Reviews Archives

And Then There Was You - And Then There Was You

By Eric Pettersson in Reviews | Comments closed

Artist: And Then There Was You Album: And Then There Was You Label: Indianola Records Release Date: January 22, 2008 Review by: Eric Pettersson Tracklist: 1. The Beloved 2. Star Struck 3. 1983 4. As Seen in Madrid 5. Save the Last Dance 6. Sincerely Yours? 7. The Horsemen 8. Fall Fearless Empire 9. The Devil 10. Cool, Calm and Collected Man, this album makes me feel like I’m in high school again. Not in a bad way either. It just takes me back to the glory days of sitting in class talking about Taking Back Sunday, Fall Out Boy, The Early November, Brand New and the rest, the days when kids like us secretly thought we were emo but knew that to truly be emo we couldn’t admit to the name.… Continued →

Jon Foreman - Summer EP

By Eric Pettersson in Reviews | Comments closed

Artist: Jon Foreman Album: Summer EP Label: Credential Recordings Release Date: May 27, 2008 Review by: Eric Pettersson Tracklist: 1. A Mirror Is Harder to Hold 2. Resurrect Me 3. Deep in Your Eyes (There Is a River) 4. Instead of a Show 5. House of God, Forever 6. Again As the four seasons come to a close, Jon Foreman delivers what I believe to be his best EP yet. Maybe it’s just because it’s summer right now so I’m more in the mood for a record of corresponding theme, but these songs have become instant sing-alongs in my car in a way that none of the previous EPs did.… Continued →

The Gallery - If You Know What I Mean

By Eric Pettersson in Reviews | Comments closed

Artist: The Gallery Album: If You Know What I Mean Label: Blue Duck Records Release Date: August 12, 2008 Review by: Eric Pettersson Tracklist: 1. Drift 2. Consider This 3. Where We Began 4. Kingdoms 5. The Introduction 6. Surroundings 7. My Rhythm 8. Circus Song 9. The Lonely Disease 10. If You Know What I Mean I’m a sucker for a pounding beat and a catchy melody. The two are not often found together, hence the wide range musical styles found within my collection. In fact, I’d say it’s pretty much impossible to find a pop band that you can headbang to.… Continued →

Redfoot - Winnowing Fork

By Eric Pettersson in Reviews | Comments closed

Artist: Redfoot Album: Winnowing Fork Label: Bad Apple Records Release Date: November 30, 3007 Review by: Eric Pettersson Tracklist: 1. Red Horizon 2. Ballad of Thomas Lynch 3. Country Mile 4. Literally 5. From Dirt, with Praise 6. Hardin Springs 7. Digital Jesus 8. Of Icarus and Petroleum 9. Love in Kodak Quality Prints 10. The Truth 11. For John Charles Carter 12. Run, Longest Some reviews are really hard to write. This is not one of them. Brandon, I want to thank you personally for sending me this CD.… Continued →

Run Kid Run - Love at the Core

By Eric Pettersson in Reviews | Comments closed

Artist: Run Kid Run Album: Love at the Core Label: Tooth & Nail Records Release Date: April 29, 2008 Review by: Eric Pettersson Tracklist: 1. Rescue Me 2. Captives Come Home 3. Fall into This Light 4. One in a Million 5. Love at the Core 6. Sure Shot 7. My Sweet Escape 8. The Emergency 9. Set the Dial 10. Freedom As soon as I popped this disc into my car, I was ready to go pick up my youth group friends and make the annual trip to Purple Door.… Continued →

Burden Of A Day - Blessed Be Our Ever After

By JoshIVM in Reviews | Comments closed

Band: Burden Of A Day Title: Blessed Be Our Ever After Label: Rise Review By: JoshIVM Tracklisting: 01. Blessed Be Our Ever After 02. Pt. 2 Sometimes They Do 03. Sorry Seacrest It’s Casey’s Countdown 04. The Smile That Kills 05. It’s Lonely At the Top (Or So I’ve Heard) 06. My Shelter 07. Battle For Hoth 08. Umbrellas 09. Monsters Among Us 10. White Coats And Their Medicine 11. I’m Only Laughing on The Outside Blessed Be Our Ever After is the Sarasota, Florida natives debut release on Rise Records since leaving their former label Blood & Ink Records.… Continued →

