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A Report on 2006

Corollation among the masses. A lighthouse guiding the astray sailors. The consumers. What does it say?

The best releases thusfar would of course have to include Thursday's new album: A City By The Light Divided. Despite being a bit over-produced and a few lacking songs (The Lovesong Writer, August Leaves Revisited as compared to older albums' ending song), this CD really shines through the bland 2006 releases. Highlight songs would include Running From The Rain, a U2-esque song, and Sugar In The Sacrament, a more Full Collapse-ish emotional Thursday song. The CD flows well but gets a bit weak at the end.

Another great release was Islands' debut: Return To The Sea. Islands contain members from The Unicorns... and have a total of 7 members. That's a lot for such simple, clean music. Behind the uplifting indie rock lies deep and sometimes dark lyrics, and then again sometimes very fun and unpredictable. I like the extended theme throughout the album, making it seem more like a concept album, which as we all know I love King Diamond and Iron Maiden and The Heed. No amazing surprises on this release and nothing all that fresh, just very catchy and fun. Highlight songs would include Humans, a Beatles-esque roll song, and Rough Gem, interesting.

Of course, along with great releases came disappointments. Dorment's new release, Trocheis, lacks the brutality of their older releases, while maintaining the speed. When one ignores the massive talent and blaring speed of the band, one finds a seirous lack of songwriting abilities, similar to Dragonforce. This black metal band is just turning into sloppy grind/crust, and it's really getting boring.

Speaking of crust, Horis released a new CD. Wow was it different! Branching off from their punk/hardcore/emo roots and leaning more with the recent metal bands they've been playing with (including Decreation, great speed/thrash/death, and The Horsemen, great doom/sludge). At first I got excited by this change. I pictured a sludge band building up to a super fast blast beat, ranging in the speed of Daughters, and also a few songs reaching back to their hardcore/crust punk roots where I can feel like circle pitting and thrashing. Nope. Just very bland, repetitive, boring, generic drone. BLAH. I was extremely disappointed.

So, other sad things. Alas, Mihai Edrisch has broken up according to their official website. Similar to Et Tu Brute, I never was able to see them live, both great bands. I hope they move onto more great projects, less like their other French emo/hardcore brethren like Amanda Woodward and Daitro (I'm not a big fan of those), and stick with the Et Tu Brute-esque, new Envy-ish postrock-influenced screamo that I love. Beautiful and emotional.

Speaking of Envy, when is their new CD coming out? Did it come out May 17th, or was it May 27th? I can't remember. I'd like to hear their evolution since their influence from Mogwai and other postrock bands.

There, that's it for now. I gotta go.

- Jordan

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