Archive for the ‘Album Review’ Category
Album Review: Live In Concert
By Manafest
By Paul Gibson | September 24th, 2011
{June 7, 2011}
BEC
White, Canadian, skater dude doesn’t sound like your typical rap artist, but Manafest has a way of making it look easy. Now since he has donned the rock and roll frontman hat he has made it look good too. Manafest’s The Chase has turned heads like never before and now he is bringing his live concert experience to CD and DVD in this cool combo pack.
Mannafest’s Live In Concert is fun to listen to or watch on your TV at home, featuring mostly songs from The Chase it also features more classic tunes like “4-3-2-1,” “Bounce,” and “Impossible.” With the full band he even ads more rock flair to songs that started off as hip-hop. I do wish that…
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Album Review: Live At The Masquerade
By Thousand Foot Krutch
By Paul Gibson | September 24th, 2011
{June 7, 2011}
Tooth And Nail
Thousand Foot Krutch has been near the top of the heap in Christian Rock for a good while now and it is kind of baffling that a live album hasn’t come sooner. They have had their share of hits and have recently done quite well with their latest album Welcome To The Masquerade, so maybe the timing is good.
The CD of this CD/DVD combo overall outshines the DVD in my mind. They both have the same songs, recorded at the same concert but I enjoyed listening more than I did watching. Which when it comes down to it is probably better, because how many times am I likely to watch a concert as apposed to listening to it? I mean really.
The collection of songs hits on most of their hits with just a couple of glaring omissions, “Phenomenon” and “Supafly” were missed by this reviewer. But overall the song selection works well. Not too many of their mellow tracks and plenty of their…
MORE »Album Review: The Story Of Our Lives
By The Violet Burning
By Paul Gibson | August 4th, 2011
{April 4, 2011}
Independent
Some albums defy classification or words to truly describe their greatness. There aren’t many. But this is one of them. The Violet Burning have been working tirelessly over a 3-year period to be able to release not only an album, but an entire experience. The whole package is phenomenal. Not only are there three discs (really three albums) but the packaging is the kind of stuff that avid collectors live for. It has a 4-pannel-DVD-size case with a huge 80 page booklet with art that helps guide the listener through the story of the album. No packaging I have ever seen for a music album can touch this.
With 34 songs in all, this album is a gothic/alternative/grunge/rock masterpiece. Do you remember the fanfare over The Smashing Pumpkins double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness? Imagine that times three. Unlike MCATIS this album doesn’t contain an ounce of filler. All the songs are rock solid and inspire emotion while telling a story.
Michael Pritzl’s lyrics lay out a concept album of monstrous proportions with this release. Starting with TH3 FANTA5T1C MACH1N3 (The Fantastic Machine) (disc 1) there’s the main character and the idea that all humans are born with…
MORE »Album Review: Beautiful Ashes By Eowyn
By Paul Anthony | August 4th, 2011
{May 3, 2011}Album Review The Insidious lie
By Craig’s Brother
By Alex Berger | July 10th, 2011
{January 24, 2011}
Independent
I have to say, when I opened the digital file for this album and saw that is was classified under “punk” I got pretty excited. Though it’s not necessarily in my regular listening rotation anymore, I have been into punk rock a long time. I used to live and die by the early Green day and old Bad Religion albums so I have a definite soft spot for catchy melodic punk rock. Craig’s Brother definitely fits that bill.
When I first started listening I had a few initial thoughts that I was writing down. First of all these guys are very talented players. Craig’s Brother counters the notion that punk musicians only know three chords and play them as fast as possible. There is a nice balance of aggressive punk songwriting (that has a poppy edge) and dynamics. The first three tracks “Freedom”, “Mistake of Caring”, and “Thousand Yard Stare” are absolute burners, blending super melodic and catchy guitar lines, inventive drumming, and some snotty pop punk vocals. All three songs have…
MORE »Album Review: Forever Ended Yesterday
By These Hearts
By Alex Berger | July 10th, 2011
June 21, 2011
{Victory Records}
Before I get to the review I would like to say that I really respect how open these guys are about their faith. There are a lot of bands who don’t want to be branded with the Christian tag, but these guys embrace it. All that said it pains me to say that this album is not very good. These Hearts style fits right in with the current trend of Christian bands who are trying to capitalize on the formula that The Devil Wears Prada and Attack !Attack! popularized not too long ago. If you have heard either of those bands you already know what this album sounds like. It has poppy melodic hooks, angsty sounding vocals, and an excessive amount breakdowns in place of actual riffs.