Andy Hunter - Colour

By JoshIVM in Reviews | Comments closed

Band: Andy Hunter Title: Colour Label: Nettwerk Music Group Review By: JoshIVM Tracklisting: 01. Sound Pollution 02. Stars 03. Shine 04. Miracle 05. System Error 06. Smile 07. Technicolour 08. Together 09. Fade 10. Sapphire 11. Out of Control 12. You It has been 3 years since Andy Hunter released an album and as with most people I believe that’s far too long. He’s kept himself busy of course but this is just too long to keep fans waiting. Finally he emerges with Colour which shows him branching out and trying some new things musically.… Continued →

Soul Embraced - Dead Alive (2)

By JoshIVM in Reviews | Comments closed

Band: Soul Embraced Title: Dead Alive Label: Solid State Review By: JoshIVM Tracklisting: 01. To End It All 02. Breaking Point 03. Curtain Of Deceit 04. The Devil’s Reflection 05. Everything Reminds Me Of You 06. La Fin Absolue Du Monde 07. Crawl 08. Into Darkness 09. Judas I’ve Become 10. Bloodstained Nevada 11. Kill This 12. In Memory 13. Dead Alive It is the year of metal at Solid State Records. They announce all in one year that Soul Embraced would return, they signed The Famine made up of original Embodyment members, and also that almighty Living Sacrifice was back!… Continued →

Means - To Keep Me From Sinking

By JoshIVM in Reviews | Comments closed

Band: Means Title: To Keep Me From Sinking Label: Facedown Release Date: 5.27.2008 Review By: JoshIVM Tracklisting: 01. Awareness 02. Breaking In 03. Somewhere Up Ahead 04. Blackout 05. Steadily 06. We Dwell In Possibility 07. Burned Into Me 08. Refuge 09. What We Seek 10. Of Dread And Dreams Means, one of Facedown’s rising acts, are back with their sophmore release. I am a huge fan of their debut Sending You Strength and have listened to it quite a bit. Unfortunately in cases like that the bar is set extremely high for the band to top it with their second release.… Continued →

The Wedding - The Sound The Steel

By JoshIVM in Reviews | Comments closed

Band: The Wedding Title: The Sound The Steel Label: Brave New World Review By: JoshIVM Tracklisting: 01. Receive 02. Return 03. Renew 04. Reveal 05. Redeem Losing a vocalist can quickly be the death of a band. The Wedding I’m sure hoped this wasn’t going to be the case upon hearing Kevin’s decision to step down. Thankfully and unexpectedly for me, they enlisted former Letter Kills vocalist Matt Shelton. Being a big fan of Letter Kills I was pumped to hear the news! This EP is a debut of the new lineup and it shows that the band has indeed weathered the storm quite nicely.… Continued →

Since October - This Is My Heart

By JoshIVM in Reviews | Comments closed

Band: Since October Title: This Is My Heart Label: Tooth & Nail Review By: JoshIVM Tracklisting: 01. Emily 02. My Heart 03. Beautiful 04. Disaster 05. In This Moment 03. Guilty 07. World To Me 08. Live To Die 09. Follow Me Down 10. Waiting 11. Everything Since October is a band we’ve covered on IVM long before they signed with Tooth & Nail. In fact, if my memory serves me correctly they won a new band contest we ran way back. Brandon can either confirm that or tell me I’m way off.… Continued →

Secret & Whisper - Great White Whale

By JoshIVM in Reviews | Comments closed

Band: Secret And Whisper Title: Great While Whale Label: Tooth & Nail Review By: JoshIVM Tracklisting: 01. Blonde Monster 02. You Are Familiar 03. Vanishings 04. XOXOXO 05. The Actress 06. Spider Besider 07. Looming Moon 08. Attacker 09. Anchors 10. Werewolves 11. Lovers 12. Great While Whale You probably know the story by now. There was a band named Stutterfly who lost their vocalist. They replaced him with Charles Furney and due to how much his vocals affected their sound, they opted for a new moniker.… Continued →

