While I can give you a generalized description of what Suicide Note plays, their personal variation goes pretty far off the map to the point where I can only give you a vague description. “Empty Rooms” falls into a noisy world somewhere in between indie rock and art/hardcore, with the harsher moments fitting in with the crowd that Converge would run with. As always, many bands who are influenced by Converge take inspirational lessons from the band rather than actually containing anything that sounds similar.

The vocals are a strange yelped sort that reminded me of a pix of early relaxed pace early 80’s punk, some underground synth bands before the whole thing broke it big, and a few of the early, very underground indie rock bands in the 90’s who had to work hard just to stay on key. The guitars jut out with jangly, noisy, distorted chords that run the gamut to display many textures, from shimmering post-rock with urgency, melancholic depressive melodies, to intense, angry instrument beating. While every song features it’s own voice, and moves pretty far from one another, there’s still a noisy undercurrent that flows under everything to pull every song together into a cohesive album.

So anytime someone says that everything that can be done has been done, you’ll know that there’s always an album like “Empty Rooms” to prove them wrong, while at the same time, sonically, there’s no album quite like “Empty Rooms”.

Released August 19th, 2008

Empty Rooms at MySpace
Hawthorne Street Records at MySpace

High hopes which were completely dashed unfortunately, as it sounds like some veteran power metal players who’re trying to break into some radio friendly areas while at the same time attempting to break out of their own bad habits. The vocals have a grittiness in the singing tone, with the chosen styles ranging from radio ex-punk (similar to Three Days Grace), radio nu-rock (a hell of a lot like Disturbed), and often switching back to a more power metal style when the singer stops trying to go the mainstream. The music is equally as cobbled up, moving from standard power metal cliches all the way over to the drop-hopping and single-note strangling from nu-metal. It’s kind of weird to hear the band from one minute play a dumbed-down simplistic lock-step pattern, then instantly switch over to thrashing riffs supporting a shred-em-up guitar solo. Unfortunately no matter where you go on “The Reckoning”, you’ve heard everything somewhere, somehow before, only this time you get disparate styles that wildly clash thrown together in a match truly made in hell.

Released August 19th 2008

F5 at MySpace
Koch Records at MySpace

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On their very first album, “Purgation”, Trigger The Bloodshed do display such skills as lightning drumming, and they attempt to show how skilled they are by tremolo picking so many of those Job For A Cowboy riffs as fast as possible. There’s generalized hinting of old-school death metal every now and then, and a little grind with a few chord runnings and the short length of the songs, but when the ambient tracks “Hollow” and “Domicile” come up, it only reinforces the fact that “Purgation” is a Job For A Cowboy clone with some slight variations, and an all fast all the time mantra that causes the whole album to blur together in one lifeless, emotionless clump of speed.

I could however make a mixed CD of Trigger The Bloodshed, Fate and Impending Doom, all with their own variation on Job For A Cowboy to make a much more diverse sounding album.

Released August 19th 2008

Trigger The Bloodshed at MySpace
Metal Blade Records at MySpace

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When bands go through name changes like this to denote a big change, usually the change isn’t as different as they usually say, but this case I’ll dare say it’s different, though not unrelated. This is way more caustic, noisier, crushing and less technical than Apiary, and contains way more inspiration and ferocity than the tracks I heard from that previous band.

Early Graves sends their message through simpler riffing, a messy smacking of cymbals, much like crashing dishes, and vocals so rough it’s like being dragged across lots of tiny pieces of broken glass. Reading through the influences of many bands MySpace pages typically brings reactions to “Yeah, that sounds like their trying to gain some credibility” or “pretty damn obvious”, but in this case running from Converge to Akimbo to Discharge and Morbid Angel make sense from inspirational standpoints, especially the noisy wall that would fit extremely well with the said Converge influence. The song “Last Name Porter” stands out, especially with the Morbid Angel influence, taking the same low-end harmonized guitars into a slow, punishing song. Another standout track is “Here There be Monsters”, being the noise/death/grind equivalent of “To Live is to Die” by Metallica by being a long, slow brooding monster it is, with slow building passages in a nearly instrumental song that tops off the end like a cherry to the end of a pile of rusty jagged parts in a junkyard, sticking syringes and broken glass.

Music to hurt yourself to. Alternatively, “We the Guillotine” could be the cause of your pain.

Released August 19th, 2008

Early Graves at MySpace
Ironclad Recordings at MySpace

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To a lot of people, the vocals stand out in music, and certainly the screaming from Alexis Brown comes close to a female version of Howard Jones from Killswitch Engage. There’s a lot of singing too, but the songs aren’t just as simple as scream verse/sing chorus, as there is a lot of singing interspersed between the action. The singing however comes closer to general rock than what you’d expect when supported by music such as this.

The music itself is amalgamation of alternative metal (running chords, especially for some of those choruses), metalcore (especially with the single note breakdowns), and generalized heavy riffing between the alternative and breakdowns, and even a few attempts at thrash and death metal. Unfortunately there are also some moments that comes dangerously close to nu-metal with some overly simplistic drop-hopping riffs, string slack and some points where the music is driven directly by overly effected guitars.

