, you would understand my perspective. Musically the band is really talented, but the guitars aren’t used to their potential at all. The bass and drums play a much bigger part in this albumthan in the past, but it needs more guitar work. Not the worst album I have bought lately, but by far the worst release thus far for Keepsake. rating: 73%/100% listen to keepsake

Review: Qualm - Long Story Short

artist: qualm album: long story short label: not bad records by: rob tatum Well, for those of you that have been around long enough to remember Qualm of say 1997 or so, then you know what Qualm was about…… Now enter 2002 with an open mind…… This new album is a new direction for Qualm. Even as a long time fan, Long Story Short blew me away. I think that this album is Qualm’s way of saying to everyone that they are serious about making music and that they are here to stay. The album consists of ten songs, plus one secret joke track. The secret track might be their way of reminding people that while they are serious about their music, that it’s okay to have some fun now and then. My favorite song on the album is the third track “Bring Down.” The song is about the corruption of parts of the music scene. It focuses on the people only involved for money. The message is far more serious than the days of songs about Hanson and what not. Not only do the lyrics demonstrate a new direction, the music has progressed as well since the last EP. You can expect more dimensions to the music from the Qualm of the past. I also really liked the cover song. The ninth track is a cover of Lifetime’s “Young, Loud, and Scotty.” The song was probably my favorite song by Lifetime, and for someone to bring it back and introduce it to more people is great. Anyone who has “heard” Qualm, needs to hear this record. It is not the best album I have ever listened to by any means, but it provides new potential in our scene and shows that there are quality bands making quality records. rating: 83%/100%

Review: Hot Cross - A New Set of Lungs

artist: hot cross album: a new set of lungs label: level plane records released: by: eduardo moutinho How to describe this band… Hmm… I don’t know if you can really capture this band’s sound and essence with words. This band is really interesting. Yeah. They are interesting. That’s a good way of putting it. The first time I heard this band, I wanted to call them a grindcore band, but as I listened to them some more, I changed my mind in the most extreme of fashions. I can’t really say they’re a grindcore band, but I can’t say they’re not. Maybe I can call them post-hardcore, but that is too general. Eh, it doesn’t matter. This band has so many different elements to it, which contribute to why I think they’re worth talking about. Hot Cross’ CD, A New Set of Lungs, is quite a work. This seven-song, 14-minute-long, barrage of sound is an almost academic listen. Each song has little to do with the other, as the band experiments with all sorts of different sounds, tempos, styles, and whatnot. There’s a lot of screeching guitars, choppy licks and even choppier drums, frantic screaming, tempo changes, catchy string parts, and interesting chord progressions. This band goes all over the place on this record. The first song on the CD, “Born on the Cusp” is all about quickness. I could imagine this band playing the song live and how insane it would be. Song number two, “History Fell in the Heart Broke Open” starts fast and then slows down, and ends with an awesome exchange of hard guitars and interesting string parts. The third song, “Between Minutes and Miles” is slower, and even starts with a bass line as the main player. The fourth song, “Lend Me Your Brain,” is more on the chaotic end. The album goes on like this until the end… The best song on this album, as far as my opinion is concerned, is “Putting the Past Right.” I absolutely love the beginning chord progression, which is also used right at the end of the song. It is awesome. The transition between this part, and the string part that follows it, is done abruptly and effectively. This song grabs you. When I heard it, I wanted to hear this band more. It managed to wiggle into my head, like some kind of parasite, and make a home, very good stuff indeed. Also, the song summarizes the band’s sound on this CD nicely, it has choppy and fast parts along with the slower elements. The musicality of the band is good; for this sound to be achieved, you need good musicians. It requires fast playing, good timing, and a good grasp of music theory. The vocalist has a somewhat high-pitched, indie rock-sounding, voice. His singing is segmented, and hard to describe, like the band’s sound. Honestly, I do have a few problems with this release. Firstly, the drumming is impressive, for the most part, but a lot of parts sound too similar to each other. The “ta-TA ta-ta-TA ta-ta-TA ta-ta-TA” kind of rhythm is used in multiple songs. It becomes off putting after a while. I know using “tas” is not a good way of making an accurate mental picture of this rhythm, but it becomes apparent once you listen to the album. Maybe this comes from their grindcore influences; no matter what, I grew a bit tired of it. Also, I wish there was more melody in the album. “Putting the Past Right” has great incorporation of a melodic chord progression in the beginning, which really makes the song shine. There are hints of melody throughout the record as well. If that was exploited a bit more, the music would be more captivating. In conclusion, I really commend this band for their experimentation. I generally don’t like bands of this nature, yet I really like Hot Cross. In fact, I can see them as a transitional band for me, one that opens the door to some things that I would not have wanted to look into previously. I definitely plan on listening to this release more, and absorbing its uniqueness. favorite song: "putting the past right" rating: 85%/100% listen to hot cross

