The Best Of 2006

[MalaCloudy Black]

I like Bomb the Music Industry!, so I know what I'm checking out next.

[StevenRichardsRules]

Hooray for hellogoodbye making the cut. I quite like them. >_> But I'm a nerd like that.

Also happy to see Cascada make the list. God, do I love that song. ...what? I like dance music. So sue me.

[Momo]

Hooray for Killswitch, I love their new album.

Although I did think Eye of the Storm is worth mentioning. The intro just strikes me for some reason. Nice list so far, keep going.

[ROC]

If Sparta can make the list, Muse and Futureheads so are making the top 50. >_>

[YI]

LIST OF DOOM : 85-81

85. "Mr Beast" by Mogwai

MEMBERS : Stuart Braithwaite, Dominic Aitchison, Martin Bulloch, John Cummings, Barry Burns

GENRE : (Instrumental) Prog-Rock

REVIEW : Mogwai are one of those bands that are generally hit and miss for me, like most bands which are primarily instrumental. Though there are a couple of songs with vocals, or spoken words. Where Mogwai seem to fall down in comparison to bands like Explosions In The Sky, is the fact they seem to repeat the same riff far too much. I know there's certain bands that don't get their 'moneys worth' out of a riff, but when there's little to no vocals, you really have to freshen things up in a song, or it ultimately becomes rather boring. This is definately not the best Mogwai release. Coupled with the overuse of the same riff, the 'textures' and styles of the songs don't see much variation, granted there's a few here and there, but it's often the case of "Here's a quiet song"..."Here's a loud song"..."Here's a song which continues to build up and then absolutely nothing happens". Don't get me wrong, I actually like the album, it's definately listenable, and there's some great tracks on here (Even some which 'overuse riffs', and just keep building to nothing...eg. "Auto Rock"). At the end of the day, Mogwai are capable of producing better material than this, as they've proven in the past.

BEST SONGS : "Friend Of The Night", "Team Handed" and "Glasgow Mega-Snake".

'SIMILAR' ARTISTS : "Maserati", "Explosions In The Sky" and "Do Make Say Think".

84. "Western Dream" by Bob Sinclair

MEMBERS :

GENRE : Dance

REVIEW : Like it or love it, 'that song with all the whistling' got engraved into everybodies heads over the summer months, that song being the dance hit, "World, Hold On" by Bob Sinclair. Bob Sinclair has been around the music industry for years, working as a producer and a DJ, and basically doing a load of shit nobody cares about. But this album changes that, well to me at least. He's got a good mix of straight up dance tunes, tunes with a bit afro-carribean twist and some black women-gospel singing shit. Now that's what I want to hear on a dance record. None of this blonde bimbo singing shitty covers (lets face it, everybody who has sung on a dance record is a blonde bimbo, besides that one on the new Space Cowboy song...has anyone seen her? Jesus christ, she's fucking HOT!!! Can't fucking sing though). So where was I? Oh yeah, Bob Sinclair is pretty awesome. A little bit for everyone. Good time shit, good times. Still everything seems to be in the same key...like every dance album ever. The album sounds remarkably black for a white Frenchman.

BEST SONGS : "World, Hold On", "Miss Me" and "Love Generation".

'SIMILAR' ARTISTS : "Basement Jaxx"...yeah, I fucking suck at all these unless it's punk-rock and I know like 3,000 different bands...

83. "This Is Satire" by None More Black

MEMBERS : Jason Shevchuk (Kid Dynamite), Paul Delaney, Jared Shavelson, Colin McGinniss

GENRE : Punk-Rock

REVIEW : As of writing this review, this band has unfortunately broken up, which is a great shame. Whilst I wouldn't get up in arms over this release, it was really quite good, and the band showed a lot of promise. This is the second album released from None More Black, and again it grows on the poppy, nasal, sounding punk rock songs the first album produced. Like a fair few people (Not particuarly on here) I first came across Jason Shevchuk as the lead singer of hardcore punk band Kid Dynamite, and thus find myself trying to draw comparison with the NMB stuff to the KD material, which ultimately is an injustice to both bands. They're both very much different, with None More Black providing some great melodies, but with some vicious punk rock backing. Whilst there's a fair few stand out songs, there's a few tracks which just seem to be there, and never really get going. Personally I find the first part of the album to be vastly superior to the latter. However, I wouldn't say there's a single 'bad' track on the album. Can't wait to see what Shevchuk has in store next. I'd personally love a Kid Dynamite reunion, but with Dan Yemin at work with new Lifetime and Pain It Black, that's probably doubtful.

