Trivium's second album, Ascendancy came out on March 15, 2005, making it eleven years old now! This album has been certified Gold, but only charted in the US and the UK! It reached number 151 in the US, and 79 in the UK. So chart wise, not that great, but clearly has done very well despite that fact. The first single was released in January 2005 and was "LIke Light To The Flies." Its a fairly simple song in lyrics, and sounds a bit like an ode to those feeling hopeless, in a way. Over all, the album seems to have an underlying meaning of rebellion and taking your life back. Not all the tracks express this, but a lot of them do. Of course, with every album, there's some songs that stood out more than others. The first track we're going to mention is actually the first song on the album is "Rain" and instantly it gave me a thought I've never had regarding Trivium before. It reminded me a bit of Megadeth in the very beginning o the song? It was something with the vocal style and the lyrics a bit. As the song progressed, I didn't hear that anymore but given how Trivium is now, this threw me off completely. Its a good song though, it seems to be about fighting for your life and dying slowly. Another track had a similar vibe to "Rain", and that one was "Drowned And Torn Asunder." Its all about rebellion, and taking back what's yours. Done in a very heavy, yet melodic way, what's not to love? Great second album, Trivium! It helped set them up for many other great ones down the line. You can get this album, along with every other album Trivium has released now through iTunes or wherever else music is sold! We also encourage you to head on over to Trivium's website because they are very active right now with the touring. They just completed a tour in the UK and are heading over to Japan! From Japan, they will go down to Australia and then go all the way across the the world to the US. Here they will be doing yet another tour and performing at several festivals, such as Earth Day Birthday, Welcome To Rockville, Fort Rock, Carolina Rebellion, Northern Invasion, Rock On The Range and Rock N' Derby!
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Just last month, on March 11, 3 Doors Down released their brand new album, Us And The Night! Us And The Night is the band's sixth studio album, and it did fairly well worldwide. It broke the top 50 in every country it charted in, with exceptions of the UK and Belgium. It reached number 60 in the UK and number 59 in Belgium. The highest chart rating actually came from Switzerland, where it hit number four! It also reached 14 here in the US and Austria, 15 in Canada, 34 in Australia, and 45 in the Netherlands. So far, the only single from the album is "In The Dark", which honestly has a slightly different vibe than anything else we've ever heard from 3 Doors Down. Though you definitely still hear a hint of the classic 3 Doors Down song. We didn't know what to expect exactly, but its actually a slightly sexy song, all while warning a guy to stay away from a girl because she'll play him. It sets up an interesting vibe for the album, and given the fact that I've known about 3 Doors Down for the majority of my life,and nearly the entirety of their career, it definitely left me curious to hear more. What I discovered is while sound wise, it shared a similar, refreshed, more upbeat vibe, it was the oddity of the album! A lot of this album was about strength. Finding your own strength, as well as encouraging others to find theirs! This is quite possibly the best album 3 Doors Down has ever produced! As we said, its a bit more upbeat than their other albums, though its very clearly been a long time coming. Its got a lot of power and meaning in every song, while sounding very catchy all at once. Three songs I loved in particular were "The Broken", "Still Alive" and Believe It." "The Broken" opens up the album, and speaks directly to anyone who has felt like they're outcasts and just put on the back burner. It encourages people to take what's theirs and its just beautiful. "This is the call to the broken, to all the ones who've been thrown away. This is a the call to the broken, stand up and take your world back." "Still Alive" is all about the side you don't really see with people. Everyone is fighting some battle you don't know about, because we don't always bring it to the surface. Some are obviously more serious than others, and this expresses it very well. Life can be really challenging sometimes, but hey look at you -you're still alive. Lastly there's "Believe It", which has a similar vibe to "Believe It" but more of a story. At one point it even speaks to what we assume is singer, Brad Arnold's past self by saying, "Hey there boy, look at where you are. That guitar will never take you far. And they said he'd die with only a dime, but his heart only beats to songs he longs to play. And his mouth only speaks the words he wants to say." People said you'd never make it, but you did it. I