Coaster, which is now available from Fat Wreck Chords, is NOFX’s first album of new songs in three years and, for the most part, they remain true to form, serving up the NOFX fast-paced drunk punk that we’ve come to expect and love from them. (The version available on vinyl is called Frisbee and has different cover art)

The album gets off to a fast start on track 1 with the political “We Called it America” about the decline of the U.S. economy. It’s the first of a couple of political tracks on the album, which also include a pair of tracks that deal with religion: track 5, “Blasphemy (the Victimless Crime)” is a savage attack on organized religion and a defense of unbelievers. It also has a great minor key riff. Then there’s track 8, “Best God in Show,” which is more about the incredulity NOFX feels towards believers themselves who attribute everything to God, no matter what it is:

“Thank god for the Grammy, thank god for the touchdown / thank god for blowing up the enemy’s sacred ground.”

Of course it wouldn’t be a NOFX album without both comedy and lots of alcohol around. There’s plenty of both here. Stand out tracks include 3, “First Call,” about going to get drunk in the morning when the bar first opens, which also name drops several of NOFX’s fellow bands. Then there’s track 6, “Creeping Out Sara,” in which Fat Mike relates an encounter that he had with (he thinks) Sara of Tegan and Sara although he’s not sure that it was Sara rather than Tegan (NOTE: on Frisbee this song is called “Creeping Out Tegan” so clearly you're meant make up your own minds on who it was that Fat Mike creeped out). Track 7, “Eddie, Bruce, and Paul,” sends up the break up of Iron Maiden, complete with hair metal guitar solo and the occasional falsetto vocals. Track 11, “I Am an Alcoholic” is a bit more serious since it’s sung from the point of view of a “drug addicted alcoholic” who can’t stop what he’s doing. This song has the added bonus of an El Hefe trumpet solo.

Musically the band is as tight as they ever were. The mosh speed predominates but they’ve mixed in killer riffs, some slower, poppier songs, and reggae and ska into the blend to bring about what we would - for the most part - expect from them.

However I did just say “for the most part” and there’s a reason for that. Longtime NOFX fans are in for a big surprise on this album and that’s contained in track 4, “My Orphan Year.” Fat Mike wrote this song about the deaths of his parents, apparently both in 2006 (hence his “orphan year”). It seems his father left his family when Mike was young and his mother raised him alone most of the time. Fat Mike talks about his different stances towards his parents as they were dying. He and his dad seem to have never really made up and when his father was dying and asked for him Mike always said:

“I told him that I’d love to / but I had things to do.”
“And so he died without his son / I heard about it drunk after a show.”

Ouch! His mother on the other hand:

 “….battled cancer / for over seven years.”
“I nursed her and I held her / when time was running out.”

And apparently he was with her at the end.

Although NOFX has written serious songs in the past usually they’ve tended to be about political issues (especially while Bush II was in the White House). As far as I know this is the first time Fat Mike’s done a song that’s obviously highly personal and introspective - and the band does it straight; there’s no sneering or irony anywhere on the scene, something the song acknowledges in its closing lines:

“2006 good-bye parents / For once I am sincere / 2006 my orphan year.”

Without a doubt this is the saddest song that I can think of NOFX doing and they handle it beautifully - the music and lyrics match up really well. This song will resonate strongly with anyone who has lost a close relative or friend. But make no mistake: this is still a NOFX song, with the NOFX sound; they haven’t gone Emo at all. However this song does show that, should they ever wish to do so, they are capable of deeper things than we would normally expect from them. Who knows what they might create if they ever decide to follow up on this?

Okay I’m not even going to begin to get into the question of why the New York Dolls would make a new record in 2009 when only two of the original five members are still alive; that’s a debate I leave to the scholars and the super-fans. We all know who the New York Dolls are / were and how important they are to the history of Punk. All I’m concerned about is whether this album is a good album on its own terms, regardless of how it may compare to the NYD classics of the past.

Surprisingly Cause I Sez So is a very good album - or maybe not so surprisingly since David Johansen has been a professional musician for about 40 years, and he and his other remaining bandmate from the early days, Sylvain Mizrahi, have turned out a new collection of tunes between them that sound pretty darn good even after all these years. They’ve included the newer band members in the songwriting process and they’re not resting on their past reputations. This album doesn’t just stick to dirty proto-punk. The first two tracks are straight out rockers - and they’re great - but after that the band begins to explore more diverse territory, including blues, R&B, pop, lounge ballads, and even a reggae-style remake of the old Dolls classic “Trash.”.

