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Alkaline Trio - Crimson
If you’re an Alkaline Trio fan I can simply tell you that Crimson is more “All on Black” than it is “Cooking Wine”. There has always been a part of the trio that embraces dark imagery and this album focuses on ghosts and goblins more than literal drinking stories. The big innovation on this release is the experimentation with dark sounding synth keyboards. At first I was put off but soon I came to love this darker new sound.
Crimson starts off with a nicely done piano intro that will make you smile if you’ve ever heard their Misfits cover of “Halloween”. This leads into the first song “Time to Waste” which is a good Matt Skiba opener and gets you psyched for what is to come on the rest of the album. Much like “We’ve had enough”, it’s not their most complex song but good for a single. It then leads into “The Poison” which is one of Dan Andriano’s harder songs, much akin to “I lied my face off” or “Hating every minute”. (Actually the best description I read was “Dan Andriano trying to re-write Jawbreaker’s Ashtray Monument.” so true!)
The next track on the album “Burn” shows that the trio are master songwriters. They’ve reached a point in their career where they can keep innovating within their style that they’ve set for themselves. It’s a darker track that uses keyboards to effect. It progressively reaches a passionate climax that declares:
" Like hell we are anxiously waiting Like hell burning silently strong Somehow we fell down by the wayside And somehow this hell is home"
Continuing on with my track by track analysis, “Mercy Me” should have been the first choice for a single. It’s a Dan and Matt duet which will bring back memories of the Good Mourning B side “Old School Reasons” It’s catchier than Chlamydia.
From there we have “Deathbed” which is an acceptable Alkaline Trio song in their older style. The next Track “Settle for Satin” is another Dan / Matt song but much darker and heartfelt. This song has Dan on leads and has Matt doing the creepiest, skin crawling bridge I’ve ever heard.
If you remember “Sadie” from their split with One Man Army you’ll find that re-recorded here. It’s essentially the same except now there are keyboards during the epic breakdown part. It’s good enough but I prefer the original. “Fall Victim” will then entertain you with one of the catchiest Matt Choruses ever.
From there we get a pretty passable Dan song with “I was a prayer”. After that it’s “Prevent this Tragedy” which is pretty heavy on the synth keyboarding but in a good way. We are then treated to one of the heaviest tracks on the album, “Back to Hell” which has Matt and Dan doing a brilliant back and forth chorus. A3 did a smart thing by putting “Your Neck” as the second last track which is the ideal place for the weakest song on the album.
To finish off we get one of the greatest A3 songs ever written, “Smoke”. It’s a Dan ballad that nearly brought a tear to my eye (And I’m a cynical punk bastard). It uses synth in a creative way and shows Dan’s vocal talents at their finest.
Once again Alkaline Trio has created a work of art that is both bitter and beautiful. This is one of the best albums you will buy this year.
www.AlkalineTrio.com
Review by Wiseman – Punkmusic Staff

Aquabats Charge!
It’s a good thing this CD showed up when it did because I was was about to quit listening to music with all the horrible submissions that we get.
But thank God for the Aquabats! They may just have saved me from this horrible fate. Not only is this the best thing I have heard from these weirdoes, but also one of the greatest punk CDs I have ever heard. And no, I'm not kidding. I can't go more than a few days without cranking this one up.
I have a theory about how these guys managed to pull this off, and it goes something like this. One dreary summer night, the notorious “Bat Commander” was abducted by Aliens, and was given ultimate power over the Aquabats and the specific task of making them the best punk band on planet Earth. Then, unbeknownst to anyone at the time, using a new form of electric telekinesis, he zaps each band member just as they enter the studio to record the new CD. Finally, upon finishing the album, he summons the aliens who place an alien magnetic-type charge around the master reels rendering the recording irresistible to human ears.
Every once in a blue moon, a truly great record is released. Thanks to M.C. Bat Commander and the Aliens, we didn’t need to wait around for one. I don’t need to tell you to pick this CD up, your friends will do that before long. Unless of course you need that screaming Emo guy on every record, in which case, you're out of luck here.
www.nitrorecords.com
Reviewed by Neal

Dropkick Murphys Warriors Code

The new release is finally upon us, everyones favorite irish punks the Dropkick Murphys Warriors Code is nothing impressive. These guys have impressed us in the past, which might explain how huge they are getting. I saw a commercial for this cd on ESPN, what does that tell you/ Still i love these guys, but they need to remember how to write a good drinking song.
This cd may or may not be better than Blackout it's close either way you look at it. The songs don't have the melodies that pervious albums saw. Understand this cd is mainly a tribute an old boxer of Boston named Micky Ward, honorable by all means but they've had better songs about fighting than the track "Warriors Code". I can say that as a band they do sound tighter than they have before, which is great, let's hope they use that to write better stuff next time.

