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Lights up and six men dressed like Don Draper on a casual Sunday afternoon, minus the kick ass cardigan, launch into a frenzied set packed with energy, fury and rocking out with ones cock out. Central to this band of crazed young rockers is one Max Bemis, rock star, triple threat, recovering addict and brand new poster boy for living with bi-polar.

As the set grows and swells, Bemis, lead singer of Say Anything, becomes more disheveled, looking less like Don Draper with each passing moment of frenzied musical bliss, until he stands, catching his breathe, sweat dripping from his wife beater in front of a crowd of worshipers. Classic cuts like, Alive With The Glory of Love, Wow, I can get Sexual Too, Yellow Cat (Slash) Red Cat, Woo and Baby Girl I’m A Blur, which is an apt description of Say Anything live, have whipped the crowd into a frenzy that would put most riots to shame.

The first encore finds master Bemis, alone on stage, guitar slung around his neck for the first time of the night. The crowd convinces him to play A Walk Through Hell, and a tender moment as Max and the crowd perform an inspirational duet, singing every lyric together follows.

After the dust of the first encore settles, the band rejoins Max on stage and launch into Crushed, Spores and the incredibly scathing and genius of Admit It. With the encore done, so clearly is Bemis, and when he exits the stage, he is gone, done with this show that he just poured everything into.

There live show is not the only time that Bemis bares his soul and puts it out there for the whole world to judge. He does it every night on stage, and has once again pressed it into a disc for mass consumption.

While 2004’s Say Anything……Is A Real Boy first offered a glimpse into the psyche of the talented and troubled lead singer, and 2007’s varied double offering, Say Anything……In Defense Of The Genre, delved deeper into the darkest parts of Bemis’s mind and the most troubling times in his life, the just released Say Anything turns much of the focus outward onto the rest of the world. The subjects touched on Say Anything attack a world filled with power hungry, irresponsible people and painful love triangles while also taking on the subject of the demise of one of Bemis’s own relationships that dotted Defense and his new Marriage to Sherri Dupree of Eisley.

Nothing compares to hearing a song live for the first time. As Bemis spit the lyrics to Hate Everyone to a crowd filled with many who hadn’t heard the track yet, the venom and clarity with which Bemis alternated between the delicate hate of the verses and the bouncy chorus where over and over again, Bemis informs us, “I hate Everyone”, awakened the crowd to one of the Say Anything’s best new tracks.

Bemis taps into this anger again later on, on the track Young, Dumb and Stung, but points that anger in a more positive direction, aiming it at the people throughout your life who try and tear you down and make you doubt who you are. The lyrics “Don’t care what you think, you think I care.” Define a song where he rails against a childhood friend that turned his back on him and everyone else who would doubt who he is.

The circus feel to the opening of Mara and Me is classic Say Anything, and the song itself lives up to this feeling through the first few moments as Bemis talks about babies with guns and the Kings of Leon, before the music stops and he plainly speaks the words “Wait a second- I can’t write the same damn song over and over again.” From there the song goes schizophrenic with Jeff and Jake Turner helping out with vocals, and creating one of the stand out tracks on Say Anything.

Say Anything was said to be self titled to represent a starting over point for the band or a re-definition of who and where they are now, and the album manages to come through on this promise, as it introduces a band that is more confident in who they are and what they’re doing. The songs show Bemis’s ability to look outside of himself and still write awesome songs that walk the blurred lines between classic rock, pop punk and post everything. This Say Anything album is a walk through Bemis’s re-built life the way that …..In Defense Of The Genre was a walk through the ruins of his previous one.

Say Anything – Hate Everyone
Say Anything – Mara And Me
Say Anything – Young Dumb And Stung

There is a sickening trend in the Canadian music industry, where a band who’s sound is played out, and growing tiresome, use their success to go out, start a label and sign equally untalented sound-a-likes and shove them down the thoughts of those who for one reason or another still rely on the radio for music. Example: Nickleback discovers Theory of A Dead Man, and together they wreak havoc on innocent ear drums.

I’ll be blatantly honest, when I say that it was in this vein that I wrote of Burlington Ontario’s own, Silverstien discovered, Dead and Divine. In my own defense, their debut full length, 2008’s The Fanciful did manage to miss the mark by a few feet, but they came roaring back a year latter and redeemed themselves with the release of The Machines We Are.

