| 2007 |
| Angels and Airwaves I-Empire | 4.0 |
| Stated to be ?the second half? of We Don?t Need to Whisper, I-Empire wasn?t much of a step in a new direction. However Angels and Airwaves managed to cut out nearly everything that made their previous album seem to drag on. I-Empire saw more subtle changes as well such as improved lyrics, catchier hooks, and a couple interludes. The arrival of new bassist Matt Watcher is surely welcome as the bass lines are clearly better than before. One of the main downfalls of the album is the lack of dominating drum parts from Atom Willard who single handedly kept We Don?t Need to Whisper interesting whenever it was needed. |
| The Classic Crime Seattle Sessions | 4.0 |
| Serj Tankian Elect the Dead | 3.5 |
| Coheed and Cambria No World for Tomorrow | 4.0 |
| Oh, Sleeper When I Am God | 4.0 |
| Thrice The Alchemy Index Vols. I & II | 3.5 |
| Emery I'm Only A Man | 2.5 |
| Easily the worst album I’ve heard that was released in 2007. Right of the heels of their great, prior release, The Question, Emery abandon’s nearly everything that made that album good and focuses on its weaker characteristics. There are lots of more moody tracks that stray away from rock and emphasize more pop characteristics much like on The Question’s “Miss Behavin’.” I’m Only a Man is filled with very poor attempts to create popular sounding music and catchy hooks with tracks like “The Party Song” and “Rock-N-Rule.” While the last few tracks slowly start to build up some captivating momentum, it is too little to late to save the album. Though it doesn’t have any songs that are particularly terrible, nothing in it surpasses average quality. I’m Only a Man is a 48 minute bore-fest that is in no way worth looking into unless you’re a die hard Emery fan. |
| The Bled Silent Treatment | 4.0 |
| Fightstar One Day Son This Will All Be Yours | 3.5 |
| With One Day Son, Fighstar take a considerable step away from harmonies and slow epics such as "Mono" and "Open Your Eyes" and instead turn out an array of headbangers. While the key ingredients of Fighstar's sound has remained the same, such as alternating Charlie Simpson and Al Westaway on lead vocals, the instrumentation behind each of the tracks is better than ever. Drummer Omar Abidi's work on "Tannhauser Gate" is probably the most obvious example of this. One Day Son, offers an extremely varied album offering some of Fightstar's slowest and heaviest material just two tracks apart. |
| Scary Kids Scaring Kids Scary Kids Scaring Kids | 3.5 |
| The Kids made in interesting move with their self-titled album. Rather than thrive on what they know how to do best, heavily synth-oriented tracks ("My Darkest Hour") and fast-paced rock onslaughts ("The Only Medicine") Scary Kids Scaring Kids decided to slow down their sound and experiment with other musical directions. While some of the slower tracks may drag on a bit ("Star Crossed"), others such as "Faces" clearly shine as some of Scary Kids Scaring Kids' best songs in their catalogue. Scary Kids Scaring Kids turns out to be lengthier, more varied, and has more of a complete overall feel to it compared to The City Sleeps in Flames. |
| Minus the Bear Planet of Ice | 3.5 |
| Mae Singularity | 3.5 |
| Cry of the Afflicted The Unveiling | 4.0 |
| Probably the most overlooked 2007, The Unveiling establishes Cry of the Afflicted as a merited band in the Post-Hardcore genre and earn their recently made deal at Solid State Records. The Unveiling isn't groundbreaking or full of superb musicianship; however it does fit the band's niche perfectly. The mixture of chugging guitars and screaming alongside harmonized vocals and clean guitar riffs is arguably done better than any other in the genre gives Cry of the Afflicted their signature sound. It seems as though the band has finally established what they want to sound like and where they want to take their music in the future. |
| Envy On The Coast Lucy Gray | 3.5 |
| Sum 41 Underclass Hero | 3.0 |
| A rather disappointing album in my opinion. While it is in no way a bad album, it just lacks nearly everything that made Sum 41 a great band in the past. It only has a few tracks that could appear on All Killer No Filler. Instead, Underclass Hero is filled with slow, moody tracks. And while not all of those tracks are bad, it’s certainly not expected or completely welcome when one is looking to buy a Sum 41 album. Underclass Hero seemed to have taken a few features from previous release, Chuck, and developed them into a new sound. Darker tracks such as “Count Your Last Blessings” are clear examples of this. |
| Silverstein Arrivals and Departures | 3.5 |
| Blindside The Black Rose | 3.0 |
