A Chronological History of my Music Library

On the same day as my last release a new band joins my library when Seether released their second album "Disclaimer II" on June 15, 2004. But who are Seether? They are a three-piece rock band from Pretoria, South Africa consisting of drummer John Humphrey, bassist Dale Stewart and lead singer/guitarist Shaun Morgan. I'm not a huge Seether fan and I only have one song off this album: arguably Seether's most famous song. It's called "Broken" and it features guest vocals from Amy Lee of Evanescence! It's a slow and pretty sad song driven by some nice acoustic guitar by Morgan and his low, grunge-y voice sounds pretty smooth and solid overtop the acoustic riff. Amy joins in for the sappy but very well done chorus and the two of them together sounds pretty good. Amy sings the second verse and she sounds pretty great in this setting as well. Things are certainly sad, but they do an excellent job of keeping things epic. Throw in some epic strings for the lo...

A week after my last release a new band briefly joins my library when The Killers released their debut album "Hot Fuss" on June 15, 2004. But who are The Killers? They are a four-piece rock band from Las Vegas, Nevada consisting of drummer Ronnie Vannucci Jr., bassist Mark Stoermer, guitarist Dave Keuning and lead singer/keyboardist Brandon Flowers. I'm not a huge Killers fan, with only two songs of theirs in my library, but they're both off this debut album and were both mega-singles that helped propel this album to #1 in the charts! The first one is easily their most popular song, "Mr. Brightside", and it's driven by a pretty undeniably catchy guitar riff. Flowers shows us his unique voice as he leads the way with a catchy verse overtop and there's a similarly catchy bridge that takes us to a pretty damn catchy chorus; that's a lot of catchiness, it's no wonder this song was a massive hit! Keuning plays some solid guitar throughout this son...

On the same day as my last release and a little under two years since "Alexisonfire", Alexisonfire released their second album "Watch Out!" on June 8, 2004. Alexisonfire are still playing the same post-hardcore style as their amazing debut, but there's definitely a bigger emphasis this album on Dallas Green's melodic singing and also a bit more experimentation. Let's see what that all sounds like!  The album kicks off with "Accidents" and it's deiven by a pretty catchy, albeit not that heavy guitar riff. The rest of the band joins in as the pace picks up and George Pettit sounds great screaming the verse overtop in his wonderfully high voice. George and Dallas combine nicely in a short bridge before Dallas takes over the chorus and he sounds pretty epic singing the chorus with a bunch of catchy "whoa-oh-oh"-ing in the background. After another unique and interesting round they quiet things right down as Chris Steele plays some pre...

A week after my last release a new band joins my library when Velvet Revolver released their debut album "Contraband" on June 8, 2004. But who is Velvet Revolver? They are a hard rock supergroup formed by former Guns 'N' Roses members Slash (lead guitar), Duff McKagan (bass) and Matt Sorum (drums, percussion), former Wasted Youth member Dave Kushner (rhythm guitar), and formerly of Stone Temple Pilots, Scott Weiland (lead vocals). This album went straight to #1 on the charts upon release and was very popular, sporting four singles, all of which got significant radio airplay. Let's see what Velvet Revolver are all about! The album opens with "Sucker Train Blues" and McKagan is the backbone of the main riff with some cool bass as the rest of the band builds around him with a decent rock riff. Weiland sings quickly overtop in a solid verse and he sounds decent in the chorus holding lots of longer notes. Slash's guitar is solid but nothing too flashy unt...

It's a double release day, and they're both new bands! Another band joins my library when Parkway Drive released their debut EP "Don't Close Your Eyes" on June 1 2004. But who is Parkway Drive? They are a five-piece metalcore band from Byron Bay, New South Wales, Australia consisting of lead singer Winston McCall, lead guitarist Jeff Ling, rhythm guitarist Luke Kilpatrick, bassist Brett Versteeg and drummer Ben Gordon. Parkway Drive play a pretty heavy style, even for metalcore, with lots of hard-hitting breakdowns, plenty of fast and crazy metal and McCall bringing some extreme vocals at both ends of the spectrum. Let's see what these surfer-metalheads are all about! The albuk begins with a song just called "..." and it's just a woman repeating "I don't wanna die", starting with a whisper and ending with a high shrill yell. A weird little intro before we reach the first real song "Smoke 'Em If Ya Got 'Em" and now ...

A week after my last release a new band joins my library when Misery Signals released their debut album "Of Malice And The Magnum Heart" on June 1, 2004. But who is Misery Signals? They are a five-piece with both Canadian and American members, but formed in Wisconsin and are one of the first bands to play progressive metalcore! They consist of lead singer Jesse Zaraska, lead guitarist Ryan Morgan and his brother, drummer Branden Morgan, rhythm guitarist Stuart Ross and bassist Kyle Johnson. Misery Signals combine the heaviness of metalcore with the smooth segues and longer songs of prog and given that, who better to produce them than Devin Townsend! I can't wait to hear what these guys sound like, let's dive in!  The album kicks off with a short intro track called "A Victim, A Target" and it's got some fairly basic guitars keeping the pace while Branden plays a cool drum beat in the background. Zaraska comes in and shows us his epic screaming style that ...