Most of the songs start with either a melodic guitar, transition into a verse that has clean singing or screaming, a chorus that has the opposite (if the verse was singing the chorus would be screaming, or vice versa). Some of the songs like “Are You Mad?” have…
MORE »Album Review: On Fire By Peter Furler
By Paul Gibson | June 7th, 2011
{June 21, 2011}
Sparrow Records
The few, the proud, the ones who read album reviews . . . you know my standard. Good music is a worthy companion, one you want to hang out with; with whom you are comfortable . . . but also one who will tell you the uncomfortable truth when you need to hear it.
For two decades now, Peter Furler has met the mark as a musical friend. My early adult years were punctuated with the gut-punching “Hell is for Wimps.” The years passed through various phases and fashions of the band—the excitement of hearing “Take Me To Your Leader” on pop radio; the refreshingly quirky partnership of Steve Taylor and Furler coming on the scene in full force; the needed presence in the worship realm during a time when the marketplace was saturated with lyrics and melodies that seemed as if they were cranked from a clone machine.
When I heard the news that the boys were losing one, I was…
MORE »Album Review: 15.Live By Project 86
By Paul Anthony | May 26th, 2011
Live albums. Always demanded by fans, but usually disappointing. The crowd noise is too soft, or too loud. The band sounds too rough, or too polished. The mix is too sloppy, or too tight. The tracklist is full of songs that are too old, or too new, or too obscure, or too popular.
They are the porridge of the recording industry (assuming the fans are Goldilocks, I suppose). It’s rare to find one that’s just right.
But when one of those comes along, it really is a treat to listen to, as Project 86 proves with their live cd 15.Live, a celebration of the band’s improbable feat of staying together for 15 years.
As such, it doubles as a greatest hits CD, pulling tracks from all but…
Album Review: We Do What We Want
By Emery
By Alex Berger | May 24th, 2011
{March 29, 2011}
Solid State
I have to be honest, Emery is not a band that I am super familiar with, I have
known of them for a long time but descriptions of their sound never really peaked
my interest. However for the sake of being a good reviewer I did my homework and
listened to a large amount of the bands back catalog. “We do what we want” will
be seen as either a return to form the fans of Emery’s first album or a major step
backwards for fans that thought the band really hit their stride with “…In Shallow
Seas we Sail.” The screaming and actual “hardcore” elements of their post hardcore
sound are back in a big way and make pop up all over this record.
The album really starts out with a bang as “The Cheval Glass” charges out
of the gate with some serious vocals that bring to mind old Agony Scene (which
is a good thing.) Of course since this is Emery they can’t simply…
Album Review: The Butterfly Sessions
By Sivion
By Paul Gibson | April 15th, 2011
{September 7, 2010}
Illect Recordings
Sivion is a classy rapper. I don’t know him personally or whether or not he walks around in a tux with a cane or busts out spontaneously into a rendition of “Putting On The Ritz,” but really that isn’t what I am getting at. I just don’t know how to describe his style of hip-hop, other than to say, it’s classy.
Let me go further, this is my philosophy on hip-hop/rap. There are various flavors; party hip-hop, intellectual hip-hop, goofy/funny hip-hop, thug/gangster rap, angry rap, and classy hip-hop.
Sivion is, as stated earlier, falls in the later-most category. His rhymes and production just have a well thought out classy air about them that few others do. Kanye West while probably not the classiest of individuals, is the only decent comparison I can think of at the moment at least in general terms.
This being said, Sivion a member of Deepspace5 has made a solid solo effort with this ep and fans of…
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