The Suicide Pact, Hailing from Philadelphia, PA, is an emo band. They have a three song demo. Sounds cliché? Trust me. .it’s nothing like what you think it is. “The Edge of Forever” immediately throws down everything they are, which is quick punk beats, hard sound, and slow, emo-esque interludes. The ‘lead riff’ is...
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Blue Tom is not your normal punk band. This, their fourth cd, is a great collection of not just punk, but also true rock music. Since they are a punk band, they have the mandatory pop-punk song here and there. In between them are the real gems…the songs that have punk influences, but aren’t...
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Tim Bouchard (aka Bleeding Heart’s Melody) is an acoustic emo songwriter and former member of the emo band “Curbside All-Stars”. He cites his influences as Dashboard Confessional, and Chris Carrabba’s influence is present everywhere on this CD, from lyric type to style of playing to vocal style. This, his second EP, has both lyrical...
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Truly Sunday is a punk band. The name means nothing, just like all good punk bands. They have a 3-song demo….just like everyone else starts out on. Are they like everyone else? A bright but subdued guitar line and a nice melody draw you in on “Perfect Night”. The chorus has a great hook,...
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Vote Toby is a band straight out of St Louis, Missouri area. Literally out. They live in Chicago now, hoping to make a name for themselves in a bigger ‘scene’. They’ve been around a couple of years, long enough to generate their first EP, which is immediately tagged as of unnatural proportions (4 songs...
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Any straightline emo band at one time another must sound like The Juliana Theory. TJT has done volumes of different styles, and are constantly changing. But this review is not about them. It is about Far-away. Faraway sounds like early TJT, when they were just starting out and were a punk band with less...
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The Walk Home is actually one man, Adam Pepitone. He plays an acoustic guitar and has named himself, but that’s where the comparisons to Chris Carrabba (aka Dashboard Confessional) end. TWH is a living testament that you can play an acoustic guitar and not sound like DC…and that you can do it well! After...
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I have the worst luck with bands….I always find the best ones after they break up. Glori-H is gone, but the music is not, thankfully… “September Waltz” slams out of the starting gate with fuzzy, distorted riffs and dark rock slam. It never falls into any other genre, it’s just dark rock. The vocals...
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At first look, Star Sutra might seem like a heavy band (they have a nuclear explosion as cover art), but they really have a brooding, mellowesque rock style vaguely comparable to Coldplay on an electric trip with bits of jazz tossed in. It’s very unique. ‘Archaeopteryx’ opens us up with a smooth riff and...
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Motion the Massacre is (by their own accounts) an industrial act with world influences. It’s pretty much that, but one important note is the absence of vocals. They depend on instruments to say whatever they’re trying to say. Motion the Massacre starts off “The Enigma of Human Suffering” with a piano/strings duet that’s pretty...
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