My Chemical Romance
The Black Parade
Available Now
As much as I hate the I-wear-black-because-it-reflects-the-color-of-my-soul type of people, I tend to make an exception for My Chemical Romance. The band's third album, The Black Parade, is a dark, twisted musical journey into the dark and twisted minds of this New Jersey rock band.
As draining as it is to listen to the album in one sitting, it's the only way to fully experience the disconsolate music of My Chemical Romance. The album tells the story of a man diagnosed with cancer, and each track reveals a facet of how death becomes him. Although these may seem like some heavy-hitting themes, the group makes it sound poppy and upbeat.
The Black Parade is the love child of Nirvana and Queen - it's as theatrical as it is grim -- a musical black comedy, if you will. So a word to the wise: If you're looking for something that's pure fluff, I would steer clear of this album. Maybe someday My Chemical Romance will overcome its blue period. But in the meantime, brooding has never sounded so fun.
If you like this music, you might also enjoy:
A Beautiful Lie - 30 Seconds to Mars
Decemberunderground - AFI
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Shine On - Jet
Deftones
Saturday Night Wrist
Available Now
The Deftones have released their latest album, Saturday Night Wrist, and fans of the band's previous work will not be disappointed. Listeners will immediately enter a dreamlike world where they are inundated with streaming guitar riffs and thunderous drums. Perhaps a more fitting title would be Saturday Night Requiem because the album is ominous and mystifying. It's hard to hear exactly where one track ends and another begins, because the music is intricately mixed and arranged.
Time passes on this album not in conventional seconds and
minutes, but rather in reverberating spells that only the Deftones are able to create. While you start to think this album might put you to sleep with its experimental musical reveries, tracks such as "Mein" and "Rats! Rats! Rats!" keep you awake with their screeched vocals and deafening choruses. This blending of musical styles keeps the album from stagnating, thus making Saturday Night Wrist complex and contemplative to listen to.
If you like this music, you might also enjoy:
In The Absence of Truth - Isis
Team Sleep - Team Sleep
The Crusade - Trivium
+44
When Your Heart Stops Beating
Available Now
I never thought that I would be saying, "I remember when" at the ripe age of 19. But after listening to the +44 album, When Your Heart Stops Beating, I couldn't help but reminisce about Blink-182. The two bands sound almost the same, but +44 is the manifestation of Blink-182's progression and maturity. +44 features Blink-182 veterans Mark Hoppus on bass and vocals and drummer Travis Barker. The two revisit the energetic pop-punk that made their previous band successful, but there is also a more mature side to the album, evidenced by such tracks as "Lillian" and "Weatherman."
The album can easily be characterized as introverted, as the content of the songs deal with more adult themes - no, not those kinds of adult themes. The lyrics and sound are much more sobering this time around for Hoppus, Barker and new additions Shane Gallagher and Craig Fairbaugh. A lot of the songs deal with the evolution of relationships and how they consequently change as people become older, drawing a nice parallel between Blink-182 and +44.
If you like this music, you might also enjoy:
The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me - Brand New
Light Grenades - Incubus
We Don't Need to Whisper - Angels and Airwaves