assume its a situation like that, where he's looking back and seeing how far he's come. Self reflection can be a great thing! its also very encouraging with the chorus, "Cause everybody's got a right to change. I didn't say that I would. Sometimes you have to do your own fate, and I think that I should. Everybody's got a right to dream, I'm gonna be the one I wanted to be, yeah! You better believe it." I'm very impressed! I didn't think I was going to be, if I was honest. I assumed I would like the album, but I actually think I like it a lot more than I expected to. Go get the new album, Us And The Night now on iTunes or wherever music is sold and be sure to check out 3 Doors Down's official website. Over there you will find many tour dates, which include many festivals. They will be appearing at Welcome To Rockville, Fort Rock,Carolina Rebellion, Rocklahoma and Bands In The Backyard. Their own headlining tour also begins mid May, and we encourage you to take a look at all of the dates on the website and see if 3 Doors Down is coming near you! Megadeth's tenth studio album, The System Has Failed came out on September 14, 2004, and debuted at number 18 on the Billboard 200. It also reached number 10 in Canada, 12 in Sweden, 14 in Sweden, and broke the top 50 in many other countries as well! So over all, the album did fairly well on charts worldwide. The lead single, "Die Dead Enough" was released on June 26, 2004, and sounds a bit like the story of a nightmare. Like this one of those nightmares where you're running in a forest from a killer, but yet you can't seem to wake up from it either. Sadly, the music video doesn't reflect that at all. Maybe that's just what I picture, but that's definitely what came to mind. Maybe its about the life struggles, and feeling defeated? I'm not sure at all, but its an interesting track no less. Over all, its a thought provoking album, as most of Megadeth's music is, from what I've heard so far, but really....nothing special stood out to me that much. "The Scorpion" was interesting, as was "Die Dead Enough", as I said earlier but lyrically nothing jumped out to us. Musically though, its pretty awesome! I found myself nodding along some, but it just wasn't anything that attention grabbing honestly! I don't know, what do you think of the album? Let me know and then head on over to Megadeth's website to check out their tour dates! They very soon will be performing at many festivals, such as Fort Rock, Welcome To Rockville,Carolina Rebellion, Rock On The Range, Rock'n Derby,Rocklahoma, and River City Rockfest. They also will be doing many European festivals over the summer, but we encourage you to go to their website to see all of those. Land Of The Free? is the sixth studio album from punk rock band, Pennywise! The album was released on June 19, 2001, and reached number 67 on the Billboard 200 here in the US and 21 on the Australian ARIA Albums Chart. The lead single, "Fuck Authority" screams punk music just with the title, but was released prior to the album's release for promotion reasons. This one was actually a bit unexpected in a way, because what we had previously heard from Pennywise was very fast paced to the point that if you weren't paying attention, you wouldn't catch a single lyric. This one wasn't like that at all, and actually reminded us a bit of Good Charlotte, honestly. Its pretty good! It encourages you to do your own thing and be yourself. "Not gonna stand for it today, fight for your thoughts. Its time we had our say." Another track that stood out a lot was "My God", because its fully questioning the morals of organized religion and that's something we greatly appreciate. Its blunt, very clear in sound, and just wonderful. Its not putting down those who are religious, just puts the very obvious questions out there, and says "your God isn't for me." We approve of that a lot. That's something we actually noticed with this album that stood out from everything else we had heard thus far. It was slower, everything could be understood. Sitting more on the side of punk rock, than ska music like it leans towards in later albums. We're quite impressed! Good job, Pennywise! This entire album is full of angst feelings, while sounding great! Punk rock fans, go check it out! While you're at it be sure to head on over to Pennywise's official website. Over there you can find a ton of tour dates, and festival appearances! Pennywise will be going out on tour on May 1, through the 15th, and will be appearing at Welcome To Rockville, Fort Rock, Carolina Rebellion, and Rock On The Range! For further information, please visit the respective festival websites or Pennywise's official website. EVERYBODY PANIC! is a rock/ metal band that from Oklahoma City formed in 2012, pulling their band name a quote in the movie Semi-Pro. The band is made up of Ty (vocals), Provo (guitar), Pat (bass) and Levi (drums). Through hard work and dedication the band caught the attention of CaviGold Records and