It’s true that Johnny Thunders, Jerry Nolan, and Arthur Kane are now all long dead and they are deeply missed. And it’s true that the surviving Dolls have gotten older and more mature - but they still really do have it where it counts. They can still play up a storm and David Johansen can still sing pretty well after all these years. His voice has a real dirty rock quality to it that a lot of the great long time rock singers have and he knows how to use it to good effect. If you’ve never heard any of their stuff before, or if somehow you’ve never even heard of them at all (like if you’ve been living in a sealed bomb shelter since 1970) this album is as good a place as any to start getting to know them. It is now available from Atco Records.

The Aggrolites are a great reggae / ska band and this, their fourth album (appropriately named IV), hits the streets on June 9 courtesy of Hellcat Records. There’s really not all that much that I can say about it except that these guys started out early in this decade to reclaim Ska and Reggae from the extremely bastardized versions of it that had become predominant with the rise of bands like No Doubt and other bands (some include Sublime in this movement) that made music by mixing reggae and ska with lots of Punk and rock, thereby gaining the best elements of neither.

The Aggrolites make a much purer style of reggae and ska - like you might have heard in Jamaica in the 1960s. Bob Marley would recognize their style, as would the Skatalites, and Prince Buster. The songs here are very rhythmic and infectious. You can party to these songs; a lot of them are for dancing and with song titles like “Wild Time,” “Feelin’ Alright,” and “Reggae Summertime” they are quite aware of that. But they also have a more serious side and some of their songs, like “The Sufferer” and “Brother Jacob,” for example, have darker, more serious themes in their lyrics. And naturally, love appears as a theme in a number of the songs, especially “Ever Want to Try” and “Gotta Find Someone Better.”

At 75 minutes it must be admitted that this is a very long record, and it runs the risk of getting repetitive occasionally, but you know what? Since this is a fabulous album that rarely happens.

where oh where do I start. As you can see the CD cover is a big cookie with a cigarette butt, basically giving you no idea what to think about this band. You can not judge this CD by its cover. ha! Well with keeping an open mind when popping this cd in, The Bigfellas are a indie rock, folk band with a hint of country and i'm leaving out about 5 genres. they remind me a little of the Gin Blossoms. They have a wide range of instruments, piano, sweet guitar riffs, piano, acoustic guitar, and to top it off they have some great lyrics, some very clever and some funny but original. They are a band I would listen to every other day. (not a lot of bands I'd listen to every day). These guys are fun, go and check them out..
* www.BigFellas.net
* www.myspace.com/thebigfellas

MC

  Let me start on song one! I can't wait to hang out with the guys and put song one on and turn it up, its awesome and if really fun. That's all i'm going to say about that. Dirty White Socks is a punk rock, rock and roll, band from Germany. They remind me a LOT of The Scarred, with a slight mix of The Clash and The White Stripes. They play pretty solid through, keeping the same energy in every song. What stands out to me with this band are their intros to each song, each one different but still keeping it in the same atmosphere. I'm not going to say that song number 11 (No Love Song) but it shows they a wide range or music skill and can kick it down a notch with keeping my ears perked. They made me dirty a sock, maybe they'll make you dirty one to at

www.myspace.com/dirtywhitesocks 

With Supporting Caste Propagandhi is finally back after four years since their last album and they haven't softened one bit. They're as politically active as ever and, with times being what they are, boy do we need them now. As time has gone by they’ve gotten better and more ambitious as musicians and songwriters and this record shows it. It's a terrific record from – to quote the promotional liner notes – "4 visibly-aging prairie skids who still cannot believe that of all the gin joints in all the galaxies in all the universes, they had to be born in this one." They are as strongly opinionated as ever and still willing to use strong language to make their point. Instead of being released on Fat Wreck Chords, their most recent home, this album is being released on Propagandhi’s own label, Smallman Records.

