Shadows Fall – 2006 – Fallout from the War
By Eric | December 23, 2013 1:00 am
Artist: Shadows Fall
Title: Fallout from the War
Label: Century Media
Released: Jun 13, 2006
Packaging: Jewel Case
Pack-in DVD
Release Type: Standard
Autographed
Tracklist:
#In Effigy
#Will To Rebuild
#Haunting Me Endlessly
#Seize The Calm
#Carpal Tunnel
#Going, Going, Gone.
#Deadworld (New Version)
#This Is My Own (New Version)
#December
#Mark of the Squealer
#Teasn’, Pleasn’
Review:
This is the “companion” CD to The War Within, and is a collection of b-sides, covers, and other assorted stuff. Most of the songs are in the same vein as The War Within, and are just as good.
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Tags: 2006, Century Media, Jewel Case, Shadows Fall, Standard
Fall Out Boy – 2005 – From Under the Cork Tree
By Eric | December 23, 2013 1:00 am
Artist: Fall Out Boy
Title: From Under the Cork Tree
Label: Island
Released: May 3, 2005
Packaging: Jewel Case
Pack-in DVD
Release Type: Standard
Autographed
Tracklist:
#Our Lawyer Made Us Change The Name Of This Song So We Wouldn’t Get Sued
#Of All The Gin Joints In All The World
#Dance, Dance
#Sugar, We’re Goin Down
#Nobody Puts Baby In The Corner
#I’ve Got A Dark Alley And A Bad Idea That Says You Should Shut Your Mouth (Summer Song)
#7 Minutes In Heaven (Atavan Halen)
#Sophmore Slump Or Comeback Of The Year
#Champagne For My Real Friends, Real Pain For My Sham Friends
#I Slept With Someone In Fall Out Boy And All I Got Was This Stupid Song Written About Me
#A Little Less Sixteen Candles, A Little More “Touch Me”
#Get Busy Living Or Get Busy Dying (Do Your Part To Save The Scene And Stop Going To Shows)
#XO
Review:
Yes, I bought a Fall Out Boy disc. Yes, I like them. Yes, I’m ashamed. Kinda. Oh well. Pop/punk/whiny goodness with insanely catchy hooks and lyrics. They still wear too much eyeliner, and the song titles are way too long. But it’s fun.
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Tags: 2005, Fall Out Boy, Island, Jewel Case, Standard
Every Time I Die – 2007 – The Big Dirty
By Eric | December 23, 2013 1:00 am
Artist: Every Time I Die
Title: The Big Dirty
Label: Ferret
Released: Sep 4, 2007
Packaging: Jewel Case
Pack-in DVD
Release Type: Standard
Autographed
Tracklist:
#No Son of Mine
#Pigs Is Pigs
#Leatherneck
#We’rewolf
#Rebel Without Applause
#Cities And Years
#Rendez-Voodoo
#A Gentleman’s Sport
#Inrihab
#Depressionista
#Buffalo Girls
#Imitation Is The Sincerest Form Of Battery
Review:
NT/Buffalo’s own Every Time I Die can best be described as Southern Metalcore, whatever the hell that means. What ETID means is loud screaming, loud guitars, and a really really good time. They take some getting used to, but that ain’t bad either. Guitarist Andy Williams was in my graduating class at NTHS, although I didn’t really know him then (and I still don’t, for that matter). It’s pretty cool though, seeing someone out of NT becoming famous and successful. Good for them!
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Tags: 2007, Every Time I Die, Ferret, Jewel Case, Standard
Crossfade – 2005 – Crossfade
By Eric | December 23, 2013 1:00 am
Artist: Crossfade
Title: Crossfade
Label: Columbia
Released: May 22, 2005
Packaging: Jewel Case
Pack-in DVD
Release Type: DualDisc Version
Autographed
Tracklist:
#Starless (Album Version)
#Cold (Album Version)
#So Far Away (Album Version)
#Colors (Album Version)
#Death Trend Setta (Album Version)
#The Deep End (Album Version)
#No Giving Up (Album Version)
#Dead Skin (Album Version)
#Disco (Album Version)
#The Unknown (Album Version)
Review:
Crossfade was 2004’s favorite radio-rock band. Cold was one of the biggest singles that year, and I’m pretty sure Colors and So Far Away didn’t do too bad either. The first half of this album is pretty good, but the 2nd half really kinda sucks. This is actually the dual-disc version (released nearly a full year after the original album), which has the album mixed in 5.1 surround and a couple of videos on the DVD side. Which is odd, considering that this was actually their indie record just remixed, without re-recording it, so I’m not sure how many tracks they had to work with originally to get a decent 5.1 mix.
