Despite the fact that I am not a big Avenged Sevenfold fan, I do have to say
Nightmare is an impressive album. It is dedicated to their late drummer, Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan, who passed away in December 2009. The Rev, just three days before his death, wrote the song "Fiction". Its eerie, as the song is basically a goodbye. Though he [supposedly] died of natural causes, it is as if he knew the end was near. Certain lyrics, such as, "Gave you all I had to give. Found a place to rest my head. While I may be hard to find, hear there's peace on the other side." With a lyric like that, had it not come out that he died from a heart condition, people would just assume he had committed suicide. You can hear the pain in Matt Shadows voice as he sings the words. Rightfully so, he loves a dear friend of his. My favorite track, however, is probably, "Welcome To The Family". There's no particular reason, I just enjoy the song. You can tell that songs like, "Victim", "So Far Away" and others are for Jimmy. They really loved him, and this album shows it. Its quite inspiring that they are going on as a band, and in his honor. If you look inside the CD's case, there is a drawing of someone hugging Jimmy. That was the last picture of him, ever. As I mentioned, I am not a big fan of Avenged Sevenfold, but even I have to admit this album did greatly impress me. They took their grief and pain and turned it into something great. By far, I say give this album a listen. It does cover the topic of insanity, which not everyone is comfortable with, along with death. Insanity is obvious on the lead single, "Nightmare".Especially if you see the video, which takes place in a mental hopsital. Those topics may be tough for some people to hear, but if those do not bother you, you're probably going to enjoy this album. Partly due to the story behind it, I give this album five stars. The story alone, should impress anyone.
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Mayday Parade's third album is ingenious realy. It is all very deep, with real
emotions, with just plain out fun melodies to it. Derek Sanders is clearly enjoying singing what he is. What I really love is the track, "Bruised And Scarred". It has such an upbeat melody to it, but when you really listen to the lyrics, its actually a heart breaking song. "I'm bruised and scarred, save me from this broken heart. All my love will slowly fade and fall apart." Its so sad, but unless you're paying attention, you won't notice the actual mood of the song. Actually, the more I paid attention to the lyrics over the beat of the album, I realized most of the album is more on the darker side. "The Silence", "If You Can't Live Without Me Why Aren't You Dead Yet?", even "Kids In Love". "Kids In Love" is just reminiscing on memories. This all being said, there are some fun ones too, like "Get Up." "Get up, get up. Sing it like you're screaming at me." Its all about getting up and having fun at a concert. This is a very emotional, but fun album, and I recommend it or anything else by Mayday Parade. This album is quite exceptional. It covers several topics like war, hatred,
love, and life. Along with a few other ones over this thirteen track album, titled Tri-Polar. Though this is Sick Puppies' third album, it was the album that got their name known. I personally, like the entire album, but I adore the tracks "Don't Walk Away" and "Maybe". Everyone knows "Maybe", quiet well, as it was one of the more popular singles off the album. I just love it for the relatable message. At some point in our lives, we all just want to pick up and change everything. Even if that means leaving something or someone we care about behind. "Maybe its time to change, and leave it all behind. I've never been one to walk alone. I've always been scared to try." As for, "Don't Walk Away", that particular track means a lot to me. I first heard the song while I was going through something that the sogn depicts. It actually brought me to tears, and from time to time. It really tells the story of arguing with someone close to you, and you can see you're drifting apart, but you don't know why or want it to happen. "Don't walk away, and leave without a reason when there's too much to say that hasn't been said." It sadly happens far too often in the world we live in. There is honestly nothing bad I can say about this album, even the songs with bleak topics like cheating, hatred, and war have great lyrics to them. Shimon Moore sings each song with such power, and the music for each song is greatly done. Defentily get this album, I can promise you won't be dissapointed. I give this album five fabulous stars. I found Danger Days: The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys to be a
huge disappointment. Given, The Black Parade is a hard album to follow, but they could have done ten times better with this one. For starters, they drastically changed their sound. They went from their familiar, alternative rock (some would say "emo") sound, to something more along the lines of pop-rock. It does work for them, it just doesn't work well. The only songs I really enjoyed on this album were "Sing" and "The Only Hope For Me Is You". There's no real reason for "Sing", its just catchy. "The Only Hope For Me Is You" is both catchy, and sweet. When you hear, "Can I be the only hope for you? Because you're the only hope for me.", can you really take it any other way except thinking its the sweetest thing ever? No offense to the Killjoys (MCR fans), but how can you like this album so much? I personally was seriously disappointed with it, I expected so much more out of them. They hyped the album so much, it got delayed for a few years due to health problems with Gerard Way, and members trying to leave the band. From the time I heard, "Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)" I knew the album wasn't going to impress me. To me, its a cheesy song, and pointless really. The lyrics didn't impress me one bit, neither did the beat. Interestingly, though I didn't totally care for the song much at all, the last track on the album, "Vampire Money", was the band's reaction to being asked to do a song for the Twilight film, New Moon. Gerard Way said that the reason the song was on the album was because, "There's a lot of people chasing that fucking money. 'Twilight'? A lot of people around us were like, 'Please, for the love of God, do this fucking movie.' But we moved on." I am sorry to say, I don't think this album is worth buying at all. I give it two stars, just because it does have a couple good songs. If you want to hear good My Chemical Romance music, listen to The Black Parade. That is truly a good album. Danger Days is not. Though I am not a fan of A Day To Remember, What Seperates Me From You
