Album of the Week: Melanie Martinez - Cry Baby

Y'all probably thought I'm dead or something, but I just had a few crazy months. I really hope that I'm back on track now, so maybe I'll finally get to catch up on all the reviews. The records are literally piling up on my desk, it's ridiculous.

The first album I'd like to discuss today is Cry Baby by Melanie Martinez. It was released on August 14th and features 16 songs. The title of each song refers to something you definitely know from your childhood, e.g. Sippy Cup or Play Date or Teddy Bear. However, the themes aren't really about childhoods, but rather about problems you face as an adult.
Song number one immediately names the album and talks about the struggle of keeping friends while dealing with inner struggles. Do you know what it feels like to see one person after the other leave you? Maybe you're different than them for whatever reason, they don't understand your mindset, but you tell yourself it's not you it's them. Maybe you cry a lot and they see it as some sort of weakness when it's not, sometimes "your heart's too big for your body, it's where your feelings hide. They're pouring out where everyone can see." None of that matters though because sooner or later you'll find someone who looks at you and will see themselves because no matter how different you think you are, there's always someone who will understand.
This album is fucking real, excuse my language, but it's true. Dollhouse is only the second song, but it talks about the picture perfect family which is a damn mess behind the curtains. All of us know this one family that looks totally perfect on the outside, but none of us know what happens inside their four walls. We don't see the cheating husband or the son who's addicted to drugs. the mother who drinks, we don't see how desperately this family tries to hold everything together for the sake of not showing what's really going on. So next time you want to talk bad about that family, think of that they could possibly have to deal with.
Melanie goes on wrapping real lyrics into a relaxed tune, but don't let yourself just enjoy the sound - pay attention to these lyrics because they're extremely important and will definitely make you think.
Carousel is about love that doesn't work. She clearly says that "it's all fun and games until somebody falls in love" because that's when things become complicated, sometimes they even turn into a freak show. If it's unrequited love you spend way too much time chasing the person and it's like a fairytale because it's not real. 
Personally, I find Soap pretty interesting because Melanie uses a bath tub as a metaphor for herself and her actions: never say too much because otherwise the tub overflows (like her emotions?), and again it's about love  but this time it kills you because you "threw a toaster in the bathtub."
Training Wheels is for those of us who always want to be safe, the ones who always go the safe way. No risks, no crazy things. If you use your training wheels all your life, you'll never know how much you would have been capable of without them, you see? So take them off, listen to this song and let them go because someone will always be around and carrying band-aids in case you fall and hurt your skin.
Pity Party is one that hit me on a personal level because I'm the kind of person who tries not to drown in self-pity no matter what. In fact, I'm the kind of person who rather bottles my emotions up until I explode. This song is an anthem for people who embrace their sadness and throw a pity party for themselves - when the party is over, they move on. 
Tag, You're It deals with the topic of sexual assault, and through this song the atmosphere of the album changes. What used to sound like cotton candy tastes, is now dark and creepy - the experiences shaped the protagonist (let's just call them that) in a form that they do not care about boundaries or pretty much anything anymore, for example Pacify Her is about ruining someone's relationship because "You don’t love her, stop lying with those words."
Mrs. Potato Head covers the issue of unrealistic beauty standards of today's society. I'm sure you're all aware of the mentality that you only live a fulfilling life if you wear a certain size and your face looks a certain way because "no one will love you if you're unattractive" 
Remember how the protagonist was chasing their love in Carousel? Well, they gave that up pretty quickly: In Play Date there's a line that goes like this: "I'm tired of always chasing, chasing after you. I don't give a fuck about you anyways, whoever said I gave a shit about you?" You can now see the development I was referring to.
Teddy Bear picks up the subject of domestic violence: in many cases, the relationship is all great and lovely and the partner is like a teddy bear until they change into this aggressive person - "You were comforting and quiet, how did love become so violent?"
Most victims can't do anything about their situation because they're paralyzed and don't know what to do. However, if they find the courage to kick their partner out the way the protagonist of this song does, the violence doesn't stop. It shows up through phone calls and stalking and physological terror. 

All in all, Cry Baby by Melanie Martinez is an album everybody should listen to no matter what genre you usually like. This review focused mainly on lyrics, but as you can see the lyrics of this album are extremely important and socially aware which is rather rare these days. Melanie is a damn talented songwriter, singer and her music is absolutely honest. There's no sugarcoating of anything that goes wrong in our society - this woman keeps things real, so I feel like it's my duty to force everyone I know to listen to this album and to give this woman all the support. 