BEST SONGS : "Zing-Pong", "With The Transit Coat On" and "Who Crosses The State Line Without A Shirt?".

'SIMILAR' ARTISTS' : "The Lawrence Arms", "Hot Water Music" and "Only Crime".

82. "Under The Iron Sea" by Keane

MEMBERS : Tom Chaplin, Richard Hughes, Tim Rice-Oxley

GENRE : Alternative Pop

REVIEW : In what is a bold move, I'm going to out the fact that "Hopes & Fears" is one of my favourite albums of all time. And I often felt as though Keane got too much flack, flack which they didn't deserve. Listening to their debut album you have a huge number of great ballads, with anthematic choruses, as well as a few more chilled out, softer songs. Something to match whatever mood you were in. So I had high hopes for this album. I intentively tuned in for the premier of "Atlantic", and straight away I was gripped. It was dark, it was haunting, and the video was downright weird. It showed a sinister side, a polar opposite of what "Hopes & Fears" showed...and then I got hold of the album and was ultimately dissapointed. There were a few more of these dark, different, bittersweet songs, but then you also got a whole load of tracks which sounded as though they had been rejected from "Hopes & Fears", they sounded near identical to some of the more upbeat songs on there, only they lacked the 'hooks', to make them good. But as a whole the album has grown on me over the year. With stand out tracks of course being the U2-soundalike single, "Is It Any Wonder?", "Atlantic", "A Bad Dream", the chilling "Hamburg Song" and what I hope to be a sign of things to come, "Broken Toy". If Keane are to be taken 'seriously' (Though I take them seriously, narrow minded fuckwits might not...."LOLLOLZOZLZOZ THEY'RE POSH!!! And sing with a piano...how gay...he has a high voice") this is exactly the kind of thing they should do, really push the boundaries, play around with tempos and such, whilst still providing a ridiculously catchy tune for the 'casual listener'. Nowhere as good as I hoped it would be, but there's still so many good, and different tracks on here that it had to make the list.

BEST SONGS : "Hamburg Song", "Broken Toy" and "Atlantic".

'SIMILAR' ARTISTS : I fucking suck at this......

81. "A City By The Light Divided" by Thursday

MEMBERS : Geoff Rickly (United Nations), Tom Keeley, Steve Pedulla, Tim Payne, Tucker Rule, Andrew Everding

GENRE : Post Hardcore

REVIEW : I've been a big fan of Thursday ever since I heard "Signals Over The Air" on TV. They just seem so irresistably dark. You know what, I'm going to see if anybody actually gives a shit about what I write here. I take it you have all seen Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure? Good. It's awesome isn't it? Where did it all go wrong for Keanu Reeves? I'm not a total film buff, I don't find anything offensive about him, but he should still be doing that kind of shit. I remember seeing him in some film where he was shagging some lass...that's all I remember about it. Had something to do with an aeroplane or something, fuck knows, I was pissed and stoned when I saw it. All I remember he was shagging someone, had floppy hair, looked about 16, and there was an aeroplane or a toy aeroplane involved somewhere. Or was that the film that was on before? Fuck knows. Thursday are good. But not great. This release was kinda 'meh'. It's basically their normal stuff, nothing overtly new. Still pretty good though. I'm just pissed off that I didn't get to see them on their UK tour. Cancelling dates!!! Wankers.

BEST SONGS : "Telegraph Avenue Kiss", "The Other Side of the Crash/over and Out (of Control)" and "Running From The Rain".

'SIMILAR ARTISTS' : "Moneen", "The Receiving End Of Sirens" and "Fear Before The March Of Flames".

