these hearts - his angel back

i love these heart's new ep! it has 2 heavy tracks including a brand new song, and 3 acoustic tracks (also including a brand new song). this new song, his angel back, has lovely lyrics. i don't feel like talking about the lyrics because they sound a little too personal for me to comment on, so all i'll tell you is that they're lovely. the song also has a kind of folky feel to it. it's something new from the band, but it still sounds like these hearts. prepare to be moved!

listen to "his angel back"

if you have rdio, listen to the whole "elephant in the room" ep

our last night - liberate me

our last night is a pretty underrated screamo band. they have some of the catchiest choruses in the scene, and there's no shortage of heaviness either. this song is off of their recent album that came out less than a month ago. it has semi-djenty rhythm guitar parts, but a constant, melodic lead like you hear from christian death metal bands. the best is about 28 seconds in when the chord progression and guitar leads take an unexpected turn. thank goodness it's the verse riff; you get to hear it again later.

watch the lyric video for "liberate me"

blink-182 - another girl, another planet

last week was a cover of a blink-182 song. this week, blink-182 does the cover with a fresh take on an old song. i promise you, if you haven't heard this song, you're going to wish you have before. it's way too catchy for a b-side in my opinion.

listen to blink-182's cover of "another girl, another planet" on grooveshark

listen to the original version of "another girl, another planet" on grooveshark

ozzy osbourne - crazy train

this was my favorite song for a long time...

listen to "crazy train" on grooveshark

nofx - this machine is 4

this week's most anticipated album by me easily goes to nofx's 12th studio album, "self entitled." today, they're streaming it on spotify for free. if you don't have spotify, you can still listen to "this machine is 4" if you click on the link below.

so here's the good news: nofx sounds like nofx. if you haven't heard of nofx before, go ahead and take a listen. in my mind, nofx exhibits punk music the best, so it's about time you've heard their stuff.

nothing much to say about this song; it's what you expect.

listen to "this machine is 4" on rollingstone

catch the sun - confession

catch the sun is a wonderful new progressive metal (and not djent) band from russia. they're great shredders, but they still bring down the house with some heavy breakdowns. of course, they don't just stick to 4:4 time with the same tempo and key do all that stuff you'd expect from a progressive metal band. what's great is that they're not weird where they're not to foreign to last decade's metalcore fans for listening. i love their whole album. i even like their instrumental tracks (be sure to check out the intro, "onset," the interlude, "to the sky," and the outro and title track, "aspiration"). i like "confession" the most because i think it offers a little bit of everything from the band's sound (although none of the songs are THAT different from each other to be honest), but you should definitely listen to the whole album if you like metal and have the time.

listen to "confession" on bandcamp

listen to "aspiration" in it's entirety on bandcamp

hank - 200f8

last year was my freshman year at the university of illinois, and i was going to a lot of local music shows to check out the stuff. i've heard some great acts and some terrible acts. if i had to pick my favorite band i've seen in champaign, i'd easily pick hank. i guess hank is a math rock band, but i'm not too familiar with the genre. if you're lucky enough to be in champaign, il on september 27th this year, make your way to the red herring at 8:15 that night to see their performance for pygmalion fest.

listen to 200f8 on bandcamp