Album of the Week: One Direction - Four

One Direction were still five members when they released their current album Four; now they're four members doing the wild job of touring to promote this album.
The first song on the record is also the first single of the new album: “Steal My Girl” comes along with a catchy tune and typical boyband lyrics about this special girl they want to keep because “she belongs to [them].” Can somebody please tell them that girls don't belong to anybody but themselves?
Steal My Girl seems to be the exception though because song number two, “Ready To Run”, immediately convinces with grown-up lyrics and it shines through that One Direction have distanced themselves from their past sound. Ready To Run already foreshadows what to expect.
“Where Do Broken Hearts Go” is a legit question, but unfortunately they don't know the answer either. What's interesting is that by now, they don't explicitly sing about girls anymore, but they use the neutral pronoun “you”.
One Direction have made “a long way from the playground” in a very short period of time, they've matured a lot since Midnight Memories, and “18” is only another way to prove that. This track is different from past songs because it's not the boy chases girl because she's so pretty anymore; this track talks about deep emotions that have grown for a while now, it talks about making mistakes and learning from them, it talks about how to love means to try.
Song number five has to be my favourite one ever: “Girl Almighty” quickly became the anthem for girls all over the world; there's just something about this song that boosts my confidence. Maybe it's Liam singing “I get down on my knees for you” because that's exactly how girls should be celebrated.
The atmosphere is becoming thoughtful again when “Fool's Gold” kicks in and we're back at deep lyrics. This song is for those who were betrayed, who have this one person in their life who keeps playing with them but they aren't able to leave. It's for those who know that their relationship won't go anywhere, but they still hold on tight.
This album is a rollercoaster: from sad and deep songs you're pushed to up tempo tracks like “No Control”: certainly there's nothing sad about someone telling you that they're “waking up beside you, I'm a loaded gun” and that they're all yours and got no control. This song is probably the farthest away from the cliché boyband material people still associate One Direction with, what makes it even more important than it already is.
With “Fireproof” the relaxed tunes are back with harmonies that are on point, and “Spaces” follows this with lots of phrases that could keep you up all night evaluating your own life. In light of recent events, the question of “Who's gonna be the first to say good bye” can be answered with Zayn, and the rest is dealt with in secret. Obviously, the spaces between Zayn and his life as a famous band member kept getting deeper until he couldn't do it anymore. The question for their management would be “Will we ever learn? When will we learn?” because it's only logic that something like this was going to happen when the band never gets a proper break.
The last song on the album is also the one that's the most fun: “Act My Age” has this Irish vibe as it tells the story of somebody who still enjoys their life even when they're “fat and old.” It also perfectly shows that One Direction take their job seriously, but they can take a step back as well and laugh about themselves.
All in all, Four is the best album One Direction have relased so far. It's the perfect prove to show how much these boys have grown and matured during their five years as a band. They've reached the point where they can make the music they like which is an important step in their career, whether they're four or five members.

Album Of The Week: 5 Seconds Of Summer & their self-titled

To be honest this isn't just my album of this week, it's been my album of every week since it's been released, which was on June 27th (sidenote: I had to look the date up and it slightly shocked me because it feels like the album just dropped two days ago).
It also slightly annoys me how people mock this band just because they're four teenage boys who are currently opening for One Direction. First: Who cares and second: why does that bother you so much? I could rant about this for the next ten years, so let's move on to the actual album.

The band's most popular song, She Looks So Perfect, opens the record with a nice riff and  the story of a girl wearing American Apparel underwear - the lyrics might not be the deepest you'll ever come across, but it's most likely not the goal of this song to make you question all of your life choices.

Don't Stop, song number two, picks up the atmosphere of SLSP and convinces with catchy tunes and a good mood. 

Apologies to whoever cares, but I usually skip song munber three: Good Girls. I'm just not really feeling the sound of it and the story behind it doesn't really impress me either (I mean, good girls are bad girls that haven't been caught might be an existing thing, but in my opinion it's not something that delivers a good base for a song.)

What I'm extremely happy about is the fact that Alex Gaskarth from All Time Low helped the boys with a few songs (if you want to play a game called "guess the Alex songs", I highly encourage you to do so, you'll definitely hear it): Kiss Me Kiss Me is one of them. I don't know what it is, but Alex has this musical fingerprint so to speak which he leaves in every song he writes, and he didn't miss this one either. It kind of reminds me of All Time Low's Nothing Personal era.

When I first got into 5sos, I already knew they were probably young (aka younger than me), but I hadn't expected their vocalist to be 17 (he's 18 in the meantime, but still), and their oldest member is their drummer who's 20 now. Obviously this age thing brings a few difficulties sometimes, so the boys wrote a song about it: 18. I don't think I have to say much about this one, just pay some attention to the lyrics and you'll see the difficulties I'm talking about.
After a handful of rather fast and loud songs, the guys show that they can be quiet as well: Everything I Didn't Say and Beside You deal with the flip side of being a touring musician. I can only imagine what it feels like to drop off your special one at the airport and let him travel the world while you sit at home and wait for him (mad respect for all the couples who actually manage this).
End Up Here puts an end to the sad mood: it's fast, it's catchy and it contains fantastic vocals. The story behind it makes me chuckle every single time because it's basically about the loser boy who gets to be with the fantastic girl who is so out of his league that his friends suggest he should lock her down before she can run. I'm pretty sure that it's the other way around in the meanwhile.
Another Alex-song is coming up and I definitely see and hear All Time Low perform this one as well: Long Way Home comes with a mental music video right away (at least I immediately see a couple driving around aimlessly for hours just so they can be together. So, if anybody connected to 5sos is reading this right now, I'll gladly play a role in this video if you ever decide to make one). 