is a marvelous album. There isn't a song on there I didn't like. All that being considered, apart from the chorus, I can not really understand Jeremy McKinnon all the way through the second track, "Sticks & Bricks". The chorus is good though, and the music is simply awesome. Who doesn't love "All I Want"? Everyone can relate to it, because everyone at some point has felt like they wanted something to call their own. The song says it very clearly, "All I want is a place to call my own, to mend the hearts of everyone that feels alone. You know to keep your hopes up high and your head down low." Another track I love is "2nd Sucks." All because of the way Jeremy says, "Get the fuck over it." a minute into the song. Its pretty much a song about arguing with someone and wanting to be done with them. You know they need you but they refuse to see it, and you're to the point where you don't want to care. What Seperates Me From You is worth buying, and I don't think you'll regret it if you do. Theere is nothing wrong with this album as far as I'm concerned. You can tell they really poured their souls into it. Defenitely buy the album, its perfect if you're angry with someone or simplyy just enjoy hardcore music. The intro, "2.0" isn't exactly the best. Basically all they say though the
entire son ig, "We're Not Dead". That's just a bit obvious, is it not? We can tell you're not dead, because if you were you wouldn't be screaming about it. Pure and simple, you wouldn't be. The music is good on the entire album, it has great guitar riffs and all the proper trimmings for what some people would call "Screamo" music. Maybe its just me, as I do adore Craig Mabbitt, but I don't think Beau Bokan does nearly as well as Craig did. There's nothing wrong with him at all, I just don't care for him as much. That being said, at times, he sounds a lot like Craig. It took me a few times listening to the album before I could stop asking, "Who's that singing? Craig or Beau?" Now I realize they sound nothing a like most of the time. Only true similarity is their screams at moments, though its generally deeper than Craig's is. I particularly liked the second track, "What's Left Of Me", just because I love the way he sings the line, "What's left of me is yours to keep." It sounds so pure and sweet, like he's genuinely enjoying the words he's singing. For unknown reasons, it spoke to me. Possibly because of how clearly it was sung. One thing I disliked about this album is while I enjoy the sound of his scream, you can not understand it most of the time. I had to look up the lyrics just to figure out what he was saying. I defentily perfer His Last Walk over Witness, its more understandable, and I just perfer Craig's voice over Beau's. This being said, I do say this is a good album and it is worth listening to. I give this album four stars, because all of it is good, just the screaming is a bit hard to comprehend. By far, this is the best album All Time Low has made yet. While their 2009
album, Nothing Personal was great, I feel this one is All Time Low's true sound. The entire album is fun and upbeat, with the pop-rock tones and catchy lyrics. There's a bit of a pattern with the album, most of the songs are about relationships. Not sappy love songs either, more like the true love songs. Take "Forget About It" for example. At one point, the lead singer, Alex Gaskarth, says, "You know, there are some days where I really feel like this could work. Like we're finally gonna get this right. Then there are days like today, when you make me want to tear my fucking hair out." That's a true love story there, because you're not always going to be happy with someone all the time, and there will be days that you'll just want to tear your hair out because of them. You're not always going to be happy with whoever it is tou love, but yet you love them just enough that you can't forget about it and move on. My favorite track, however, is "Time Bomb". Because it is all about wanting someone around even if you know it'll go wrong in the end. That's also real life, sometimes you just want to live in the moment. Not worry about the future, but to be happy in the present. "It was like a time bomb set in motion. We knew that we were destined to explode, and if I had to pull you out of the wreckage you know I'm never gonna let you go." I just found that lyric to be very adorable and sweet. You'll still save them, even though you know in the end everything is going to explode and shatter. Throughout the entire album, Alex sounds very passionate about the words he's singing, like he's truely enjoying himself. Which is a big thing for me, if they're not into it, they probably don't want to be singing what they are. Most of the album is about love, but a few tracks like, "I Feel Like Dancing" are about going out and having fun with your friends. There's only one slower song on the album. The rest of this twelve track album is very fun and danceable. "Daydream Away", when you stop to think about it, is kind of a sad song. Its about daydreaming about someone you don't have the courage to go up to. Pining away for someone, but being too self-conscious to take the risk and see if you stand a chance of dating them. Still a good song, regardless. If you wish to hear All Time Low at their best, defentily get this album. I'm sure you won't regret it. I myself give it five stars. This album is early proof that Craig Mabbitt (who's now in Escape The Fate) has some serious talent. He was only seventeen when he started in Blessthefall, and he turned eighteen while recording His Last Walk.
