Album per day: Day 20

Artist: And So I Watch You From Afar

Album: Gangs

Released: 2011

I'll be honest and say that instrumental music is not necessarily my forte. If I do listen to instrumental stuff it's usually ambient and chilled. Nevertheless, I've stumbled across a lot of praise for ASIWYFA on various music websites and social media platforms. For anyone who isn't familiar, they're a four-piece band from Belfast, and so far they've released three studio albums, with a fourth effort coming later in the year.

Opening with a song entitled BEAUTIFULUNIVERSEMASTERCHAMPION sets me up for what could be the most pretentious sounding record I've encountered, but I found the song NOTBADATALLQUITEENJOYABLEACTUALLY. This is followed by what sounds like Dragonforce on tranquillizers, fading into a grunge breakdown halfway through and wading through various other genres like nobody's business. This is the monster we call Gangs (Starting Never Stopping). Search:Party:Animal metals things up again after a lighter end to Gangs, and 7 Billion People All Alive At Once introduces the gang vocals of ASIWYFA into the fray over an uplifting tune.

Think:Breathe:Destroy sounds all too familiar, but still awash with beauty. Homes - Ghost Parlor KA -6 To... is arguably the weirdest song title I've heard, and the song takes a noticeable dip in quality to what has already been on display on this record. The fact that it lasts under three minutes long is a clear anomaly in an album bursting at the seams with five minute opus'. Luckily, the riffs are heavy and the amps are volcanic on Homes - ...Samara To Belfast, which is a most welcome change from the first part of the song. It's also here that you realise why the previous two songs are titled as such... still can't grasp the need for all these "wow look at us being so alternative" style song titles though. Is there meaning behind them or is it a fashion statement? For all the tongue in cheek jibes I get for, allegedly, being a hipster, I can't get on board with it. But I digress. Closing track Lifeproof is an album highlight chock full of hooks, and is one of the most straightforward tracks on the album to bring the listener back to Earth after listening to the two-part song beforehand.

The musical emotions exuded on Gangs diverts between the joy of pogoing, uplifting hooks and grandiose, crushing riffs. When a band can find the right balance with all of these qualities and not make it sound overcooked, then you're onto a winner. When a band can do that without a lead vocalist, then full credit should go to them. Have ASIWYFA achieved it on Gangs? I don't think so, but that should not take away from the skills this quartet possess; people should know just how unappreciated this band are, and then do something about it.

Rating: 8/10

Recommended songs: Gangs (Starting Never Stopping), Search:Party:Animal

Album per day: Day 19

Artist: The White Stripes
Album: White Blood Cells
Released: 2001

Brother and sister/husband and wife/brother and wife/husband and sister duo The White Stripes mixes Meg White's somewhat basic drumming with Jack White's songwriting prowess and fuzzy distortion. Emerging during the time that nu-metal was at its pinnacle, one would wonder how a band as such as The White Stripes came to be so big. Garage rock wasn't cool then, but it's a lot cooler now.
Beginning with Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground, a minimalist rock track that mixes dirty riffs with clean melodies, it's a pleasing start to the album. It is then followed by a short acoustic number called Hotel Yorba, that mixes rock drumming with a country boogie. I'm Finding It Harder To Be A Gentleman adds a piano into the mix, and compliments Jack White's power chords very well. Hit single Fell In Love With A Girl has all the grit of indie rock, and in the process makes Jet sound like mere mortals; I just wish it lasted longer, but this tends to be the case with a lot of the songs on White Blood Cells.
The Union Forever slows the pace down a bit more, with Jack White ringing out on the chords and quoting Citizen Kane. This could be the most "experimental" track on the record, so to speak. The radiant beauty of Jack White's voice shines through on The Same Boy You've Always Known, which tugs at the heartstrings, whilst the album hits a curveball on We're Going To Be Friends, a tender acoustic song about, well, love really. This is all before turning the amps back up to seven on Offend In Every Way and I Think I Smell A Rat, the former a soft, yet loud blues tune, and the latter a proto-punk song with fire in its belly; the chords are loud and the guitar scales are delicate. For a track that is basically two minutes of dysfunctional noise that sounds like its coming out of a guitar that is being rubbed up against a door, the annoyingly titled instrumental Aluminum strangely works.
Catchy alt-rock prevails on I Can't Wait, and the pace picks up again on Now Mary as it's over before it has even begun. Climaxing in what sounds like a John Lennon number, This Protector is short and sweet on the ivories, with Jack White pouring his heart and soul into its deep message.
For an album that lasts around 40 minutes, but with 16 tracks, this album isn't exactly made up of magnus opus'. There are catchy numbers, and not necessarily a disappointing song in sight. They would go on to bigger things with Elephant, and would headline festivals around the world. This isn't the sound of a band reaching their peak, but it is the sound of a band who are comfortable in what they're doing. This album will never go out of fashion, and we should continue to bathe in its relevance.

