Envy On The Coast - "Devil's Tongue"

Envy On The Coast put up an unreleased song today on their MySpace entitled "Devil's Tongue".  Though it's still got those classic "Envy" roots, it sounds much grungier, harder, and older.  I'm not a fan of the new style, and I hope the rest of their album doesn't follow suit, but it's not a bad song.  Oh, yeah.  Did I mention their new album will be dropping "Early 2010"?  Get stoked, folks.

http://www.myspace.com/envyonthecoast

Fresh Off the Grill

Pop-Rock/Alternative band Mayday Parade handed out copies of their latest CD at a concert last night, and a copy has shown up on the Internet.   Though it's not something I like to openly admit, I'm a pretty big Mayday fan and I was pretty excited for this release.  What I hear so far is pretty phenomenal; you can definitely expect a full review on the album when it officially drops on October 6th.

Craig Owens kicked out of Chiodos

Not even two weeks have passed since Craig Owens released his debut solo album/EP, "With Love" and it's been announced that Craig Owens has left Chiodos.  It doesn't come as much surprise to me - Chiodos was just one of four projects Craig was a part of.  What's next for the Chiodos and for Craig Owens?  Who knows, maybe both parties will benefit!

Full article can be found here: http://altpress.com/news/craigowensoutofchiodos.htm

I'm already selling out

hahaha!

Hey guys, just thought I'd give my readers a quick little update.  I've decided I'm going to start posting my new reviews onto the site "The Escapist" (www.escapistmagazine.com) to try and get a little feedback.  I've been writing reviews there for almost two years now and they've always been pretty nice, so please don't be concerned if you see my reviews being posted there.

Much love!

-rckildea

New Release - Monty Are I "Break Through the Silence"

Admittedly, this is the first Monty Are I album that I've listened to. I figured this release was a debut album of what would be an excellent band, but some fans quickly informed me these guys have been around for a while now - they even have three other full-lengths. Nevertheless, I decided to give their latest release  Break Through the Silence a listen.

Let me first begin with what Break Through the Silence did right. Initially, what stood out to me was the lead singer's voice. He sounds very similar to Bert McCracken of The Used (albeit a bit more poppy), and while I'm not a fan of the band I think both vocalists have an excellent voice. A lot of these songs are set up with lots of focus on the vocalist, and he's good. While the guitar work on the album isn't outstanding, there are quite a few small, fun riffs every once in a while that are just pleasant to listen to. Whoever plays the keyboard does a fantastic job as well; while it's not always focused on I hear it in most songs and the little melodies that are repeated just blend perfectly.

But unfortunately that's where my praise ends. While I like the vocalist, the band is sometimes too poppy for their own good, and at points I wasn't quite sure if I was listening to a boy band or a rock group. The second track, "The Stand", is a great example. The lyrics for the chorus are, "Try and knock me down but I'm still standing. Try to knock me down but I'm still here. You'll fade away but I won't disappear because I'm not going anywhere." There are quite a few lines like this on the album that I'd like to forget I ever heard.

The previously mentioned chorus is also an example for my next pet-peeve: Monty Are I seem to love to take their song titles and make them into choruses. What I mean is that just about every other song on the album has a chorus with the name of the song in it. Some are slightly less guilty of this - in "Kaleidoscope", they only briefly mention at the end, "Like a kaleidoscope, when I give you a spin I'm in." However, in songs like "Making Sounds" and "One In a Million", the vocalist repeat the lines over and over: "Faced with a feeling I could never give up from the way we're making sounds, making sounds, sound, sounds, making sounds, making sounds, sounds, sounds..." I was looking for something more clever than that, and this album couldn't meet my expectations.

Stand out tracks on the album include "Break Through the Silence", "Kaleidoscope", and "Mirage" (guilty of the chorus problem), as well as the bonus track "The Patriarch" which I found to be the absolute best song on the album. "The Patriarch" sounds so much like the tracks on Forgive Durden's album "Razia's Shadow" in that it has similar orchestra instrumentals, as well as superb vocals and excellent lyrics. It really reminds me of "The Missing Piece". "The Patriarch" has me wondering if Monty Are I were using it as an experiment to see if fans like it - it definitely sounds different than the rest of the album, in a really, really good way.