entered the famed and haunted Robert Lang Studios in Seattle, WA in March of 2015, to record their second EP, "Attack" which was released on October 30th of 2015. Since its release they have been on tour in support of the album with Steel Panther for the remainder of their All You Can Eat tour and they joined a country wide tour with Powerman 5000 and HED PE on March 24th. The opening track “Our Last Goodbye” is a high octane song about a break up. “Born alone, die alone. It’s over now, I don’t know how, we’ve made it so long now. You’ve criticized, you cheat and you lie. This is our last goodbye” sings Ty in a gruff voice. The song clearly is about the feeling of betrayal that comes with a breakup that was caused by cheating. “You treat me like a fool. Then you try to play it off is cruel. Inside this deconstructive dance, I should’ve never given you a chance.” Tells of the feeling that most get of regret of starting a doomed relationship. Looking back and wondering why you even decided to let them in in the first place. One of the best songs I heard from them live was Into This Darkness; which bears a dark Industrial Metal sound, similar to Nine Inch Nails. It features the lines of: “These pills aren’t working for the symptoms anymore. The doctors, friends and family, have all walked out that door. The anger gets the best of me and makes me hurt myself. I want to give into the pain to get out of this hell. Come on lets go far far away someplace, not so cold. Lets go, over the edge. Into this Darkness we go… My depression numbs me, makes me seem so crazy, all I want is to be set free.” After speaking with the band, I was informed that the song is about drug addiction induced depression, which they tell the story of beautifully. The line “If you are listening then you understand” speaks wonders to me. The writer of this song is screaming for help and no one wants to lend a hand, driving the narrator further into his own hell. It’s simply a cry for help. Speaking for myself, this song hits very close to home for someone who has suffered from this level of depression before, you seem to just want to slip away into the darkness and just give in and cease to be. No One Gets Out Alive is an absolutely brutal song, possibly the most intense song that they have put out. It tells the story of a tortured soul, who was heavily abused as a young boy, as the opening lyrics tell: “I was held down by my father, bloody, bruised, just like my mother. Anger and fear, drives my obsession, I’m not here, for your confession.” The narrator is trying to cope with having lived through a life of hell. “I would kill myself if I thought it would help.” He hates the life he lives but he is driven. “Because no matter how far you run, no matter how hard you try, no one gets out of this world alive, so when you search for the truth don’t look to the sky, no turning back now that you’ve crossed that line.” I believe he’s both referring to how he himself died that day and in return is chasing the man who harmed him to end his life. The line “One things for sure you should’ve never left me alive” further supports the narrative. He wished that his abuser had just killed him… but now instead it’s the other way around, and the abuser will be the one wishing he had just killed him. The chorus repeats “so when you search for the truth don’t look to the sky” saying that God won’t be saving him from his sons wrath, because God was never there to begin with to stop the initial acts of abuse. No One Gets Out Alive is one hell of a dark song to say the least, it truly is an incredible song though, further showing the writing potential of EVERYBODY PANIC!; and along with the rest of the EP, it promises a great future in their songwriting. ATTACK was a greatly unknown album of 2015, there hasn’t been any big press promoting them, and not too many people have heard of them. I assure you though, this will be an album that is looked back on in the next 10 years and will be beloved by the metal community. EVERYBODY PANIC! is going about their self promoting the best way possible, by putting on a killer live show, being all around phenomenal musicians and being all around class acts to their fans. If you haven’t picked up a copy of Attack or their self titled EP, they are available on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify and of course in person at one of their shows. EVERYBODY PANIC! is currently on tour with (HED) PE and Powerman 5000, if they come by you, be sure to go check them out, between those three bands, there’s something for every metalhead to love. On November 12, 2002, 3 Doors Down released their second album, Away From The Sun! This album has sold four million copies world wide, with three million of those being in the US alone! I could not find the exact chart ratings, but we did see it reached 110 on the End of Decade charts from Billboard 200. So by 2009, it was still up doing fairly well. Its no surprise really, this album features