Review: Glassjaw - Worship and Tribute

artist: glassjaw album: worship and tribute label: warner brothers/i am released: 7/9/02 by: eduardo moutinho On Tuesday, July 9th, Glassjaw’s new album, Worship and Tribute, was released on Warner Brothers/I AM Records. I rushed immediately to the new Best Buy in Denver West during lunch to pick up the CD. Fortunately, it was on sale for $9.99. The first thing I noticed about the album wasn’t music related, rather package-related. The album has no booklet that accompanies it. Instead, they placed a clear sleeve with a record player needle drawn on it. The CD itself looks like a mini-record, and the package like a record player. It’s an interesting design, but I was angry that the lyrics weren’t included in a booklet. Anyway, I drove back to work and I popped the CD into the computer in my office. I expected WinAMP to open and start playing the CD, but immediately I got a Flash program with the Glassjaw logo and some options. These options turned out to include the lyrics, which was great. Also, there are three videos included on the CD for the songs “Cosmopolitan Blood Loss,” “Ape Dos Mil,” and “Must Have Run All Day.” The actual videos for “Ape Dos Mil” and “Must Have Run All Day” consisted of concert footage, while “Cosmopolitan Blood Loss” was an actual MTV-style music video. I found these multimedia enhancements to the CD nice, and they replaced the need for a booklet while giving you a glimpse at the band’s stage show. Glassjaw’s sophomore outing proves to be an evolution for the already revolutionary band. The guitar work, percussion, and vocals are even more interesting and aggressive. The album starts off with the song “Tip Your Bartender,” a relentlessly chaotic opening number that smacks you in the head and puts you in your place. It’s probably the hardest song that Glassjaw has ever done. Daryl Palumbo, Glassjaw’s vocalist, wails at high pitches for the duration of the song, straying away from his normal singing voice, even during the more melodic parts of the song. Nevertheless, the album starts off on a strong note, and is a good indicator of what’s to come. The best song on the album turns out to be “Cosmopolitan Blood Loss.” In my opinion, this is the best Glassjaw song ever, if not one of the best songs ever. In one word, the song is awesome. This is one of those songs that if you listen to it once, you’ll probably listen to it over and over again because it’s so damn good. At least that’s what it’s like with me. The guitar work in the song is spectacular. Sporadically placed harmonies followed by crunchy riffs followed by an even stronger chorus make up the meat of the song. I can’t just say that about one song though, the whole album shows off the band’s musicianship. The songs show off the talent of guitar duo Justin Beck and Todd Weinstock. The bass in the album is excellent, since Dave Allen (Glassjaw’s bass player) knows that a good bass player doesn’t just follow the guitar lines. He goes out on his own and orchestrates groove-laden bass line after groove-laden bass line. It’s fantastic. He’s one of the best out there. Even Glassjaw’s drummer, Larry Gorman, shows his skill for once on Worship and Tribute. He really shows that he isn’t as simple of a drummer as I thought he was. To see what I mean, listen to “Mu Empire.” There’s some great tom and bass work in the song. Anyway, the ability of the band is impressive. I absolutely love the strings; I wish I had some of that talent. Although I’m ranting and raving about the instruments, I can’t overlook Palumbo’s vocal mastery. He’s definitely a different kind