Machines finds a young band, who with the help of veteran producer Garth Richardson (Rise Against – Siren Songs of the Counter Culture, Rage Against the Machine – Rage Against The Machine) and Eric Ratz, have managed to hone their sound, and craft an incredible album that is leaps and bounds above their previous work.

Vocalist Matt Tobin, finds his voice on this album, perfect the balance between the growl and the singing, while the rest of the band, guitarists Chris LeMasters and Sebastian Leuth, bassist Kellan Lindsay and drummer Kyle Anderson, have all followed suit and put together a tight and dirty (two words you rarely see together) collection of songs.
Creature sways back and force between the power of the howl and the soaring vocals, crafting a song that is at once powerful and passionate, and has some using the frightening word “grammy” in reference to it.

Tracks like Lovely Bones, Teeth and Neon Jesus, show what an incredible band Dead and Divine have become, and what an incredible album The Machines We Are is. I could gush more, but I won’t do it the justice that listening to this album will, so go find it, listen to it, and enjoy this post-hardcore opus of awesomeness.

Dead and Divine – Creature
Dead and Divine – Lovely Bones
Dead and Divine – Neon Jesus

Brand New are in a position that many bands would both dread and be envious of.

Since the release of 2001’s Your Favorite Weapon Brand New has achieved cult status, and attained a rabid fan base that only grew with the release of 2003’s incredible, genre defining Deja Entendu.

The band took there time crafting one of the best albums ever when they recorded 2006’s The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me, an album that was at once powerful, graceful and poetic, while pushing their sound to the limit, both technically and emotionally, with tracks like Millstone, Jesus and Degausser.

Daisy finds Brand New straying from their previous clean, well produced style for a dirtier in your face vibe. The change in vibe is not surprising once you learn that guitarist Vincent Accardi took over primary song writing duties from front man Jesse Lacey for this album. The resulting sound is more akin to 90’s grunge than to anything you would have anticipated on the follow up to The Devil and God.

The album starts out with a lilting choral hymn before breaking into Vices, a track that has to be considered the hardest song in Brand New’s catalog. Lacey displays a whole different side to his voice, as he shreds his vocals, while the backing vocals recall a time when Scott Weiland had found the right dose of heroine and condescension and the Stone Temple Pilots still mattered.

The lead single, At The Bottom does a great job of walking the line between the new sound found on Daisy and the direction that they were heading on Devil and God. The dark, pondering lyrics run the theme of death, and burrying a loved one in a way that is distinctly Brand New.

The slow and melodic You Stole is a definite stand out, and is the most reminiscent of Deja Entendu era Brand New, as the song crawls along, with distortion weaving it’s way through the background, creating an oddly simple complexity over which Lacey’s voice can find a place to call home, the way it did on older songs, like Me vs. Maradona vs. Elvis. Lyrics like: So if I’m a liar and you’re a thief/At least we both know where the other one sleeps/So let’s end this tonight , wouldn’t work coming from anyone but Lacey.

Sink is another track where Lacey stretches his vocals in a different direction, alternating between a solid scream and sweet croon, all wrapped up in a utterly frenetic package that delves deep into the darkest places in the soul of Brand New, which is some scary deep darkness.

Both fans and detractors are likely to find issue with different points on Daisy. I did, the first time through, believing that i wasn’t even listening to Brand New. But just as both The Devil and God are Raging Inside me and Deja Entendu are instantly amazing, but require more listening to truly comprehend their depth, Daisy will leave you feeling odd the first time through, but a deeper listen will no doubt lead you to the real Brand New dwelling there within the grungey feedback, and loud choruses. Like a homeless man with a heart of gold. At first you want to avoid him, and not give up your change, but if you stop to talk to him you’ll realize how much depth he truly possess.

Brand New wrote the book on pushing their music in different directions, and although Daisy isn’t the best chapter in the book, it’s still definitely worth reading.

Brand New – Vices
Brand New – At the Bottom
Brand New – You Stole

In 2006 Brampton’s Moneen took a huge step forward with the release of The Red Tree. The album found the band finally cashing in on all the potential critics and fans had been boasting and trumpeting for years. The songs were rich and deep, and knew when to rock and when slow it down. With the possibility of their potential having finally been reached, Moneen took their time, three years of their time crafting their Follow up to The Red Tree.