In addition to their political rants some of their songs are actually starting to take personal, even introspective turns (such as tracks 1 and 9 for example). It doesn't mean they're getting soft, because they're not. Some of the tempos are slower, but they get delivered with just as hard a smash of guitars as ever, veering between Punk, Metal, and even Emo (the part of Emo that emphasizes the loud distortions of the music rather than the whiny lyrics part). Track 4, "Dear Coach's Corner," is good example of this, starting out with a fast metallic type attack which includes a savagely paced guitar solo before changing up (briefly) when the singing begins, to a slower indie type-song for the first verse, before getting louder and morphing into a big rock/pop-type song for the first chorus and essentially staying that way for the remainder of the track, even when it returns to the verse structure. Lyrically the song is framed as a question addressed to Canadian hockey announcer Ron MacLean, wanting to know how and why hockey can be compared to Nazis and Nuremberg rallies (something I'm told that he does rather a lot in his game commentary).

Despite their increasing range as musicians they are still recognizably Propagandhi. Track 2, "Supporting Caste", in addition to being a powerful attack on how organized religion is used by the establishment to buttress its own power and justify wars, also contains musical stylings that trace their roots all the way back to Propagandhi's early days. Although it has a slow, moody bridge the bulk of the song has a rhythm and tempo written in the "classic" (if there is such a thing) Propagandhi punk manner.

And yes, they still write the really short, fast hardcore punk songs even now. Track 5, “This is Your Life,” is a good example of this, coming in at all of one minute and three seconds. It’s sure to satisfy hardcore fanatics who want their music loud and fast, and their vocals gutturally screamed rather than actually sung. Track 10, "Incalculable Effects," has a lot in common with this song, being stylistically similar; but it's longer, sometimes slows down a little bit for a tiny touch more melody, and has more a more metallic sound mixed in with the hardcore.

Track 6, “Human(e) Meat (The Flensing of Sandor Katz),” is a very disturbing song about a killing and subsequent eating of a person sung from the perspective of the killer, yet by bringing Sandor Katz's name into the title of it as it does it (go look both him and "flensing" up – it would take too much time to explain here) it almost makes you wonder if the song is actually a put on! Even if so it's still a very disturbing one which gains power from having some catchy hooks in the music.

On a technical note Track 8, "The Funeral Procession" fades out about a minute before its actual ending to be replaced by a repeating riff that is very different from the rest of the song. I'm not sure why they did this unless it's to set up the next track, which it runs into without stopping, although when track 9, "Without Love," finally arrives it jumps to a completely different sound when that song begins. Your guess is as good as mine on this.

Track 11, "The Banger's Embrace," actually shows a bit of a lighter side to Propagandhi, something they used to have a lot more of on the early albums, but has been missing recently. This is about their place in Punk today, both as it was in the "old" days and how the spirit never dies. A lot of bands sing songs like this but Propagandhi's song is actually (gasp!) hopeful about the scene's future. It's probably the most fun song on the album up to this point.

Track 12, "Last Will & Testament" is probably the only song that I might call a bit self-indulgent. It begins with over three and quarter minutes of music before getting to the vocals, which last just under two minutes, before another minute of music which gradually fades out. The whole thing is about 6:15 long but it could easily be shortened by about two and a half minutes.

However after track 12 ends there's a hidden track which begins about five minutes later at 11:06 in track 12. It's a cover of "Come to the Sabbat," a very satanic rock song by late 60s / early 70s British band Black Widow and it's terrific, even if the chorus call repeats too many times. It's just that Propagandhi doing a song like this and obviously having a blast while they're doing it (complete with screams, chants, and synthesizers) is very unexpected after the somberness of all that comes before it. It's a great ending to a great album.

Oh No Not Stereo are a local band from Hollywood, or rather they’re a local duo since there are only two actual members in the band. Yet for only two guys they each play a whole bunch of instruments each and make enough noise for a full band. This is their third record and it’s simply called 003 (get it?). It’s available now on Oarfin Records. They have several guest musicians joining them on the record at different places, and that helps fill out their sound, but I’m not sure they really need it. The thing that stands out above all else is the energy with which these guys infuse their work. This is no phoned-in effort and you can tell that these guys are putting a huge effort into their music – which pays off.

Oh No Not Stereo dances on the borders where Pop-Punk and straight Pop-Rock meet. The songs are mostly catchy with decent hooks, the lyrics are easy to relate to, and the guys mix the sound up with a whole bunch of different musical instruments. Between the two of them they play about 8 or 9 different instruments altogether, and that’s not including the guest musicians.