a couple of the biggest 3 Doors Down songs in the band's history. One of which is, "When I'm Gone." We probably don't even need to talk about this one very much, but pretty much everyone over the age of five knows this song. Its beautiful, memorable and just asking someone to be there for you no matter what. What's not to love about that? The other is "Here Without You", which has a bit more of a solemn, yet kind of sweet all at once. When you're on the road a lot, you're away from your loved ones more than you would like to be. This song expresses that lonely feeling you get even though you see thousands of faces every day. I was only nine when this album came out, and I remember this song very well, but definitely didn't catch onto the meaning at all until I got older. Chances are, many people can relate to that. Something tells me this album came from a very low, depressed place. A lot of the songs on the album speak of loneliness or emptiness, and its definitely one of those albums you would turn on when you want to be reminded that others feel the same way sometimes. Its a somewhat classic album that if you somehow have managed to not hear yet, we recommend you do so. This album is now fourteen years old, and 3 Doors Down has done a lot since then! They actually just released a brand new album, Us And The Night, and are going to appear at many festivals coming up very soon such as Welcome To Rockville, Fort Rock,Carolina Rebellion, Rocklahoma and Bands In The Backyard. They also will be going out on their own headlining tour in mid May! For further information, please visit 3 Doors Down's official website. Throwback to November 2011 when Disturbed rleased their compilation album, The Lost Children. The Lost children consists of sixteen tracks, all of which are b-sides from their other albums, and a couple of soundtracks. You hear B-sides from Ten Thousand Fists, The Sickness, Asylum, Indestructible, and Believe, along with the Transformers Soundtrack, and Dracula 2000. The album was released just after Disturbed announced their hiatus that lasted four years, and was announced around the same time as the hiatus. Assumably it was put together to give something to fans who were upset about this break, but none the less, its awesome to hear some unheard tracks from their entire discography. The first single, "Hell" came out on October 11, 2011 and was said to be about a relationship that keeps coming in and out of your life, messing up your entire life. "Hell" was also a B-side from the Ten Thousand Fists album. It goes without saying that the entire album is incredible, because Disturbed really is not capable of releasing anything bad. It also goes without saying that some tracks stood out more than others! One track we really enjoyed was "Monster", which is about someone who's clearly been very toxic to you for a long time. You're done with it, and this song is stating that. David Draiman is very obviously speaking directly to that person telling them that they are no longer a regret of his, and will not hold him back any more. There's also something awesome about saying, "You made a rock star of me, gave me this wicked life." No better revenge than success -and this line says that in the best way ever. Other honorable mentions go to "A Welcomed Burden", which was a B-side for The Sickness, "Mine", a B-side from Asylum, and the two covers on this album, "Living After Midnight", which is also a B-side for Asylym, and "Midlife Crisis", which is a B-side from Indestructible. Disturbed sure knows how to do a badass cover! This album may have been released to comfort fans over the hiatus, but Disturbed is back and better than ever! Last year they released their Immortalized album, and now they're taking the world by storm. Very soon they have a festival appearances coming up around the UK and all over Europe, along with a tour with Breaking Benjamin, Alter Bridge and Saint Asonia! Festival appearances include 98Rockfest, Fort Rock,Welcome To Rockville, Carolina Rebellion, Rockfest,Northern Invasion, Rock On The Range, Rocklahoma,River City Rockfest, Rock am Ring, Rock im Park, FortaRock Festival, Rockhal, Komplex 457, Nova Rock Festival, Download fesitval and more! If you are looking for further information, such as exact tour dates and ticket information, please head on over to Disturbed's official website. Back on January 25, 2006 when Swedish metal band, Avatar released their debut album, Thoughts of No Tomorrow! This album peaked at number #47 on the Sweden Albums Top 60 Chart, and that was about all we could find, sadly. We couldn't even determine a single for this album, so we're going into this particular album basically blind. That being said, we have heard almost every other album from Avatar, so we had a bit of a clue what we were getting into. Thing is, this was their first album, so there was a chance of them being entirely different. A lot of debut albums are vastly different from other works from