Of Mice & Men Release Best Album

Of Mice & Men haven't always been the best band. Their music on their past albums was generic metalcore and had a few great songs but nothing too amazing. Then last month the band released their third record Restoring Force.
This album combines in a nu-metal sound. While nu-metal isn't usually good (Limb Bizkit, Korn) it can sometimes be great (Otep, older Kittie) and bands like Suicide Silence have had nu-metal influences on their recent records.
The band have finally found what makes them great. The band's vocals don't really vary that much from the traditional metalcore mold. Screamed verses by lead vocalist Austin Carlile who is well known for being in Attack Attack! for their first record and clean vocals on the choruses done by Aaron Pauley.
This is really done well on songs like "Feels Like Forever," "Glass Hearts" and "Bones Exposed. These songs are some of the best on the disc. These songs contrast with other songs such as "Would You Still Be There," "Space Enough to Grow," "Identity Disorder," and "Another You" which feature predominantly clean vocals by Pauley. On "Break Free" Carlile gets to shine as most of the song is unclean vocals. This song is one of the heaviest song on the album and has a chorus that is mostly unclean vocals with some cleans by Pauley peppered in. "You Make Me Sick" is another example of this. This song is the heaviest on the record and it's angry and will be sure to induce mosh pits for many shows to come.
The album's two best songs are the album opener "Public Service Announcement" and first single "You're Not Alone." "Public Service Announcement" is an angry song that tells off internet haters and anybody who doubts the band or talks negatively about them. This song is so honest and that's why it's an album highlight. "You're Not Alone" has a very nu-metal melody and is a catchy, fun, heavy song that just gets stuck in your head for days.
Restoring Force is by far Of Mice & Men's best record and it sets the bar pretty high for them in the future. Hopefully things can only go up from here.

Butcher Babies Rock Out On Debut Album

Heavy Metal band Butcher Babies released their mosh pit-inducing debut album Goliath last month. The album was preceded by the single "I Smell a Massacre" as well as the band's reputation for being a gimmick, thanks in part to fromwomen Heidi Shepherd and Carla Harvey. Harvey and Shepherd are known for performing close to naked, with only black duct tape X's covering their nipples. This took away from their credibility as musicians, but with Goliath, this changed. This record is so face meltingly good that no gimmick can undo the greatness of it.
Every song is a rocker and it shows off the duel vocalist's talents. Their screams recall other female fronted band such as Otep, Kittie, In This Moment, Arch Enemy and Straight Line Stitch, while their cleans recall In This Moment, Kittie and Eyes Set to Kill. Most of the clean vocals as well the more growled harsh vocals are done by Harvey and the more high pitched, In This Moment styled screams are done by Shepherd. The music is a mix of classic heavy metal and thrash metal.
The ladies mix in their clean vocals well with their harsh screams on songs like "Magnolia Blvd," "Grim Sleeper" and the single and best song on the album "I Smell a Massacre." However on the title track, which is one of the best songs, the ladies don't sing one clean note. Screaming aggressively over the metal as fuck guitars. This approach is quickly given up on "In Denial" in which the heavenly cleans of Harvey are heard again. Going on to "Give Me Reason" the ladies sound more like Otep than they have on previous songs. The band also rock hard on "The Mirror Never Lies," which like the other songs is heavy as can be. Harvey's cleans on the chorus of this song are perhaps the best cleans on the entire record.
The next song the slower "Dead Poet." Harvey's cleans are the most prominent vocals on the song. "The Deathsurround" is a sonically different song than the rest. The vocals are different here than on other songs. The album closes with a remake of the song "Axe Wound" from their self-titled 2012 EP.
This album is quite possibly one of the best metal albums of the year so far. Butcher Babies have proved that they are much more than a pair of pretty faces. Here's to hoping the band keep up with this for years to come.

Kittie concert review, 4/10/2012

Mythology
PHOTO:Juan DeLosAngeles

The is my first concert review. I'm going to go through each band and give them  rating from 1 to 10. One being shittastic and 10 being fantastic.
Kittie kicked off their latest tour two nights ago in Poughkeepsie N.Y. The show featured support from tour mates Blackguard and Bonded by Blood as well as support from local bands, Necroptic Engorgement and Mythology. The Agonist were unable to play because they were held up by visa issues at the Canadian/United States border. Besides Kittie, this is the other main band I wanted to see. Better luck next time. The band will rejoin the tour on April 19.

Necroptic Engoregement
PHOTO:Juan DeLosAngeles

The opening band Mythology(2/10), where a black metal band from New York state. While I'm not a fan of black metal, I'll be honest it scares me to death, there were at least six people in the crowd that were digging it. I can't hate on something I know little about but I'm not a fan of it. I'm sure to somebody Mythology was a 10/10...this blogger is not that person.
Next up was Necroptic Engorgement(4/10), this death metal/grindcore band were pretty decent. They had a good stage presence and the crowd seemed to love them. They had a good energy and good musicianship.
Moving on to Bonded by Blood(5/10), these thrash metallers rocked the house, too bad that every song sounded the same. They all were good at what they did, I just wasn't a fan of what they did. Variety is the spice of life fellas, so try different things.
The final opening act was Blackguard(7/10), while Kittie and The Agonist's fellow Canadians have all similar sounding music just like Bonded by Blood, their stage presence was stellar. After only knowing one song I will definitely check more of their music out.

Blackguard
PHOTO: Juan DeLosAngeles

Kittie
PHOTO: Juan DeLosAngeles

Now onto the main attraction. Kittie(9/10), despite a few chord mistakes Kittie were flawless. Clearly being a band since 1999 and touring rigorously is good practice. The band featured newly returned bassist Trish Doan. Doan played on the band's amazing fourth record Funeral For Yesterday. She then left the band to tackle personal demons such as an eating disorder. She rejoined the group two months ago, not having ever played anything from In The Black or the band's sixth and latest album I've Failed You. The 45 minute long set included 13 songs. Songs played ranged from "Spit," the title track off of their debut album to newer songs like "My Plague" and "We Are The Lamb." The only other issue with their set was that they didn't stop between songs, often segueing from one song to another leaving the listener confused as to what song it was. When a band has six albums and around 70 songs, even hardcore fans can get confused.

The Agonist release "Ideomotor"

The Agonist have released the first official single off of their third album Prisoners, which will be released on Century Media on June 5 in the United States. The single is called "Ideomotor" and it's basically what is expected from a song by The Agonist. The song has both death metal screams of Alissa White-Gluz along with her powerhouse clean vocals. This song, like most of their songs, is a melodic death metal masterpiece.  Their new album is just around the corner and this song will show listeners that the new record was worth the wait. Despite having to miss nine dates on their upcoming tour with Kittie and Blackguard, The Agonist will join the tour on April 19, after having issues crossing the United States border with Canada. Until then fans will have to just listen to the new song on repeat to get the The Agonist fix. The song is posted below.