| The Black Rose EP is a decent release from Blindside. The band takes everything they experimented with on The Great Depression and adds a new level of individuality. While The Black Rose EP has Blindside's signature sound with Simon Grenehed's guitar riffs and Christian Lindskog's one of a kind vocals it seems as though amongst all those things Blindside has lost that fire that made them such a great band around the Silence era. Despite that step backward in Blindside's music, The Black Rose EP presents a few memorable tracks in "The Black Rose" and "Slowmotion". Overall this isn't a bad release, but definitely only for Blindside fans. |
| August Burns Red Messengers | 4.0 |
| Rihanna Good Girl Gone Bad | 3.0 |
| Last Winter Under the Silver of Machines | 4.5 |
| The Used Lies for the Liars | 3.5 |
| THe Used ditches much of their sound heard on previous albums and move in more of a rock direction while maintaing their signature sound . Some well executed hard rocking tracks include ?The Ripper? and ?Pretty Handsome Awkward.? The Used has always had a knack for writing groove-driven, dance tracks, previously most obvious on ?Lunacy Fringe? on their previous album. With Lies for the Liars, they emphasize this unusual talent and write the near flawless track ?Paralyzed.? Overall a great album. |
| Funeral for a Friend Tales Don't Tell Themselves | 3.0 |
| The most disappointing album of 2007 in my opinion, Tale’s Don’t Tell Themselves abandon’s nearly everything that made Funeral for a Friend the great band they were on their last two albums. The days of drummer Ryan Richards screaming appear to be gone. The lack of technicality from nearly every musician almost destroys this album completely. While tracks such as “One for the Road” and “The Sweetest Wave” seem to carry on with no sufficient resolution, a handful of great tracks make a valiant effort to make up for them. “Into Oblivion (Reunion)” offers individual parts from each guitarist throughout the song and make it a diverse track. While in the past this has been a signature characteristic of Funeral for a Friend’s sound, unfortunately now it has become a rarity. |
| Linkin Park Minutes to Midnight | 4.0 |
| Minutes to Midnight presented a very interesting step in a new direction for Linkin Park?s music. Their long awaited musical progression presented a considerable number more of ballads and fewer hard-rocking headbangers. One major detriments to Minutes to Midnight is the fact that Mike Shinoda and Joe Hahn sat out for the majority of the album. Both of whom were major players in Linkin Parks unique sound, now have been nearly taken out of the picture completely. Minutes to Midnight does have plenty of positive features though. Many of the ballads come off as very heartfelt and Chester Bennington?s vocals are executed better than ever. The improved musicianship on the guitar and bass levels were also welcome features. |
| Bleed The Dream Killer Inside | 3.0 |
| Bleed the Dream should have really changed their name after losing Brandon Thomas and recruiting new lead vocalist Mark Holmes. A Killer Inside is a brand new sound for Bleed the Dream and in a few senses a step backwards. The band’s first album, Built By Blood, was full of tasteful bass lines and memorable vocal parts. But rather than take what the band was good at and build on it, Bleed the Dream very much started from scratch with their sound. Mark Holmes’ vocals sound very strained and forced in numerous parts throughout the album. However despite these cons, the full first half of the album is great. Tracks like “Closer” and “Vampires (Don’t Kill for the Money)” barely push this album above the average mark. |
| The Mission in Motion The Window | 3.5 |
| Good Charlotte Good Morning Revival | 2.5 |
| Haste the Day Pressure the Hinges | 4.0 |
| Deas Vail All The Houses Look The Same | 3.5 |
| LoveHateHero White Lies | 3.5 |
| White lies is one of the best Post-Hardcore albums of the year and definitely an improvement for Lovehatehero from their last album, Just Breathe. The instrumentation rhas increased on all levels except the bass guitarwork. Lovehatehero’s dual guitar onslaught keeps this album interesting from beginning to end regardless of how obnoxious Pierrick Berube’s lead vocals may be at times. The drums also do a good job of accenting certain songs either behind the other instruments or solo (“Hollywoodemia”, “Goodbye My Love”). With tracks like “To the End” and “She Puts the Ho in Homewrecker” Lovehatehero surpass everything they have done before and establish one of the most consistent, solid albums of 2007. |
| Anberlin Cities | 4.5 |
A great follow-up to Never Take Friendship Personal. With Cities, Anberlin performs a number
of rock ballads that let Stephen Christian?s silky voice show its full potential. While the