Heartbreak Girl was the very first song of 5sos I ever heard and it's one of my favourites ever since. I'm not gonna start a feminist rant about the ridiculous concept of being "friendzoned" now, so let's just say that the song is good regardless of the topic.

English Love Affair might be the song that made the fandom speculate the most. Who is this English love affair? And who is the lucky boy who got involved? I heard a few rumours concerning these questions, but I won't discuss them here. If you'd like to share your opinions, hit me up!

Their current single Amnesia was written by the Madden brothers and I just love it. Y'all know that I'm a sucker for acoustic songs, so this song is super important. Both Luke and Calum are really talented vocalists, and I think their voices can shine even more than usual in this song (another sidenote: Michael and Ashton have amazing voices as well and sometimes it makes me sad that they don't get to sing more often).

Michael does some vocals in Social Casualty but this one and the next song (Never Be) are unfortunately filed under: songs I skip. I don't know what's my problem with Social Casualty, but Never Be is too slow for my taste, it lacks a little energy. The chorus is amazing actually, but I'm not feeling the rest.

However, Voodoo Doll is one of my favourites as well. When I got into this band it was like this: my best friend introduced me to them, I had no idea who was who and kept mixing up Luke and Ashton, I listened to Out Of My Limit and I was sold. Since then I feel like there's some higher force keeping me here even though I sometimes wish I didn't know them (my bank account would definitely be happier).

Kudos to you if you read all of this, but I just really like this album, so I thought every song deserved a little something. In all honesty, it makes me angry when people are all mean and mock this band because this is their first full-length album and it's already pretty amazing, so I'm quite excited to see where this whole thing is going. Also it's lame to say that only teenage girls enjoy this album because boys can like this just as much and it's not very punk rock to keep yourself from listening to a certain band because some people associate them with One Direction.

Album Of The Week: This Wild Life - Clouded

Don't judge a book by its cover. I never used this proverb in a serious context, but when you talk about This Wild Life, it's pretty accurate. Kevin and Anthony look like the perfect example for hardcore guys with hardcore tunes, but as soon as you press play and actually expect some heavy sounds, you'll be quite surprised.
This Wild Life only need guitars and Kevin's voice to convince you, and they only needed one song from Clouded to convince me: Concrete went straight to my mind and has been staying there ever since. No More Bad Days slowly has been developing into my life motto lately because Kevin is right when he sings "no more bad days for you my dear". Maybe it'll work, maybe not (I shall give this experiment a try and will report the results!). Apart from uplifting lyrics, Kevin's vocals feel like you're being wrapped in a warm blanket after a stupid day, especially in History, Roots And Branches or Better With You. 
This Wild Life give you the perfect soundtrack for rainy days, for stressful days, for days when you have to take a step back from all the metalcore you've been listening to for weeks (I certainly enjoy some calmer tunes from time to time).
Looking Back is one of my favourite songs on the record, simply because of its lyrics. It reminds me a lot of my own story when it's about taking two steps forward and three steps back, or when it's about this thing called life getting harder every year. It's not a negative song at all though because "it's gotta get easier from here, I had to learn to life without looking back" and I personally think that's one of the most important aspects of life. No matter what happened, don't look back. I also share the last part of the song where it says: "One thing I've learned is that good things will not fall in my lap. I had to work harder and longer, be smarter and stronger than the person right beside me. Have the confidence and common sense to know there's still something inside me. I gave my very best, with the purest intent and I'll be proud when I look back."

This Wild Life are such an important band, and I really hope they'll be more and more successful during the next few years. I appreciate these songs so much because they're so passionate and pure and honest.

Album Of The Week: Hands Like Houses - Unimagine

Hello and happy Sunday my fellow music lovers! I recently started reading the Divergent series (I'll probably review it in a video soon), which makes me forget everything. When I mean everything, food is included, so I almost forgot to upload a review today. Last night I got the new Punk Goes 90's, on which I found a band called Hands Like Houses. They covered Torn, originally by Natalia Imbruglia, and it was the only song on this album I actually liked, so I proceeded to have a closer listen to them. Due to this, I discovered Unimagine, the band's current album, which I'll talk about in this post.

I haven't listened to Hands Like Houses before, so I only had a slight idea of what to expect. I was honestly prepared for some breakdowns and screaming, but nothing like that happened. In fact, I got some new, refreshing rock songs.

I really like the dramatic touch with which Developments kicks off the record. It actually inspires me a lot for the stories I write, and I'm very thankful for that.
The first line of the second song Introduced Species is something I thought to myself a million times during the last few years. I never had a place where I had the feeling that I belonged, that I could be the way I was, until I stumbled into this part of the music scene. I haven't met a single person who shares my taste in music and judges me for my looks or my "depression" or whatever people judge me for, I stopped caring a while ago, thanks to this music. 

What I really like about Hands Like Houses is the energy they convey, and how this energy makes me feel like there's nothing I couldn't do, for example in Shapeshifters, when he sings "We will be unbreakable!"
With Oceandust, the band shows that they can be quiet and sensitive as well. The drums and any electric instruments leave and are replaced by a piano and acoustic guitars during the biggest part of the song, but Oceandust still possesses a tiny rock part when an e-guitar appears for a couple of seconds. 

