Number One Gun - To the Secrets and Knowledge

I've never really listened to Number One Gun. I gave Celebrate Mistakes a once over but that's all. So picking up To the Secrets and Knowledge, I bring a a fresh ear to a band I know nothing about.

It seems a little unfair to just right the album off as another album. Comparisons to Anberlin and Copeland are sure to come up and that might be right. But there's no needs to ignore this album. To the Secrets and Knowledge is a catchy album full of great songs.

Jeff Schneeweis vocals swing into falsetto on the albums opener The Victory, a tinkling synth plays in the background of the track. The opening to Big Machines sounds like something from Copeland's In Motion. After a strong first half, the album slows down for me. The People is an acoustic track that stops the face of the record. White Lies is a simple drum machine and keyboard song.

The album ends with a cover of Journey's Don't Stop Believing, a song I personally dislike. The cover doesn't do much for me. It doesn't stray far from the orignal and the autotune on the vocals bug me.

Overall To The Secrets and Knowledge is a catchy emo pop record with a handful of strong songs.

Living Sacrifice - The Infinite Order

Let the Metal Onslaught Continue! \m/

7 years after Conceived in Fire came out Living Sacrifice are back with The Infinite Order. And they're just as good as ever.

The 5 songs released between the two full length albums(3 on the retrospective and the Death Machine ep) were only a brief glimpse as what LS had to offer on their return. The Infinite Order is both a return to thrash and a continuation of what LS had been doing with The Hammering Process and Conceived in Fire.

The Infinite Order doesn't disappoint. It's as if LS had never broken up. The Infinite Order put Living Sacrifice securely back on top as the best band in christian metal. The Infinite Order is 12 songs of pure metal, Living Sacrifice at their best and better then ever. And the good news, Bruce is hoping to have another record out in 2011.

Living Sacrifice have set the bar high for heavy music 2010. This one isn't to me missed.

New Music Tuesday 1.26

Only one record really matters today.

LIVING SACRIFICE!

The new Living Sacrifice album, The Infinite Order, is out today. And it's good. Really, really good.

Other stuff...

Number One Gun - To the Secrets & Knowledge

Max Richter's Memoryhouse is being reissued. Also, Cave In's Planets of Old is out on cd today.

Solid State signs a band, I actually care

To Speak of Wolves have signed with Solid State records. And I'm a big fan of this signing. This is one of those moments that give me hope for the christian heavy music scene.

To Speak of Wolves is a progressive/stoner hardcore band from North Carolina and much better addition to the Solid State lineup the their last signing (in my opinion, the uber boring Gwen Stacey). Check them out.

http://www.myspace.com/tospeakofwolves

Onward to Olympas - This World is Not My Own

Bland hardcore is bland hardcore. Like I said with the Saving Grace review, some bands stick, some don't. Onward to Olympas is an example of a band that doesn't stick. It's pretty standard, Metalcore 101.

This World is Not My Home really falls on me as a run of the mill christian metal album. There's nothing that sticks out. Heavy screamed verses, a melodic, sung chorus. It's the bread and butter of a genre I've torched on this blog before.

It's not a horrific album, it's just tiresome. Onward to Olympas aren't bringing anything to the table that isn't already there.

Shapes Stars Make - These Mountains Are Safe

Christian post-rock seems like a pointless genre. I mean, does it really matter if an instrumental band is christian or not?

Anyway, Shapes Stars make are the latest band on Dreamt Music and their debut, These Mountains Are Safe, is a nice picture of a band with lots of potential. The album is a mixture of Explosions in the Sky, Unwed Sailor, and The Appleseed Cast. The album isn't anything we haven't heard before, but it's good. The album is raw, which is okay. In a landscape of bands creating really lush soundscapes, Shapes Stars Make really harkens back to early Explosions in the Sky. The tracks with vocals, (We Are) The Hurting, Fireflies and Lights, and The Calm really stand apart in a not great way. The vocals feel intrusive, not as another instrument to compliment the music.

Shapes Stars Make are a band with a lot of potential and There Mountains Are Safe is a good debut.

