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October 5, 2004 - Greatest Hits Vol. 1

A week after my last release and a year since "Take A Look In The Mirror", Korn released a greatest hits album called "Greatest Hits Vol. 1" on October 5, 2004. I am not a fan of Greatest Hits albums at all, but the first two songs on this one are both previously unreleased tracks and they are both covers! The first is a cover of Cameo and it's called "Word Up!" and Korn do a decent job of sticking to the pop-y original main riff, with Fieldy's typical, super low bass giving things that Korn vibe. Jonathan Davis sounds pretty solid singing the fast verse and everything is fairly tame by Korn'a standards, but it's actually pretty damn catchy! An atypical but well done cover, even if it lacks the usual headbanging you'd expect from Korn. The other cover on this album Isa medley of several Pink Floyd songs (all off "The Wall"): all three parts of the "Another Brick in the Wall" series, plus it only seems fitting to wrap...
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September 28, 2004 - The Used and All That I've Got

On the same day as my last release a new band joins my library when The Used released their second album "In Love And Death" on September 28, 2004. But who is the Used? They are a four-piece emo/post-hardcore band from Orem, Utah consisting of bassist Jeph Howard, drummer Branden Steineckert, guitarist Quinn Allman and lead singer/keyboardist Bert McCracken. I'm not a big fan of The Used, or the emo genre in general, but this album was their big breakthrough with four singles, only one of which I have: the hit single "All That I've Got". It's got a very pop-y, emo vibe to it for sure but it is pretty undeniably catchy, with some strings helping to make things sound decently epic. McCracken certainly has that typical emo singing voice that sounds fairly whiny at times, but the music is solid and catchy with Steineckert playing some nice catchy drums. The chorus is very sappy and radio-friendly, but once again the strings help to keep the music sounding ni...
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September 28, 2004 - Gettin' Filthy

Three days after my last release and two years since "Open Container", The Expendables released their third album "Gettin' Filthy" on September 28, 2004. Cam Hanson is no longer with the band, but they continue on as a four-piece now and i'm not sure they really needed three guitarists anyway. The Expendables are still playing their same style of reggae/rock/punk and this is their longest album yet with 20 tracks and over an hour of music! Let's dive in! The album begins with "Tight Squeeze" and it sounds like a typically smooth reggae main riff with Geoff Weers sounding pretty smooth overtop. Adam Patterson echoes Weers in the chorus and at times in the verse but he doesn't all that much I find. It's a decent little opener, nothing too crazy going on. Up next is "Let Her Go" and Raul Bianchi plays some cool lead guitar overtop the simpler reggae rhythm section as Weers leads a pop-y and decently catchy verse. Ryan DeMars adds...
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September 25, 2004 - Bring Me The Horizon and This Is What The Edge Of Your Seat Was Made For

Four days after my last release a new band joins my library when Bring Me the Horizon released their debut EP "This Is What The Edge Of Your Seat Was Made For" on September 25, 2004. But who is Bring Me the Horizon? They are a five-piece deathcore band from Sheffield, England consisting of lead singer Oli Sykes, lead guitarist Lee Malia, rhythm guitarist Curtis Ward, bassist Matt Kean and drummer Matt Nicholls. Bring Me the Horizon play an extremely heavy style that is definitely death metal, but they also mix in a bit of groove and breakdowns from the hardcore style. Let's see what BMTH is all about! The EP begins with "RE: They Have No Reflections" and they jump right into some super heavy guitars and Sykes shows us right from the get-go that he can hit some super high screams! As the pace increases Sykes shows us that he can hit some low screams as well and all the guitars and bass are splendidly heavy the whole way through! Malia mixes in tons of super high,...
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September 21, 2004 - American Idiot

A day after my last release and seven years since their last appearance in my library, Green Day released their seventh album "American Idiot" on September 21, 2004. This album was a massive international success: it was Green Day's first #1 album and it spawned five very succesful singles. I'm still not a big Green Day fan, but I do have the first four of the five mega-singles, starting with the title track. "American Idiot" is driven by an upbeat and pretty catchy guitar riff by Billie Joe Armstrong that is just so easy to bounce along with. Armstrong's verses about how Americans are stupid and susceptible to propaganda are great as well and it's no wonder this song became so popular, it's very catchy indeed. Tré Cool plays some catchy drums as well and eventually Armstrong spices things up with a fitting little solo. A pretty solid way to get things started! The next mega-single I have is "Holiday" and it's driven by a fairly sim...
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September 20, 2004 - Indukti and S.U.S.A.R.

A day after my last release a new band joins my library when Indukti released their debut album "S.U.S.A.R." on September 20, 2004. But who is Indukti? They are a five-piece progressive metal band from Warsaw, Poland consisting of drummer Wawrzyniec Dramowicz, bassist Maciej Adamczyk, guitarists Piotr Kocimski and Maciej Jaśkiewicz and violinist Ewa Jabłońska. Violin in a progressive metal band sounds pretty cool to me, and while there is no official singer in Indukti there are guest vocals on several of this album's songs, all sung by Riverside frontman Mariusz Duda! That's pretty awesome as well! Let's see what Indukti is all about!  The album opens with "Freder" and it begins with some light, trippy guitar that sounds almost like a harp honestly! After about a minute another more standard guitar riff comes in to keep the pace, the  we hear the violin for the first time and it's slow, loud and pretty epic I think. The rest of the band slowly joins ...
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September 19, 2004 - Showbread and No Sir, Nihilism Is Not Practical

Almost three weeks after my last release a new band joins my library when Showbread released their fourth album "No Sir, Nihilism Is Not Practical" on September 19, 2004. But who is Showbread? They are a 7-piece Christian metalcore band from Guyton, Georgia consisting of Marvin Reilly (drums), Patrick Porter (bass), Ivory Mobley (lead vocals), Mike Jensen and Matt Davis (guitars), John Giddens (keyboards) and Josh Dies (vocals, guitar, synthesizer). I'm not a huge Showbread fan (this is my only album of theirs in my library), but this major label debut showcases the unique style of metalcore these guys play with lots of unexpected twists and turns amongst the heaviness. Let's check it out! The album begins with "A Llama Eats A Giraffe (And Vice-Versa)" and it opens with a phone ringing, a rushed little conversation, then they kick heavily into the main riff with loud guitars, bass and drums all thundering in and Mobley screaming his head off in a very high p...
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