Album Of The Week: Of Mice & Men - The Flood

The re-issue contains two CDs: four songs are on the first one and twelve songs on the second.

CD one starts with a completely instrumental song: The Calm. The title speaks for itself, the sound of the guitars really calms you down. This was the calm before the storm, which is coming now. Song number two, The Storm, definitely feels like a storm raging through your whole body. The guys always tell a story with their songs and I assume this one is Austin's way of dealing with his relationships. The more attention you pay to the song itself, the better you can feel his anger and how hurt he was.

The last song, The Depths, is pretty intense. It deals with the inner struggles you have when people constantly put you down and tell you that you're not good enough or that you'll never be good enough.

CD two kicks off with one of my favourite songs ever: O.G. Loko. At the same time it's one of the first songs I heard of Of Mice & Men so it will always be special for me. Whenever somebody asks me about this band, I refer to this song at first because it contains lyrics which perfectly describe my feelings for them: “Meet my dedication, inspiration. It may be smothering you but you know it's the truth.“
The next song I'd like to talk about is Let Live. Basically it deals with the difficulties of getting over somebody because letting go is never easy, especially not when the person was important to you. However, sometimes it's better to keep the memories, let go and let live again.

My Understandings is the song with the shortest lyrics but it's one of the most powerful songs on the whole record. There are only Shayley's clean vocals, so if you're not that much into screaming, give this song a try.
The song which left the biggest impression on me is The Great Hendowski. It tells the story of Austin meeting a man and the song as well as their conversation contain some quite inspirational phrases which definitely make me think, for example: “How can you smile with your lips wrapped around a loaded gun?“
The last song on the record is the one I listen to the most: When You Can't Sleep At Night. Again there's only Shay singing and let me tell you, it's the perfect lullaby. It's the perfect song for when you're upset and have trouble falling asleep. There's no screaming Austin, no screaming guitars, only Shay and some acoustic guitars.

Of Mice & Men plan on releasing a new album this year, let's be excited together!