I've said a lot of bad things about the album and it probably won't be my favorite release of the month, but I honestly did enjoy it. The band is too poppy for my tastes during a lot of the songs and almost every song has an extremely repetitive chorus, but the band does do a lot of things right. I can't say, "Go out and buy this album," and I won't tell you, "Avoid this at all costs," because some people are going to like it and some will hate it. Give a few songs a listen and go from there. Me - I think I'll just keep "The Patriarch" on repeat.

Say Anything - "Eloise" (Live)

Max Bemis did a live performance of "Eloise" for Rolling Stone yesterday.  The song will be appearing on the band's upcoming self-titled album.  I haven't genuinely been impressed by any song released so far - which happens to be about half the album.  "Eloise" is alright, but just doesn't feel like Say Anything.  Max still has the voice of a saint, but the lyrics aren't incredible and while it's just an acoustic set there doesn't seem to be a lot of substance either.  You guys can listen for yourself and tell me what you think:

Remember When...

The Orphan, The Poet - "In Brevity"
Release Date: June 29, 2009

Alternative Rock/Indie three piece The Orphan the Poet released the first EP back in June, and I remember listening to one or two tracks before forgetting about it.  I figured I'd give it another listen.  It took more than one listen for me to find my thoughts, though: While there are a few interesting lines and some nice parts on this album, I don't think I'll be putting In Brevity on repeat anymore.

The first two tracks, "Archetype" and "Texas or Bust", aren't bad songs, but they're a bit disappointing. There's nothing that really stands out in either track; they're just generic Alternative/Punk Rock. Both songs really remind me of Amber Pacific. The song structure in "Archetype" is a bit notable, though. It starts out like an average song for the genre, but as it gets closer to the end, the song changes sound completely into some sort of 20 second heavy metal breakdown. It then returns to normalcy for a few more seconds, and then there's about 20 seconds of acoustic music. It's interesting and different, but ultimately not enough to save the song.

The third track, "Kingdom", isn't impressive musically, but the lyrics are phenomenal: "Tyrant, breathe me in. Know my movement. Trace a line across, just keep your faith when maps can be so deceiving." I love the word choice, because while this may sound like a story of man against man, the rest of the lyrics slowly reveal that this "tyrant" is a woman that the speaker is in love with. It's basically a song about rejection, and the lyrics are extremely well done. In its whole, though, "Kingdom" is a pretty poor track. The vocals seem out of place at some times, the guitar work is plain and uninteresting, and the verses are drug out much longer than need be - it's a very, very slow song.

The stand-out track on the album is "To Those Called Icarus", and it's pretty phenomenal. Echoing vocals and the smooth guitar work help put the focus on the vocals. The singer has a very serious and sincere tone as he tells a story of non-conformity. Men build walls to keep their bad deeds in, but the speaker begs for a ship to sail out with the sirens, inevitably to his death. The guitar work and drumming aren't bad, they're just not special. Admittedly, the instruments could use some pizazz, but the song as a whole is nice and memorable.

The album unfortunately ends as it started, as the track "A Kite's Lament" isn't really amazing. For the first time on the album, there's an acoustic guitar that actually sounds extremely nice. It's present in most of the song, with the exception of the chorus, which goes back to a normal, mediocre electric guitar. This song also contains a mini-bonus track that I found more enjoyable than the song itself. A creepy-sounding piano accompanies what sounds like the vocalist through an old-timely filter. He sings about snakes and I'm sure the entire thing is a metaphor, but I didn't quite understand it. All I know is I absolutely love the final lines: "How could you see my skin only for it's scars? I see us for who we will be, not only who we are." The bonus song is very Envy on the Coast and I liked it.

All these small additions and little gimmicks couldn't really make the album for me, though. Sometimes I hear some Saosin or Envy in the music, but the sound quickly changes to that mediocre Alt. Rock sound again. I wouldn't recommend buying it, even for fans of the genre, but if you're interested you might give them a listen. This is only the band's first release and it's a simple five track EP; I'm not sure how they'll handle a full-length, but they have enough talent to make me interested. Maybe next year.