THEREFORE.....THE LIST OF DOOM ROUND-UP (100-81)

100. "ZOMBIES! ALIENS! VAMPIRES! DINOSAURS!" by Hellogoodbye

99. "Cassie" by Cassie

98. "Oh! Calcutta!" by The Lawrence Arms

97. "Everytime We Touch" by Cascada

96. "Costello Music" by The Fratellis

95. "The Gold Record" by The Bouncing Souls

94. "Rest Inside The Flames" by 36 Crazyfists

93. "Crime Slunk Scene" by Buckethead

92. "Liberation Transmission" by Lostprophets

91. "Three Cheers For Dissapointment" by Arrogant Sons Of Bitches

90. "Letoya" by Letoya

89. "Murder Party" by BeerBong

88. "Threes" by Sparta

87. "The T4 Project: A Story Based Concept Album" by The T4 Project

86. "As Daylight Dies" by Killswitch Engage

85. "Mr Beast" by Mogwai

84. "Western Dream" by Bob Sinclair

83. "This Is Satire" by None More Black

82. "Under The Iron Sea" by Keane

81. "A City By Light Divided" by Thursday

Edited January 22, 2007 by Steve Mandela

[Bushmeister]

So far this list has been made of equal proportions "teh gay" and "AIDS".

No offense meant.

[YI]

So far this list has been made of equal proportions "teh gay" and "AIDS".

No offense meant.

Edited January 22, 2007 by Steve Mandela

[Bushmeister]

And it's you who likes Raised Fist, yes? If so...there's one band that's not gay.

[YI]

And it's you who likes Raised Fist, yes? If so...there's one band that's not gay.

OK, once that appears you can consider that "teh gay"-part will be remedied and thus only AIDS shall remain.

But until that post...

Edited January 22, 2007 by Steve Mandela

[Number of the Breast]

And I can live with AIDS.

[YI]

LIST OF DOOM : 80-76 (aka. THE PHANTOM FACIAL HAIR-FEST)

80. "Apocalypse In Increments" by Ryan's Hope

MEMBERS : Terry Morrow, Greg Alltop, Nick Mclenighan

GENRE : Punk-Rock

FACIAL HAIR : The guy on the right has a fairly nice beard growing, the other two are too young for pubes let alone facial hair. He must be their dad.

REVIEW : The sophomore effort from this three-piece punk-rock outfit, and personally I am unsure on what to make of this album as a whole. When I first heard it I loved it, but as time goes on, I’ve grown to pretty much dislike it. But when I listened to it the other week I was somewhere in the middle. There’s a handful of absolutely amazing songs, but there’s also just as many songs that I don’t really care for. However I have seen some live videos of them, and the songs seem to sound so much better live. This album seems to have branched out from the sound of their debut album, which was much more reserved. But there’s still a great selection of unique melodies. “By The Sword” has an amazing chorus, and I just can’t get enough of “My Motivation, Your Demise”. At the end of the day, they’re a talented band, which are rather hit and miss in the song-writing department. For every unique and exciting melody they have, there’s also you average punk-rock dirge. But when they get it right, it’s great stuff. That being said, it is a solid album, which sees a step forward from their previous work, with the bend defining their own side (Whereas they used to sound like Pennywise-lite). And with Dan Precision behind them, doing another great production job on this album, they could really 'go places' in the punk rock community.

BEST SONGS : "By The Sword", "My Motivation Your Demise" and "The Carpathian".

'SIMILAR' ARTISTS : "Millencolin", "Green Day" and "The Explosion"...but with a more hardcore twist.

79. "Hello Everything" by Squarepusher

MEMBERS : Tom Jenkinson

GENRE : Drum & Bass...IDM

FACIAL HAIR : '18-hundreds artist' in style, loses marks for the join between beard and moustache looking a little poor.

REVIEW : I admit that I haven't been into Squarepusher very long, but what I heard I fell in love with and soon aquired myself most of Tom Jenkinson's back catalogue. When I first listened to the new album I must say I was pretty impressed, but as time goes on, it just does not have the 'staying power' that lots of his other releases seem to have. You can listen through and can't help but feel that "He did that so much better *there*". There are some moments of brilliance. The bass shit as always is fucking sexy, most notably in "Bubble Life" and "Hello Meow". There arm moments where I sit there totally bored though, "Vacuum Garden" wins the award for 'shittest track of the year'...six minutes of absolute shite. I wouldn't say that the album is bad, but it's just not really interesting and new. I guess that's the problem when you're like Jenkinson, in that if you push so many boundaries at the start of your musical career, there's seemingly 'nowhere' for you to go as you develop as a musician. The production work on this album is top notch, giving it a real stylish edge, making it a good place to start if you're looking to get into Squarepusher and the like.

BEST SONGS : "Planetarium", "Hello Meow" and "Welcome To Europe".

'SIMILAR' ARTISTS : "Aphex Twin", "Mouse On Mars" and "(Chris) Clark".

