I’m sorry I haven’t graced anyone’s screen lately with my words. Frankly, I just haven’t thought of anything to write and I’ve been busy with Decoy, Aaron’s other projects, and my own personal stuff. I will post my show review for a show I checked out last week shortly though. Enough with the excuses though.
As usual, I’m almost always playing music whereever I am. As such, I listen to a lot of music throughout the day. I started noticing the other day how lackluster 2006 has been for music so far. Granted, we’ve barely reached the end of February, but I’m noticing a lack of solid new albums this year as compared with 2005.
The one and only album I’ve been “addicted” to from this year is Hawthorne Heights’ If Only You Were Lonely. I’m not proud of that because I know there’s better stuff out there, but HH is just so damn catchy.
I hope this isn’t a trend for the year. There really are a lot of releases I’m excited to hear. New Atreyu, It Dies Today, If Hope Dies, All That Remains are all in the pipe so maybe, I’ll change my mood. Last year Aaron asked me in January what I was anticipating in 2005. I remember saying Chimaira was the only one I could think of, but there were so many more releases last year I loved. Hopefully 2006 has some good newcomers too!
With all this lack of new music, I’ve been revisiting last year a lot lately. I’ve said before, I go through so much music, I often don’t have time to sit down and really listen to a lot of stuff. It’s nice to get a chance to revisit albums.
Seeing A Wilhelm Scream last week triggered my punk lobe in my brain. I’ve been listening to them a ton lately. Matt mentioned to me at the show he can’t figure out why they aren’t huge. I have to say, I find myself asking the same question. They’re so much more than basic pop punk. It’s agressive, it’s fast, and it’s fun! I overlooked Ruiner last year. I thought it had a few choice tracks, but nothing compared to 2004’s Mute Print. Well, I was wrong. It is a little weaker. I don’t find myself loving every track (,for the love of [insert holy diety reference here], don’t make another “In Vino Veritas II” again!), but most of the rest of the album is great.
Another album I’ve been enjoying much more this year is August Burns Red’s Thrill Seeker. Let me tell you, this album cooks! Front to back, it’s straight up heavy all the way through. To come out of the metalcore genre and make any sort of lasting impression on me musically is quite the feat.