Now, with the release of The World I Want To Leave Behind, they have taken two giant steps backwards, leaving their naysayer to gain pull out the “pretentious” card that had dogged them through their earlier releases The Theory of Harmonic Value and Are We Really Happy With Who We Are Right Now.

The introesque title track that proceeds the debut single, Hold That Sound, sets the disappointingly slow and subdued tone for the whole album. Musicians with as much talent as Moneen and the back catalogue to back it up, need to embrace their energy, and from beginning to end, The World I Want To Leave Behind feels like an exercise in suppressing that energy and power.

Hold That Sound itself sways back and forth from awesome to missing the mark like a fat kid on a teeter totter, pushed forward by the guitars and reverb and then the next moment held back by the lacking of the lyrics.

At every turn, Moneen tease that they are going to give’er tits and rock hard, but they continuously pull back right at the moment that they should be taking it up another notch.

The track Believe feels like lead singer Kenny bridges found an unreleased Our Lady Peace song and Moneenified it as the lyrics come across as mixture of a way too touchy little league coach’s softly whispered advice, and a run of the mill middle school graduation valedictory address.

The Long Count comes in with a strong riff, and pounding drums, the whole thing riddled with feedback, in a good way. In a great way really. When Bridges comes in, you want him to blow the doors off, but he remains subdued, and the lyrics feel ethereal and far away, until finally he lets loose, making the Long Count the album’s stand out track, and leaves you wondering how it took till track 7 to actually sound like a punk/hardcore/post hardcore band.

By closing track The Glasshouse, Moneen have lulled you almost to sleep, so thank God it starts with some of the screaming that the rest of the record could have benefited greatly from, and it finally feels like you’re listening to the band that crafted The Red Tree, unfortunately it’s the last track, and sometimes, no matter how good desert is you can’t get the taste of a poorly seasoned pork roast and dry potato’s out of your mouth.

I don’t want this review to seem like I’m picking Moneen apart, as The World I Want To Leave Behind has it’s moments, and their musicianship shines through, but for me this album completely missed the mark and missed what could have been a great opportunity for the band to cement their place within a scene that needs the right kind of innovations to keep it going strong.

For me the World I Want To Leave Behind left me wanting the band that made The Red Tree, and created the song Don’t Ever Tell Locke What He Can’t Do, which is unfair, but nonetheless, it is what is. Either way, give The World I Want To Leave Behind a spin or two, and see for yourself. Music is a personal choice, and I am but one man with one opinion. An opinion that, in this particular instance thought that Moneen would have been better off not releasing this album, I know I would have been better off if they hadn’t.

Moneen – Hold That Sound
Moneen – The Glasshouse
Moneen – The Long Count

In the vast bleakness that is a Canadian winter, any reminder of summer is a welcome distraction from the blowing snow and brown slush. So every year when the first bands start to sign up for Kevin Lymans annual cross country summer camp known as The Vans Warped Tour, the reminders of bright summer days, and cramming twelve hours of music into one day are enough to sprout wood.

This year was no different. The original list of bands was a veritable who’s who of my ipod’s top played list. So needless to say as I scrolled through the list the wood in my pants quickly turned to a wet spot. Too gross?

Thrice, Underoath, The Ataris, Chiodos, Senses Fail and P.O.S., were just a few of the bands I was totally stoked about seeing. The issue became, that, as usual, the Toronto line-up ends up looking nothing like the list of bands announced, as no Ataris and no Thrice made it north of the border.

Add to that the fact that the glory days of Warped Tour in Toronto ended the day that Molson Park was sold for condo land and the tour stop became a parking lot out by the airport. Gone was the ability to relax in the grass under a tree when you had a few minutes with no bands playing. Gone were the dirt warriors. The often shirtless pit monkeys, their faces wrapped in bandana’s and caked in the dirt that made up the ground that became the pit in front of each of the six stages.

I guess I’m saying that charm of warped tour has faded, and been replaced by a gaggle of neon clad suburban crunk bands, sing-rapping over shitty electro beats and the occasional riff.

I’ll admit right out, that due to work, I didn’t make it this year, and to tell you the truth I wasn’t that sad about it. It didn’t make me look bad fondly on a few things like the ghost of Warped Tour past.

