Overall Rating: 9.3
· Sound: 9.5
· Lyrics: 9.2
· Impression: 9

1.) Blossom, The Witch: The song is one of my favorite songs on album and is by far the most energetic. The song starts off with a suspenseful noise that builds up into the intro of the song. The drums in the beginning of the song are loud and in your face. You can feel the bass drum inside of you. The drums couldn’t sound any better. The drums kick up speed, creating the illusion that the tempo of the song gets faster, but only the drums are faster. When the lyrics come in, the keyboard is the main instrument that sticks out over everything. Not many bands do this, and they are very good at making the keys blend in when they want them to, and stick out at other times. The lyrics are very dark and they make it clear what the song is about.

She is the enchantment
She is the filth that you love to crawl in
You’re forced to feed on the dirt that you can only perceive as passion
But looks are deceiving
Beauty is only skin deep
She’s put and end to existence
She’s put and end to us all
There’s something in her eyes that says, “I am here to tell you lies”
Meet here stare to entrap yourself In the place where love has died
Beware the blossom
Beware of here eyes
Run
You’ll never make it out of here alive
Run
You’ll never make it out
But looks are deceiving
Beauty is only skin deep
She’s put an end to existence
She’s put an end to us all
Beware

2.) To Live And Die By Fire: The first verse of the song transitions into a powerful chorus, with a wavering keyboard sound. The fills between verses, choruses, and bridges are well done. They really show off the drummer’s talent. The keyboard part follows the guitar part in certain parts of the song in a lot higher octave that gives it a unique sound and reinforces the riffs. The song ends with a breakdown that makes you want to dance your pants off.

3.) The Worst Is Yet To Come: They start the song with a shredding guitar riff that really gets you pumped, although it is a bit generic. This song doesn’t use quite as much keyboard as the other songs, and when they do it is more hidden under the other instruments. The song isn’t anything special until the chorus comes. The chorus is extremely catchy. This is definitely one of their “sing-along” songs. A cool effect is created when the singer sings the chorus followed by the screamer repeating part of the line.

4.) In The Place Of Hope: The intro to this song is slightly boring, and as before doesn’t get good until the pre-chorus. A delayed guitar with a lot of added effects accompanies a trippy keyboard part leading into another catchy chorus. The chorus here is almost all singing unlike a lot of their other songs, which is a nice change of pace. The breakdown of this song is intense just like all of their breakdowns.

5.) White Walls: One of their hits, White Walls, is what really made these guys popular. This is the first song I heard by these guys, and it’s still one of my favorites. The lead riff in this song begins right off the bat and eventually the keyboard joins with the same melody. The screamer displays how he can do high screams and low growls throughout the song. By far the best part of this song is the breakdown. Right before the breakdown everything goes quiet, and only a bright keyboard melody remains. The contrast of quiet to loud really gives the breakdown even more strength.

Is has been a little over a year now since LoveHateHero released their first album, titled “White Lies.” They released an EP album in 2005, titled “Just Breath”, but didn’t receive much publicity until they toured the country a couple times and got signed to Ferret Music. Now that they are more well known people are starting to get into them more and more.

They are currently touring the U.S. with Alesana, The Chariot, and Sky Eats Airplane. This is one of the hottest tours out there right now seeing that Alesana didn’t become known until about a year ago and now they are already big enough to headline. Sky Eats Airplane, unique from the other bands on this tour, features the some wicked Electronic beats with help from their Mac. This mix of hardcore and electronica is becoming a hit and a lot of new bands are popping up that sound like imitations of Sky Eats Airplane (as far as I know Sky Eats Airplane was the first hardcore/metal band to use electronica and make a name for themselves).

Here is a live clip of LoveHateHero performing the song “A Last Fairwell” in San Francisco, CA (Beware: not the best sound quality). This song is pumped full of energy and they explode at the beginning with the whole band rocking out. Notice the guy on the left head banging like a madman. That automatically receives an A+ performance right there. The bassist has a Mohawk too, which even makes them more awesome. The vocals are right on in this clip and the screams sound even better than on the c.d. version. These guys are super catchy but at the same time have some technical guitar rifts that will impress you.