78. "We Don't Need To Whisper" by Angels & Airwaves

MEMBERS : Tom DeLonge (Blink 182, Box Car Racer), David Kennedy (Box Car Racer), Ryan Sinn (The Distillers), Atom Willard (The Offspring)

GENRE : Emo-rock-Pop

FACIAL HAIR : What the fuck is that? I've seen better moustaches on attractive women. Poor, poor, attempt in the facial hair stakes by Tom DeLonge, he looks like a nonce. Average age of Blink fans? He probably is.

REVIEW : Armed with an inflated self-esteem, U2's guitar effects and a barrage of sweet (as in little girl sweet, not 'awesome' stoner speak sweet) yet overly epic tracks, Angels & Airwaves burst onto the music scene this year. At the start of this review it's safe to get out of the way that Tom DeLonge's lyrics very rarely make any bit of sense at all, and not in a good way. "It Hurts" for example, whilst probably the best song on the record, I have no idea what he's singing about, and how any of the 'ideas' seemingly interlock together. Certain bits fit together, but the rest, what the fuck. "Your best friend is not your girlfriend"?.......I DON'T GET IT!!! My best friend has a penis anyway. I think I'm one of the few people who really enjoys the clean guitar sounds, but the album does seem to lack some variety. There's only really 2 songs in which things are changed up a bit, being "The War" and "Distraction". Personally I find the ending of the album to be the strongest part. This is where A&A (I refuse to call them AVA...I mean, what the fuck) come into their own with a selection of sweet, easier on the ear, melodic tracks. I swear, I could probably listen to "Good Day" onwards for days on end. The melodies are nice in an obvious way, but the whole over epic-ing (I don't care if it's not a word) gets really old, really fast. At the end of the day, the album reaks of all style and little substance.

BEST SONGS : "It Hurts", "The War" and "The Gift".

'SIMILAR' ARTISTS : "Our Lady Peace", "Plus 44" and "U2".

And stolen from Allmusic.com

...an over-reliance on delay pedals, not just on the guitars (which never once sound like anybody other than the Edge), but on the keyboards, which has the unfortunate side effect of making the somber "Distraction" sound like an homage to Paul McCartney's gleefully moronic "Wonderful Christmas Time."

Edited January 27, 2007 by Steve Mandela

[Rashid]

I've only heard of like 3 bands you mentioned, maybe 2.

And I refuse to think that there were actually 100 good albums in 2006.

Edited January 27, 2007 by Rashid

[YI]

I've only heard of like 3 bands you mentioned, maybe 2.

And I refuse to think that there were actually 100 good albums in 2006.

Edited January 27, 2007 by Steve Mandela

[ROC]

I've only heard of like 3 bands you mentioned, maybe 2.

And I refuse to think that there were actually 100 good albums in 2006.

There was more. There's loads of stuff here which I would like to have on the list but didn't have the space. Venetian Snares (But that's got more to do with track/length issues), Frenzal Rhomb, The Futureheads, Beyonce, Matt Costa (Though I think it may have been 2005), Guttermouth, The Who, Lily Allen, Lupe Fiasco, Jarvis Cocker, Cursive, Beck, The Calling and The Rapture (Straight off the top of my head) all released solid/good albums, but aren't on the list.

[IAceI]

80?! Fuck off and die you cunt.

You wouldn't know good music if it slapped you in the face.

[Steeb]

they're less than a fucking stones throw away from The Gorillaz...

[YI]

they're less than a fucking stones throw away from The Gorillaz...

I just don't see that at all. Not one bit.

Interesting list thus far though.

Edited January 28, 2007 by Steve Mandela

[YI]

THE LIST OF DOOM : 75-71

75. "Songs The Animals Taught Us" by Roommate

MEMBERS : Kent Lambert + others

GENRE : Indie-electro

REVIEW : If I were to be perfectly honest, myself, much like many others really got interested in the American indie-rock scene due to the OC. Granted, there were a few bands I was already familiar with, but it opened my eyes to new bands, those bands then opened my eyes to other bands, and so-on and so-forth. Roommate is one of those artists that has benefited from the rise in popularity in indie, most notably the success of Aqueduct, who helped bring to the forefront the lo-fi electro twinged indie-rock. I'd go as far as to say Roommate is more 'talented' than Aqueduct, but his song writing leaves more than a little to be desired. This album goes from nice and melodic to downright weird about 4/5 times a song. It does get a little annoyng after a while, when a tune or riff (whatever) you really like dissapears and never returns. All in all it's a good album, but never seems to excell and be as good as it potentially could be. Still some really good stuff here.