The last four songs on Unimagine form a great ending of a brilliant record. The very last song, A Fire On A Hill, closes the record and if you weren't fully convinced of this band and their work until this point, you will like them after the last tune faded. 

Album Of The Week: The Pretty Reckless - Going To Hell

Hello my fellow music lovers! In case you were wondering, I decided to make Sunday the day for weekly album reviews, yaay! *clapping in the background*

I was looking through my music folder to find something I haven't already discussed, and I found this:

If you still have this image of Taylor Momsen as Gossip Girl's Jenny Humphrey in your mind, welcome to the club. However, you and I urgently have to update this image because Taylor drifted away from the role of cute Jenny, and now spices up the music world with her band The Pretty Reckless. Going To Hell is the band's second album and was released on March 12th. 

Follow Me Down, the first song on the album, already gives a taste for the band's talent as a whole. Of course there's Taylor with her powerful voice, but she's supported by fantastic musicians who know exactly what to do to make her voice stand out.
Up next is the song that names the record: Going To Hell, which sounds like a prayer at first but ends up being about certain sins and being married to the devil. 

As loud and fierce Taylor can sound, as quiet and soft she can be. House On A Hill works without screeching guitars, it's emotional and still as powerful as the louder songs. This record is like a rollercoaster; after going down with some calm tunes, Sweet Things picks up the pace again, goes all the way up and picks up where  Heaven Knows left off: the topic of the devil appears again, but just when you think you're settling into Taylor screaming, there's a short interlude called Dear Sister and the rollercoaster goes down again. It almost sounds like a lullaby, and it's already over just when you start enjoying the calmness of it. 

With Absolution comes back the fierceness, it's going up again for around 4 minutes before Blame Me is taking you downwards again. This time the stay down there is a little bit longer because after Blame Me, there's the next interlude: Burn. 

The next two songs take you all the way up again, and to finish your ride to hell, Waiting for a Friend takes you down again, so you can get out and either leave, or get in again for another round. 

Since we need more women in this scene anyway, I'm really glad that Taylor Momsen and The Pretty Reckless are part of it and show that women can be loud and wild just as much as men can be. If you won't check this album out, you'll definitely miss out.

Album Of The Week: The 1975

Hello my fellow music lovers, I should really get my stuff together and blog regularly, shouldn't I. I'll try to fix one day of the week where I'll post whatever comes to my mind, we'll see how that goes. Anyway, this post isn't to ramble about my blogging skills, but to ramble about some new tunes I recently treated my ears with. 

The 1975 are a four-piece band from Manchester, UK, and their self-titled album is also their debut album.
They've been appearing on my dashboard on tumblr for quite a while now, it just took me a while to become aware of them and to give them a listen. When I finally went to my best friend Spotify to check them out, Chocolate was the first song I listened to and that was the moment I fell in love. I immediately fell for Matty's voice (his accent took care of the rest), I fell for the easy sound which feels like a light summer breeze on your skin, and I caught myself acting out my personal music video to Sex more than once. Listening to this album makes you forget everything around you, and no matter how bad your day was, the tracks on this record make you feel better as soon as you press play. If you're upset, Robbers, 12, She Way Out or The City will calm you down; if you feel like celebrating, Chocolate, Sex and  Heart Out will be your tunes. In case you just want to relax a little, the rest of the album will be perfect. Long story short: The 1975 deliver songs for every situation you could possibly encounter, and that's just a beautiful thing.
If you live for acoustic versions of your favourite songs just like I do, I highly recommend you to check out some acoustic songs Matt Healy did, for example this one, or this one. 

I dare to predict that this band will create more  fantastic things in the future, at least as fantastic as their debut album. 

Album Of The Week: Bastille - Bad Blood

Happy New Year guys! I hope you had a great start into 2014, I certainly did (not so much but let's not talk about it)! I got myself two little Christmas presents which I haven't showed you yet, so here you go:

Today I'd like to spend a few minutes on the british boys with the strongest accents I've ever heard. Just pay a little attention and you'll notice it.

Bad Blood kicks off with Bastille's most famous song: Pompeii. I've heard this song more than a gazillion times now, but I'm still singing along without being sick of it and that's a sign for a really really good song in my eyes.
Song number two is also another very popular song: Things We Lost In The Fire. I don't know about you guys, but I always try to imitate his accent while singing along, I mean where's the fun if you don't do that!?
Bastille have this very unique sound which I haven't heard in any other band so far and that's mostly why I like them so much. Bad Blood just puts you in a good mood with songs like Weight Of Living, Flaws or Laura Palmer. And then there are these quiet, thoughtful songs mixed between the happy songs, for example Overjoyed, Oblivion or Daniel In The Den.
Bad Blood tells twelve unique stories, it takes you on an adventure through good and bad times, it makes you think about your own past and all the good and bad things you experienced. With this album, Bastille showed what a talented band they are and I'm quite excited to hear more from them. 

