Point #1 (©1999 Squint)

1: Open 2: Point #1 3: Prove To You 4: Mia 5: Skeptic 6: Anticipation 7: Dos 8: Long 9: Blank Earth 10: Sma 11: Peer

Uh, I try not to buy stuff I won’t like. I think I’ve mentioned before that my wife gets pretty pissed at me for wasting money. Now, there should have been a lot to like here: Raw, loud, rocking, and full of the energy of angry youth on a mission. Mix all the ingredients together and what do you get? Usually a great freakin’ record. Which is why I bought this one and the follow-up album sight unheard.

So what happened here? Oh, hang on – lest you think I’m going to trash this as being crap, I will say that this isn’t total crap. But given all the hype I’ve read about the guys I expected better – maybe not the “BEST ALBUM EVER MADE” but at least something better than this. It’s just so, so bland and boring for the most part, it’s like the guys just picked up their instruments and learned to play while the tape was rolling (okay this was probably a straight to hard disc recording). There are a few flashes of brilliance (comparative brilliance at any rate) here and there. But for the most part I found myself shaking my head and lamenting the fact that maybe I'm just getting old.

Nah, I don’t think so.

This just isn’t very good.

Reviewed February 24, 2004

Wonder What's Next (©2002 Epic)

1: Family System 2: Comfortable Liar 3: Send The Pain Below 4: Closure 5: The Red 6: Wonder What's Next 7: Don't Fake This 8: Forfeit 9: Grab Thy Hand 10: An Evening With El Diablo 11: One Lonely Visitor

Holy crap, what the heck is this? I'll tell you right now if I hadn't bought both albums at the same time, I would NEVER have picked this one up. I listened to the first one over and over and over trying to make myself like it. Cringing I put Wonder What's Next in the changer and was hoping for the best.

Bling. WTF? (what the fudge)

Right out of the gate the boys showed remarkable improvement. Amazing what a couple of years will do. The guys must've holed themselves up somewhere are practiced their little fingers off. Wonder What's Next is raw, loud, rocking, and full of the energy of angry youth on a mission. This is a great freakin’ record.

Now I'll admit to getting a little bit tired of the baritone guitar sounds all these kids are leaning on, it's like the old days when a metal bass player chunked away on an open E for three and a half minutes. But now like then when it's done well, it's a lot of fun to listen to. To be honest it puts a silly ass grin on my face. I can do without all of the big lunged screaming, but there's more than enough singing on this one to balance out the "happy" anger. This one is chock full of killer tunes.

The boys unwisely decide to close the album with the acoustic flavoured "One Lonely Visitor", which more of less shows that the boys sound better with distortion.

Still can't believe this is the same bunch who made Point #1.

Reviewed February 24, 2004

This Type of Thinking Could Do Us In (©2004 Epic)

1: The Clincher 2: Get Some 3: Vitamin R (Leading Us Along) 4: Still Running 5: Breach Birth 6: Panic Prone 7: Another Know It All 8: Tug-O-War 9: To Return 10: Emotional Drought 11: Bend The Bracket

The third album by the guys, and I was intrigued enough by their last album to pick this one up when I found it. Musically the lads are still trotting down the screaming detuned angry thrashing cacophonic path their contemporaries are, and to be frank I’m having a hard time telling them apart from everyone else. It’s like reading a Greek tragedy without having a list of dramatis personae to work from. Why pick on these guys, while I heap praise on the myriad of other indistinguishable bands I like? Hey, I’m feeling pissy (must be the music that's making me so angry). This is my page so I can do what I want – if you don’t like it, start your own and write something nice. Besides, I’m about to get nice.

This is a pretty good effort, actually it’s very good (but I took off half a star because I'm feeling angry). At least these guys have some variety to their playing, unlike – oh EVANESCENCE (did I write that out loud?). In terms of the quality of the new rock style and their writing, they are as good as, or better than most of what I’ve been exposed to. Then again I’m an old fart who couldn’t name a third of what’s “Cool” anymore (Is Soundgarden still together?). So the fact that I even play these guys is kind of like musical slumming. Of course listening to this stuff after a few minutes winds me up something fierce and pretty soon I find myself wanting to rip the heads of my daughter’s dolls. It’s not something I can put on and relax to. Given a choice between the latest Celine Dion album and this, I’d choose this. I don’t mind getting wound up and disfiguring my kid’s toys, but having music make me suicidal isn’t something I enjoy. Which is why I don’t own any of her stuff or have a shotgun in the house.

Perhaps I really am too old for this shit. Then again, “If it’s too loud you’re too old.”

Crank it up, and pass me a dolly.

Reviewed January 6, 2005