Album Rating: 3.5

If I recall correctly, Travis was essentially booted because Cory wanted a different direction x

Album Rating: 3.5

The plot thickens!

From my understanding it was the guitarist that sent Kurt demos he thought was too slow or ballady so this is new to me

Album Rating: 3.5

Incoming long explanation from Kurt. Take from it what you will, sounds more like Michael choosing the new direction and Cory going with it:



"Leaving A Lot Like Birds was the very last thing on my mind coming off our last tour with Dance Gavin Dance. Supporting them on their 10-year anniversary was something very special. ALLB’s overall spirit and morale were quite pleasant. We were doing better than ever—playing huge, sold-out venues and our sound was more refined. Everything was going well, but we were the only band not touring on a new full-length album, and our fans were starting to ask when our new album would be out. I also was asking myself this, since other projects were being recorded quite frequently. Sianvar—Joe Arrington’s [drums] group with Will Swan—completed their second EP and Michael [Franzino, guitar] finished his solo project Alone, which took over a year to complete. His release was over-saturated on all of ALLB’s social media, even after he was repeatedly asked to stop by multiple members. For me, it made supporting Michael’s solo project very difficult, despite how incredibly talented he is. We were all very excited and happy to learn of Michael’s plan to record his own solo album, knowing from experience the freedom of writing just for yourself is something every songwriting musician should have. I was excited for him and hoped that he was going to come back from his experience better than ever and ready to birth the best ALLB record in existence.

Album Rating: 3.5

After we got back from tour, things were mostly silent. I would hit up members in the band and ask about new songs and how they were developing. Everyone would give me a thumbs-up, letting me know something good was happening and that they couldn’t wait to show me. A month goes by and not much has been shown to me, so I called Cory [Lockwood, vocals] to ask if we could get together to bounce ideas around. He was super-down and told me he was taking vocal lessons. After a couple weeks or so, Michael sent me a song and asked about laying down some pre-production vocals. We ended up getting together at the practice studio to start recording some ideas for the song. I had been listening to the song a few days prior to us getting together and I just couldn’t help but get an Alone feel from it.

Album Rating: 3.5

Nevertheless, I was keeping an open mind to the rest of the record, assuming this was one of the ballads to our new album while remaining hopeful there would be a beautiful spectrum like our previous records have. I asked Michael how many full songs we had and he said we had about five done and started to show me some of them. As I listened to each song, I became more and more sad and upset because each song he was showing me did not sound like ALLB at all. It sounded like his solo stuff. After all the songs had been shown to me, I began to panic. I had to express how I felt about the songs to Michael and told him that I was concerned with turning ALLB into Alone. I learned soon after that the reason Cory is now taking singing lessons is that the band, through Michael’s vision, plans to eliminate Cory’s screaming altogether. I was not okay with the changes Michael wanted and was also hurt that he didn’t care to ask my thoughts on any of it. He tried to push the situation on me, told me that it’s too late to change anything and that our genre is on its way out and that’s why we aren’t successful. He claims that the style change is for the best and that we will reach a more broad market and audience. After pleading my case profusely to find any solution other than me walking, I came to the decision that I would rather leave ALLB and be proud of the albums that I’ve been a part of than to keep going with this new version. In the end, I learned that we must follow what is in our hearts and be in tune with ourselves, for that is what is most important. Thank you for listening."

Album Rating: 3.5

Oh man

Thanks for sharing!

Im vaguely remembering parts of that text there

"plans to eliminate Corys screaming altogether" ??? WTF

Album Rating: 3.5

while Cory is taking singing lessons... I'm sure that doesn't feel great being the clean singer lol

Album Rating: 3.5

Yeah, little bit of a dick move tbh

Album Rating: 2.5 | Sound Off

daily reminder the guitarist ruined this band and the fact that he's back is not giving me the warm and fuzzies. kurt must be a fucking buddhist monk coming back after the shit they pulled on him.



new song is whatever.

Album Rating: 3.7

Sounds like a real dickhead agreed.

Album Rating: 3.5

Kurt seems like a very peaceful dude

song is good and the most exciting thing about it is Arrington still on drums

Album Rating: 3.5

Arrington is a beast

Album Rating: 3.5

Kurt has been kicked from several bands and had several just implode with him. I used to think he must be part of the reason, but I think he may just be a chill dude with a bit of bad luck haha

Album Rating: 2.5 | Sound Off

more than a bit, dude is a shit magnet.

Album Rating: 4.5

that just reads like creative differences to me like why should a band stay the same if most of the members are fine with changing it up. but it's funny they're two of the members who are back.

Album Rating: 3.5

The lore around Kurt is very interesting. Just glad this band is back

His albums with DGD are pretty good but i think what he did with ALLB are his magnum opuses

Album Rating: 3.7

A Lot Like Men

Album Rating: 3.5

NO MEN!

Album Rating: 3.5

A MEN