halcyon - noodle 2

halcyon is a very interesting-sounding djent band. this is an acoustic track by them. it's a really great song.

listen to "noodle 2" on bandcamp

listen to "pastures" on bandcamp in its entirety

the haarp machine - the escapist notion

i've been waiting far too long for the haarp machine to release their album. here's why:

listen to "the escapist notion" on soundcloud

speaking the king's - call me maybe

as i mentioned earlier, i liked a different band's cover of "call me maybe." this is it.

speaking the king's version is very well done. it's so good that carly actually wore their shirt on stage! the vocals are so clear and the song is perfectly balanced between pop and hardcore. if you like the way a day to remember does their covers, you'll love this one.

listen to speak the king's version of "call me maybe"

watch the music video for "call me maybe"

alice in chains - angry chair

just a great alice in chains song. don't you just love the way they harmonize their vocals?

watch the music video for "angry chair"

caspian - waking season

with so many good releases this week (especially in dying arms' debut album and handguns' new album), i had a tough decision to make. in the end, i surprised myself by choosing a track off of caspian's new album, "waking season."

i chose the title and intro track on the album because i was very fascinated with their use of a music box.

listen to "waking season"

listen to "waking season" (the album) in its entirety on spin.com

the acacia strain - the mouth of the river

the acacia strain doesn't get a lot of credit considering that they've been a band since 2001. all of their albums sound different, and "death is only mortal" is probably not going to be an exception. if the rest of the album is going to sound like "the mouth of the river," it's going to be the most djent (let's face it, it's a genre now) acacia strain album to date, almost like a 4:4 meshuggah song would sound. their guitar tone is very saturated and thick. i also noticed that the strain chose to use higher-sounding vocals. i don't think this will disappoint fans of "wormwood," but it's definitely something new.

listen to "the mouth of the river"

a summer better than yours - trainwreck

a summer better than yours really captures a raw pop punk sound that you deserve to hear. their vocals aren't as pretty as the band your girlfriend listens to. enjoy!

listen to "trainwreck"