NEW RELEASE: A Day To Remember - Common Courtesy

It's here! The long awaited album of the five-piece hardcore/metalcore band from Florida was released almost a week ago and proved the whole music industry that A Day To Remember know how to make music and how to surprise people. First of all it's important to say that Common Courtesy is self-released because the band has some serious trouble with their (ex-) record label Victory Records (yes, this is a hint for all of you to go and buy this record in order to show your support).

Common Courtesy only hits a small part of my expectations and that's something I'm very happy about. I thought it would be just like What Separates Me From You but I couldn't have been wronger. In fact, it's fresh, it's energetic and it brings out all the great aspects of every band member, especially of Jeremy. It's really good to see (or hear) how there's a perfect mix of aggressive hardcore sounds (for example in Violence) and slower songs which even contain acoustic guitars (for example I'm Already Gone). It's also very good to hear how Jeremy performs the clean vocals, for example in I Surrender. It doesn't really sound like the A Day To Remember we all know but most changes are for good because they show how a band develops and improves and that's definitely something they did. 
My favourite song on the album is I Remember and I suggest every band to do a song like this one. Why? Because it's a great way for the band to share their craziest, best, most memorable experiences of their life in a band with us fans. We're all interested in these stories! There's this part at the end of the song where they talk about how they saw snow for the very first time and when I heard that I was a little confused until I realised that not everybody is used to snow like we Europeans are. It's just so great to hear these stories because band guys experience so much on their way around the world!

All in all, Common Courtesy turned out to be my favourite album of A Day To Remember ever and it's ranked very high on my list of albums released in 2013. All the hard work the band put into this record was definitely worth it.

COMING SOON: Tonight Alive - The Other Side

[I know I posted this before but it wasn't official back then so now you get it again.]

Yes ladies and gentlemen, the team of The Wellz Street Journal got the chance to preview the new album of Tonight Alive which will be released on September 9th and I got the honour to say a few words about it.

While listening to “The Other Side” for the first time, it was clear that the five-piece band with front woman Jenna McDougall matured a lot. They sound determined and more passionate than ever, they have something to say and they want the whole world to hear it.

“It talks about challenges and experiences that we’ve never covered before – it’s a whole new spin for us lyrically and musically it has so more direction than we’ve ever had before. It’s definitely rockier and it’s even more confident than What Are You So Scared Of?”, explained Jenna when she talked about the record and told the story of how The Other Side emerged: “The first track that we wrote for The Other Side was penned in Jakarta, Indonesia whilst we were on tour, the rest of the album was written on tour too and we’d spent so long on the road that we decided to go back to Australia to record it. To make sure that we weren’t in our comfort zone we found a big house out in the bush, five minutes from the beach, and set up our own studio there to record with Dave Petrovic who produced our very first EP.”

The Other Side perfectly shows what great musicians Tonight Alive are. With songs like “Coming Home”, “Bathwater” and “Lonely Girl”, Jenna demonstrates her amazing skills when it comes to carrying messages and emotions through her voice. The four guys around her aren’t silent either - “The Ocean”, “The Other Side” or “The Fire” outline how diverse the band is as a whole.

With this album, Tonight Alive tell the world that they have many plans in the future. They’re willing to make new experiences, to create memories and to make music until the end of all time and I can’t wait to witness all of this. 

NEW RELEASE: Avenged Sevenfold - Hail to the King

Yesterday, Avenged Sevenfold from Huntington Beach, California released their sixth album Hail To The King in several countries, you can check all the release dates here. 

Hail to the King starts with one of the best intros the band could have chosen. "Sheperd Of Fire" sounds impressive with the combination of guitars, drums and trombones and their vocalist only underlines this impressive song with his incredible voice. 

Avenged Sevenfold probably has two of the best guitarists ever: Synyster Gates and Zacky Vengeance make the songs on this record alive with their instruments; I'm not exaggerating when I say that this is magic, for example "Hail to the King", the song which gives the album its name, starts with the best guitar solo I ever heard. However, it actually doesn't matter which song you pick because these two guys prove their excellence in every single part of this record.
If you take a closer look at the lyrics, you notice again that Avenged Sevenfold are very special. They carefully write and choose the words so it's not that easy to figure out what's going on. "This Means War" could be about struggling with inner demons and about being lonely because one line says "Lash your tongue of bane, carry me to nowhere, mental holocaust, battle never ends."
"Requiem", song number five, has a very religious touch. At the beginning there's some latin chanting which sounds like a church choir (I'd translate it for you but I don't trust google and I stopped doing latin at school three years ago so I don't remember anything useful).
The topic of religion can also be found in the lyrics with words like prayers, heaven, mercy or prophets. 
Another song which tackles religious aspects is "Heretic". I have to admit that this is one of the songs that makes me wonder how artists come up with lyrics like these. 

I can't really decide on which would be my favourite, but I like the last song "Acid Rain", especially this line: "Life wouldn't be so precious dear, if there never was an end."

Once again, Avenged Sevenfold showed the world why they're such a popular and famous band and if you don't already own this album or at least pre-ordered it, I highly recommend to do so!