Kingston Falls - Armada On Mercury

By JoshIVM in Reviews | Comments closed

Band: Kingston Falls Title: Armada On Mercury Label: Facedown Records Review By: JoshIVM Tracklisting: 01. The Christening 02. Armada On Mercury 03. Too Hot For Cold Feet 04. On Contentment 05. The Great Divide 06. Freakin’ eXtreme! 07. The Illusionist’s Dream 08. Songs & Fables 09. Curse of Might 10. Dry Skin (Moz Def) 11. Sand Castle Karma 12. Too Bad About Your Situation Kingston Falls in the past few years have lost a vocalist and been bumped on to Facedown from its imprint Strike First.… Continued →

Stronger Than Hell Tour (Allentown, PA)

By JoshIVM in Reviews | Comments closed

A few friends came into town this past weekend so that we all could hit up the Stronger Than Hell Tour in Allentown, PA. It is quite amazing how all the details came together because these friends are limited to Saturday shows which never seem to work out. Oddly enough for once things did work out and all of them could go, so we met up on Saturday afternoon and drove just a bit over 2 hours to what hopefully would be an extremely enjoyable show.… Continued →

Joy Electric - My Grandfather, the Cubist

By Eric Pettersson in Reviews | Comments closed

Album: My Grandfather, the Cubist Artist: Joy Electric Label: Tooth & Nail Records Release Date: May 27, 2008 Review by: Eric Pettersson Tracklist: 1. Victorian Intuition/ Father Winter Replies 2. Rudimentary Animation 3. Draw for Me, M.C. Escher 4. Four Gone Pierre (Or What Electricity Made) 5. The First Time I Loved Her It Was Here 6. I Recall the Telephone Booth 7. On Being Principally Utopian 8. Whether by Horse, or Horseless 9. Only Copernicus 10. Prelude to Cubism 11. My Grandfather, the Cubist 12.… Continued →

We Shot The Moon - Fear and Love

By The Headless Horseman in Reviews | Comments closed

Artist: We Shot The Moon Album: Fear and Love Label: The Militia Group Buy: Amazon MP3/The Militia Group Review by the Headless Horseman. 1. The Water’s Edge 2. Sway Your Head 3. LTFP 4. Faces 5. Perfect Time 6. Tunnel Vision 7. Julie 8. On Your Way 9. Hope 10. Upon Waking She Found Herself A Cougar 11. Into the Blue 12. Please Shine As I write this, it’s 1:46 A.M. I spent most of today working and most of the last hour listening to the latest acoustic, digital-only Alkaline Trio single.… Continued →

My Very Epic Tour Day 1

By Elbon in Reviews | Comments closed

3/20/08- Day 1 of tour had started and I was already really tired from staying up late with Jesse the previous night just talking and finishing up putting seats and seatbelts in the van. Thursday was a busy day where we worked nonstop on the van. Jeremiah and his girlfriend Meggie worked all day making a raised platform in the back of the van so we could put a futon on and have a bed (which really came in handy for Aaron who loves to read and sleep.)… Continued →

The Myriad - With Arrows, with Poise

By Eric Pettersson in Reviews | Comments closed

Artist: The Myriad Album: With Arrows, with Poise Label: Koch Records Release Date: May 13, 2008 Review by: Eric Pettersson Tracklist: 1. You Waste Time Like a Grandfather Clock 2. “Get on the Plane” 3. Forget What You Came For 4. A Clean Shot 5. The Accident 6. Holiest of Thieves 7. A THoseand Winters Melting 8. Polar Bears and Shark Fins 9. Throwing Punches 10. “Don’t Let Them See You!” 11. Braver than the Rest 12. Stuck in a Glass Elevator The arrows, of course, are these twelve songs.… Continued →