The real benefit of Warped Tour is finding new music. It’s true that most years you could fill your days with established bands, but venturing outside of that could throw open the doors on a band you otherwise would never have known you loved. For me the best example of that is The Matches. With time to kill between Protest the Hero and Thrice, I wondered over to the Hurley stage and saw a young band, the lead singer’s hair going in all different directs, in a pair of short pants, and angle wings, stomping around the stage in giant boots. Two songs in and I’ve been a fan ever since.

There was the year that, Ill Scarlet pulled their infamous stunt and played the line up outside of the venue, until Kevin Lyman eventually let them inside.

There were innumerable sets by Funeral For A Friend, Thrice, Killswitch Engage, Protest the Hero, Atreyu and others that were heard but not seen due to the giant cloud of dirt blocking the stage, as the pit went off.

There were the giant circle pits, and patriotic moments where Billy Talent seemingly out drew every other band on the tour, despite the fact they suck.

Looking back now, it’s hard to tell whether it’s because I’ve changed or because Warped Tour changed, but it’s obvious that we’ve grown apart, and we will never have what we once did. I guess I should just give it up, admit that I’m old and shell out a couple hundred bucks the next time Coldplay runs through town………fuck that. I’ll never be old enough to like the whiney, British, piano driven sap that Chris Martin and his butt buddies churn out. But all the same, I’ve outgrown Warped Tour, and it’s a sad, sad thing to realize.

The Matches – Papercut Skin
Protest The Hero – Turn Soonest To The Sea
Thrice – Deadbolt

Following up their first two releases, 2006’s EP Act I: The Lake South, The River North and 2007’s full length, Act II: The Meaning Of And All Thing Regarding Ms.Leading, theatrical rockers, The Dear Hunter have returned with the third act in a planned six act story arc, Act III: Life And Death.

The Dear Hunter began as the side project for Casey Crescenzo while he was still a member of the now defunct post hardcore act The Receiving End of Sirens. While it’s true that TREOS did have their theatrical moments, see Planning a Prison Break off of their disc Between The Heart and the Synapse, nothing even hinted at what Crescenzo was capable off upon being kicked out of TREOS in 2006. Wanting to create music that didn’t feel smothered within its own genre Crescenzo set out to craft a theatrical brand of hard rock that borrowed elements from anywhere and everywhere. On their first two releases, there are songs that point towards jazz, big band, and opera, but all while maintaining a slightly post hardcore bent.

ACT III finds the band walking the same path, but with some less light hearted fair, resulting in a darker and more intense installment in the series. Like the albums before it, Life and Death, is a dramatized to the hilt version of Cresenzo’s own life with this more epic disc having a very war like feel to it.

Songs like the dense, multi-layered In Cauda Venenum, make use of Cresenzo’s thick vocals and team them, at times with backing vocals that feel like they belong on a broadway stage. Couple that with instrumentation too deep to fully dissect even on a fourth or fifth time through the song. You’ll notice that there are bongo’s or a trumpet where you hadn’t realized it before.

The Tank opens with strings, and brings in the big band feel and deep gang vocals backing Cresenzo’s staccato post hardcore voice, before it slows down and smooth, almost volta feeling vocals, leads us back into the deeper, darker, heavier style. The song recounts a man on the battle field charging forward despite the likely sense that he is not going to make it. The song wraps you in it’s story and style and carries you through the same battle.

Life and Death, is dense and epic and finds The Dear Hunter pushing their story forward with methodical steps that promise three more gems to finish out the story arc. The Dear Hunter is in a genre all it’s own now, one which can not be described so much as it needs to be experienced. The orchestration is beyond anything going on in any other genre, whether those genre’s consider themselves prog or otherwise. It’s hard to listen to this album, or any Dear Hunter album and not realize that you’re listening to something so incredibly original and deep that it almost pure gold.

The Dear Hunter – In Cauda Venenum
The Dear Hunter – The Tank

So, at this half way point, with some new information, let’s take a look at a few albums that are going to come out in the second, hopefully disease free, half of 2009.

Thrice – Beggars
Due out: October

Thrice’s last release was the very ambitious 4 EP collection The Alchemy Index, that found the band taking the experimentation that began with 2005’s Vheissu to a whole different level. With the four different styles represented on each of the EP’s, it will be interesting to see what road Thrice goes down on Beggars. Regarding Beggars, Thrice front man Dustin Kensrue released the following statement:

“I think we are at most times deluded in thinking that we are totally responsible for our circumstances, but in the end almost everything is beyond our control to a high degree and we can’t even be sure we will wake up tomorrow. Whether you believe that God created you for a purpose, or that the world is governed by blind chance, everything in life is a gift at its core; we are beggars all.”