various bands. Avatar is death metal today, so we expected a lot of powerful guitar riffs and nearly consistent screaming and growling. Our expectations were met with just that -powerful instrumentals and consistent screaming. Those who really love to mosh would probably absolutely love this album, along with everything else that came after this album. They very clearly have stayed true to their roots since day one. Something we noticed through out the album was the introductions to the songs. They always seemed to stand out from the rest of the songs a bit more, for whatever reason. Some were because they were clearer, some were because of the creativity. Take the opening track for example. The album starts off with "Bound To The Wall", which sounds like its in a crowded room with people chattering all around. We hear him clear his throat, and tap a glass, like he's trying to get the room's attention. Instead of speaking, he goes right into screaming something incoherent to us. Extremely heavy metal lovers are highly encouraged to check out this album, but to anyone who doesn't particularly care for constant screaming, you may want to pass this one up. It will sound like just noise to you, because our ears just aren't trained to appreciate this particular style. None the less, if your attention has been sparked, please be sure to check out Avatar! They're going to be appearing at many festivals coming up very soon such as Fort Rock, Welcome To Rockville, or Carolina Rebellion here in the US this April / May and in Norway at Norway Rock on July 8. For more information, please visit the festival websites, and be sure to check out Avatar's website for all sorts of updates. In late February of 2016, Anthrax released their eleventh studio album, For All Kings. It is the band's first studio album to feature Jon Donais on lead guitar, replacing Rob Caggiano. The two singles released so far are 'Evil Twin', that was released on October 26, 2015 and 'Breathing Lightning', that was released on January 7, 2016. In its first week of release it sold 34,000 copies, putting it on the Billboard 200 chart at No. 9, which is their first album to achieve this feat since 93’s Sound of White Noise.
The title track, ‘For All Kings’, is a classic Anthrax anthem in the making. Driving drums and bass, a perfect guitar riff - courtesy of new Anthrax guitarist Jon Donais and seasoned vet Scott Ian - for head banging, and Joey Belladonna giving a vocal delivery so perfect and driving that it sounds more like a man half his age. While being interviewed by Overdrive magazine, Scott Ian stated: “The meaning, to me, for this title is that everybody can be a king. Everybody can have control over their own lives, control over their destiny, just by growing up and becoming a responsible human being. I'm not necessarily saying that being a "king" is being the boss in your relationship, or any relationship for that matter. A king of yourself is what I mean. Taking responsibility and ownership for your own shit is basically what it means to me.” Which how can you have a more positive message than that while still having a truly badass song? ‘Evil Twin’, was released last year in October, a full five months before the album was released, got fans excited for the upcoming album. It was truly a great choice for a teaser single, the thrash legends overall stepped up their game with this album, with both song quality and heaviness, Evil Twin was definitely not exempt from that. Evil Twin is a rather blunt commentary on extremism, specifically in this case, Terrorists of the Islamic State. Lines like “Ideology used as a weapon with lines that cut so deeply to the truth” and “Look what you did so fucking sick it's what you did. The evil twin of devotion then now you're dead. You represent your discontent slaughtering the innocent. Insolence, you're no martyrs. The arrogance to reinvent. The holy words their meanings bent.” Get across a point that what they are doing may seem justified in their own minds but does nothing to help and actually hurts people more than anything. They preach a message of peace but attempt to achieve it by murdering the innocent. “Let’s forget for a moment the history of radical extremism and why we live in a world where it exists and just think about now. That’s what Evil Twin is about. It’s my relationship to the violence perpetrated by radical extremists. It’s my anger towards it and it’s my hatred towards the inability to stop it,” said Scott Ian in an interview with Rolling Stone. Of all the songs on the album, the one that immediately drew me in was ‘Blood Eagle Wings’, which was a rather brutal torture method used by the Vikings. In an interview from Louder Noise with Scott Ian over the writing of the song, he lamented over the fact it was the most difficult song of the whole album to write. “It took a long time – it’s one of the last songs that got finished. It carried over for months and months. It deserved that. Lyrically it