The standout tracks include: Track 1 is a good rocker to get the album off on a fast and catchy note and it’s appropriately named “Let’s Get it Started.” Track 3, “All You,” is a rather heavily polished and a bit overproduced emo / power-pop song, but it’s fun for all that. Track 5, “Shot Down By the Man” is an attempt to write a hard rock song which almost succeeds except that their pop sensibility gets in the way, producing a song which is more hard-rock in the “hair-metal” style of the 1980s. So it’s fun, but not really a metal song. However if you take it as a parody of such songs instead of a genuine attempt to write such a song (and going by the lyrics this is probably closer to what the band had in mind) then it’s pretty on the mark. Track 7 “Something New,” and Track 10, “Say Anything” are both straight rockers with some good riffs and interesting vocal delivery. Track 10 is a little deeper emotionally than 7, but both are catchy songs. Track 11, “Friday Night,” is a paean to having a good time on Friday night – exactly as its title says. Not all the songs are fast rock songs. For instance track 13, “A World of Your Own,” sounds like it was inspired by a slower Paul McCartney song back when he was still with the Beatles. And as an added bonus there’s a hidden track that starts up about 45 seconds after the official track 15 ends.

I can't even find the words to explain how excited I am about this band.  District Divided break down the stereotype that punk bands can't play their instruments.  They smash down the assumption that punk is dead.  They aren't a band to be taken lightly. This self titled album has my heart pumping, my toes moving, & my whole body shaking.  All I wanna do is move. Their music does what music is supposed to do: make you truly feel it.  Make you fall deeply in love with each verse.  Their songs are also about real subjects & every song is different.  Their music focuses on the whole band, not just one specific member.  Every members talent is apparent.  And when I listen to each song I feel like they are speaking to me.  This band is what punk fans have been wanting.  If a listener can get this pumped from the music on this EP, imagine what their music can provide live on stage.

I encourage every music fan to listen to this album.  You'll be as addicted as I've become.

Don't believe me? Take a listen. I guarantee you won't be disappointed.

Myspace.com/districtxdivided

Sometimes I wonder to myself: where did good music go?

Let me explain myself. I am talking about music that makes me close my eyes & I feel each note flow smoothly through my body.  Music with lyrics that really reach out to me.  I am also talking about music that's not just a copy of what another musician has already created.

Well, my friends, I want to introduce you all to a band that meets all those expectations: THE HISTRIONIKS.

They are a pure rock rock band who sing about subjects from "love" to "self discovery."  This album supplies 12 tracks that are diff from the other one.  Each song is different.  Each song tells a totally different story.  The music is mellow, but not to the point where the listener falls asleep.  One can't help but tap their feet or move their body to the rhythm.  They have a Velvet Underground 1960's rock vibe with a pinch of Debbie Harry, minus the disco inspiration.  For fan of great music, you'll be addicted.  This CD is a must listen to for real music fan everywhere.

Go ahead. Take a break. Sit back. Let the music flow right through you.

Myspace.com/thehistrioniks

As I sit here in my kitchen, my stereo blasting, The Belts raw, rough, real punk rock music fills my whole apartment.  When they say "Ep" they aren't kidding. This 5 song CD is so roughly recorded that I can hear the feedback go in one ear & out the other.  But it doesn't bother me at all.  I am just so stoked on this music.  The Belts are what a garage punk rock band should sound like.  This EP wasn't recorded in some large studio where each track was altered.  This EP was recorded by the band.  I feel like I am at a practice. Wait. Scratch that. I feel like I am at their show.  Not only do I love the raw edge of their music, but I also love how it takes me back to being 15 listening to the famous Minor Threat Demo.  I swear pretty soon someone is going to sing, "No we're not the first. And we're not the last."  This EP does what an EP is supposed to do.  It give the listener a taste.  It leaves their ears screaming for more.

If you haven't heard this EP yet, visit them online at: myspace.com/ TheBelts.  Be prepared to hear a band that sounds like on Cd what they would on stage.  This EP is rough. It is nowhere near clean. But the music is awesome. The music is real. Any punk fan will fall into it.

And if there's ringing in your ears, don't worry, that's normal.

Peace & Love

After 30 years of being a band and putting out records how does one judge a new release from D.O.A.? Well first you take it for granted that almost every hardcore punk band cites them as an influence; second, try to block out everything they’ve done in the past (something that’s all but impossible); and finally simply try to concentrate on the NOW of this new record of theirs. Once you’ve done that (more or less) you then answer this simple question: If you’d never heard D.O.A. before would this new record hold up on its own terms?