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Tags: 2005, Columbia, Crossfade, DualDisc Version, Jewel Case
Chris Volz – 2007 – Redemption
By Eric | December 23, 2013 1:00 am
Artist: Chris Volz
Title: Redemption
Label: Rock Ridge
Released: Sep 11, 2007
Packaging: Jewel Case
Pack-in DVD
Release Type: Standard
Autographed
Tracklist:
#Redemption
#Altercation
#All My Life
#Wrong
#Your Own Medicine
#Once Again
#Sometimes
#Secure
#Dear Life
#Stories Of Old
#Don’t Save Me
Review:
The former lead singer of Flaw and Five.Bolt.Main released a solo album, and some of this is much softer in spots than either of the other two projects. Not that it matters much, because he makes it work, and since he was the primary songwriter for those two bands, the songs here are just as strong.
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Tags: 2007, Chris Volz, Jewel Case, Rock Ridge, Standard
Static-X – 2004 – Beneath… Between… Beyond
By Eric | December 23, 2013 1:00 am
Artist: Static-X
Title: Beneath… Between… Beyond
Label: Warner Bros
Released: Jul 20, 2004
Packaging: Jewel Case
Pack-in DVD
Release Type: Standard
Autographed
Tracklist:
#Breathe
#Deliver Me
#Anything But This
#S.O.M.
#Down
#Head
#So Real
#Crash
#Push It (JB’s Death Trance Mix)
#I’m With Stupid (Paul Barker Remix)
#Burning Inside (Featuring Burton C. Bell)
#Behind The Wall Of Sleep
#Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment
#I Am (Demo Version)
#Love Dump (Demo Version)
#Get To The Gone (Demo Version)
#New Pain (Demo Version)
#Otsegolectric (Demo Version)
Review:
This is the b-sides collection. I had amassed some of these through downloads, soundtracks, some of this was on “The Deathtrip Continues”, and some of these hadn’t ever seen the light of day before this. Some are good, some are so-so. They’re b-sides! The demos sound pretty close to their album counterparts, so they’re kind of a wash.
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Tags: 2004, Jewel Case, Standard, Static-X, Warner Bros.
Shawn Mullins – 2008 – Honeydew
By Eric | December 23, 2013 1:00 am
Artist: Shawn Mullins
Title: Honeydew
Label: Vanguard
Released: Mar 11, 2008
Packaging: Cardboard
Pack-in DVD
Release Type: Standard
Autographed
Tracklist:
#All In My Head
#Home
#The Ballad of Kathryn Johnston
#Homeless Joe
#Leaving All Your Troubles Behind
#Fraction of a Man
#See That Train
#For America
#Cabbagetown
#Nameless Faces
#Song of the Self (Chapter 2)
#Rewind the Years
Review:
Since Tiff never does her own reviews, I found Shawn’s own take on the album, track-by-track:
�All in My Head�: The song�s theme of self-examination belies the fact that it was written by Mullins and Hansen as a prospective theme song for the sitcom Scrubs. The original 2002 recording was lighter and more uptempo than this powerful new version, in which Mullins delivers an arching falsetto vocal in the chorus. �When we FIRST started the recording, I was having a block, and Gerry said, �Shawn, I�m tellin� you, that shit�s all in your head, just like that song we wrote.� And I said, �Man, we oughta dig that up.� The next thing I knew, we were all sitting around working it up in a whole different groove.�
�Home�: �The first verse is about my dear friend Melissa Hadley, a musician in Athens and the funniest woman I ever knew, who died at 38 of ovarian cancer. The second verse came to me as I was looking at old pictures of Cabbagetown, a section of Atlanta that was once inhabited by Irish immigrant mill workers. In one photo, there�s a boy sitting in front of a dimestore, looking as emaciated as a POW. I got to thinkin� that it wasn�t that long ago, right here in my hometown.�
�The Ballad of Kathryn Johnston�: Literally ripped from the headlines, the song is about an aged woman living in a crime-infested Atlanta neighborhood who got a gun to protect herself. When intruders broke down her door one night, the woman started firing, not realizing her assailants were police officers, who, it turned out, had targeted the wrong house in search of drug dealers. �Reading Dylan�s Chronicles inspired me to look for news stories, and this one really grabbed me. So little was said about it because that�s how things are in rough neighborhoods, which is what I meant by the line, �everything stays the same.� But it all changed for me, because I connected with her. Sometimes I don�t feel safe, especially after we got cleaned out last year. But we don�t have a gun in the house. Even though I�ve got a little army in me [after college, Mullins was commissioned in the U.S. Army Reserve], I don�t wanna live that way.�
�Homeless Joe�: �There really is a Homeless Joe here in Atlanta, along with Shorty, Blind Bob, Wolf and other strumming, homeless troubadours. They�re living through their art, even though their lives are tough, without enough to eat or a place to sleep, and they�re viewed as winos on the street. The song is a celebration of those people who are following their bliss, even in the most difficult of circumstances. I�ve always connected with them; I see them as modern-day examples of the wanderer.�
�Leaving All Your Troubles Behind�: �This is the story of a girl who lives in a town in the North Georgia Mountains where there were once textile mills, but now the biggest industry is trailer meth, cooked up by the grandkids of moonshiners. There are a lot of people in small towns in the South that try to escape, and most of them wind up coming back. But not this girl; she�s seen enough to know that�s not where she belongs.�
�Fraction of a Man�: �A modern-day traveling salesman finds himself in Biloxi, and suddenly it hits him � �What am I doing with my life’� That�s a really common thing for a lot of middle-aged American men, who want to follow their bliss and really go for it, but somehow they never do. This one leaves you with a reality check, with the
alcoholism, the loneliness, and the nomadic existence. It�d make a bummer of a movie.�
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Tags: 2008, Cardboard, Shawn Mullins, Standard, Vanguard
Mudvayne – 2000 – L.D. 50
By Eric | December 23, 2013 1:00 am
Artist: Mudvayne
Title: L.D. 50
Label: No Name / Epic
Released: Aug 29, 2000
Packaging: Jewel Case
Pack-in DVD
Release Type: Standard
Autographed
Tracklist:
#Monolith
#Dig
#Internal Primates Forever
#-1
#Death Blooms
#Golden Ratio
#Cradle
#Nothing To Gein
#Mutatis Mutandis
#Everything And Nothing
#Severed
#Recombinant Resurgence
#Prod
#Pharmaecopia
#Under My Skin
#(k)Now F(orever)
#Lethal Dosage
Review:
Mudvayne’s first (on a major label), and arguably best. This pioneered their “math-metal” sound, and they really didn’t sound like anyone else at the time. Of course, it took me seven years to bother to check them out, and even longer to get this CD. Better late than never.
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Tags: 2000, Jewel Case, Mudvayne, No Name / Epic, Standard
Various Artists – 2005 – Killer Queen: A Tribute to Queen
By Eric | December 23, 2013 1:00 am
Artist: Various Artists
Title: Killer Queen: A Tribute to Queen
Label: Hollywood
Released: Aug 9, 2005
Packaging: Jewel Case
Pack-in DVD
Release Type: Standard
Autographed
Tracklist:
#We Are The Champions
#Tie Your Mother Down
#Bohemian Rhapsody
#Stone Cold Crazy
#Good Old Fashioned Loverboy
#Under Pressure
#Who Wants To Live Forever
#Bicycle Race
#Crazy Little Thing Called Love
#Sleeping On The Sidewalk
#Killer Queen
#Death On Two Legs
#Play The Game
#Bohemian Rhapsody
#’39
#Fat Bottomed Girls
Review:
I’m usually not a fan of tribute albums, unless I like a majority of the artists on the album, and obviously, unless I like the particular songs they’re covering. This one covers both, as I like quite a few of the bands on here (Gavin, Shinedown, Eleven, Joss Stone, Breaking Benjamin, etc) and the songs covered are some of my favorites as well.
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Tags: 2005, Hollywood, Jewel Case, Standard, Various Artists
Orgy – 2004 – Punk Statik Paranoia
By Eric | December 23, 2013 1:00 am
Artist: Orgy
Title: Punk Statik Paranoia
Label: D1 Music
Released: Feb 24, 2004
Packaging: Jewel Case
Pack-in DVD
Release Type: Standard
Autographed
Tracklist:
#Beautiful Disgrace
#Vague
#Ashamed
#Make Up Your Mind
#Leave Me Out
#The Obvious
#Inside May Head
#Pure
#Can’t Take This
Review:
I finally picked up the third Orgy CD, four years to the day it was released. I don’t know it nearly as well as the previous two, but there’s some good stuff on here, and I think they went even a little darker sounding than they had previously.
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Tags: 2004, D1 Music, Jewel Case, Orgy, Standard