BEST SONGS : "Tuesday", "Status Hounds" and "Fairgrounds".

74. "With Love & Squalor" by We Are Scientists

MEMBERS : Keith Murray, Chris Cain, Michael Tapper

GENRE : Indie-rock

REVIEW : We Are Scientists exploded on the indie music scene this past year with a couple of excellent, catchy singles. Mixing the best of emo, indie and straight up rock & roll, We Are Scientists seemed to have a winning formula. As the for album as a whole, it's relatively hit and miss. The band don't seem to have the problem that other indie artists have, in that the album is really quite diverse in sound. With no songs sounding relatively familiar, but they do sound as though they belong together. It's just, for every good song, there's probably a song I don't give a damn about. My personal favourite track is "Textbook", which just sounds so dark, and not what you'd normally expect to find on an 'indie' record, especially after the two singles they released. This song came as a big surprise to me, really reminding me of Interpol and the like. If you're a fan of indie, yo surely must have checked this out already, but if for some inexplicable reason you haven't, you should. There's a selection of fine songs on here, which you're missing out on. Plus, I must say, I love the bass guitar work on this album.

BEST SONGS : "Textbook", "Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt" and "The Scene Is Dead".

73. "Taking The Long Way" by The Dixie Chicks

MEMBERS : Emily Robison, Martie Maguire, Natalie Maines

GENRE : Country-pop

REVIEW : Country music and the such has never really been interesting to me. This year, I 'stumbled' across two artists that changed my mind to that. Whilst neither may be folk/country in the traditional sense, they both really take the style and add their own charms to it. I first paid attention to The Dixie Chicks after seeing them on Jools Holland, and was ultimately blown away by their performance. I straight away went and got my hands on the album, and it was absolutely beautiful. The musicality is great, great songs, with some amazingly powerful vocal performances. That all being said, the album is somewhat forgettable. I don't seem to walk along and have one of their songs stuck in my head. I don't get 'cravings' to listen to the album. Definately one you have to check out if you're looking to expand your musical horizons.

BEST SONGS : "Bitter End", "The Long Way Around" and "Silent House".

72. "Be Your Own Pet" by Be Your Own Pet

MEMBERS : Jemina Pearl Abegg, Jonas Stein, Nathan Vasquez, John Eatherly

GENRE : Punk-Rock

REVIEW : Whilst often classified differently, to me BYOB are a 'punk' band. Hell, they're more of a 'punk' band than most of the 'punk-rock' bands doing the rounds today. Their surge of 'popularity' has somewhat confused me. They're not the most attractive on the ear band, and their songs don't really have much in the way of hooks, to draw the average music fan in. But they're young, and have an attractive blonde singer, so that probably explains things. But I'm trying not to take anything away from them, as the album is some great stuff. The first thing that really got me with the album is I love the heavy kick-drum/bass drum beat going on in the songs, really keeps things moving along at the hectic pace which the band seems to set for itself. Basically the album is brash and wild, and really does have the element of teenagers going crazy and having a laugh, which (Whilst I prefer the album more) the Arctic Monkeys and all the other 'teen GODS!!!' albums I've heard haven't. Which is a really attractive characteristic. There's a few songs I don't particuarly care for, and a couple just seem to blend together. But they're definately a band I can see good things coming in the future for. A real talented bunch.

BEST SONGS : "Girls On TV", "Fuuuuuun" and "Adventure".

71. "Get Lonely" by The Mountain Goats

MEMBERS : John Darnielle, Peter Hughes + others

GENRE : Indie-Folk-'Acoustic'

REVIEW : The Mountain Goats are a band that people are either going to love or hate. This album in general is very much going to see a split. Basically it's high pitched vocals over simple, soft, acoustic strums. Nothing fancy, nothing flash, just 'basic', 'straight forward', old school, singer/songwriter lyricism. Yeah, there's a slight gloss on it, inclusion of piano, and as the album goes on a brass section, an organ and the like all find themselves being added to the mix. But still, simplicity reign supreme. Lyrically the songs are very much like stories. If you listen to the lyrics you can follow the stories well, which is something that is often lost in music these days, with people often favouring the abstract, or just incomprehensible words. Real beautiful music, and I admit I'm not normally one for the whole singer/songwriter thing.

