It's Kind of a Victory Records Night
On February 15th, 2011, Victory Records released three new albums. Personally, I enjoy some of Victory Record's releases, such as those by Darkest Hour, Pathology, and even Atreyu as well as the last Dr. Acula release. One thing I noticed with them, however, is that the label seems to be looking more towards signing bands that seem to sound like jocks playing Hardcore, and in a sense it works for the label, but I appreciate when they sign bands that sound like they aren't the front line of the Highschool Football team. And, with that, there's a number of good albums that do make their way from Victory Records throughout each year that I do really enjoy. So far, the label has only offered up these three releases for the edgier side of music, as well as the new Farewell to Freeway album back in January, which you can read my review of in the Review section of this site.
Considering the three CDs came out at the same time, I wanted to personally spend time with them all in one sitting, sort of make a night of it. Unfortunately, due to how busy I've been, I hadn't had the time since they sent the Haulix invites to me to grab the CDs, and they just sat here for a while as I tackled other albums trying to play catch up. I do want to offer an appology for being a day late with these, but I didn't want to rush them and put them on-line and give the readers a false sense of what to expect and regret it later, that's not how I run this site, and I never let myself do that. So, when I sat down and looked at the line-up, I'll admit, I was kind of excited about these three, moreso for the new The Warriors CD since I've heard so much about them, but honestly never had the chance to check them out before since I don't download things illegally, and I never really had the money to pick up a random Punk/Hardcore album, focusing more on Metal releases then anything and finding new bands.
But, it's going to be a long night, and hopefully a fun one, cause it kinda feels like a Victory Records night to me.
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| Dr. Acula: Slander |
Dr. Acula was always a butt in many jokes for myself and my friends to make. I couldn't stand them for many reasons, and you can see why in my review of their album Below Me. It always bothered me as well that they took their band name from a script of one of the funniest episodes of Scrubs and put out what I feel was such horrid music. However, after Social Event of the Century, I was impressed by the band. I found myself liking many of those songs and actually coming back to that promo to hear them for a good while after the review, so I was anxious to tear into Slander. At first I didn't like it, but I gave it a few songs, and it really proved me wrong. I was excited to hear the rest of the album and was really surprised with how well it all turned out and the ending of the album being so different and catchy. I may order this one for my collection even, and I definitely can't wait to hear their follow-up to this release.
-> Read the review here.
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| Emmure: Speaker of the Dead |
Out of the three CDs, this was the one I didn't want to review. I spent more time with this CD for review then the others, but that's not because I went into this not liking Emmure, which I never really did, but for more personal reasons and jealousy due to my having an idea for a song that was nothing but a breakdown when I worked with a friend in a Metalcore band called Bleeding Perfection, so hearing Emmure always angered me that I wasn't able to work on this idea. Could have made it big, but shit happens and you move on. I was afraid I'd be partial. But, god help me, this was just hard to review! It wasn't bad, but it wasn't spectacular. So many negative aspects were countered by positive. Honestly I wanted to give it a lower score because of it being good and that was literally it, but there were enough positive aspects to give it a higher score. On a personal level I didn't get much enjoyment out of it, but for what it is, it's entertaining, and yes, I'd come back to it on a rainy night and kick back to a few songs here and there. I wasn't surprised, but at the same time I wasn't let down.
-> Read the review here.
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| The Warriors: See How You Are |
You know, going into this I kept thinking to myself "Wow, such a simple title...this can't be good" and, sadly, I was right. I enjoy Hardcore as much as the next person. I've owned releases from Parkway Drive and even saw them live and was blown away by their performance, as well as owned two Death Before Dishonor CDs (or one, I can't really remember) and enjoyed it. So when I read in the attached bio the vocalist guested on a Parkway Drive CD and saw a Death Before Dishonor shirt on one of 'em, I got excited. I was pumped to hear this album. I really wanted to get into it, and at first I did, but by the fourth track I was hitting my head off the desk asking any deity that would listen why it had to be so damned repetitive, slow and boring. Of the three CDs, this was the one I was dying to hear the most, but of course, it ended up letting me down terribly, and as much as I wanted to give it a higher score, but with all it's faults I just couldn't leaving this to be the way I ended my Victory Records night.
-> Read the review here.
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Tonight was essentially what I expected, but not quite. I had high hopes for The Warriors, and it greatly saddened me. Dr. Acula, however, really pushed it over the top, I really got into that one and even gave it an extra spin for the hell of it after the review. I actually like it even more that third time with the album, but that doesn't mean the score would have changed, I just got more into some of the songs mostly because I knew that the next track wasn't going to let me down completely and I wasn't walking on egg shells. Typically, when you listen to a CD without having to examine it closely, it's a little more enjoyable, or it can sometimes make a huge difference, so on a personal level, I suggest checking out Slander by Dr. Acula. Hell, even on a critical level, it was still a solid effort that showed the band growing more then before. Other then that, the rest of the night was met with low expectations that ended on a sour note. The fans of Emmure, no matter what I say, will go buy the CD anyway, and good for them, they'll probably like it more then the rest of us who aren't fans for obvious reasons, but I just wish I could have said more about that album, though I just couldn't. It literally was impossible for me.
Either way, my night of Victory Records has come to a close, and hopefully these reviews will help you out, though they are a little late. I'll continue to expect good things from the label, especially knowing they picked up Blackguard, though their debut full-length didn't really win me over to begin with, but I'm anxious to see if that constant touring they did, and all the feedback they got on their album will produce something better, or something far worse. Hopefully it's not a Pirate-Jock album, that would just make me crawl into a fetal position and just completely give up on the Pirate Metal scene all together and hope the new Alestorm could possibly revive it. But, that's a discussion for another night, as I do have plenty of bones to pick with some of those bands as well. Now, time to put something non-Victory Records in and wash The Warriors out of my mind...Buuh...
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