The Chariot - One Wing

The Chariot is a band with one rule: Never EVER play by the rules. While there are some obvious musical acts that you could associate the band with as sounding similar to, The Chariot is their own brand of heavy music. From their live show to their records, they leave it all on the floor.

One Wing might be the band's grandest record to date. The guitar tone is chunkier than any previous effort and the band's songwriting, while always unconventional, has taken a progressive step forward. Josh Scogin's vocals haven't sounded this good since Norma Jean's Bless The Martyr, Kiss The Child.

One Wing has the band's heaviest songs to date but it also feature's some of the most haunting and original songs the band has composed.

The song titles are actually two sentences.

Forget
Not
Your
First
Love.
Speak
In
Tongues
And
Cheek.

Forget and Not both come in full force. Typical chaotic hardcore craziness that we've come to expect from The Chariot. First is the Chariot taking something they've done previously and taking it farther and making it better. While The Chariot have had country western soundtrack riffs in they sound before, First goes from heavy to full blown Kill Bill soundtrack. A great spaghetti western riff complete with a horn line that feels like it was taken straight out of a great western film. While the first and second halves of the songs feel disjointed, you forget all about that when The Chariot goes west. Speak is the most haunting song The Chariot have ever written. A lone piano plays while Josh Scogin screams.

On a whole, One Wing feels more organized than it's predecessor (Long Live). There's a maturity in the songwriting that we've only seen glimpses of in the past. It's a richer sounding record in all aspects.

One Wing is The Chariots finest work to date.

The Meltdown 89

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Owl CIty - The Midsummer Station

Owl City would be a guilty pleasure artist for me but I have no guilt listening to Adam Young's electronic, sugar pop project. Last year's All Things Bright and Beautiful was a nice little gem full of catchy pop tunes and the Shooting Star ep released earlier this year, was just a preview of what was to come on The Midsummer Station.

While previous efforts from Young have been missing something, The Midsummer Station is perfect. Not one song misses. Years of crafting and working hard to create better and better pop music has paid off and The Midsummer Station hits on every level. From straight up electro-pop tracks like Dreams and Disasters, Shooting Star, and Speed of Love to ballads like Gold, Take It All Away, and Silhouette, and even pop punk influenced songs Dementia and Embers... It's all good! And of course, Good Time, the album's first single that features Carly Rae Jespen is a smash hit.

Adam Young has always delivered solid, fun pop music but The Midsummer Station is his crowning jewel. Pop perfection.

Project 86 - Wait For The Siren

The Warriors Come Out and Play Tour was a huge moment in my musical life. It was the first time I was P.O.D. live and it also introduced me to Project 86 and Blindside. (I imagine I'm not along in this experience)

I picked up the band's self-titled debut that night and dove headfirst. I loved that record. The aggression in Andrew's vocals, the dark brutality of the music... It just clicked and worked for me. And then Drawing Black Lines came out and blew Project's debut out of the water. Stein's Theme is the loudest song ever recorded. There's not a moment of weakness on what I consider one of the greatest records ever.

The band hasn't been perfect since then. While there are songs I absolutely love on Truthless Heroes, And The Rest Will Follow, and Picket Fence Cartel, each record seems to be a slight misstep following what were great albums  (Drawing Black Lines, Songs To Burn Your Bridges By, and Rival Fractions respectively). The band has continued to reinvent themselves and do something new and fresh on each record while still being Project 86.

Wait For The Siren finds Project 86 is a new place. While vocalist Andrew Schwab has been without longtime bandmates Randy Torres and Steven Dail on the road for a while now, this is the first time the two members have not recorded an album with Schwab. It's a complete fresh start for Project 86. New members, new song writers, new ideas. Only good could come from this, right?

Wait For The Siren sounds like Project 86. That's the easiest way to describe it. It almost plays like a companion piece or follow-up to Songs To Burn Your Bridges By. But it's also very different from anything else the band has released. The album features some of the heaviest songs Project 86 has written since Drawing Black Lines but there's also a new level of melodic tracks that Project 86 is just starting to explore.