BEST SONGS : "Song For Lonely Giants", "Wild Sage" and "If You See Light".

[ROC]

I gotta say, I wouldn't mind hearing that new Dixie Chicks CD, mainly because they seem to be holding onto their edge after alienating typical "right-wing country" and yet STILL selling more than loads of country artists. And "Not Ready to Make Nice" was a fantastic indictment on the ridiculousness of hating a group for their political stance.

[YI]

It's been a while, but I'm hoping I can update this more reguarly...

THE LIST OF DOOM : 70-66

70. "Dying To Say This To You" by The Sounds

MEMBERS : Maja Ivarsson, Felix Rodriguez, Jesper Anderberg, Johan Bengtsson, Fredrik Nilsson

GENRE : Indie-Electro

REVIEW : Fronted by a strangely attractive (In a CSAMH-weird/quirky way...in a way I don't understand, I mean, she has bigger biceps than me) Swedish 'crackwhore'...lookalike, The Sounds are very much a fun band, with songs you can dance to. There's nothing overtly amazing here, but there's a handful of really catchy pop influenced songs on here. Occasionally The Sounds step off in Blondie-tribute band territory, but they've still got enough of their own appeal to stop them from sounding like a total ripoff. At the end of the day, musically it's nothing spectacular, and if it wasn't for Maja Ivarsson, the band would ultimately be in total obscurity (More so than they are now). She doesn't have the greatest voice in the conventional sense, but everything comes across so charismatically, and her voice rides over the backing. One thing I really take from this is that 'everything' sounds so confrontational when she sings it, which is in stark contrast from the somewhat 'carefree' electronic twinged backing. A good number of really catchy songs on here. A few miss the mark somewhat, but worth checking out for the good ones.

BEST SONGS : "Ego", "Tony The Beat" and "Much Too Long Now".

All hail the shitty quality image...because it's nigh-on impossible to find a 'band' TMV photograph;

69. "Amputechture" by The Mars Volta

MEMBERS : Cedric Bixler-Zavala (At The Drive-In), Omar Rodriguez-Lopez (At The Drive-In), Juan Alderete (Racer X), Paul Hinojos (At The Drive-In, Sparta) Adrian Terrazas-Gonzales, Isaiah Owens + Others (Basically everyone with a Spanish sounding name in existence)

GENRE : Prog-Rock

REVIEW : Cue me being unpopular with EWB once again, but this release does very little for me. I can sit here, listen and understand that there's some fantastic musicianship, but much like the feeling I got from The Darkness's second album, TMV have seemingly become a parody of themselves. There's endless guitar wankery and jamming, which may be cool live, and occasionally cool on record, but here they just seem content to jam for no reason, they don't build towards anything. The melodies in the songs are nowhere near as good as they were in the previous albums. You've got no real 'singalong' moments, which were dime a dozen on the first album...and fairly common on "Frances The Mute". You've also got a handful of weak songs. "Vermicide" bores me, "Asilos Magdalena" really ruins the flow of the album and "El Ciervo Vulnerado" just comes across as a boring, "Miranda That Ghost..." to me. That's not to say that the album isn't brimming with Mars Volta goodness. "Meccamputechture" is definately a standout, as soon as the riff kicked in I just knew that this was going to be a great song. "Day Of The Baphomets" too, which breaks down into near free-form jazz in the middle, and features some of the few, pure, 'sing-along' moments on the album. Musically it's good. As a total package it's not as good as previous releases. It's as if they've produced an album of what The Mars Volta 'should' sound like. And songs often seem long for the sake of being long. Part of the problem (To me at least) is that TMV are making 'too many' releases, and are getting burned out of ideas. With another album rumoured for this year, I'm not holding out for anything amazing. TMV really have to get their act together, especially after a borderline 'perfect' release from Hella, their crown of prog-rock kings may be up taken from them. On a random note, I never realised the guy from The Dazzling Killmen (His name escapes me) was the original TMV drummer. They should have kept him around after he returned that year. TDK fucking rocked. One of the best bands you've probably 'never heard'.

BEST SONGS : "Meccamputechture", "Day Of The Baphomets" and "Viscera Eyes".

