The Chorus Music Club Society • Page 186

I haven't.

 

I said the same thing about Blink’s ST and TOYPAJ

 

Really?! Damnit I should have given it to you youd love it

 

There's a lot of albums that everybody has heard, that I haven't heard haha

 

Nice write ups! That Billy Talent album is really solid. But where's the love for "Ghost Ship of Cannibal Rats"? My favorite on the album by far. That song gets my blood pumpin'

 

Do you think of me when you hear Orphans?

What a great album

 

Hahha yes.

And yes it is. I don’t like it as much as EIT but I still love it

 

Listening to it now!!!

 

We should all make sure Kevo gets Cold Day Memory and Alpha next so he can get their 4 best albums.

 

Thanks to reading this review when I first woke up this morning I have now listened to Ride The Lightning, Master of Puppets and And Justice For All today at work

 

Glad to be your inspiration

 

Also it's annoyed me that I misspelt Lightning and Puppets on that post because I was typing quickly while trying not to be caught on chorus while at work and not thinking lol.

 

Chorus is how I get through my work day lol

 

I do a fair balance of being on here too much and not getting my work done.

 

I'd like to join for the next round!

 

Welcome aboard! Next round starts Monday

 

Perfect - looking forward to it

 

alright so this is quite late but the time has arrived; my apologies to @JediMasterKevo182 for the delay but here we are. this week I listened to Transmissions by Starset and Bones by Young Guns.


I'll start with Young Guns; they are a UK band who I had never heard of. To be honest I usually roll my eyes a bit at bands/songs/albums that use the word young like this (e.g. young guns, young blood, young love); idk why, but thats where i was at. That said I liked this album quite a bit. It's not too different from the Starset one, but more on that later. The first thing I noticed was the voice; it reminded me of Dave from Gang of Youths, whom I have sung the praise of frequently here, so there were points given for this. It kicks off on a strong note with the anthemic "I was born, I have lived, I will surely die." The hook is solid, the guitars are huge, and it starts the album off with a smile. They have a pretty accessible, radio-friendly hard rock sound, and as someone who grew up listening to a lot of hard rock, this was easy for me to enjoy, but it sounds modern and even post-hardcore-tinged enough that i could see these guys touring with the scene staples. For that I'm somewhat surprised i hadn't heard of them before; blame the UK-ness I suppose. "You Are Not" sounds pulled straight from rock radio; and I mean that in a good way. Sometimes i think we're too hard on radio rock, as the gruff vocals in the chorus here would do well on radio because quite simply they just sound great. As for the rest, it's not the most innovative or progressive sound, but its clean, the guitars sound good, and its a fun listen. I thought the strength here was the vocal melodies; there are a lot of good ones, and thats typically what's most likely to get me to come back to new music. Dearly Departed and Brother In Arms had particularly strong vocals and were the ones I listened to most. To wrap it up, this album didn't blow me away, but its a fun listen littered with potential single choices. Very accessible, a fun sing along record.
Recommended tracks: I Was Born, I Have Lived, I Will Surely Die; Dearly Departed; Brother in Arms