The whole attempt is melded together pretty well so it doesn’t come off as a cobbled up mess, yet at the same time it feels like the band wants to progress forward into something more substantial, instead of holding themselves back impress their peers. It’s especially apparent when it comes time for a breakdown, as the tempo drops tremendously, and it feels like Straight Line Stitch tries hard to figure something out a little better than a simple sing-note breakdown, but doesn’t quite make it out all the way.

There are of course also those very catchy moments caught with the vocals, be it hooking singing or the rhythmic delivery, or something to grab and pull you in from the guitars, which unfortunately get held back by some of the more cliche moments.

For the moment, “When Skies Wash Ashore” is a decent attempt for a first signed release, but with stiff competition from Caliban, I Killed The Prom Queen, Diecast, The Agonist, In This Moment and Killswitch Engage to name a few, it becomes easy for Straight Line Stitch to get lost in the mix - even with some of the differences. A few more creative steps may be needed to stick around forever.

Released August 19th, 2008

Straight Line Stitch at MySpace
Koch Records at MySpace

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“Escape” is nothing short of punk rock, 14 tracks of speed with no extra noises or interruptions. The melodies will have you singing along with the short breakdowns and gang “whoa”s. The vocals are sung clearly which gives them a sound similar to former Canadian skate-punks Belvedere, but with a slightly less metallic quality– which means it’s the type of record you blast in your stereo if you’re a tad blue from remembering the good ol’ days of up-tempo punk rock.

For being together for only 4 short years I can see why No Harm Done is leaving a lasting impression in every city they play. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a sudden urge to take my BMX out for a session.

Released August 19th, 2008

No Harm Done at MySpace
Think Fast! Records at MySpace

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Metalcore this certainly is, but not the idea of running out, stealing some thrash, death, black or iron maiden riffs and sticking in single note breakdowns - which seems to be the blueprint today. No, while there’s a few places where the hardcore chord runnings, or more generally metallic moments, like a bit of thrash or a melodic guitar run becoming obvious, the general feeling is one beast that’s morphed into something completely unique. The vocals run from Brians signature yell to spoken word and a little singing as well, but throughout the whole album, you never get the impression that the band sat down to predetermine a certain sound, instead what comes off is pure inspiration. In case you’re really wondering, yes, you can hear where Killswitch Engage and Shadows Fall came from.

Overcast certainly comes off as one of those bands that would’ve inhabited the world of noise rock back in the 90’s - the kind of bands that sometimes came from metal or hardcore, but never really fit in with scene because their sound was unique, which was the case for many noise bands of the 90’s.

Sometimes people can get a little disillusioned when a scene becomes popular, and then gets raped and pillaged. It really does suck to see kids who care only about big bands, then run out and try to ride off the coattails of popularity when making their own band, looking for rock stardom. It was never the intention of the pioneering bands in metalcore to get big, and some of them didn’t. Hopefully “Reborn to Kill Again” will open peoples eyes to help us remember that metalcore really meant something, and that there’s so much more beyond the tailored bands we have today.

Released August 19th, 2008

Overcast at MySpace
Metal Blade Records at MySpace

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“The Illusion of Progress” is the bands official slow/song ballad album, meaning for every acoustic ballad or clean guitar driven romp, there’s a slow jammer with, surprise! A little bit of power. Well, not a heck of a lot, it’s still a good old Creed rock clone with standard crooning stylings, races to the choruses, and songs about girlfriends and/or exs.

As a whole, it takes the place of having making the effort to make a mix CD of ballads, and the slow power songs do throw a little bit of variety in. It certainly gets the job done, though if they were an employee, it would be just enough to not get fired.

Released August 19th, 2008

Staind at MySpace

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What you get with “Pedal to the Metal” is so much of the popular rock and metal in the 80’s freshened up with well-done versions of stuff we hate right now. What really sucks is how fun it is.

Released August 18th (Europe) September 2nd (North America)

Blessed By A Broken Heart at MySpace
Century Media at MySpace

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The books haven’t exactly been re-written in the case of emotional punk with their last two albums, but their sophomore release “If Only You We’re Lonely” solidified the five at the top of their scene with some finely tuned choruses and anthemic guitar climaxes. But while they found their niche on their second album, the third seems like a continuation, minus Casey’s screams of course.

“Fragile Future” has the same Hawthorne Heights sound with their riveting guitar hooks and sing along choruses, but with a larger, almost stadium feel. Frontman JT Woodruff definitely has a knack for charming an audience with melodies. I do have to admit, although scores of bands have taken a chance at the “emo” scene of this early millennium, the Heights have certainly mastered its harmonious sound. But sometimes bands don’t move as quickly as musical trends do.

Released August 5th, 2008

Hawthorne Heights at MySpace
Victory Records at MySpace

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