68. "The Always Open Mouth" by Fear Before The March Of Flames

MEMBERS : David Michael Marion, Adam Rupert Fisher, Zachary Hutchings, Billy Johnston, Mike Madruga, Clayton Holyoak

GENRE : Post-Hardcore/Math-rock

REVIEW : The problem with the mass majority of post-hardcore bands is the fact they tend to sound awfully alike. Fear Before The March Of Flames have managed to combat this, mixing many different aspects to the traditional post-hardcore sound. Yes, there's the 'outrageously' distorted guitars, and screamed vocals, but there's also a fair share of electronics thrown into the mix, whimsical vocal work and a fair share of intricate and interesting time signature changes. Coupled with the many contrasts of style, there's also a good number of songs on here (15), which means you'll probably find something to match your mood. I outright admit that Fear Before The March Of Flames are not going to be one of the easiest bands to listen to, but if you make an effort you can hear some brilliant stuff here, from one of those bands which may potentially go overlooked, due to them being lumped with the rest of the post-hardcore bands (Thursday etc...not that there's nothing wrong with Thursday). However, there's occasions on the album where they just try to achieve too much, and it's rare to be able to remember specific things about the songs. Whilst good as an album as a whole, it really made it difficult for me to think of certain songs that you should check out. It really is a package.

BEST SONGS : "Taking Cassandra To The End Of The World Party", "Mouth" and "...As A Result Of Signals Being Crossed".

67. "I'm Like A Virgin Losing A Child" by The Manchester Orchestra

MEMBERS : Andy Hull, Jonathan Corley, Jeremiah Edmond, Chris Freeman, Robert McDowell

GENRE : Indie-Emo

REVIEW : I really don't care for the name. One they're not from Manchester, and secondly they're not an Orchestra. They're one of the new breed of emo-indie bands, taking many a page out of the book of Brand New, Modest Mouse, but also the likes of Neutral Milk Hotel and The Mountain Goats. Unlike some of their counterparts (Note; mewithoutyou, The Maple State) they don't tend to regurgitate the same song multiple times (...I mentioned those two, as having seen them both live, their sets were utter wank...mewithoutyou especially, dancing around with an accordian and a scarf doesn't make you a good band). The songs are great, you've got your mix of quietness, your loud parts, your screaming parts, and your flat out creepy acoustic guitar parts. There's just so much here, it often sounds like it's coming from a different band, which does occasionally make the album sound disjointed. At the end of the day, it's nothing overly original, they've just begged, stolen and borrowed from most indie/emo bands, and put it in a blender, to provide their own 'sound'. Some real beautiful songs on here. If you like your 'stereotypical' US indie bands, this is a band you should definately check out.

BEST SONGS : "Where Have You Been?", "Colly Strings" and "I Can Barely Breathe".

66. "Sound Of The Republic" by Raised Fist

MEMBERS : Alle Rajkovic, Marco Eronen, Daniel Holmberg, Andreas Johansson, Matte Modin

GENRE : Hardcore

REVIEW : The first thing you'll notice from this Swedish hardcore-punk band is Alle Rajkovic, the vocalist. He has somewhat of an original vocal style. You can't call it singing, you can't call it screaming, you can't call it shouting, it's like a 'yell'. You might ask, "What's the difference?", but if you check them out you'll hear what I mean, it's like from the back of his throat, it's hard to describe, but it's something you'll either love or hate, no middle ground. As an album this release flows together so well, but there are the odd occasions where you can't help but shrug the fact that you've heard a song earlier on in the album. Like with most hardcore-punk, there's little variation in the tracks, and Raised Fist seem to lack the 'drive' that like the new Sick Of It All release has. But it is loud, and the vocal style is definately something that sets them apart from the average band. And despite the primarily 'yelled' vocals, the record somehow manager to maintain an amazing melodic twist, reach is really surprising, and something that I feel is vastly missing in lots of hardcore today. Things are really spiced up by the backing vocals as well. I'd probably go as far as to recommend these to metal fans. Granted, most of the elitest fucks would shit all over it, but it's definately some 'harsh' shit. This is an album that I'd love to place higher, but I just can't. They're a really talented bunch though. And I'd recommend people check these guys out, just to broaden their horizons a bit.

BEST SONGS : "Hertz Island Escapades", "Killing It" and "Perfectly Broken".

Edited February 13, 2007 by Nitro Girl Kimberly