of vocalist, the kind which you either love or hate. The closest person I can compare him to is Chino Moreno. I know that raises up the red flag with a lot of people, but I love Chino, and I love Palumbo. He does a lot of peculiar, but cool, iterations. He’ll go from low to high to low to high; it’s very hard to explain. Sometimes he’ll pronounce words in a strange manner on purpose. He does a lot of emotional singing, and a lot of carefully placed screaming. I think his vocal styling is unique and interesting, just like the instrumental aspect. It’s a strange combination that works exceptionally well. Anyway, going back to the album, this is one of those albums with a ridiculous amount of good songs. This isn’t one of those “this album is crap, except for that one song” kind of releases. This is worth the money all the way. I’ll just list all of the good songs on the album to give you an idea: “Tip Your Bartender,” “Mu Empire,” “Cosmopolitan Blood Loss,” “Ape Dos Mil,” “Pink Roses,” “Stuck Pig,” “Radio Cambodia,” “Gillette Cavalcade of Sports,” and “Two Tabs of Mescaline.” There are only two songs on this album that I am not too fond of. I don’t really hate them either, I just think they’re a tad too slow-paced and disorganized for my taste. Nevertheless, this album has fast songs, slow songs, medium-paced songs, songs of all types. “Mu Empire” is a medium-paced song that follows the chaotic “Tip Your Bartender” and precedes the blistering “Cosmopolitan Blood Loss.” It’s a strange place to put the song, but it works. There is the aforementioned drum work by Gorman, but the strength of the song lies in the vocals. There are parts of the song where slow and subtle parts are being played while Palumbo wails emo-style. It’s very cool. The chorus is melodic, with well-done, soothing, backup vocals. “Radio Cambodia” is probably the fastest song on the album, and it’ll appeal to those who like crazy tempo in their music. The pace is vigorous, and it will kick your ass. The guitar work is amazing, with sweet little leads playing over chord progressions. The breakdown in the middle is well done, and acts as a good progression to the climax of the song. It’s like a very fast Thursday song. “Gillette Cavalcade of Sports” (my second favorite song on the album) starts off with a slow melody that builds up to an amazing chorus. This song has a very interesting breakdown where Palumbo starts doing play by play, but instead of narrating a sport, he’s talking about himself. In a horse-racing announcer’s voice he shouts “In first is my heart, closely followed by my mind, in third my body, and coming up from the rear is my soul.” It’s weird, but pretty cool. That breakdown summarizes Glassjaw as a band. They’re different, but so amazing. I look at them as a hybrid of Thursday and the Deftones, with some uniqueness that I can’t point a finger at. I love this band, and I find them to be better than Thursday, or any of the post-hardcore sounding bands that are coming out. This album is a definite improvement over their first (and still very good) outing, Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Silence. The album from start to finish (the final song, “Two Tabs of Mescaline” is definitely worth mentioning, but I don’t want to make this too much of a novel) is a wonderful effort. I'm not sugar-coating this review either. This is one of those amazing albums that comes along once in a long while. Although the band is on a major label now, they haven’t lost their touch at all. They’ve only gotten better… favorite song: "cosmopolitan blood loss" rating:96%/100% listen to glassjaw