Thrice – Firebreather

The Used – Artwork
Due out: September 1st

The Used’s last studio LP was 2007’s Lies for the Liar, a highly produced album, that saw the band stray further than ever from the dirty brand of post hardcore that won them a rabid fan base following the release of 2002’s incredible self titled album.

The Used’s lead singer Bert McKracken had this to say about their impending Artwork “In the past, we’ve always kind of brought pop sensibility into heavy rock, but this is going to be all that much more tantalizing and brutal. Our songs are 10 times messier and noisier than they’ve ever been. This record is about coming to grips with how much you really hate yourself and knowing you can never hate yourself to the full extent, so you’re free to hate yourself as much as you want to we haven’t been this excited about an album since our self titled back in 2002.”

The Used – Paralyzed

The Fall Of Troy – Still Untitled
Due Out: Fall

At the moment little has been said about The Fall of Troy’s follow up to the entirely original LP Manipulater in 2007 and the long gestating Phantom on the Horizon which began life as the Ghostship Demos before being officially released.

What is known is that Fall of Troy get better and tighter with every release and with Protest the Hero front man Rody Walker on board for a guest appearance, this album will definitely be something to behold.

The Fall Of Troy – The Dark Trail

The Ataris – Still Untitled
Due Out: Summer

One of theses things is not like the others, but out of many of the impending releases, the forth coming Ataris disc is the most intriguing. After achieving a ridiculous amount of success for 2003’s So Long Astoria due to the single Boys Of Summer. Anyone who’s followed the Ataris knows that success didn’t go over well and Kris Roe, lead singer and songwriter, took the band in a completely different direction with 2007’s Welcome the Night, and album that was dark and brooding, but still infused with Roe’s honest and poignant lyrics .

For Night’s follow-up Roe has said that the band will be getting back to their older sound and rumors have even said that the track Fast Times at Drop Out High, from 2001’s End Is Forever will be re-recorded and included on the new disc.

If the only song released so far, All Souls Day is any indication, the band have not entirely done away with the darker edgier sound they were bringing with Welcome The Night, but have instead infused it with some of the pop-punk energy and aesthetic that the band first became known for.

The Ataris – All Souls Day

Theses are just a few of the impending albums that could drop in the second half of this year, but if they do it promises to be a bright year coming December and if the rumours of Brand New squeezing a new album into the queue than 2009 could take us into the end of the decade in fucking brilliant fashion.

The important thing to remember about music is that it’s always changing, so get out there and try something new, cause you never know what you’ll like until you’ve heard it.

Taking Back Sunday have been churning out crowd pleasing, deeper than pop, rock since their 1999 inception in the modern musical hotbed of Long Island. The version of Taking Back Sunday that released New Again on June 2nd is ten years and a thousand miles away from that original incarnation, both musically and personnel wise with guitarist Eddie Reyes being the only original member still active in the band. Along the way TBS has shed members like a snake sheds skin and those members have gone on to different levels of success since leaving, with Jesse Lacey going on to front one of the modern generations best bands, and TBS’s oldest musical rival, Brand New, and John Nolan and Shaun Cooper leaving to create the at time awesome, at times awkward as fuck Straylight Run. Most recently Fred Mascherino made the unfortunate career choice of abandoning TBS for The Color Fred, a band whose music is as unoriginal and lame as their name.

Despite the revolving door of talent, the band truly is and always has been the property and instrument of Adam Lazzara, and thank Christ for that. The energetic, enigmatic and at times venomous lead singer has helmed the lead vocal position since TBS stunning break through album Tell All Your friends, which found an audience through it’s use of duel vocals, and seething lyrics aimed at ex-girlfriends and ex-band mates, most notably the musical battle between TBS and Brand New which played out through the tracks “There’s No I In Team” from Tell All Your Friends and “Seventy Times Seven” of off Brand New’s Your Favorite Weapon.