NEW RELEASE: Blessthefall - Hollow Bodies

Two days ago, the five-piece band from Phoenix, Arizona released their new album Hollow Bodies and if you haven't listened to it yet, you're definitely missing out. 

Kicking off the record with "Exodus", we already get a promising start with a brilliant intro. Going on with "You Wear A Crown But You're No King", I feel like being taken to a huge concert - this song makes me think of sweaty bodies in a huge pit, it's one of those songs I listen to when I'm really angry. 

Blessthefall stick to the style we know from their other albums, they also added a calm song without any screaming again: "Buried In These Walls". In this genre, songs that only consist of clean vocals are the most interesting part of a record because they separate the vocalists from each other.
The band also got some guest vocals for Hollow Bodies: Jesse Barnett from Stick To Your Guns sings in "Youngbloods", Jake Luhrs from August Burns Red can be heard in "Carry On" and my personal highlight of the record is Lights, wife of blessthefall's vocalist Beau Bokan, singing on the last song "Open Water". The beginning of the song reminds me of "Don't Go" by Bring Me The Horizon where she sang with Oli Sykes but then Beau starts to sing and you stop thinking of anything else. These seven minutes belong to him and his wife and it's safe to say that  this is one of the most beautiful songs I heard in a while. Lights has such a clear, fragile voice and then there's Beau in contrast to her and before I start rambling I can only say that these were the best seven minutes I ever had while writing about an album. 

Hollow Bodies turned out to be worth the wait. It definitely fulfilled my expectations and you won't regret buying it, that's for sure. 

NEW RELEASE: Asking Alexandria - From Death To Destiny

"You're fucking crazy if you think that I'll ever change." 
That's the first sentence you hear when you listen to From Death To Destiny, the newest record by Asking Alexandria. If you know a little about Danny Worsnop's past, you'll find this at least as worrying as I did because it's not a secret that the vocalist has been struggling with drugs and alcohol for quite a long time. Don't Pray For Me, the song that opens the record, deals with this issue.During their whole career, Asking Alexandria had to cancel one single show, which took place in Seattle, because of this issue. Danny wasn't able to perform because he was too drunk and Ben asked the crowd to raise their hands if they'd support Danny if he went to rehab. I wasn't there but only the thought of it sends shivers down my spine. 

From Death To Destiny is like the diary of Danny Worsnop. It's brutally honest, it deals with his struggles and inner demons, for example in Killing You or Creature. Danny doesn't sugarcoat anything and this is the first time we get the chance to look behind the surface of the tough rockstar. It's a chance to identify with him on a whole new level, it's a chance to finally understand a little better what's going on in his mind.
This album is a lot more mature than their first two records were, it's inspirational. Run Free, song number four, is probably the best song on the album because if you take a closer look and pay attention to the lyrics, you'll realise that there's a very important message behind the song.
From Death To Destiny is a chance for Danny to show the world what an amazing vocalist he is, especially when it comes to clean vocals. It doesn't matter if you pick Run Free or Break Down The Walls or Believe or Moving On. His voice improved a whole lot, it's developed, it's able to completely capture you. 

This record totally blew me away. I have to admit that I didn't really know what to expect because Asking Alexandria never do what you expect them to do, so that's why the surprise was even bigger. From Death To Destiny is much more than I imagined it would be, it's much better than I imagined it would be, it's deep and honest and different than the Asking Alexandria we knew before. 

Album Of The Week: Biffy Clyro - Opposites

Hands down, the three guys from Scotland were my new discovery and biggest surprise at Rock am Ring (no, I'll never shut up about it). I still remember how Simon changed his guitar for every song - one was blue and one was red. I also remember how blonde his hair was and how they didn't wear shirts. What I'm trying to say is that Biffy Clyro is a special band and I'd like to discuss their current album Opposites now. 

Opposites was released on January 28th and contains 14 songs. The first thing I noticed after listening to the whole record was that there's a pattern in the arrangement of the songs: Slow songs alternate with fast songs which creates a balance -  neither the slow nor the fast songs outweigh the other. 
If you take a closer look at the lyrics, you'll see that most of the songs have a slightly dark touch. In Black Chandelier for example it says "we begin to relax when it’s just the two of us, and a cute little cup of cyanide". Cyanide is toxic, so it could be a metaphor for a toxic relationship. Skylight leaves a bitter taste in your mouth when you hear Simon singing: "Looking alive with a broken mind, why don't you ever take my side?" or later in the song: "We're users but at least we use each other."

There's something about Simon's voice that makes you forget everything around you. Combined with the instruments, these tunes capture you and take you on a journey from reality to your deepest thoughts and secrets. Suddenly you forget to blink, you forget where you are, you even forget to breathe because in these 55 minutes nothing else seems to matter. With songs like Black Chandelier, Biblical or The Thaw you easily lose yourself in the sounds and I recommend you to take your time when you decide to check this record out because it deserves your undivided attention. I recommend you let Biffy Clyro do their magic and show you what great artists they are because I'm already a big fan and I'm sure you'll like them, too. 

All in all I can say that Opposites is an amazing piece of work. It doesn't matter whether you've been a fan of the band for a while or if this will be your first time listening to them - Biffy Clyro know exactly how to fascinate lovers of good music. 