Happily the answer is yes. D.O.A.'s newest release is Northern Avenger; it's available now from Sudden Death Records, and with it D.O.A. proves that they still know how to rock, and to rock hard. They may be older, but in the words of track 12 "Still a Punk":

"But I still take aim, at lawyers and bankers
"‘Cause the world they sell, it really sucks
"I’m gonna smash it, till it shatters
"They gotta look out, ‘cause I’m a punk"

Obviously this is one band that is still raging against the establishment. The subjects of the songs are mostly political: there’s the obligatory "Police Brutality" song (track 6), and there are a few songs praising Punk and talking about how long they’ve been in Punk. They also take on standard subjects like poverty and global warming, but they do it very well. The music rocks pretty loud and fast, but not so fast that everything becomes a screamfest (as with a lot of later bands).

Tracks of interest include track 2, "Golden State" which is a pretty standard attack on California but it’s loud and rough (although it makes one wonder why everyone who doesn’t actually live in California feels so free to attack it). Track 4, "Poor Poor Boy," mixes things up with a reggae-style track which talks about victims of broken homes who go bad. The beat and synth track on the song keep you bopping to it and keeps the song from being unrelentingly bleak. From a newer band track 7, "Mountains That We Climbed," would be a standard "in praise of hardcore punk" song, but after all these years D.O.A. has earned the right to write such a song because it really does contain the story of their band and the trails they blazed for younger bands. As such it rings true in a way that it wouldn’t from a band 20 years younger than them. You would think that at one minute and six seconds long track 8, "This Machine Kills Fascists," would be a very fast mosher – but you would be wrong. It’s one of the slowest songs on the album, and is told from the perspective of someone with a gun who is about to explode. The calmness of the singing makes it that much colder and considerably more effective than if the singer were screaming really fast. And then there’s track 11, which is a cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s "Who Will Stop the Rain" which is only a few seconds shorter than the original (it’s basically a "straight" cover).

So D.O.A. is still at it after all these years. Here’s hoping they’ll stay around for a bunch more to come.

Haivyn

 I have actually had a chance to see these folks rock out, and wow they put on a rad
live performance. so before i even get to the cd i thought i would mention to go see them for sure. Now down to work, the cd i very well mastered clean sounding not to scratchy like it was made in a garage. The musical aspect i very well spread out. they go from rockish, trashy beats to trippy rhythmic beats. Denise as the the lead vocals shread with pitches familur to janis joplin, brody, and joan jet but she still manages to stand out from the rest. The band also likes to throw in some classic feel like late 70's and early 90's, and current musical styles, then they wrap it up with a nice little bow and slams it into your face. If this cd doesn't get you moving via in the car in your room in the shower, then you are dead.

would i reconmend it?    hell yea!!!!!!!
see them live?           yes sir
would i reconmend to
buy the cd?              yessum
rating 1-10:             9

keep rockin
rick murder

It’s been six long years since Dillinger Four last released an album of new material - in Punk that’s over a generation, maybe two generations. But finally, finally, we have Civil War, available at last from Fat Wreck Chords, their first new album since 2002’s Situationist Comedy.

So what have D4 been up to in the interim? Well, they’ve been getting older, or perhaps it’s better to say they’ve been maturing. This new album is a lot more serious and even wistful than their a lot of their earlier efforts. The very first lines of track 1, "A Jingle for the Product" acknowledge this:

"There were times when we raised our fists to the world ready to crush opposition
"And there were time when we lied like thieves in disguise
"And I’m remembering those times too."

This track leads off an album with songs that are a lot more serious in tone than ones from their "doublewhiskeycokenoice" days in 1998, or even the "SELLTHEHOUSESELLTHECARSELLTHEKIDSFINDSOMEONE ELSEFORGETITI’MNEVERCOMINGBACKFORGETIT" days of 2002. However this doesn’t mean that D4 has gone soft simply because they’ve gotten more serious as time has gone by. Civil War is an album very engaged in today. In addition to being circumspect about getting older, they’re talking more seriously about relevant social issues like media shallowness (3 - "parishiltonisametaphor"), trend followers (9 - "The Art of Whore"), a bad economy (6 - "MINIMUM WAGE IS A GATEWAY DRUG"), and remembering a deceased friend (10 - "Fruity Pebbles"). Of course the lyrics aren’t always straight-forward preaching – actually they’re rarely straight-forward, which is something that’s been pretty consistent about a lot of D4 songs all along. The lyrics can often be interpreted in many ways.