was the hardest for me to write. I was so nervous to do justice to the arrangement. I didn’t know what I was going to say. Somehow I cracked that nut.” He previously summed up the lyrical content by saying: “Any great city, whether it’s London, Rome, Paris, New York, Los Angeles – these cities are alive because of how many people were killed to make them what they are. How much blood was spilled over time.” The accompanying music video shares this idea. It is not for the weak stomached or the faint of heart for it is truly disturbing but very powerful and poignant. It flashes between a man who is wearing a human skull mask, dressed in a kings robe, over looking a sandstone model of an old city; and a medieval torture chamber where featureless masked men mutilate frightened prisoners. As the video progresses, the “king” starts to crush the model and the torturers start to give the last prisoner “blood eagle wings” which is where incisions are made down ones back, ribs are cracked outwards and their lungs are removed from their body and hang… looking like bloody eagle wings. When all is said and done we see the prisoner die, the king walk out and look over his city - Los Angeles. And as a rather odd break in mood, the last thing we see are two of the torturers remove their masks, and one of them says “That was brutal” and the others nod their heads. I didn’t know if I should have laughed or joined them in their shocked expressions. The whole video and song perfectly sums up the point Scott was trying to make - for every great city that has existed this was the price that was paid. It is not too often that old vets like Anthrax can come out with material that is as fresh and heavy as For All Kings, yet this year has been proving to be a year of new beginnings for the classic metal acts, Megadeth put out the hard hitting Dystopia in January, Metallica has promised a new album this year and Iron Maiden released The Book Of Souls late last year. One can only hope that this pattern persists and we see more beloved metal acts resurface and melt our faces once more. You can get your face melted by Anthrax very soon! They will be appearing at many festivals such as Fort Myers, Welcome To Rockville, Carolina Rebellion, and the Rock N' Derby. here in the US! After that, they go over to Europe to take part in even more festivals, such as Rock Im Revier, Rockavaria Festival, Rock In Vienna, Sonisphere, and more! For further information, please head on over to Anthrax's official website! Written by Coby Andrews On February 8, 2013, BFMV released their fourth studio albums, Temper, Temper. This one was released through RCA Records, and reached number one on the Top Tastemaker Album charts here in the US. It also hit number 3 in Austria, 4 in Australia, 5 in France and Spain, and broke did extremely well in other countries as well! The album has yet to receive any certifications, but surely it will happen for them soon enough! The first single from the album, "Temper Temper" came out in October 2012, and it actually caused a bit of a stir. This Bullet album is slightly different than all their other works from over the years, and a lot of people were not overly impressed. Admittedly, we don't disagree. The "Temper Temper" album is easily our least favorite album from Bullet For My Valentine. Though if you asked why, we can't completely place why that is. Nothing in particiular stood out to us like the other albums did. We can't pin point anything necessarily bad about this album, and could definitely see how people do enjoy it....we're just not a fan. If pressed to choose a favorite track though, we would have to say, "Tears Don't Fall (Pt. 2)", because it was interesting that they continued where they left off with the first song all those years later. Over all, its not their best album, but isn't bad really. Its just a bit....uneventful. If you want to hear better works from BFMV, be sure to check out the reviews we have for all of their other albums, and then go check the albums out. While you're checking things out, please be sure to head on over to Bullet For My Valentine's official website. Over there, you will find a bunch of tour dates! Very shortly they will be heading over to Japan to play a few days, then get to go home for a bit before the festivals kick in. They will be coming over to the US to take part in festivals like Welcome To Rockville, Fort Rock,Carolina Rebellion, and Rocklahoma. They also will be doing the second leg of the British Invasion tour with Asking Alexandria! After they finish here, they go back over to Europe to perform at many festivals over there such as Rock Am Ring, Rock im Park,Greenfield Festival, Nova Rock Festival, Hellfest 2016,Graspop Metal Meeting, Rock For People 2016,Ressurection Fest, and the Wacken Fest. For further information please just go to their website! Come see all of our reviews! The Poison -Scream Aim Fire -Fever -Venom |
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