Cold war Kids - Behave Yourself ep

When I first heard Cold War Kids, there was a sense of enjoyment. I say sense because you could tell that they were close to creating something great. The hype seemed premature to me. I liked Robbers and Cowards. A very nice record and there are some really catchy songs on that album. But it didn't click enough for me. It didn't click enough to the point that I ignored their second full length Loyalty to Loyalty altogether. I never gave it a fair shot.

Behave Yourself had soul. A lot of soul. It still sounds like Cold War Kids but a more soulful version. Like a choir practice in a rundown church. The album's opener Audience of One sounds like they're playing in front of a congregation on a Sunday morning.

Behave Yourself is only 5 songs long but for one who was never a huge fan, this ep hits me nicely. It makes me want to give Loyalty to Loyalty a listen.

New Music 1.19.2010

The first week this year with any real albums to talk about.

Cold War Kids - Behave Yourself EP
Editors - In this Light and On This Evening
Onward To Olympas - This World Is Not My Home
Shapes Stars Make - These Mountains Are Safe

Reviews to come...

Update: Apparently I have shitty references because I just read Editor's In This Light and On This Evening was released in October.

Exhibit C

I am absolutely in love with this song! Good work from Jay Electronica.

What I'm In To: Dreamt Music

I mostly ignored Dreamt Music at first. I'm really not into Thieves and Liars. They just don't really jive on my stereo. And the other acts on Dreamt I had dismissed as emo, Copeland wannabe bands.

But looking at the releases for January I saw brand new Dreamt artist Shapes Stars Make(http://www.myspace.com/shapesstarsmake). I gave their new song a listen and I loved it. Very Appleseed Cast/Explosions in the Sky. I will be picking this up on Tuesday.

So I downloaded and listened to the other acts on the label. Abel, Sleep For Sleepers,and My Epic are all similar, falling into that indie rock/emo genre.

Abel is pretty straight forward rock. At moments they remind me of The Glorious Unseen but they're much less polished and more driving. It's a solid ep they put out.

Sleep for Sleepers are pretty generic emo pop. They remind me Nevertheless(which is an obscure reference in it's own right). It's not terrible but it's nothing new and exciting. An enjoyable album for fans of the genre.

My Epic reminds me of a cross between Copeland and Edison Glass. It's a little more melodic and heavier then Copeland. Theirs is probably my favorite album Dreamt has released this far. A very pretty little record.

Thieves and Liars have released two records on Dreamt Music and although I like the second one much more than the first, it's still not my cup of tea. A mix of southern rock, blues, and classic rock. It's straight forward American Rock & Roll.

I'm really looking forward to the Shapes Stars Make album.

I'm glad to see Facedown moving outside of strict hardcore and Dreamt Music has a lot of potential.

http://www.myspace.com/wedreamtmusic

Rules of Engagement

I'm ashamed I haven't posted this soon.

Living Sacrifice's new record "The Infinite Order" comes out on the 26th. They have 4 new songs up on their myspace page(http://www.myspace.com/livingsacrifice) which you should go listen to right now. One of them is their song Rules of Engagement, whcih they've released this video for. Enjoy \m/

Saving Grace - Unbreakable

Hardcore/metal is a weird genre. There are some people who will say all the bands sound the same. While fans of the genre will be able to discern the nuances of certain bands and be able to explain quite well why band a is far better then band b.

New Zealand's Saving Grace have released their Strike First debut Unbreakable. I don't know if this falls into the deathcore category or just plain hardcore (these minor genre details escape me). Unbreakable is as polished and heavy as anything you'll probably hear in the heavy music arena. It rivals anything their contemporaries might put out. I'm actually extremely surprised.

When the record first started I was dismissing Saving Grace as another mindless hardcore band. But Unbreakable is an enjoyable hardcore record. It's not going to win new fans to the genre and they don't offer anything new to the scene but as a debut from an overseas band to the Christian hardcore scene Saving Grace is a bright spot to a genre full of skinny jeans and bad metalcore.

I expect bigger and better things from Saving Grace in the future. Saving Grace is a bright light of hope in what's been a weak Christian hardcore scene.

Orient is His Name

Lee Bozeman was the front man for Luxury and released a solo album under the moniker All Things Bright and Beautiful. He's put an ep up on band of some new tracks under the name Orient is His Name. Very lo-fi but good stuff.

http://orientishisname.bandcamp.com/