Review: Underoath - The Changing of Times

artist: underoath album: the changing of times label: takehold records release date: 2/26/02 by: justin morgan First of all, this has to be one of the most unique sounding bands I have heard in a long time. The first track on the CD (and also my favorite) "The Sun Still Sleeps," starts off with electronic keyboard sounds then the band rips into the song. The vocals are very well done screamo vocals traded off by melodic signing for the chorus and hooks. The guitars are very melodic and make the song flow very well. What’s great is that all the songs on the CD flow so well together. The Changing of the Times has not left my CD player for weeks. I think the overall sound the band has is refreshing for a hardcore/metal/rock band. I just can’t stress how talented these guys are. By far, one of the best releases on this year. rating: 100%/100% listen to underoath

Review: Wolves - Art.Culture.Work

artist: wolves album: art.culture.work. label: coalition records released: 4/2002 by: dan phelps The music on this record is incredible. Straight forward rock and hardcore. Yet, unbelievably unique and ahead of its time. I like that the guitars are often very note-oriented. The very "I'm an art student" booklet repeats ideals like: revolution, youth, movement, art, freedom, etc. This album discusses the destruction of art to create new art, and how youthful energy should create a new freedom. It discusses the end of authority as a result of reclaiming our rights. This is intelligent and well thought out. These are people that understand playing recycled bullshit is lame. This is probably my favorite release of the past few years. favorite song: n/a rating: n/a listen to wolves

Review: Thursday - Full Collapse

artist: thursday album: full collapse label:victory records released: 4/10/01 by: eduardo moutinho I’ve told my friends this story quite a few times, yet it never seems to get old to me. About two and a half years ago, I went to my first basement show. It was being held somewhere in Lakewood, and I was going because I felt that it would be interesting to check out. Plus, I was looking forward to seeing some friends. At that time, I was a “newbie” to the scene. To be quite honest, I was wearing a Nonpoint shirt, and into hard rock. I was in a cocoon of power chords, double bass, rap metal, clown masks, and Fred Durst. I remember enjoying myself quite a bit, and wanting to get more involved in what was going on. The music wasn’t necessarily what I enjoyed listening to, then and now, yet it was different and interesting. I wanted to know what the people involved were listening to. I remember talking to Ryan Nee, one of my good friends, who got into this before I did, about forming a new band. I asked, “Who do you want to sound like?” And he quickly responded with, “I wanna sound like Thursday!” And from then on, I began breaking out of my cocoon… I know that a lot of people that come to this site are relative newcomers to our underground music scene, like I was, and would like to know about a release or a band that would be a good place to start at. Well folks, this is the release, and this is the band. Thursday is a hard band to categorize. They epitomize the post-hardcore genre, by fusing together many elements from hardcore, punk, indie rock, and emo. In fact, Thursday’s sound has been copied by many upstart groups, who have failed to capture the same essences that make it so great. This sound has helped Thursday emerge as one of the most popular bands in the scene. The band is relentless in their passion for what they do, as they are known for putting on zealous performances, literally matching the ferocity of their music with the energy they display on stage. This ferocity is accurately exhibited on Full Collapse, Thursday’s second album, and debut on Victory. This release is strong, from start to finish. You can put it in, and leave it alone, because there really isn’t one song that’s not worth listening to. Thursday’s incredible talent and intense songwriting shines through, rendering this album into a true tour-de-force. The first track on the album, “A0001” is an atmospheric mainly instrumental piece, with hints of voice haunting the track. It acts as one of those soft-to-hard transitions, which has become cliché with recent bands, with the second track on the album, “Understanding in a Car Crash.” This track is quite spectacular, and is probably Thursday’s most popular song. The song is fast, with charging verses and choruses, accentuated by excellent guitar work. There are quiet moments in the song, yet they are few and far between. They almost act like little breaks for the listener. The song culminates with a breakdown where the guitars and vocals duel with each other. There are high-pitched string parts, choppy chords, singing, screaming, etc. It’s an appropriate end to such a veracious piece. Thursday likes to experiment with dichotomies. It’s quite easy to see them playing a song with a very slow and melodic opening piece, that leads to a crushing verse. This is evident in quite a few songs, such as “Autobiography of a Nation,” “A Hole in the World,” and a form of it is seen in “Standing on the Edge of Summer.” While this is done frequently, it never becomes boring, and is in fact quite wonderful. In addition, another dichotomy is frequently seen: the use of singing and screaming vocals. Thursday didn’t pioneer this at all, yet they really helped popularize it. I like this combination a lot, yet it has to be properly done. Thursday does it brilliantly. Almost every member in the band does some form of singing. So in many instances, you can hear up to three voices going on at the same time during a song. The screaming is distinct and unique to each member, along with the singing. It flows together well, and adds rawness to the music that is much appreciated. Also, the use of spoken word is used masterfully on the record, which adds poignancy on top of all the organized chaos. The strongest track on the album, in my opinion, “Paris in Flames,” demonstrates all of these things. The song is sinusoidal in nature, and has quite a bite to it. The vocals are all over the board, with a lot of contribution from backup vocals in addition to well-placed spoken word. The epic-sounding end is quite spectacular, and is a good segment of sound to personify the band with. While I could go on and talk about other great tracks on the album (“Cross Out the Eyes,” “I Am the Killer,” etc.), I’m going to stop here. I don’t want to make this any longer than it has to be. I want you to go out there and listen to this record, if you haven’t. This is definitely one of those albums that define our scene, and what we’re all about. It’s a beautiful compilation, and definitely the strongest release Thursday has put out. It’s not the newest release out there, yet I’ve wanted to review it for a long time. In fact, this release has catapulted Thursday to an almost mainstream-like acceptance, which may prove to be unfortunate. They have recently signed to Island Records, and will put out a record on that label in the coming months. Nevertheless, Full Collapse will always be here, and for those who haven’t embraced it yet, please do. You won’t regret it. favorite song: "paris in flames" rating: 97%/100% listen to thursday