Album Of The Week: All Time Low - Dirty Work

I know I said that Don't Panic is the best album All Time Low ever recorded but I'm not too sure anymore. 


Dirty Work means emotions. It means love, energy and passion. It makes you think about what went wrong in your relationships, it helps you to get over these relationships. It makes you cry, it makes you smile, it makes you sing and it gives you hope. It contains the song I'd marry if I could: Time Bomb. It contains the song that makes me dance on the streets even though there are people around: Do You Want Me (Dead?). It contains the song which gives me this warm, fuzzy feeling in my stomach: Get Down On Your Knees And Tell Me You Love Me. It contains songs that inspire me to write cheesy love scenes for no further purpose: No Idea, Under A Paper Moon and A Daydream Away. For all the kids out there who are too punk rock for "normal" Christmas songs, the four guys from Baltimore offer one that improves your holiday a hundred times: Merry Christmas, Kiss My Ass. It contains songs I skip when I'm not in the mood for them.

Dirty Work is honest. It's pure, it's happy and it's melancholic. The mood of the whole record changes within minutes which is brilliant. It's more mature than Nothing Personal but not as mature as Don't Panic, it's everything I need to be happy for a while. 

letlive. - The Blackest Beautiful

Five days ago, letlive., four guys from LA, released their new record The Blackest Beautiful and if you haven’t already listened to it, I recommend you do so immediately. Before I started to write about it, I listened to the commentary given by Jason Butler, lead vocalist of the band, on Spotify and let me tell you, the thought and work alone that have gone into these 11 songs is nothing short of impressive.

The Blackest Beautiful kicks off with Banshee, a song which is intended to reflect the different stages the album went through until it became the beautiful record that we can listen to today. Empty Elvis follows this, as a sequel of sorts to Banshee. It deals with the way the entertainment industry works, and explains the changes that people can go through as they entirely devote themselves to their dream.

Some culturally conscious topics are also brought up in this record. For example, in song number three, White America’s Beautiful Black Market, the issues of being born into restrictive environments are explored, especially discussing how differing circumstances of birth can determine people’s futures. Furthermore, this song is also a commentary on the state of the health system in America. Of this subject, Jason says the following: “There is a sickness that is spread throughout societies and it’s intentional. They want to keep us sick." A statement which arguably says a lot in itself.
The Priest And Used Cars discusses faith and the ignorance which results from the blind following of ideology, whether it’s religious or scientific. One of the most important things gained from this is that having individual opinion is imperative to the wellbeing of society.

As well as covering political arguments, this album handles some of Jason’s personal demons. In Dreamer’s Disease he discusses his struggle to place someone in a position of trust and to be able to open up, while Virgin Dirt is meant to reveal how he has difficulty with love in general. He tries to live his life as normal as possible and yet he says that relationships are tightly connected to self-sabotage. Pheromone Cvlt even describes how Jason failed being “the" man for a woman, how he failed being in a relationship; he even provides conflicting imagery by describing love as a war.

Concluding the record is 27 Club, a song that reflects the recklessness in Jason’s life and an amazing end to an amazing record.

The Blackest Beautiful turned out to be a challenge for me. The lyrics caused, and still cause, me to reflect a lot. Jason has a very special way of handling words and putting them together and sometimes it is difficult to understand what his intentions are. If you’re already a fan of letlive., I’m sure you’ll love this album as much as I do and if you’re going to listen to them for the first time, you’ll get used to their sound. All in all I believe that this is one of the best records of 2013 so far.

Album Of The Week: Imagine Dragons - Night Visions

I'm always literally five years too late with everything I put on this blog, simply because it takes me forever to realise how good certain bands actually are. This time four guys from Vegas are the lucky ones, they're also known as Imagine Dragons and supply the soundtrack of my week. I haven't bought the record yet, so Spotify had to help me out for this review. 

Imagine Dragons are obviously too great to "save the best for last" because their debut album kicks off with their most famous song "Radioactive". At first I didn't like it at all, then Rock am Ring happened and did its magic - I didn't even see this band live but it was enough for me that they showed their performance on the huge screens next to the stages while we waited for the next band (can be watched here: [x]). Meanwhile I sing along to this song from the top of my lungs and it's the best feeling ever (sidenote: If you don't do this heavy breath right at the beginning, you can't enjoy the song at its fullest). 

The next two songs, Tiptoe and It's Time, are perfect for summer. For that time of the year when everybody is in a good mood simply because it's warm and you can sit outside for the whole night.
As happy as these songs sound, the next one is a lot calmer. I really like how Demons slowly builds up and then explodes in the chorus, it makes the whole song sound even more powerful.
On Top Of The World gives us some life advice we all should definitely keep in mind: "If you love somebody better tell them while they're here 'cause they may just run away from you." 

The last song I'd like to talk about is "Bleeding Out". I don't exactly know what it is, but something about it makes me want to be in a relationship and have a dramatic fight while this song is playing in the background. This is the kind of song you listen to on repeat for hours when you feel horrible and it actually helps.