After the departure of Nolan and Cooper TBS released Where You Want To Be and first established their ability to change their line up, change their sound and still deliver songs that were technically sublime, catchy as hell and connected with both new and long time fans. This success lead to the band, which now included Mascherino, signing to major label Warner Bros, for the release of 2006’s stellar Louder Now.

Louder Now once again showcased an evolved TBS who still managed to spit venom over catchy staccato riffs and pop sensibility without creating lame, cookie cutter All-American Reject style rock. The release of Louder Now was, as has become familiar to TBS fans, followed by a line-up change as Mascherino hit the skids, literally (if you don’t believe me give The Color Fred’s Bend To Break a listen), and was replaced by Facing New York’s Matt Fazzi, and the band headed back into the studio.

The result of those studio sessions is New Again, the next stage of musical evolution for Lazzara and Co. – Fazzi, Reyes, Matt Rubano and drummer Mark O’Connell – which finds the band trading in some of their poppier tendencies for darker themes and chunkier riffs. That’s not to say that New Again doesn’t deliver vintage TBS, because it does that by the bucket load.

Summer Man is as TBS as it gets, with dual vocals and personal attacks which take Mascherino to task not just for leaving but for some of his comments dropped in the wake of his departure. Most significantly that he was “always giving in” during his time in TBS. There’s little doubt that when Lazzara sings “So go prove to the world / What you’ve already proved / That you just couldn’t do on your own.” That’s it’s aimed, double barreled straight at his former band mate’s chest. The lyrics that close the track, “The summer Is over /And I doubt (I doubt) / I’ll be seeing you around I’ll be seeing you around.” Aptly suit the album, as it feels more dark and autumnesque compared to the poppy, sunny highs of Louder Now’s distinctly summer feel.

Where My Mouth Is, sweetly paints a poetic portrait of Lazzara’s past indiscretions and could at times be aimed at Nolan and Cooper and address their departure and the melting of their friendship, during Lazzara’s much lauded hard partying days in New York. “I got a strong will just weak hands and I don’t know what to do with either one of them.” Is sung as much as an admission as a lament, and packs an emotional punch that most bands and singers couldn’t manage on their best day.

Cut Me Up Jenny is easily the poppiest song on the album and the closest New Again gets to vintage TBS combining Lazzara’s patented deliver mirrored perfectly by the staccato guitars and a chorus that could fit on any TBS album.

Album closer Everything Must Go deftly addresses the break up with Lazzara’s ex-fiancé, which left the formerly hard partying singer living in a dry town in Texas and like the track Catholic Knees offers indictments of religion and those who use it as they see fit. The song rolls along through the story of a relationship from the end stages that are half veracious anger and half lament, capturing a sense of both a time and place and the emotions that went along with it painting a picture that leaves the listener in a slightly uncomfortable place, wondering what’s next and where the road is going to lead.

Tracks like the afore mentioned Catholic Knees, Swing and Sink Into Me, show a different side of TBS, but there’s no mistaking who’s songs they are, and Carpathia is a brilliant track that rips along offering a glimpse into the darker style that New Again introduces.

New Again finds TBS doing what TBS does best, not letting the pot holes that drown most bands slow them down, but instead using them as an excuse to drive off in a different direction and create a new sound with the same feel that’s proved album after album that Taking Back Sunday are not only a great band, but one that wants to survive, one album at a time.

Taking Back Sunday – Where My Mouth Is
Taking Back Sunday – Summer, Man
Taking Back Sunday – Everything Must Go

“Yo-Ho, Yo-Ho, it’s a pirates life for me.” From the moment a that a creepy sounding kid, ala those pale and pasty little shits from movies like the Ring, starts singing this little ditty two things about In Fear and Faith’s debut full length begin to come into focus. Number one, like oh so man bands, they have a serious pirate fetish. Seriously, to all the bands out there, we get it, you travel from place to place, get drunk, rape (not literally, but who doesn’t enjoy some good role playing from time to time), pillage and plunder, and leave a trail of beer stained groupies in your wake. And, number two, these aren’t cuddly pirates like Bob Hoskins rolly polly little scamp, Smee. The pirates that IFAF are seemingly singing and screaming about are more likely to paint their boat with the blood of the lost boys, than they are to put up with any Rufioesque shenanigans.

The opening track, of Your World on Fire, takes on the pirate theme, but does it with solid screaming, winding guitars, deep, rich vocals and fierce drumming, with, thankfully only a smattering of, synth/keyboards finding their way into the mix around the middle point of the track.