Review: Engine Down - Demure

artist: engine down album: demure label: lovitt records released: by: ryan nee Demure is the third full-length release from the Richmond, Virginia based band, Engine Down. The band is known for their mellow, yet incredibly tense style of straightforward rock with a few twists and turns that keep it interesting. I picked up the prior release from Engine Down, To Bury Within The Sound, and was very impressed. At first listen, Demure just didn’t live up to its predecessor. The style of the music had shifted and become less based on the waxing and waning climaxes of To Bury Within the Sound and had shifted more in the direction of consistent rock. After listening to this record three or four times, I was completely dragged into the new style and sound. Twenty or so listens later, I am convinced that this is the best album that Engine Down has ever released. Demure starts out with a constant syncopated drumbeat, a few notes on the guitar and the great voice of singer/guitarist Keeley Davis in the opening track, “Songbird.” The band lays the groundwork for what is to come in this slow, driving, and tense track. To me, “Songbird” is like the opening credits of the album – it lays the groundwork and provides a good overview of the sound of Engine Down, while creating an intense sense of tension in the mind of a listener. The next song on the record, “Pantomime,” is one of the most rocking songs on the record. The catchy, yet cryptic lyrics of Keeley Davis chime over the instruments. The instrumentation of Engine Down really shines on this song – they manage to beautifully balance loud and soft parts, string progressions and driving chords, and instrumental and vocal sections. Each and every part of this song, as well as the other songs on this record, are amazingly catchy. The record flows through each song, with some songs more rocking than others, but constantly manages to keep a brilliant balance between overly consistent and not consistent enough. Each song has its own character and voice, yet they all manage to keep the same Engine Down sound. Highlights of the record include the climactic interludes of the fourth song, “Detour,” and the intense chord progressions of the seventh song, “Overrated,” among many other great songs on the record. There are only two drawbacks to this record. First of all, you can’t really hear the bass for most of the record. In a few songs, the bass shines through, but for most of the record it is completely inaudible. I have never been one of those people that would rather listen to a good recording than a good record, so this problem doesn’t reallybother me that much. The second thing that I find to be a problem with the record is that the lyrics of Engine Down are overly cryptic. While the lyrics set a good tone for the songs, I have no idea what any of these songs are about. A few parts come through and are pretty easily decipherable, such as “I gave your time away to the first smile come my way.” But others, such as “Seen it before / picture-perfect release temperature / filled this room,” just don’t seem to make much sense. Writing lyrics is something that I personally enjoy doing, and I think it’s important to strike a good balance between creating songs that only have meaning to yourself, and creating songs from which your listener can derive some kind of meaning. I don’t feel like Engine Down really accomplishes this task in any of their records, and Demure is no different. Overall, this is a great record, and is definitely one I will be listening to for years to come. This is one of those records where you have a new favorite song every few weeks. Songs that were looked over after ten listens emerge as your favorites after a few more listens. I highly recommend this record to anyone who likes other rock-oriented bands like Cursive or The Casket Lottery. favorite song: "overrated" rating: 93%/100% listen to engine down