Man Alive - Man Alive

By The Headless Horseman in Reviews | Comments closed

Artist: Man Alive Album: Man Alive Label: B& Recordings/Doghouse Records (US) Buy: The IVM Store Review by the Headless Horseman. 1. If You Breathe, You Bleed 2. The Things Left Worth Dying For 3. In Spite of All 4. Invincible 5. Stick Around 6. Mission Abort 7. Morningside 8. Laugh or Cry 9. Until Somebody Screams 10. Proud To Be Un-American 11. Myth vs. Fact There’s something great about listening to the artists we can still unabashedly call punk. Before I go on, let me clarify that: I am not here referring to bands like Black Flag, whom I would consider hardcore.… Continued →

Ocean Is Theory - Into The Mouth Of Lions

By Billy G in Reviews | Comments closed

Artist: Ocean Is Theory Album: “Into The Mouth Of Lions” Label: Independent Review by: Billy G Recording their debut EP, “Into the Mouth of Lions” with Matt Malpass (Copeland, Rookie of The Year) and Matt Goldman (Underoath, As Cities burn, Cartel). Ocean Is Theory is yet another group that severely impresses me. These guys are young,(Four out of the five members are still in high school) but that does not limit their musical ability at all. Recently being selected as one of the 16 winners of the New Band Showcase Contest for Cornerstone Festival, these guys have a very bright future ahead of them.… Continued →

Inhale Exhale- I Swear...

By Kimberly in Reviews | Comments closed

Band: Inhale Exhale Album: I Swear Label: Solid State Records Review by: Kimberly J Tracklisting 01. I Need A Space Ship (Instead I Got Problems) 02. Its Myself Vs. Being A Man 03. The Impatient Will Suffer 04. Is The Fact That Im Trying To Do It, Doing It For You? 05. I Live The Bad Life (You Make It Worse) 06. No One Is Invincible 07. The Words That We Have Chosen 08. Drink Till We Drop 09. Ill Die with No Friends And A Grin On My Face 10.… Continued →

Jadon Lavik - Roots Run Deep

By JoshIVM in Reviews | Comments closed

Band: Jadon Lavik Title: Roots Run Deep Label: BEC Recordings Review By: JoshIVM Tracklisting: 01. Come Thou Fount 02. Blessed Assurance 03. Tis So Sweet 04. My Father’s World 05. I Surrender All 06. Wondrous Love 07. Turn Your Eyes 08. I Need Thee 09. Take My Life 10. What a Friend 11. Amazing Grace I love hymns. To me, there is no way I’d rather worship than to sing those timeless songs. I realize the praise & worship movement is all the rage now but they will never have the same impact on me.… Continued →

Soul Embraced - Dead Alive

By bloodwater in Reviews | Comments closed

Artist: Soul Embraced Album: Dead Alive Label: Solid State Records Review by: Jason B I like music and lyrics that tell a story. I’ve always been a fan of records that, when listening to them, give the listener a feeling that they are partaking of something bigger than just a cd: records that seem to take individuals on a journey. Such is the case with “Dead Alive”, the latest release from Soul Embraced. Firstly, what stands out the most is the production quality in comparison to other releases from the band.… Continued →

Underoath - Survive Kaleidoscope

By Eric Pettersson in Reviews | Comments closed

Artist: Underoath Album: Survive Kaleidoscope Label: Tooth & Nail/ Solid State Records Release Date: May 27, 2008 Review by: Eric Pettersson Tracklist (for both CD and DVD, unless otherwise noted): 1. Intro (Salmarnir)/ Returning Empty Handed 2. In Regards to Myself 3. It’s Dangerous Business Walking out Your Front Door 4. You’re Ever So Inviting 5. To Whom It May Concern 6. A Moment Suspended in Time 7. Young and Aspiring There Could Be Nothing after This [ONLY ON DVD] 8. Writing on the Walls 9.… Continued →

