A Chronological History of my Music Library

It's a double release day! Two years after their debut album "Saturate", Breaking Benjamin released their second album "We Are Not Alone" on June 29, 2004. This was their big breakthrough with a few succesful singles and it propelled Breaking Benjamin and their post-grunge/alternative metal style into the mainstream. Let's check out the latest! The album kicks off with it's lead single "So Cold" and Benjamin Burnley plays a slow but decently epic rhythm guitar riff, Aaron Fink adds some nice light lead guitar and once Mark Klepaski and Jeremy Hummel come in with the heavy rhythm section Fink switches to some pretty cool and heavy lead guitar. They quiet things back down for the start of the verse and Burnley sounds super epic and solid singing softly for the most part but mixing in some nice yells as well. Things get heavy again as they shift to the chorus and Burnley sings a catchy and solid chorus overtop. This seems to be the perfect blend o...

A week after my last release a new band joins my library when Atreyu released their second album "The Curse" on June 29, 2004. But who is Atreyu? They are a five-piece metalcore band from Yorba Linda, California consisting of lead singer Alex Varkatzas, guitarists Dan Jacobs and Travis Miguel, bassist Marc McKnight and drummer/clean vocalist Brandon Saller. Atreyu are definitely metalcore with plenty of heaviness and Varkatzas doing screaming vocals, but they also have a bit of an emo side to them and Saller does lots of singing as well. Let's see what Atreyu is all about! The album starts with "Blood Children (An Introduction)" and it has screaming and singing, but everything sounds like it's way in the background. This only lasts just over a minute until things come in fully for "Bleeding Mascara" with Varkatzas holding a long, low heavy scream and some pretty sweet shredding guitar right from the get-go! The rhythm section is plenty heavy and ha...

A week after my last release, a year since their last EP "Seal Beach", and three years since their last album "One Day I'll Be On Time", The Album Leaf released their third album "In A Safe Place" on June 22, 2004. Jimmy LaValle is still playing post-rock, but for the first time he has a lot of people helping him out! This album was recorded at Sigur Ros's home studio and several members of Sigur Ros contribute on this album with guitars, keyboards, drums and even strings! It was also The Album Leaf's breakthrough as a couple songs were featured in popular T.V. series. Let's see what the latest from Jimmy has to offer! The album begins with "Window" and it has some super light and dreamy keyboards in the background while more distorted keyboard riff takes the very slow lead. It's alright but fairly bland for the first couple minutes, then some strings and other trippy noises join the light fray to spice up the rest of the song...

On the same day as my last several releases and a little over two years since their last album "The Changing Of Times", Underoath released their fourth album "They're Only Chasing Safety" on June 15, 2004. There's a lot of turnover since that last album with half(!) of the band now gone. Bassist William Nottke was only around for one album and is replaced by new bassist Grant Brandell. Original members Octavio Fernandez and Dallas Taylor are also gone and they are replaced by new rhythm guitarist James Smith and new lead singer Spencer Chamberlain. That's a lot of turnover! Underoath continue to move away from their progressive death metal beginnings and build off their more radio-friendly previous album, while still being plenty heavy. Let's check out the latest from Underoath! The album kicks off with "Young And Aspiring" and they jump right into a hard-hitting and heavy main riff led by some pretty cool lead guitar by Timothy McTague. We...

It's a triple release day, and all with new artists to the library! Matthew Good released his second album "White Light Rock & Roll Review" on June 15, 2004 as well. But who is Matthew Good? He is a singer and guitarist from Burnaby, British Columbia and he's joined on this album by Christian Thor Valdson (guitar), Rich Priske (bass) and Pat Steward (drums). I'm not a big Matthew Good fan at all (this is the only song I have by him in my library), but the one song I have was a very successful single called "Alert Status Red". It's driven by a pretty cool lead guitar riff and Good's voice is nothing special for me, but he sings a solid enough rock verse and things sound pretty catchy. The chorus Good sings is decent but a little repetitive but he does play some cool guitar. There's a decent little guitar solo midway through and Priske plays some decent bass in the background and all in all I think this is a worthy addition to the library e...

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...