Featuring members of With Honor, Ambitions' first full length brings a change of pace to the hardcore genre. These guys pack a punch with classic hardcore power chords, but then bring a more than welcome change with their extremely melodic riffs along the lines of With Honor. What really sets these guys apart is the vocals. Rather that coarse screaming, vocalist Jay Aust relies mainly on singing and occasional yelling. A highly energetic album overall.Four and a half stars.
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Adamantium were pioneers. Existing in the glory days of metalcore with Buried Alive, Earth Crisis, and Throwdown (when they were good), Adamantium wrote the book on how metalcore
I have to say, these three demo tracks were quite a disappointment. While Above This Fire still keeps their same sound on their Terminal Tower Demos, the songs just seem to fall flat. The energy seems very forced, just like the vocals and the breakdowns. I found myself getting very bored while listening to these three tracks. I hope this isn't a sign of bad things to come from them...
In Perspective really did put everything in perspective when it was released. When the album was released in 2005, there hadn't been many melodic-hardcore releases in a while, at least that I was aware of. This album was a breath of fresh air for me. With fast paced drumming, melodic, and often times harmonious guitars that lead into vicious breakdowns while stearing clear of following any formula. This album stayed in my CD player for quite a while.
Easily one of my current favorite albums. Just the intro track, Pi, sets you up for a ride you never thought you could have just from listening to a CD. From the seamless sweep-picking, to the abnormally fast chugging breakdowns the guitars are flawless. The drums are something else too, leaving nothing up to the imagination. Lastly, the vocals that go from the low growls to high pitched screams complement the rest of the music so well. For a self-produced album, the album is incredible, though you might wanna turn your bass up a little otherwise your eardrums might bleed from the piercing treble. This album is a MUST HAVE.
I don't know exactly what it was about these guys that made me get their album, but something about them just rings right in my ears. A Post-Hardcore release that reminds me of some of the local bands that I remember from high school. They mesh together a Pop-Punk sound with an almost From First to Last style (in a good way). The album has moderately decent replay value, but doesn't throw anything new your way to keep you wanting more.
This album IS ALOL's transition album. Filling the gap between Open Your Mouth and A Great Artist, The Fourth Plague is a great premonition of things to come. Using grind like scales and blast beats, along with the brutal breakdowns of their next album, ALOL released an EP that many fans consider to be their favorite album.
Forget what you know about A Life Once Lost. Their first album, Open Your Mouth for the Speechless is much more of a early-deathcore album than the mathy metalcore that they later developed. The album is very interesting at points, and very repetitive at others. It certainly deserves a listen, and I wouldn't be surprised if many people liked this over their newer material.
If this wasn't ALOL I think I would have appreciated it more... or not at all, it depends. Iron Gag sounds like a boring Hunter with even more metal infused into the mix. The original guitar work that made them so distinct on A Great Artist is diminishing and they are slowly falling into mainstream metal.
A Great Artist was certainly a tough album to follow, but Hunter was without a doubt a great release. ALOL continued with the original guitar work and incredible drumming, however fell into the same thing that many other bands do. There are a few filler tracks on tis album, and the majority of the songs on this album now follow a verse/chorus/verse structure. Don't get me wrong though, this album is great, just not as good as A Great Artist.
Easily ALOL's best album. From that first retarded riff in Surreal Atrocities to the final crushing breakdown in Overwhelming, A Great Artist keeps you on your toes even through the one instrumental track. All the tempo changes, the perfect usage of the china cymbal, the completely original guitar work, and the almost soothing scream of quality vocals combine to make this one of my favorite albums. A MUST HAVE.
Honestly, this album is pretty terrible. It's generic Emo ala-Finch, but not good or fun like Finch was... eight years ago. The only reason I think I even own this album is because I got the song "From Heart and Soul to Pen and Paper" stuck in my head, which is actually a really good song. In any case, don't bother with them unless you need a Finch imitation band for whatever reason.
A Dying Dream, now The Ghost Inside, were much different than the latter. Now or Never brought pummeling moshcore with metal riffs and gang vocals. Production quality is great, and the album has some great breakdowns and catchy vocals that give it a high replay value. For fans of Remembering Never and First Blood.
Old-school moshcore... if there is a such thing. In vain of old Throwdown, Earth Crisis, and Most Precious Blood, these guys bring in heavy and hard. The production quality is very good, but the sound behind the guitars and vocals leaves a lot to be desired. The music is great for what it is, but the guitars are over-compressed, and the mids were cut way too much leaving the sound flat. These guys were much better live than this CD leads you to believe.
Unlike And Their Name Was Treason, this album has some pretty terrible songs. About half of them actually. Luckily, the other half of them are incredible, even better than ATNWT. They keep up the Pop-Mosh sound with slightly better production quality. However this album just doesn't have the great flow of their last album. Take it slower next time guys and get rid of your filler tracks.
This album was my first encounter with a band that was actually able to pull off "Pop-Mosh" well. A Day to Remember blends metalcore, pop-punk, and emo seamlessly and this album proves it. Coming in at eight tracks (excluding the two instrumentals), this album plays perfectly from track two to nine. While some might consider this album weak, and cliche, remember, this album was released three years ago, and was certainly ahead of it's time.
Ah 100 Demons... These guys brought back what I like to call biker-core after Sante Sangre had been long gone. Really good tough guy hardcore with really catchy choruses, and brutal breakdowns. The metallic element keeps their music interesting, whereas I found other tough guy hardcore bands to be boring. Compare to E-Town, Ragmen, and Shattered Realm.
100 Demons' first album, In the Eyes of the Lord has a lot more of a hardcore feel than their self-titled release. To me, it's a little bit slower and doesn't keep my attention as much as their later release. By no means am I saying to overlook this album though. With cameo appearances from the singer of Death Threat and good old movie samples, it's certainly worth owning.
UTDBATSF... That's pretty long. Anyway, this EP contains three songs that are featured on Jhazmine's Lullaby, only with the old singer. The production quality isn't that great, but it kind of gives it a raw feel which actually works in their favor considering how coarse the vocals are. The one track that is not on Jhazmine's Lullaby is in my opinion 7A7P's best song. Since both of these albums are under the same link, definitely give it a check.