| | Full Review | Ratings (123) |
Give your Rating |
| 3.5 great | ThePalestMexican | November 28th 09 |
Really surprised, it's got Hardcore, Metalcore, even some Jazz! Jesse's voice has improved greatly since his days with Killswitch. And it's now time for them to take a back seat to him.
3 Bumps | Bump |
| 4.5 superb | SilhouetteLies | November 13th 09 |
Great album. Definitely in the upper echelons of metalcore. Lots of polyrhythms, odd timing, and seven string shredding.
3 Bumps | Bump |
| 4.0 excellent | itsxjoe420 | November 27th 09 |
its a great comeback for Jesse Leach since his last band Seemless
2 Bumps | Bump |
| 0.0 | Deathcar | November 13th 09 |
This is really nice, good solid metalcore, with some nice techy bits thrown in (showing the musicians jazz backgrounds at points quite nicely...)
If you like any kind of good metalcore, check this out.
2 Bumps | Bump |
| 3.5 great | ninjuice | December 6th 09 |
It's undoubtedly better than Killswitch Engage's new album, but Awaken isn't exactly something to get excited about. There's some pretty nice Meshuggah-influenced metalcore to found here, and with 8 songs spanning 40 minutes, the focus is on interesting songwriting instead of catchy choruses and predictably placed breakdowns. That doesn't mean there aren't breakdowns, in fact, one of the problems is that the not-so-common breakdowns are cliche and boring. The lyrics are also a bit too preachy (Leach trades his old spiritual/philosophical themes for political ones) and the shredding can be more flashy than it is interesting. Besides those points, Jesse's performance is great, and if it's true his band is made of jazz musicians then theirs is pretty commendable as well. Despite its faults, Awaken is a strong metalcore album, and one hopes The Empire Shall Fall improve from here (instead of going the other way like a, ahem, certain former band).
1 Bumps | Bump |
| 3.0 good | thekorben | February 21st 10 |
Some great tunes and lots of potential, but the lyrics are a bit too straightforward and preachy.
Bump |
| 3.5 great | nkn3390 | January 27th 10 |
I'm hoping to see a more comfortable, expanded approach to the band's sound on a future release. There's a lot of room for improvement, just based on the fact that the band is new. Jesse is outstanding on this, except sometimes I dislike his weird yelling (ex: "Fight the real enemy"). The instrumentalists work really well together.
Bump |
| 3.0 good | FeralMemories | December 8th 09 |
A pretty decent first release, lots of potential, maybe they will nail it on their next effort.
Bump |
| 3.5 great | loseit13 | December 1st 09 |
Very surprised how good this was. Will get better with every listen
Bump |
| 4.0 excellent | teo | July 17th 21 |
| 4.0 excellent | ryguy | November 13th 18 |
| 4.0 excellent | Cashew | September 28th 18 |
| 4.0 excellent | Ryfly44 | April 12th 18 |
| 4.0 excellent | boff | April 23rd 15 |
| 2.5 average | mikep87 | January 30th 15 |
| 3.0 good | Blump | June 23rd 14 |
| 5.0 classic | ningen | May 22nd 14 |
| 4.0 excellent | Ramoy95 | December 31st 13 |
| 4.5 superb | Bigburt | January 17th 13 |
| 3.5 great | N2B3J | July 29th 12 |
| 4.0 excellent | Viskan | May 12th 12 |
| 3.5 great | Nero87 | September 6th 11 |
| 3.5 great | W477ZY | April 22nd 11 |
| 4.0 excellent | NoFace | April 1st 11 |
| 4.0 excellent | nibbler | March 26th 11 |
| 3.5 great | met65 | January 30th 11 |
| 4.0 excellent | JWT155 | September 24th 10 |
| 4.0 excellent | Curse. | April 5th 10 |
| 4.0 excellent | Ray91 | April 5th 10 |
| 3.5 great | Kronzo | March 20th 10 |
| 4.0 excellent | Jamdbz | March 20th 10 |
| 4.0 excellent | d00derz | February 19th 10 |
| 3.0 good | X3ni92 | January 7th 10 |
| 3.5 great | ughmas | December 8th 09 |
| 3.5 great | alsid | November 28th 09 |
| 2.5 average | Inveigh | November 23rd 09 |
| 4.0 excellent | Failsafe | November 20th 09 |
| 4.5 superb | morjens | November 11th 09 |
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