John

Lagwagon Live in a Dive

When making a live CD, it’s always important to keep in mind the longevity of the album. Will this be a good representation of the band years down the line? For example, Bad Religion: Their live album came out shortly after the Gray Race and you can tell because almost every second song is off of the Gray Race (Which is considered one of their weaker albums) It makes the classic mistake of dating itself by focusing on the most recent album at the time.
Lagwagon has successfully made a live album that encompasses every release in their career and will stand the test of time! The song choice is a mix of old and new and a few fun songs that they could only get away with live.
It has “Beer Goggles” from “D’uh” which they mention as being a song they don’t like to play so if it’s a favorite, this could be your only chance to hear it. Other highlights include “Violins” from their 1995 album “Hoss” and fan favorite “Stokin’ the Neighbors” from the 1994 classic “Trashed”.
One of the strengths of live albums is that you get to hear all the between song banter and get a sense of the band’s personality and stage presence. Unfortunately a lot of the humor just doesn’t translate well to a CD. For example they have a song “Coconut” that would be fun live once, but really wasn’t necessary to be on the disc and disrupts the punk rock flow. The humor does work on “Back one out” which is a variation of their cover of “Mama said knock you out”. This is actually one of the best segments on the CD with some great dialogue between Joey Cape and Chris Flippin.
As with all “Live in a Dive” albums the CD booklet contains a mini comic book. It depicts the band as a bunch of serial killers and also features that scary chick from the cover of “Let’s talk about feelings”. There’s also some extra CD ROM features to check out. They have a live video for Mr Coffee (Which wasn’t included as a song on the CD… why?) and then after that a pretty entertaining interview with by Fat Mike
They also have a couple of new songs. “The Chemist” which has the classic Lagwagon sound. It’s worth having on here and gives fans another justification to buy the CD. There’s also a 40 second song called “Mister Bap” that has to be an old punk cover or something. Before the song Joey sarcastically declares “This is the best song we’ve ever written” but it totally sounds like a cover. It sounds good though and is a good departure for the band.
If you like Lagwagon and you like Live albums, this is a well done package with only a few minor flaws
www.fatwreck.com
Review by WISEMAN

Mad Caddies Rock the Plank

I have loved the Mad Caddies ever since I saw them about 3 years ago. This Cd makes me love them even more. It has everything, energy, catchiness, and songs that don't get old. Some of the songs on this album are kind of different. They have a reggae song on their. Along with a Pirate Anthem type song. It's nice to hear some diversity. Also they don't have Boz their drummer on this album. They had Derreck Plourde filling in. Which was great because I loved his drumming for Lagwagon, The Ataris, and Bad Astronaut so he definately didn't disappointment me on this one. Good Cd, Buy it!

Band - http://www.madcaddies.net Label - http://www.fatwreck.com

Review Done By PK

Rise Against Siren Song of the Culture

Rise Against recently signed to Dreamworks for this release and a lot of people are wondering…. Did they sell out? I don’t think so but judge for yourself.
If you haven’t heard of Rise Against they did two excellent albums on Fat wreck chords. In terms of their style…. Hmmm….you know how “hardcore” bands always describe themselves as “Brutal, yet melodic”. Well Rise Against is the very definition (Half of those other bands can’t pull off anything close to that definition anyway). Add to the mix blazing fast drum patterns combined with a social consciousness Noam Chomsky would be proud of and I think you have Bad Religion for the next generation of punk rock.
Now back to the Rise Against fans, although there is a thick coat of major label gloss all over this album, it is still very much a Rise Against album. The hard got harder and the soft got softer. It seems they were out to prove that they didn’t go soften up completely by putting the hardest song “State of the union” as track one. It’s a great way to start the CD and is a borderline metal song. It will get you pumped! “Give it all” is the other super hard track that was included on the first “Rock against Bush” soundtrack. It’s got a good edge to it but remains a punk anthem.
Then there are the softer songs: “Swing life away” originally appeared on Fearless’ “Punk goes acoustic” comp and it was one of the best songs. Does it belong on this album? It sure does, it has been re-recorded and sounds better than ever. “Paper wings” is a good fast song with a very poppy hook. If fast music was more popular this should be the single.
Although this is mostly a fast album, I must point out that the two mid tempo songs “Life less frightening” and “Blood to bleed” are among the band’s best songs. Wow, “Blood to bleed” is a love song but it’s a Rise Against love song with an edge. The rest of the album is socially conscious and political so it’s ok.
Opening up the lyric book shows that with a couple of exceptions (mentioned below) they write honest, inspiring lyrics that focus on the world as a whole. Just check out this quote from “State of the union”:

“Guilty” is what our graves will read
No years, no family
We did nothing to stop the murder of
People just like us
Or how about the band touching up on our soulless society with this excerpt from “Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated”

Please don’t ask me how
I ended up at my wits end and breaking down
Pages torn from books we never read
Because we’re plugged into this grid
Don’t pull this plug right now or we’ll really have to live

The album has some minor imperfections like on “To them these streets belong” one of the hooks has Tim McIlrath crooning “Soooo precious!” I can’t help but think of Gollum every time (I told you they were minor). There are a couple moments where slightly cheesy lyrics may annoy you. The other minor problem is the fact that they have gone a bit overboard with the back up vocals in places. Don’t get me wrong, it works for the album and nearly every song has a catchy hook but it seems like a tad much at times. There’s a lot of the lead singer layered over himself.
A few more traditional gems are “Anywhere but here”, “The first drop”, “Tip the scales” and the closing song “Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated”. Rumors shows that they’ve been experimenting with new effects, is has a very interesting bridge in the middle that is like nothing I’ve ever heard.
Rise Against didn’t rewrite “Revolutions per minute” or “The Unraveling” but what they did do is come out with another excellent album with a natural progression. If you miss the glory days when punk was loud, fast and made you want to change the world – look no further
Review by WISEMAN