Project 86 always kick their albums off on a strong note and Fall Goliath Fall is no exception. The track is a post-hardcore soundtrack for Braveheart. It's a battle cry and war chant. SOTS hits hard. The song features Bruce Fizthugh from Living Sacrifice, who's legendary growl adds a nice touch. Omertas Sons has a sing-a-long/chant, anthem that will make for a new Project 86 live staple. Off The Grid doesn't have the same new wave vibe that I loved about Molotov but it's in the same vain stylistically.

The riff that kicks off New Transmission is fantastic. New Transmission is the first hint of something different on Wait For The Sirens. Andrew's singing vocals haven't really been heard since Truthless Heroes but they ring strong on New Transmission. The song is lighter fare for Project but the song has a great melody and a strong hook. The throttling down continues on Defector before The Crossfire Gambit kicks it back up.

Blood Moon is the true ballad of Wait For The Siren. It has a little more guts musically than Star did but it's much lighter in tone, melody, and content. It's the first time I think I would describe a Project 86 song as truly beautiful. Where Fall Goliath Fall was a post-hardcore soundtrack for Braveheart, Ghosts of the Easter Rising is a post-hardcore soundtrack for Brave. I love the Scottish influence on the record. The title track ends the record with a reprise of Ghosts of the Easter Rising.

Project 86 have delivered another strong record and have add to an already stellar discography. Wait For The Siren is definitely album of the year material.

Klank - Urban Warfare

Did anyone know Klank was still a band?

I was actually pretty stoked to find out that Klank had released a new record. I am a big fan of Still Suffering and Numb and while there have been releases since Numb, Urban Warfare feels like the first proper release in years.

Urban Warfare plays a lot like Numb. Groove oriented industrial metal. Unlike Numb, the songs on Urban Warfare are super heavy. It puts anything else Klank has done to shame in the heavy department. Obviously with the album being, again, groove oriented and super heavy, anyone wishing for a return to the super electronic industrial days of Still Suffering might be disappointed. But you have to remember that Still Suffering had Klayton's fingerprint's all over it. And, Daren Diolosa has stated Fear Factory and Machine Head as influences, so the heavy, groove thing makes sense.

Unamused and Urban Warfare kick off the record on a high note. Both tracks have lots of energy with great moving guitar riffs and subtle but nicely layered synths. Bigger Man has tons of Fear Factory influence, while Save Me and Built to Survive are straight up, heavy as all get out. Something About You is a nice rock and roll treat at the end of the record that features Dug Pinnick (Kings X).

Longtime Klank fans as well as fans of Nine Inch Nails and Fear Factory should love Urban Warfare.

Letter To The Exiles - Make Amends

I have been nothing but disappointed with Letter to the Exiles. It's my own fault. The band never promised to be A Love For Enemies part two. I thrust that expectation upon them. Just because Erich Barto fronted both bands, doesn't mean they need to sound similar. But that was what I cast on the band and both their self-released ep and Strike First Records debut didn't work for me.

Insert Make Amends, the band's new record. Call it a fresh start for Letter to the Exiles. The band is now on Facedown Records and also minus Erich Barto. Chris King is the new frontman and for those, like myself, hoping for something new and different and Letter to the Exiles, you got it.

Open Graves kicks the record off strong and from the opening note you can tell that LTTE have stepped up their game on Make Amends. The album is polished, more melodic and heavier. Conversations With Fallen Saints highlights the bands growth in all of these areas. Yeah, the breakdown is almost a thing of the past at this point but the band balances melodic hardcore and metalcore very nicely. The melodic riffs and clean vocals help balance the breakdowns creating really nice movement within the songs. Mark Randazzo has come up with some killer melodic riffs on Make Amends that he balances with some nice August Burns Red style metalcore riffs. They Made Me The War Machine is an excellent example of Letter to the Exiles' balance in sound.

Makes Amends' only flaw is in the engineering of the album. There's nothing sonically special about the record. It's not grand, large, and lush sounding and it's not crisp and really hard hitting either. It's just middle of the ground. It's not a hinderance, just an observation.

Make Amends is a fresh start for Letter to the Exiles and the band embraces it. Make Amends is not a record for heavy music fans to ignore.

The Meltdown 88

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