From the first time I heard these guys I was addicted. I had heard their name somewhere before but didn’t bother checking them out. One day I ran across them and I was blown off my feet. The first thing that caught my eye was the fact that they were from Indianapolis, Indiana, hometown to one of my old favorites, Haste The Day. The thing that makes these guys unique and different than the rest of the Christian/Hardcore bands on the bandwagon is that they throw in a touch of what we like to call “experimental” (whatever that means). The way I take it when a band considers themselves to be “experimental” is that they add an aspect to their music that is unexpected, or against the norm of the other genres they fit under. The thing I hate the most is when a band calls themselves experimental then sounds like just every other band out there. This is definitely not the case with Gwen Stacy. If you don’t trust me, go listen to the song “Hoy Empezamos Una Vida Nueva. (don’t ask me what that means…something about a new life). That song will most likely tweak you out! Another thing that makes these guys stand out from the rest is that they are only a four piece. That is really hard to come by these days. Having only four members means you have only one guitar to count on and nixes the idea of having a keyboard. If they can pull that off and sound as heavy as they do, I am very impressed. Catch these guys on tour now with Still Remains & Catherine. I plan on seeing them at the Madison show in a little over a month. My expectations are high and I have no doubt that they will exceed them.

Hello and welcome to Pat’s heavy metal Blog. If you’re into the smooth sounds of Enya or the poppy beats of Britney Spears turn back now. This is for the ones who want some pure metal with no exceptions. Once you enter there’s no turning back. I’m originally from California but now reside in Madison, WI and am currently attending UW-Whitewater. I have been apart of the Madison music scene for about 3 years now and have seen just about everything there is to see. I have been to so many shows by this point that it is really easy to point out the bands who have the killer live shows. I have found over the years that most metal bands tend be sound even heavier live than they do on c.d. This is why I am addicted to going to metal/hardcore shows because they are so intense and sometimes even give me an adrenaline rush. I don’t really have any specific type of favorite metal but lately I’ve been listening to a lot of hardcore, metalcore, grindcore, and death metal. Here I will inform you on the latest hot metal bands especially ones that not many have heard of but I predict will get big in the near future. I will give insight to live performances by different bands and what they did and didn’t do effectively. I will also provide information on upcoming concerts and upcoming c.d. releases.  Lastly, I will review various albums and let you know which ones are worth spending your money on.  Anything and everything metal . Rock on!

 August Burns Red is a five piece Christian metalcore from Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  The band was formed in 2003 and released an E.P titled Looks Fragile After All a year later in 2004.  They were signed on a smaller label when they released this E.P. but didn’t start to get big until they were signed to Solid State Records in 2005, releasing their first full length album Thrill Seeker.  Their latest album, Messengers, was released in 2007 and has already sold over 50,000 copies.

A couple weeks ago I saw August Burns Red at The Rave in Milwaukee, WI for the first time. They are currently on the Take Action Tour featuring The Human Abstract, The Bled, From First To Last, and the headliner, Every time I Die.   I had seen videos on www.youtube.com of August Burns Red and from what I saw they looked like an awesome band to see live.   They opened with the song Composure of their new c.d., Messengers. They blew up with energy starting their performance and that energy didn’t fade until the time where they walked off stage. They played a lot of heavy breakdowns and people were going nuts in the pit. The band held perfect balance throughout their set and all of the instruments sounded right on. The drums were probably my favorite out of all of them- damn that guy is talented.  In the middle of their set between songs they announced that they are a Christian band and that they play for Christ.  They told the audience they love all of them no matter what they believe and if they have any questions they can come talk to them after the show.  I really respected this.  There are a lot of bands out there who claim to be Christian but just label themselves that to get attention.  All in all, once you see these guys live it will change your standards of a good live performance.  If you think these guys are intense on c.d. you don’t even know what intense is. Go see these guys live and you’ll crap your pants!

August Burns Red- “Composure” Video Shoot