Some of the songs were influenced by the news he recieved while they were writing the album. He learned that he was going to be a father, and Craig has said that it did effect his writing some. My favorite however has to be either, "Rise Up" or the title track, "His Last Walk". "His Last Walk" has a lot of screaming all the way through the song, and has a very strong rhythm to it. What I love though, isn't actually the song itself. It the hidden bonus track at the end of it called, "Purple Dog". Its really just the band messing around in the recording studio, laughing and singing. For some reason they wanted to do what they said is a "clapping track". Craig started singing an amusing tune about a purple dog as they did so. "Purple dog on a Sunday afternoon, with my yellow duck. His name is Pooh. I like to feed him old dirty biscuts, because I like to save my Triskets." Its very random, but amusing to listen to. Their laughter makes it even funnier. "Rise Up" is clearly more of a religious song, I'm surprised more songs on the album aren't so obvious since they are a Christian band. At one point, the song makes it completely clear by saying, "I stand broken, please God, hear my cries. He does every time." Over all, I do think this is an awesome album, and I do recommend it to anyone who is into Chiristian Metal or just simply, good music. Because of the lyrics, and the fact that I am a big Craig Mabbitt fan and love the sound of his voice, I give this album five stars. From the intro,"Illuminaudio", I could tell this album would be a lot better
than their debut album with Craig Owens. This is the first album featuring their new singer, Brandon Bolmer, and I can already tell that he does much better than Craig did in Chiodos. His coive is much crisper, though it is still higher pitched, and the screaming is much better sounding. It doesn't sound like he's struggling with it, it comes with ease for him, so its nice to hear. Every song on the album flows surprisingly well, even though each song does sound similar musically. Much like All's Well That Ends Well, but better. I really liked the track, "Let Us Burn One" because its about someone not being there when you thought they were. Its a real life topic that is very relatable, and to me personally, it means a lot. "I gave it all to you. Everything I had and then you took my soul. You took my soul away." Sadly, this happens a lot. With every person that does you wrong, you cahnge a little. So in a sense, they do take your soul away, or at least parts of it. If you listen to the tenth track, "Stratovolcano Mouth" and listen to the 2009 demo they released featuring Craig, "Thermacare", you'll hear a similarity. "Stratovolcano Mouth" features the audio to "Thermacare". The actual song was redone as "The Only Thing You Talk About" by Craig's new band, D.R.U.G.S. There's a great difference between this album and the previous two featuring Craig Owens as the singer. I do feel that Bradley Bell, Matt Goddard, Jason Hale, Pat Mcmanaman, and Tanner Wayne do better now than they ever did with Craig on previous albums. The sound, which is similar, has been refinsihed to work perfectly for the band, and sounds better all around with Brandon. I do recommend this album, there is not a single song on the album I did not like somewhat. For that reason, I give this album four stars. Over all, I didn't care for All's Well That Ends Well. I felt that,
while the music and lyrics were good, the vocals did not work at all. Craig Owen's voice was too high and pitched at the time for their hardcore sound. Not to menton, his screams sounded strained and forced. To me, they sounded painful, which is not a pleasing sound. From what I could tell, most of the lyrics are very heartfelt and deep. That's not much of a suprise, several of the songs were inspired by Shakespeare's plays. Some of the ones I perfered are inspired by Shakespeare. The chorus for "There's No Penguins In Alaska" comes from Shakespeare's Fifth, another term was borrowed from the Ninth, and the line, "The worst was this; my love was my decay" was borrowed from his Eighteenth. I don't have a "favorite" on the album, but if I had to choose one, I think it'd be a tie between the sixth track, "The Words 'Best Friend' Become More Refined" and "Expired In Goreville", the fourth track. Because, not only is the title of "The Words 'Best Friend' Become More Refined", attention grabbing because its very true, but I love one of the lines in it. "Higher than the heavens, the clouds part ways. Promise me to never look down, and we'll stay like this forever." I found it a very beautiful and sweet way of saying you don't want to lose your best friend. With a title like, "Expired In Goreville", you don't expect sweet lyrics, but its another song on the album that does. "You cured my foolish obession with love. I'll love you until my last breath." From what I could tell, a lot of the album is like that. Lyrically, anyways. The only thing I honestly disliked about the album was the screaming and vocals. It really just doesn't fit. Espeically not on the tenth track, "We're Gonna Have Us A Champagne Jam". When Craig screamed in the beginning, it sounded reminiscent of a dying cat, if you ask me. It was terrible! If I am perfectly honest, I say this album is not worth buying. I only give it two stars, and that's only because the lyrics are good. The music over powers the lyrics a lot, though, I had to look them up on the Internet to understand them. The remaining members of Chiodos (Matt Goddard, Pat Mccmanaman, Jason Hale, and Bradely Bell) are better off without Craig, and Craig is better off in D.R.U.G.S. |
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
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