heavier tracks on here such as "Godspeed" and "A Whisper & a Clamor" Anberlin show that
they can write tracks that perfectly fit the bands niche. The highlights of the album are
vocal classic "The Unwinding Cable Car" and the epic "(*Fin)". |
| The Used Berth | 3.0 |
| A Day To Remember For Those Who Have Heart | 3.5 |
| Comeback Kid Broadcasting | 3.0 |
| With the addition of new vocalist Andrew Neufeld, Comeback Kid releases its heaviest album yet. With the constant use of screaming and chugging guitars one might suddenly forget their listening what genre of music their listening to. Though Broadcasting… only clocks in at 33 minutes, it certainly delivers. Tracks like "Broadcasting…" and "Defeated" are guaranteed to leave listeners headbanging to and shouting along with group vocals. The only cons with this album are the easily forgettable "Give'r (Reprise)" and the fact that there aren't any bass intros or leads like the ones seen in Wake the Dead and Turn it Around. |
| 2006 |
| Matisyahu No Place To Be | 3.5 |
| AFI I Heard a Voice DVD | 3.0 |
| AFI play a great assortment of their hits along with numerous fan favorites. Though fans that disliked Decemberunderground might not enjoy this because there are quite a few tracks from that album, I?d argue they picked the best songs from it and it doesn?t ruin the show at all. The only exception might be that they ended the show with ?Miss Murder?, which though isn?t necessarily a bad song, it isn?t an epic, or sing-along type track that concerts are traditionally closed with. Other than that, I Heard a Voice is a great live album. The vocals and instrumentation are all performed flawlessly and a few tracks sound better than they do on their respective studio albums (?Prelude 12/21?). |
| +44 When Your Heart Stops Beating | 3.5 |
| Dead Poetic Vices | 3.0 |
| Copeland Eat, Sleep, Repeat | 4.0 |
| My Chemical Romance The Black Parade | 4.0 |
| Senses Fail Still Searching | 4.0 |
| A Static Lullaby A Static Lullaby | 4.0 |
| Inhale Exhale The Lost, the Sick, the Sacred | 3.0 |
| Escape the Fate Dying Is Your Latest Fashion | 3.5 |
| Saosin Saosin | 5.0 |
| Norma Jean Redeemer | 4.0 |
| Papa Roach The Paramour Sessions | 4.0 |
| Strike Anywhere Dead FM | 4.0 |
| Showbread Age of Reptiles | 3.0 |
| Set Your Goals Mutiny! | 3.5 |
| Bleed The Dream Asleep/No Apologies | 3.5 |
| Rise Against The Sufferer and the Witness | 5.0 |
| Once again Rise Against shows that they know how to improve the things they already do well while at the same time experimenting with new sounds. In The Sufferer and the Witness Rise Against finds a way to deepen the lyrical content and greatly improve the musicianship and adapt them to their trademark sound. Nearly all of these tracks are exceptional and memorable in one way or another. This is without question the band's best album to date. |
| Lostprophets Liberation Transmission | 4.0 |
| Billy Talent Billy Talent II | 4.0 |
| Underoath Define the Great Line | 5.0 |
Define the Line is a superb album on all levels. Lyrically, instrumentally, and vocally it
destroys everything else Underoath had previously released. From the technicality in the
main riff of "In Regards to Myself" to the slow yet suspenseful build up to "Casting Such a
Thin Shadow," Define the Great Line provides something too look forward to and appreciate
after listening to the album. Alongside the obvious talent of Underoath's drummer/vocalist
Aaron Gillespie, Spencer Chamberlain's new found variation in singing and screaming styles
provide a true gem in vocal performances. |
| AFI Decemberunderground | 3.5 |
| Funeral for a Friend Final Hours at Hammersmith | 4.5 |
| An excellent live performance from Funeral for a Friend. The band plays all of the expected tracks, but does so in a much more raw form. None of the tracks appear quite as the do on their respective albums. Bassist Gareth Davies' backing vocals clearly shine whenever present. All instrumental parts are executed flawlessly and in some instances the band adds in certain fills or lines to create a more unique experience. Matt and Gareth Davies' monologues between songs are serve as more than just senseless rambling and create smooth transitions between songs. Overall a great live record with enough depth and substance that it can hold its own against many studio albums. |
| Escape the Fate There's No Sympathy for the Dead | 3.0 |
| Angels and Airwaves We Don't Need to Whisper | 3.5 |
| The Classic Crime Albatross | 3.5 |
| Red Hot Chili Peppers Stadium Arcadium | 3.0 |
| Taking Back Sunday Louder Now | 4.5 |
| Search The City Ghosts | 4.0 |
| Flee the Seen Doubt Becomes the New Addiction | 3.5 |
| Fightstar Grand Unification | 4.0 |
| Matisyahu Youth | 4.0 |
| P.O.D. Testify | 3.5 |
| Set Your Goals Reset EP | 3.0 |