Musically the songs on this album are a little slower overall than D4’s earlier work, but the signature D4 sound is still very much in evidence. They are still recognizably the same group that released "Midwestern Songs of the Americas" ten years ago. The music is well crafted and the tunes are catchy. The album has a satisfying coherence to it that marks a mature release from a veteran band.

However, no matter how "mature" D4 may get, some things never change. For instance they still have a great ability to come up with distinctive song titles: such as "AMERICASPREMIEREFAITHBASEDINITIATIVE," "Ode to the North American Snake Distributor," and "clown cars on cinder blocks" in addition to the ones mentioned earlier), which will take their places alongside side earlier classic song titles from earlier records, Also their ability to create great Punk songs remains intact. Finally, (if the photos in the liner notes are current), Bassist / vocalist Patrick Costello, formerly known as "St. Patty," and now apparently calling himself "Perseus Hercules" still likes to take off all of his clothes during shows and perform for the crowd completely naked. The more things change, the more they stay the same….

This is one of the best modern Hardcore Punk records I’ve heard in a long time. Music By People Like Us lays claim to showing underground Hardcore as it is in recent years and today, and it succeeds wonderfully. It largely concentrates on East Coast Hardcore - which is harder than what most other Punk scenes refer to as hardcore and often can cross over with metal. However there are bands on here from all over the country. Many of the scene stalwarts are here, including Agnostic Front, Madball, Sick of It All, Ignite, Kill Your Idols, Blood For Blood, Fahrenheit 451, and many others. This is a furious record - Hardcore (with a capital "H") as I would see it down at a Sunday Matinee at CBGBs in New York City, or at many other underground shows in many other places where the bands would play loud and fast, with a passion unrivaled by almost any other scene, the singer would be destroying his vocal chords, and the kids would be whipped into a violent moshing frenzy of sweaty bodies, torn clothes, and bruised faces. Hardcore as it was, is, and hopefully always will be. All fans of Hardcore will love this record.

On average the songs run about 2 to 3 minutes each, which is a good length for a Punk / Hardcore song; some run longer, with the longest being 4:25, and some run shorter, with the shortest song, a little number by Pulling Teeth, clocking in at a whopping 26 seconds.

As a rather jarring bonus, track 17 (which is the aforementioned longest track on the album) is an acoustic song - a tribute by Walter Schreifels (veteran of such bands as Youth of Today, Gorilla Biscuits, and Quicksand) to Raybeez, the leader of the seminal NYHC band Warzone, who died in 1997. It’s good to see that 11 years later he hasn’t been forgotten, and the scene of which he was such a big part continues to soldier on.

Music By People Like Us is available from Awake / Strong Records, and if you like Hardcore this is a "must have" record.

This e.p. is Lagwagon’s first release since 2005’s Resolve album which was dedicated to the memory of their friend and former band mate Derrick Plourde. This e.p., which is available from Fat Wreck Chords, finds them largely recovered from that, but the songs on this record show the long term effects of that event; though they still have their sense of humor (as witnessed by the record’s title!) the songs are about more mature subjects these days, such as getting older, regrets, and looking back, yet also living and getting on with things - there’s still plenty of stuff yet to do (as the last track "Mission Unaccomplished" makes clear). This record contains some good So-Cal Skate Punk music with a harder, more thoughtful lyrical style. You can skate to these songs, or just sit and listen to them. The choice is yours.

Rise Against’s 5th album finds them in fine musical form. This is a big album - a lot of it is politically motivated, or comments on various aspects of modern society. The band takes on subjects like global warming in the first track, "Collapse (Post-Amerika)," working for the "man" in track 3, "Re-Education (Through Labor)", the entertainment culture, "Entertainment" (track 9), going to war with "Hero of War" (track 10), and so forth. But unlike direct old-school Punk politics Rise Against does all of this in a more personal and rather introspective manner, leaving their lyrics open to many interpretations.

Musically a lot of the album has more in common with the emo / indie hardcore of bands like Hot Water Music and Thursday than its earlier roots from 88 Fingers Louie or Reach the Sky; they’re developing musically though, a lot of the riffs are still loud and fast but there’s some good catchy riffs and melodic hooks here - especially track 4 ("The Dirt Whispered") which has probably the catchiest melody on the whole album. Anyway this album can cross multiple genres so almost everyone should be able to the find something to like about it. It is available from Interscope Records.