Vocalists Cody Anderson and Scott Barnes, who is making his IFAF debut on this the bands first full length, blend Andersons growling screams, and guttural singing with the smooth tones of Barnes post hardcore croon. The vocals layer each other and sit perfectly next to the shredding guitars of Ramin Niroomand and Noah Slifka which manage to rip your face off, and then sit back and allow the bands other elements to step into the spot light, before once again, charging out front and claiming the stage. Drummer Mehdi Niroomand puts on a clinic of time changes and often reaches such pounding speed that it’s not hard to imagine that he’s actually got four arms, three for drumming and one for the squeezing of a comely wench (it’s not sexist cause it’s a pirate reference). The bass, manned by Tyler McElhaney, spends a lot of time riding shot gun, but still does it’s bit driving the songs.

On stand out The Road To Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions, IFAF welcome guest vocals from the busiest man in music, Craig Owens, who does his usual job of putting most vocalists to utter shame, but Barnes stacks up well, which speaks volumes. The drums that open the track are played at light speed and the riffs are of the melt your face variety, and manage to still stand out in this clinic of vocal blending that could have easily ended up as clusterfuck, but instead came out as an opus of post hardcore/metalcore brilliance.

By the time IFAF have shredded and slammed their way to the closing track, Relapse Collapse, it’s obvious that these buccaneers know what their doing, and are perfectly at home strapped to their instruments and hurdling down the side of a mountain at breakneck speeds, which is why it’s even more impressive that they manage to slow down and relish the scenery for at least the opening moments of Relapse Collapse. The vocals continue to work together, layering each other like a delicious burrito. While the piano, guitars and bass add a different sort of element that drives the song without falling back into the familiar territory that they’d claimed ownership over earlier in the albums progression.

In Fear and Faith’s debut LP, Your World On Fire, manages to blend together post hardcore and metalcore elements into a sound that, while not overtly original or trail blazing, displays an insane level of technical musicianship at every turn. The layered vocals alone are worth the price of admission. IFAF have crafted an awesome album that is completely accessible to new fans to the genre but still sport the chops that it takes to impress scene veterans, and woo them out of their, “Everything new is shit”, stance. In the end, Your World on Fire is worth checking out, and if you’re not on board with that, we’ll forgo the plank and take you straight to the Boo Box.

In Fear and Faith – Pirates…The Sequel
In Fear and Faith – The Road To Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions feat. Craig Owens
In Fear and Faith – Relapse Collapse

Let’s get this straight, I listen to rumblings, but I don’t put much stock in them, and to be honest, I haven’t fallen hard for a record in a long time, but i’ve listened to little else since Mean Everything’s April 21st release.

Vocalist Andy Hull’s haunting lilt opens the album stating, “I am the only one, who thinks I’m going crazy, and I don’t know what to do.”

From there, he unabashedly wears his heart, lungs spleen and soul on his sleeve as he opens himself up, sharing doubts, fear, a lack of faith and a crisis of religious confusion, all sewn together into a masterpiece of an album.

Standout track I Can Feel A Hot One, is easily the best song to not be included on Brand New’s The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me. As it strikes a BN style balance between it’s slow and haunting opening to it’s chaotic breakdown, and back to the moment when Hull’s tempo changes completely the song turns sublime, and lyrics lend themselves to the realm of the deeply personal and highly elusive.

“And I realized that then you were perfect/ And my teeth ripping out of my head/ And it looked like a painting I once knew/ Back when my thoughts weren’t entirely intact.”

My Friend Marcus uses a popy, catchy premise to delve into deep, dark subject matter like Rivers Cuomo before major labels and a need to be popular drove his artistic side underground. While I’ve Got Friends, makes use of a soft and popy melody that breaks down into a deeply layered opus of southern rock and dark abandon.

Manchester Orchestra did what few bands can do and manged to not only live up to, but surpass their underground cred, craft an album that’s as close to perfect as anything that’s been released in a long time and set the bench mark for the race towards 2009’s album of the year, but by all means, don’t take my word for it, take the album out, buy it a few drinks and see if you don’t fall in love, or at the very least get your rocks off.

Manchester Orchestra – The Only One
Manchester Orchestra – I Can Feel A Hot One