Next up was Starset's Transmissions. Another band I hadn't heard of, at least not until kevo started recommending them to everyone heh. That said I actually really like the band name. I know its not a good habit but band names are strong deterrents/attractants for me and this was a positive one. This is also a concept album based around a story dealing with an inhospitable earth, corruption, and star-crossed lovers (quite literally). A grandiose concept for sure, and a little cheesy if I'm being brutally honest, but given that I wasn't aware of the story until after my first listen it provided some nice new context for future listens. In retrospect the story's kind of crucial for understanding the radio transmissions that appear, but alas, the songs can stand alone. The album kicks off with one of these transmissions with a pretty cool punchy orchestral parts in the background. Unique idea i thought. It then goes into Down With The Fallen which opens with woahs, I could take em or leave em. I was then walloped with breaking benjamin influences. Frontman Dustin really sounds like BB's nominal frontman, which is good because I always liked breaking benjamin. It's quickly apparent that Starset are going for a more cinematic and electronic sound than Young Guns, but there are certainly some similarities in song structure and guitar work. The guitars though are more secondary to the electronics here, or at least on pretty equal footing so they're not as much of a draw. Down's chorus ends on a pretty cool hook that I liked coming back to, and the song features an unexpected but welcomed screamed bridge. The next track, Halo, featured my favorite chorus. Its huge, its epic, its the story's female lead's name. Its clear at this point that the orchestra is a mainstay, which I also liked; i've become a sucker for orchestra. You could say Startset takes the Young Guns sound and layers it heavily; more electronics, more instruments, bigger production. Sometimes it works and you get a great anthemic rock song; depending on my mood though it was sometimes a bit much. I struggle sometimes with the synth-heavy rock, if that makes sense. I tend to prefer my electronics atmospherically rather than featuring too many driven synth leads. That said, this is also a fun listen, and i tended to prefer songs when the guitar or string sections are more up front and center; the synth-heavier songs didn't do as much for me. The Future Is Now is a great example of this. Opens with a wall of guitars and piano sound, melds into a great long scream. That does it for me. To sum, my thoughts on this weren't too different than Young Guns. They won't become my favorite band, and I didn't find it particularly original, but I get the appeal, there are a lot of cool sounds here, and the record rises and falls with the vocal melodies, perhaps more than it would like to. I liked this record enough that i'll give their follow up Vessels a shot as well; that seemed to have some positive reception.
Favorite Tracks: Halo, The Future Is Now, My Demons

Thanks for the recs, @JediMasterKevo182 !

 

Very nice write ups! You really took care to write those. I’m glad you liked both. I will also say I am impressed you looked up the story elements of Transmissions (I know I explained most of it to you) but I noticed details (like Halo) I didn’t mention, so someone did their homework :) nice job man

 

I have and its only so so. Got some interesting stuff on it tho. Some songs have ska influences

Watoosh! by Pezz

 

My write ups should be up tomorrow depending how much I sober up by tomorrow morning

 

My second and final rec for the week from @JediMasterKevo182 is the new Senses Fail album, If There Is Light, It Will Find You. @JediMasterKevo182 is doing a great job of giving me albums by bands that just completely passed me by when I was younger, despite all of my friends listening to said bands (Blink-182, Silverstein, Taking Back Sunday, etc). Senses Fail is another one of those bands, that until now have always just been the band "not named Sense Field" (RIP Jon Bunch). I'm a sucker for cool album art, and I probably would have found time to listen to this one this year simply because the cover is cool. I'm glad I got around to it sooner rather than later.

The albums starts out pretty fast and doesn't let up through the first couple of songs. At first listen and with no knowledge of the band prior to this album, it seemed like a pretty typical approach and beginning to a solid pop-punk album. You have the usual lyrics about lamenting growing up and not being worth much. Senses Fail is much more of a post-hardcore band, and elements of the genre are sprinkled in through the first several tracks, with sporadic heavy moments and liberal use of the double bass, such as during the chorus and bridge of "Elevator To The Gallows." The first four songs follow a seemingly safe formula in composition and content. However, the last words of fourth track "Gold Jacket, Green Jacket..." are "you fucking idiots!" And with that exclamation comes a dark turn in the album's direction.

@JediMasterKevo182 informed me that a large part of this album details vocalist Buddy Nielsen's traumatic experience of watching his wife (who has MS) nearly die while giving birth to their daughter. She thankfully survived the affair, but the album continues in a narrative that acts as if she did not. The dark tone is immediately apparent in the first song after the shift in tone "First Breath, Last Breath" where Nielsen talks about how watching his wife nearly die while giving birth changed him forever. He talks about the struggle of having to raise a daughter alone and acting like he "loves her as much as he misses you," with 'you' being his wife. This experience continues to hover over the back half of the album, which is just as strong - if not stronger - than the front half, which is a feat many bands fail to accomplish. Lyrics about "drinking himself to death" and "dying in the back of a fucking van" are plentiful. You can feel the despair in Nielsen's voice as he shares his self-loathing with the listener.

Honestly, I've only been taking part in this thread for maybe a month and this was the first album that made me feel things other than "oh wow this is fun/cool!" Plenty of things have made me roll my eyes or bob my head, but If There Is Light, It Will Find You moved me with its sincerity and raw emotion. Another great one, but not a light affair.

 

Great review @theagentcoma! I’m glad you could get into something that is totally out of your comfort zone.

 

Nice reviews bud

 

Great reviews man, I’m glad this album made you feel and you got to experience it