Donnerstag, 23. Dez 2010, 0:02
#5 Mutiny Within - Mutiny Within
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Amazing debut from Mutiny Within. It's prog metal, but all of the songs typically stay in the 3 to 4 minute area. Vocalist Chris Clancy has a great voice, and while he doesn't scream a whole lot (exception here on the fantastic Lethean) when he does it sounds great. Highlights from the album are the single Awake, Falling Forever, and Year of Affliction.
#4 Memphis May Fire - Between the Lies
http://www.mp3crank.com/cover-album/Memphis-May-Fire-Between-The-Lies-EP.jpg
OK, so it's really an EP and not an album, whatever, IT'S AWESOME. The band loses some of their Southern Hardcore roots, and I thought I would have a problem with that, but this is still a very solid EP. Matt Mullins' voice sounds great as always, but his scream has also become much more developed and versatile. Highlights from the EP are Action/Adventure with it's way too catchy for it's own good chorus, Be Careful What You Wish For with it's way too awesome breakdown at the end, and Gingervitus with it's way too awesome title.
#3 James LaBrie - Static Impulse
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I was very interested to see how this album would work with the mixture of Widoer's screams alongside LaBrie's vocals, and I think it's safe to say that it worked out great. The best examples of this are on the opening track One More Time, Mislead, and This is War. While the screams are great, that's not all this album has to offer. There's still some fantastic tracks with just LaBrie singing such as Euphoric, and Over the Edge. This is just overall a great album that really doesn't have a bad track on it.
#2 Avenged Sevenfold - Nightmare
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Yeah, I'm going to get flamed for this by some people, but they can say what they want, because I love this album. The album was meant to be a farewell to The Rev, and I don't think that they could have possibly done a better job. Save Me is one of the best songs I've heard in a VERY long time. It takes the band in a whole new direction, and I don't think it was really expected by anybody. It's an 11 minute long prog epic, that starts off with a very Dream Theater like intro, which then goes into a slightly more typical A7X verse and chorus. Then the solo hits and OH MY GOD THE SOLO! There's not really anything very technically proficient about it or anything, but it's absolutely fantastic. This is where the song starts to get much more progressive and it kicks into a great soft part with your typical awesome Mike Portnoy beat in the background. Finally after a good 9 minutes or so you hit what you think is the end of the song, then M. Shadows starts singing as the rest of the band starts to join back into what is an amazingly well written outro, and this is where Portnoy really starts to shine with some huge drum fills.
The entire album has very well written lyrics, and M. Shadows voice is nothing short of perfection. Another song to talk about is Fiction which The Rev wrote just days before his death. The song also contains vocals by The Rev which were taken from a demo also recorded just before The Rev's passing. A7X fanboys will fight me to the death about this, but look at the facts and there's no denying it. Look at the lyrics to the song, and then how it was written days before The Rev's death by a drug overdose. The song has to be The Rev's suicide note.
#1 All That Remains - For We Are Many
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Pardon the outburst here, but… OH MY GOD THIS ALBUM IS PERFECTION!!! Hardcore ATR fans were quick to criticize
Overcome for it's much poppier, radio friendly approach, but this album is what I feel to be a perfect mix of that sound and that of their breakthrough album (and masterpiece) The Fall of Ideals. You'll hear some of that on the more radio friendly The Last Time and Hold On, but as soon as you hit play on the album you're instantly slapped in the face by Now Let Them Tremble which is just an intro track that's about a minute and a half of pure breakdown goodness. That immediately leads into the album's title track For We Are Many, which is very reminiscent of TFOI era ATR. Phil LaBonte's vocals have improved so much it's ridiculous. People used to say his clean vocals weren't up to par live, but when I saw them in September his vocals sounded top notch. He also has the most incredibly range on his screams. He'll hit ridiculous highs on some parts of the title track, and then absolutely insane lows that can be heard in the breakdown at the end of Some Of The People, All Of The Time. This album has a little bit of everything with metalcore anthems like the title track and Dead Wrong, the poppier songs like The Last Time, and a ballad to close it off with The Waiting One. Hell, there's even a talkbox solo on Won't Go Quietly. If that's not variety then I don't know what is.
