Metal is one of the most polarizing genres of music out there (possibly the most, outside of maybe country), and among the various forms of metal, metalcore is hardly the most inviting. Either you're ok with the fast drums, heavy guitars, and screaming (and I mean screaming) vocals, or you're not. It's really as simple as that. So if you're not into metalcore, an album like this, good as it is, won't change your mind.
However, for those predisposed to enjoy this sort of thing, you're in luck: As Daylight Dies is quite possibly the most impressive metalcore album I've ever heard, and one of the best metal albums I've come across.
Now I'm not really a big metal guy, but I was a few years ago, and I still appreciate and enjoy good metal. And this is most definitely good metal. Every instrument is masterfully played (and they need to be for this to be any good at all), but the strongest aspect is Howard Jones' vocals. He screams well, then when it comes to the chorus, sings powerfully and forcefully. When he sings "there is loooooooove" on "My Curse," there's no doubt in your mind that there is, in fact, love.
Album highlights include "My Curse," "This Is Absolution," and "The Arms of Sorrow," which is the closest these guys get to a ballad. The album is marred a bit by some weaker tracks-- "For You" comes to mind-- but overall, an impressive metal album. They won't win any converts, but they will impress fans.
Grade: A-
P.S. Below is the video for "My Curse" as well as two of the members of the band doing an a capella rendition. They do those for all the songs, and they're absolutely hilarious.
The Decemberists had been around for eight years by the release of The King Is Dead in 2011. They were mostly known for old-timey sounding songs with complicated and smart lyrics, and in fact were coming off 2009's The Hazards of Love, a concept album that was basically one very long song.
But for their next album, they went in the opposite direction. Their music up to that point could be termed as very British, but the Portland band followed this up by releasing a quintessential Americana album, featuring as much harmonica as their previous albums had accordion. The result is arguably their most impressive work yet.
Colin Meloy's voice works just as well for this style of music as it did for their previous albums, and the songwriting is at its best here. The change of styles allows their music to be fresher than anything they'd done in years.
Two of the highlights of the album are its twin acoustic ballads, "January Hymn" and "June Hymn." Each evokes the month of its title perfectly, and both are beautiful, well-written ballads that make excellent use of the backing vocals of Gillian Welch. Other album highlights include the Americana stomp "Don't Carry It All" and the R.E.M.-indebted first single "Down by the Water."
This album is actually a major stylistic shift for The Decemberists, but in many ways it doesn't feel that way, and it was not seen that way at the time of its release. This is probably because the style of The King Is Dead seems to come so effortlessly to them that it comes off as nothing more than a natural progression. More than that, it's very possibly their best album.
In a blog named after Pearl Jam's bassist, it only makes sense to get to that band as soon as possible. Ten is the debut from these Seattle "grunge" rockers, and it is well known for, along with Nirvana's Nevermind, catapulting alternative music into the mainstream in 1991. Like Nevermind, Ten still holds up very well. The track listing reads like a greatest hits album: the epic "Alive," the beautiful "Black," and even "Jeremy," which is overdramatic but still worthwhile. Unlike Nirvana, which took its cues from punk bands, Pearl Jam clearly aspired to be a '70s-style rock band. The guitar solos on Ten are proof enough of that; Mike McCready's solo on "Alive," in particular, is a classic. All the songs are extremely guitar-driven, and the fact that Pearl Jam's musical heroes are The Who (see "Alive") and Bruce Springsteen (see the coda of "Jeremy") comes across very clearly here.
Though it's their best known record, Ten really doesn't sound that much like the other Pearl Jam albums. This is in large part because while Eddie Vedder has written the majority of the band's music after this album, the music on Ten is mostly credited to Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard. Ten serves as proof, though, that the band's bassist and guitarist are just as adept at songwriting as the singer. The album's production is significantly improved thanks to a 2009 re-release that featured re-mixes by Brendan O'Brien, the producer of most of Pearl Jam's other albums. The original production, by Rick Parashar, is muddy, sludgy and generally terrible in a very 1991 kind of way; the newer mix is much more in line with their other work. There are some downsides to Ten: it's Pearl Jam at their most dramatic, and is mostly missing the sense of fun present on their other records. Eddie Vedder's voice is also at its most Eddie Vedder-y here, (you know, the kind that inspired the likes of Scott Weiland and Scott Stapp) which makes it nearly impossible not to sing along in the deepest voice you can muster, especially in songs like "Release," when he's singing "whiiiiiiiiiiiich way to go." But if you can get past this, you'll hear an album brimming with classic tracks. Ten sounds like 1991, but it's not dated; it's dramatic and serious, but never at the expense of the great music; and most of all, it's extremely well-written and well-executed.
I wanted my first album review on this blog to be of the first album I ever bought. I first got into music in 8th grade, and what got me into music was AC/DC (which seems to be the universal favorite band of eighth graders).
Now I soon passed my AC/DC phase and it's been quite a while since I heard Back in Black in its entirety. Two thing surprised me: first, I remembered everything about it. And second, it's pretty solid.
More than any other band, AC/DC has the reputation for all of its songs sounding the same. This is pretty true, especially the deeper you get into their catalog. However, for one album, it's not so bad, and Back in Black is pretty diverse by AC/DC album standards, although by most standards, that's another story.
The album gets off to a great start, with "Hell's Bells," "Shoot to Thrill," and "What Do You Do For Money Honey." These are all good, heavy rockers, carried by Brian Johnson's voice (before his voice devolved into a horrendous caricature of itself). "Back in Black" is a great track too, especially if you forget the amount these songs have been overplayed over the years and concentrate on the songs themselves.
"Given the Dog a Bone" (apparently the misspelling was intentional) and "Let Me Put My Love into You" are the album's weakest tracks, especially the latter, with its horribly obvious double entendres and undeniable misogyny. And one can definitely debate the tact of including a song like "Have a Drink on Me" as a tribute to a bandmate who died of alcohol poisoning.
Not every album has to be some kind of grand statement. Some of them are great when you just want a few good rock songs. Back in Black isn't amazing-- nothing this band does can distinguish itself that much. But it's the best this style of music can be, and there's a lot to be said for that.
This post is just covering, basically, what this blog is, for the benefit of the legions of readers bound to discover it later.
This blog covers rock music. By that I mean anything that falls under that general umbrella. That means punk, metal, classic rock, indie music, alternative, even some pop-- all of that's covered here.
And who am I? My name is Stanford Crissey, I am a journalism student living in Chicago. Music is a passion of mine, something that's very important to me, and something I'm very excited to write about.
Most of the posts on here will be reviews, but there will be a variety of other content as well. It will be split between reviews of new albums and older or classic albums.
Oh, and there will be plenty of pictures of Jeff Ament wearing creative hats.