Destroy the Runner - I, Lucifer

By bloodwater in Reviews | Comments closed

Artist: Destroy the Runner Album: I, Lucifer Label: Solid State Records Review by: Jason B Track Listing: 1. Crumbs For the Murder 2. Isabella’s 3. Mr. and Mrs. Cuckoldom 4. A Bag of Marbles 5. I, Lucifer 6. It’s Always Cold In Paris 7. A Pathetic Psalm 8. Luxuria 9. On Falling Leaf 10. A Novel Of War 11. A Mountain So Big, A Question So Small When Destroy the Runner burst onto the scene in 2006 with their ferocious debut “Saints” they were filling four minute time slots of songs with familiar breakdowns, guitar solos and chug-a-chug riffs that would make the biggest of As I Lay Dying fans question whether vocalist Tim Lambesis had been replaced with another guy.… Continued →

The Famine - The Raven and the Reaping

By Caleb T in Reviews | Comments closed

Artist: The Famine Album: The Raven and the Reaping Label: Solid State Records Release Date: May 27, 2008 Reviewed By: Caleb T Track Listing: 1. Scar The Earth 2. Behemoth 3. Consume, Devour, Repeat 4. The South Will Rise 5. Death Threat 6. Killing For Sport 7. Cut From The Stone 8. Ascend 9. Another Foot To The Shovel 10. Unending Silence 11. Stitched In Plastic When you think of the word “famine”, deep growling vocals, fast guitar riffs, and endless double bass usually aren’t the first things that pop into your head.… Continued →

The Hotshot Freight Train - The Devil Pays in Counterfeit

By Eric Pettersson in Reviews | Comments closed

Artist: The Hotshot Freight Train Album: The Devil Pays in Counterfeit Label: Future Destination Records Release Date: October 23, 2007 Review by: Eric Pettersson Tracklist: 1. Love like Heroin 2. Zoltar 3. Liars Like Us 4. My Dear, Sweet Little Faith 5. Appalachia 6. Had I Known 7. Too Close to Let Go 8. My Holy Spirit 9. Don’t Fight It 10. This Train 11. On and On Combining punk with good old rock and roll, along with a swig of indie, The Hotshot Freight Train continue to perfect their sound and strive for originality with their latest release, The Devil Pays in Counterfeit.… Continued →

Jon Foreman - Spring EP

By bloodwater in Reviews | Comments closed

Artist: Jon Foreman

Album “Spring Summer”

Label: Credential Recordings

Review by: Sam E

Track Listing: 1. March (A Prelude to Spring) 2. Love Isn’t Made 3. In My Arms 4. Baptize My Mind 5. Your Love Is Strong 6. Revenge

Folks that have followed Jon Foreman’s work since the first Switchfoot album came out in 1997 have long been aware of the fact that he is a brilliant songwriter. Jon has always seemed able to deftly pen a song or ballad that both provokes the muse in all of us, and also cuts deep to the heart and soul.

… Continued →

Search the City - A Fire So Big The Heavens Can See It

By The Headless Horseman in Reviews | Comments closed

Artist: Search the City Album: A Fire So Big The Heavens Can See It Label: Tooth & Nail Records Buy: Smartpunk/Amazon MP3 Review by the Headless Horseman. 1. Son of a Gun 2. To The Moon, For All I Care 3. Detroit Was Built On Secrets 4. Ambulance Chaser 5. Talk is Cheap and I’ve Got Expensive Taste 6. The Rescue 7. Bigger Scars Make Better Stories 8. The Streetlight Diaries 9. In This Scene You’re Just An Extra 10. Clocks and Time Pieces Let’s talk about pop music.… Continued →

The Almost Show Review Rocketown 06-01-08

By bloodwater in Reviews | Comments closed

I attended The Almost show this past Sunday night and wrote some thoughts down about it. I have never done this before but thought it might be good for those wondering if they should check out this tour which includes in support Emery, Envy On The Coast and Army Of Me. At first I somewhat dismissed Army Of Me because I hadn’t heard of them before but these guys made me interested enough during their set to be my only purchase of their night. I picked up their album at the end of the night.… Continued →

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