All in all this is an amazing start for an even more amazing career. I'm one gazillion percent sure that Imagine Dragons will take over the world sooner or later (rather sooner I suppose) and I'm very excited to see what else they'll come up with in the future! 

Album Of The Week: Paramore - Paramore

With over 26 million likes on Facebook and over 2 million followers on twitter, Paramore belongs to the most popular pop punk bands our generation has to offer. I never really liked them; I thought they're okay and there must be something about them that makes people like them but I never understood. Well, then Rock am Ring came, Hayley Williams totally blew me away and literally the first thing I did when I came back home was buying this album. 

Paramore's self-titled album kicks off with a song called "Fast In My Car", a very catchy and promising start for the record itself.
Even if you don't know who this band is, you definitely know the song "Now" because they play it everywhere. Paramore has a rather troubled past and this song deals with it in an impatient way ("If there's a future, we want it now!").
The next few songs deal with topics like growing up and the effects it has on you, leaving people behind who aren't good for you anymore and it sounds a lot like Hayley is processing a relationship which didn't work out. Furthermore there's no way of denying what a great lyricist Hayley is, for example in Last Hope: "Every night I try my best to dream tomorrow makes it better and I wake up to the cold reality and not a thing is changed but it will happen."
My favourite song on the record has to be Still Into You. It sounds so unburdened and happy and when you take a closer look, that's exactly what it's about. "It's not a walk in the park to love each other but when our fingers interlock, can't deny, can't deny you're worth it cause after all this time, I'm still into you."
I'm just going to quote the next song, Anklebiters, here because it contains some very accurate life advice: "Fall in love with yourself because someday you're gonna be the only one you've got!"
These were the songs that made an impression on me right after listening to them for the first time, all in all this is a very successful album everybody should have in their CD collection. 

Album Of The Week: Green Day - American Idiot

Post concert depression aside, I totally fell in love with Green Day when I saw them play and yesterday I bought this beautiful thing for only 5€:

Actually it's not necessary to write a review about this record because one sentence would be enough: This is the best record Green Day gave to the music world.
However, if you need some more reasons to love this band, let me help you a little.

Kicking off with the song which gives the record its name, American Idiot, Green Day take you on a journey of pop punk music while they critisize the country they come from. 

The next three songs are probably the most famous songs the band has to offer: Jesus Of Suburbia, Holiday and Boulevard Of Broken Dreams. All I can do concerning these songs is to emphasize how perfect they are because let's be honest here: We all can sing along to Boulevard Of Broken Dreams, being a fan of Green Day or not. 

After enjoying the first four songs, you can lean back and relax a little while listening to Are We The Waiting. It's a rather slow song, so turn up the volume and enjoy Billie Joe's voice. 

With St. Jimmy, song number six, we're back to jumping and dancing around your room, keep the volume high!

I skipped some songs because they're all great and typical for Green Day but I'd like to mention one last song now: Wake Me Up When September Ends. Apparently this is what happened: Billie Joe's dad died on September 1st, 1982 and after the funeral, Billie Joe locked himself in his room. When his mum knocked on his door, he only said: "Wake me up when September ends."
Songs always get a deeper meaning when there's a personal story behind them like this one. It makes it easier to find a connection to the band. Now that you know the background of this song, listen to it again and pay attention to the lyrics. I guarantee goosebumps. 

I can't really express how happy I am about finally finding my connection to Green Day, it only took about literally forever so it's no big deal. There are so many more songs I have to listen to, so be prepared for some more reviews about this band. 

30 Seconds To Mars - Love Lust Faith + Dreams

After being on tour for around two years straight, the Leto brothers and guitarist Tomo Milicevic went on a well-deserved break. Nobody knew when (or if) they would come back, today this break is officially over after almost six months. 30 Seconds To Mars are back with new songs and a new tour. 

Love Lust Faith + Dreams contains twelve songs, the deluxe edition also offers a DVD with Mars300, the last concert of the huge tour, and two other short documentaries. 

The first song on the record, Birth, sounds like it was taken from a movie about some greek army commander who's about to go to war. The drums and trumpets at the beginning convey this impression.
The second song, Conquistador, rather sounds like Mars again, it's the kind of song that pushes you forward when you need it. 

Song number three was the first new song we got to hear: Up In The Air. For some reason it reminds me a lot of Closer To The Edge, maybe that's why it's one of my favourite songs on the whole album. I can't wait to hear it live when thousands of people sing the "oh-oh" part along. 

30 Seconds To Mars started to work with some new elements, for example a synthesizer and a violin. It's different from what we're used to and that's what makes this whole record so special.
Furthermore it wouldn't be Mars if there wasn't this one song that's completely different from all the others. On This Is War it's L490, on this one it's Pyres of Varanasi. I think Jared's time in India inspired him to write this song because Varanasi is a city in India and pyres are places where human bodies are cremated. 

Bright Lights might be my favourite, it just makes me so happy. 

The last thing I noticed is pretty interesting: Some of the songs pick up the album title, it's like a riddle if you want. Have fun finding the songs!

I am very happy about the fact that 30 Seconds To Mars are back, I really missed them. If you haven't picked the CD up yet, you should totally do it, it's worth it!