As I Lay Dying- An Ocean Between Us

As I Lay Dying is one of the iconic bands of the 2000's. A band that has been looked up to by a generation of youngsters for their blending of just about every heavier rock style one can think of. Blending the obvious base of metal and hardcore, with punk music influences, classic metal, noise, and on their latest release thrash metal.
Perhaps the most mature release from AILD to date. the record flows alot better than previous records, and you can def. tell the band is trying to establish a more iconic sound. I think the shear speed of this record is something to be looked at. It's fast past, knuckle driven metal songs, and it rocks like the Anthrax of a new generation. Forget bands like Avenged Sevefold, Bullet For My Valentine, and the Showdown; As I Lay Dying is a representation of this generations great metal.
Bottom line is this band is the epitamy of a group of extreme metal heads that jam with infleunces of so many. Yeah maybe they listened to At The gates too much, and maybe they played "Madhouse" on Guitar Hero too much, but this band is exciting to watch as they are perfecting the wheel in which their four fathers invinted.

FINAL GRADE: B+

As Cities Burn- Come Now Sleep

As Cities Burns debut record Son I Loved You at Your Darkers will go down as one of the best debut's in the post-hardcore history, and while Come Now Sleep is quite the progression, it might not be as much of a departure as most fans of the bands were expecting.
Since their last release, the band has underwent an extreme lineup change, including lead vocalist and bassist. Instead the bands backup singer has stepped up to the mic and showing of intense emotional singing which comes as a breath of fresh air amongst the auto tuned carbon copies of music today.
the writing on this record is superb, mixing fresh indie rock grooves, with incredible post-hardcore undertones, and even agressions on songs like "This is It, This is It."
Bottom line is there isnt much to say about this record other than it's a little more chill over all, very melodic, a little too shoegazy for me, but over all one of the best, and most thoughtful records of the year.

FINAL GRADE: A

Every Time I Die- The Big Dirty

Every Time I Die is one of the penacle bands of our decade as far as heavy music goes, and in my opinion, probably one of the most copied bands in the last two or three years. Hell, people don't even realize it, but Underoath almost carbon copied them on Define the Great Line.
There mix of noisy off beat time signatures, mixed with A-Tonal chords, and poppy sing songy hooks has been the bearer of poseur bad news since TDWP signed up for their MySpace profiles.
At any rate, ETID never fails to deliver, NEVER. The ultimate party-core band, ETID's ALWAYS witty lyrics are extremely aprarent on their latest release. Not really the bIGGEST progression from i've seen, but it is there. Since the last record, the band has become a little more serious with the tones of the record, but don't expect seriousness from this band for a second.
Musically, the days of the chorus are gone, replaced by the technical guitar work of their past releases.
This record reminds me mostly of Hot Damn but with the southern qualitites, and attitude of Gutter Phenomenon.
I think the best way to describe ETID is...

Hot Damn is like a high school kid crashing a college party
Gutter Phenomenon is the college party
and The Big Dirty is like a REALLY bad hang over, and the only remedy is more alcohol
Bottom line, great record from an iconic band.

FINAL GRADE: A-