On August 14, 2015, Neck Deep released their second studio album, Life's Not Out To Get You. The album did incredibly well, especially in the US and UK. It hit number one on three US Billboard charts (Vinyl Albums, Tastemaker Albums, and Digital Albums), and on the UK Independent Records. It also broke the top forty in Australiz, Ireland and Scottland. All of the songs on the album were written by Seb Barlow, Andrew Wade, Tom Denny and A Day To Remember's Jeremy Mckinnon. The album was also produced by Jeremy Mckinnon. The first single, "Can't Kick Up The Roots" came out on May 12, 2015 and is about as pop punk you can get in meaning. The 'roots' part refer to the love / hate feeling there is of the town. Again I say -how very pop punk of them. There always seems to one extreme or the other with pop punk -they either love or hate their home town. In this case, they acknowledge both sides of that. Its about Seb Barlow's home town, Wrexham, North Wales and he said its kind of about how much the area sucks, but also is what makes it theirs. They wanted to release something catchy for the summer, and frankly, I think they did a fantastic job. This was actually the first time I've ever listened to Neck Deep and frankly -what the hell was I missing? These guys are great. Just this single alone made me want to hear more, which frankly is what a single for an album is supposed to do. I noticed fairly quickly that Neck Deep has the perfect mix between modern pop punk, and 1990's punk rock. The line between the two is blurred fairly often anyways, but they somehow mixed the two together perfectly. Songs like, "Citizens Of Earth" sound like they could have been released twenty years ago, but they weren't. If I had to compare them to anyone, I couldn't do it easily. On some tracks they remind me a bit of Mayday Parade, or Hawthorne Heights, or even early Good Charlotte. They're a lot of fun, and I think that's a massive part of their appeal. As for favorite songs on the album, I think I would have to say, "Can't Kick Up The Roots", "Kali Ma", and "I Hope This Comes Back To Haunt You." All the tracks are a lot of fun, aside from "I Hope This Comes Back To Haunt You", which is more of a ballad and rather heart breaking. Rightfully so though, its about a heart break, and you're hoping they feel bad about what they did to you. Its still fairly catchy, but its also the way the emotions were portrayed, I just couldn't help but appreciate it. I look forward to hearing more from Neck Deep, and hopefully one day seeing them. Speaking of seeing them, you won't be able to for a little while but in September they will be playing several festivals. Those festivals include the High Elevation Rock Festival, Riot Fest and Texas Munity. For more information, please visit the respective festivals website. And be sure to stay up to day with Neck Deep by following them on all of their social media and checking out their official website.
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On November 13, 2012 Motionless White released their second album, Infamous. This album was entirely different than their debut album, Creatures and in my honestly opinion -a hell of a lot better. A little over a month before the album was set to be released, it was leaked onto the internet. This caused a lot of conversation among fans, and surely made the band wonder what was going to happen sales wise. The album actually ended up charting at number 53 on the Billboard 200, 19 on the Top Rock albums, nine on the Top Independent charts and five on the Top Hard Rock albums. So it did very well despite the fact that it was leaked. The lead single, "Devil's Night" came just after the album's announcement in September, and honestly the track is incredibly inspiring. It does sort of call out those who are against you, all while saying you're not giving up and you're there to stay. All while done in this awesome metalcore way that you can't help bu appreciate. The thing I enjoyed about this album is it was much crisper sounding than Creatures did. If I'm honest, that album gave me a headache, so to hear them do something entirely different was refreshing. This album really showed me the potential Motionless In White had. They also sounded very much so like they're inspired by Marilyn Manson, which is something to admire as well. If pressed to pick a couple of stand out tracks, I would have to say, "Devil's Night", "Hatefuck" and "If Its Dead, We'll Kill It." The album is filled with a lot of inspiration, you just have to actually listen to catch it. This is not the most recent album from Motionless In White, but its still a great one. I actually have already reviewed their latest album, Reincarnate and you can read it now, if you would like. I also highly encourage you to head on over to Motionless In White's website because they have lots coming up. They are going to be on the Vans Warped tour until August 13, and then later on will also be performing at Rock Allegiance in September, and later in the fall will be going out with Korn and Breaking Benjamin. All the tour dates can be found on their website. |
InformationAll reviews have the date they were written, the album title, and the band's name, with the exception of Life Starts Now by Three Days Grace and Dear Agony by Breaking Benjamin. Those dates were guessed at, as they were written well before the website began. Archives
February 2022
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