Release Date: March 15th, 2011
Label: Tragic Hero Records
Website: None available
MySpace: www.myspace.com/wearedefiance
Rating:
Florida’s We Are Defiance have burst onto the hardcore scene like Nazis invading a house. With debut album ‘Trust In Few’ to back them up, they’ve certainly made an epic first impression. With vocalists Brian Calzini (harsh) and Jason Neil (clean) forming the band just months after leaving Paddock Park, We Are Defiance combine the sheer brutality and technicality of August Burns Red with the vocal stylings of New Found Glory (especially in the choruses), which creates an odd yet winning sound. But with ex-A Day To Remember member Tom Denney writing and producing, you can safely assume that these songs were going to be like that anyway.
Tags: We Are Defiance
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Release Date: March 15th, 2011
Label: Gas Can Music
Website: None available
MySpace: www.myspace.com/partyatherplace
Rating:
Okay, so imagine if 3OH!3 invested in a screamer and a more kick-ass dose of electronica, but not quite a crabcore sound, rather then spending it on a new sound system and what is born is Party At Her Place. Pushing the CD into your CD player, at first guess you’d think they’re some whiney MySpace band trying to be in with the new crowd, but when the first track ‘W2c2′ (not joking that is the name, maybe they’re all secretly robots mimicking human behaviour in night clubs?) begins, you’re instantly taken in by the use of trance electro vocals breaking down into metal core growls.
Tags: Party At Her Place
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Release Date: March 15th, 2011
Label: Prosthetic Records
Website: www.wecraftindarkness.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/trap-them
Twitter: www.twitter.com/trapthem
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Ever wondered what would happen in a zombie apocalypse to Every Time I Die? They’d no doubt continue to function as a band, but with a much more gritty and nasty sound to them. That’s the best way to describe Trap Them‘s third studio effort, ‘Darker Handcraft’, a terrifying whirlwind tour through crusty hardcore mixed with ferocious grindcore. Utilising a ‘buzzsaw’ guitar tone championed by Dismember and Entombed, the sound is truly disgusting and certainly makes the listener sit up and take notice. A more recent comparison would be to compare them to Rotten Sound, whom they in fact toured with this year.
Tags: Trap Them
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Release Date: March 14th, 2011
Label: Distiller Records
Website: www.funeralforafriend.com
MySpace: www.myspace.com/funeralforafriend
Rating:
It’s always good when a band goes back to their roots. Especially when the band wrote many a soundtrack to the lives of angst-ridden, unfulfilled teenagers who are now in their 20s. These 20-year-olds missed the passion and raw, visceral style that the band once had, but had lost through the years. These 20-year-olds would listen to the band’s early material and times, good and bad, would come flooding back to them. These 20-year-olds could only wish for the band to go back to the sound that made them so loved and popular in the first place, and now those wishes have become reality. The band in question is Funeral For A Friend.
Tags: Funeral For A Friend
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Release Date: March 14th, 2011
Label: 429 Records
Website: www.nydolls.org
MySpace: www.myspace.com/newyorkdolls
Rating:
After a listen to the single, ‘Fool For Your Baby’, which was taken from this album as an advance taster, I had a stark amount of apprehension rising with every day the release date trundled closer as to what the third studio album of the New York Dolls was going to sound like. ‘Fool For You Baby’, with its lo-fi-esque production certainly underwhelmed me, and I hoped that this song was the exception rather than the rule as far as the full album was concerned.
Tags: New York Dolls
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Release Date: March 14th, 2011
Label: Cooking Vinyl
Website: www.doesitoffendyou.com
MySpace: www.myspace.com/doesitoffendyou
Rating:
‘Don’t Say We Didn’t Warn You’ is mental. It’s electronic rock riding a massive sugar-high, often teetering on the edge of self-imploding. It’s exciting, but also a little unoriginal and at times grating to listen too.
Tags: Does It Offend You Yeah?
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Release Date: March 14th, 2011
Label: Fat Wreck Chords
Website: www.riseagainst.com
MySpace: www.myspace.com/riseagainst
Rating:
For over ten years now, Rise Against have been spewing out angst-ridden political punk, whilst in recent times, a lot of the hardcore angst of their earlier works has been replaced in favour of big rock melodies and huge choruses. A lot of the urgency of their older work still remains and on this, their sixth studio album, though it’s brought more into the foreground than perhaps on previous release, ‘Appeal To Reason’.
Tags: Rise Against
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Release Date: March 11th, 2011
Label: Big Scary Monsters
Website: None available
MySpace: None available
Rating:
Formed from the ashes of much loved underground math indie rockers Colour, Tangled Hair have come back with their second EP, ‘Apples’. Treading the same path that Colour were once carving out for themselves, Tangled Hair begin as they mean to go on. Complex time signatures and off kilter rhythms are present throughout here, and the songwriting on offer is very impressive indeed.
Tags: Tangled Hair
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Release Date: March 8th, 2011
Label: Rise Records
Website: None available
MySpace: www.myspace.com/dancegavindance
Rating:
After the turmoil that’s surrounded Dance Gavin Dance in recent months, it was always going to be interesting to see how their newest album ‘Downtown Battle Mountain II’ was going to turn out. Most Dance Gavin Dance extremists will say that anything is bound to be better than ‘Happiness’, their last album that resulted in many fans writing them off, but ‘Happiness’ did draw many other fans to the band. Screaming vocals weren’t used as much and there was an overall more experimental rock feel to the album, rather than the post-hardcore style which the band are renowned for.
Tags: Dance Gavin Dance
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Release Date: March 8th, 2011
Label: Atlantic Records
Website: www.maydayparade.com
MySpace: www.myspace.com/maydayparade
Rating:
This new release from Mayday Parade is an acoustic EP, featuring unplugged re-imaginings of five of their most popular tracks, plus two brand new songs. The album begins with new song ‘Amber Lynn’, a very good acoustic track, making use of a slide guitar which adds a more laid back, folk-y angle to the song. The vocals are very catchy, and are shown off by the bare bones of the instrumentation.
Tags: Mayday Parade
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Release Date: March 8th, 2011
Label: BEC Recordings
Website: www.aarongillespie.com
MySpace: www.myspace.com/aarongillespie
Rating:
Aaron Gillespie has a new album out based entirely on his love for Christian worship songs. After quitting metalcore titans Underoath, Gillespie has turned his hand to a stripped down acoustic sound. Gillespie quit Underoath back in 2010, apparently with no bad blood between him or any of the other members of the band. He followed up Underoath by playing with his far poppier project, The Almost. This solo album ‘Anthem Song’ is much more directed towards his pop element.
Tags: Aaron Gillespie
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Release Date: March 8th, 2011
Label: Spinefarm Records
Website: www.cobhc.com
MySpace: www.myspace.com/childrenofbodom
Rating:
Children Of Bodom are back with their seventh studio record, ‘Relentless Reckless Forever’. Bodom are renowned for being very hard to pigeon hole in terms of genre. There’s been debate between critics and fans as to the nature of Bodom‘s music, and where they fit in. They’ve been labelled with many different genres, including power metal, extreme metal, melodic death metal and thrash. Singer and guitarist Alexi Laiho recently stated that the band prefer just to be known as a metal group.
Tags: Children Of Bodom
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