The Beat Surrender

At the first impression I was wowed at how heavy “Story Of The Year” came across-as I was warned they were on the emo side by a colleague of mine. I’ve got to say emo doesn’t come across at all on the first song “Choose Your Fate” which is probably my favourite track off the album. It kicks in with dramatic screaming vocals and disctinct guitar riffs. Definately a head banger in my view! Vocals become much softer on the verses and choruses are an array of energetic screams.

As the album progresses some different sounds are employed-much softer vocals and the guitars have suddenly calmed down. The lyrics speak out which is a major plus as most bands these days throw anything within their songs. The lyrics are well thought out thats one of the things I really like about this band-they show their talent. They piece it up together equally well, the catchy choruses and vocals are brought together to bring in some real harmonising sounds which tones it down reaslly well when songs become quite heavy.

The fourth track “Tell Me P.A.C” starts off with the sound of marching soldiers. The lyrics are fairly deep (endeavering into that emo stage as most would say!) I presume this is about soldiers in the war reaching that stage where they’re getting tired and feeling more alone than ever, the difficult times which they endure as I’m sure many soldiers could relate to that.

I did notice by the 5th song that the majority of the songs kicked off with a “Oh!!” at the very beginning, in my eyes this is alittle repetetive and would personally encourage a different way to kick off their songs to mix it up abit. They are a talented band and probably will go far with this album, as for the rumours of it being emo I would disagree completely they sound nothing like your typical emo band, I’m thinking “Taking Back Sunday” or perhaps “The Used”. To me they sound similar to “Alkaline Trio” with a twist of added screams.

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