Rating: 8/10
Recommended songs: Hotel Yorba, Fell In Love With A Girl

Album per day: Day 18

Artist: Public Enemy
Album: Yo! Bum Rush The Show
Released: 1987

The rap/rock crossover has caused quite a stir since acts such as Public Enemy began to broadcast their confrontational political messages. For those of you that know me well, you'll know that Rage Against The Machine are one of my all time favourite bands, and it is one of my top wishes to see them live before I, or they, kick the bucket. After hearing them heaping so much praise on Public Enemy as an influence on their hybrid genre and lyrical content, I needed to learn about the roots of their sound, so I turned to their debut record Yo! Bum Rush The Show.
You're Gonna Get Yours and Sophisticated Bitch lay the groundwork for an impressively stylistic album, with the former applying gang vocals to raw drum sounds, and the latter showcasing impressive lead guitar work that calls to mind the work of Tom Morello mixed with Kerry King's contribution to Beastie Boys' anthem No Sleep Till Brooklyn. Miuzi Weighs A Ton's use of samples is in the chorus is catchy and memorable, again coupled with the trademark rapping style that Chuck D has come to be known for. Too Much Posse is true hip hop, calling out all the rivals that Public Enemy were to generate over the years.
The turntable game is strong on Rightstarter (Message To A Black Man), and the infectious beats just keep on coming, with the inner city aggression progressively flowing through each track. Public Enemy No.1 is surprisingly monotone during the verses, with Chuck D backed by what sounds like a bumblebee, but he does save it a little with his repetition of "one" in the chorus, whilst forming a formidable partnership with Terminator X on lead scratch. The album's title track applies a similar drum beat to what we have heard before, but during the chorus what sounds like a crashing piano chord and a whistle accompanies the gang vocals.
Raise The Roof allows Terminator X to shine that little bit more with some scratching solos, but it does drag its heels a bit and should probably have been cut down. Chuck D and Flavor Flav collaborate again on Megablast, but its minimal approach slightly misfires. We close with Terminator X Speaks With His Hands, and whilst it isn't the best album closer in the world, it is short and spunky. Funk guitar and inventive sampling make for an entertaining two and a bit minutes.
Chuck D and Flavor Flav are one of the best duos out there, and their lyrics actually have meaning, which isn't often the case in modern mainstream hip hop. Another impressive debut that I urge all fans of crossover genres to check out. At the time it hit the Earth like a comet of new ideas, and from this current time, it opened up my ears to notice the influence of Public Enemy on a load of different modern artists, in conjunction with The Beastie Boys. Back in 1987, this was one of the most controversial records out there, but nowadays, you will probably find a lot more that's worse. It's time to educate yo'self and kick back and relax; make yourself Public Enemy's best friend.

Rating: 8/10
Recommended songs: Sophisticated Bitch, Rightstarter (Message To A Black Man)

Album per day: Day 17

Artist: Pearl Jam
Album: Ten
Released: 1991

Appreciated, but often overlooked for the role that they played, grunge kingpins Pearl Jam are next on my challenge list. Recognised by many as part of the group of heroes who came out of Seattle with a mission of making hard rock music, their legendary status is not as a result of being overhyped. I love Nirvana, and I can appreciate bands like Alice In Chains and Soundgarden, but Ten is the album that seems to make critics swoon, so step up Eddie Vedder and co.
As an album opener, Once showcases Eddie Vedder's scruffy vocal style perfectly, and is a perfectly good rock song. Even Flow is regarded as one of the bands classics, with its mainstream rock appeal and memorable vocal rhythm. Vedder croons like Robert Plant, and Mike McCready lets rip on his axe of doom. The volume remains, but with a smoother delivery bordering on the "ballad" tag, Alive sounds like the sort of stuff Nickelback would put out, but then get lambasted for it. However, because this is Pearl Jam, I don't need to be looking over my shoulder whilst I praise it. Poignant lyrics about death and guilt paired up with improvised lead guitar make for an impressive number. I don't know what it is about Black that has me thinking of James Hetfield, with vocal and lead guitar melodies that the Metallica man wouldn't turn away from. It's not what you'd expect from a so-called "grunge band", but the dynamics of Black make for an album highlight.
The song Jeremy is another anthem of the nineties. It's hardly a bright spark of Ten but it has a hook that I'm finding difficult to ignore. Oceans makes use of vocal effects and a clean guitar tone, before giving way to Porch, a hard rock number. Ten is wrapped up with Release, a nine minute journey split into what seems like two songs, culminating in a fairly pointless three minute instrumental outro.
An often celebrated album created by five young men filled with ambition and hope, Ten is the thinking man's Nevermind. It is the sort of album that fans of any genre of music would enjoy, and even though Nevermind is an incredibly popular and brilliant record, it doesn't cover as many bases as Ten does. Mike McCready is a very different guitarist to Kurt Cobain, and in some ways different to Jerry Cantrell, but he is one of the highlights of the band for me, without overlooking the rest of the group. It would be lazy to pigeonhole this with all of their fellow grunge bands, because there is so much more to it than angst and fuzzy guitars. You can hear the influence from these guys in a lot of more recent rock bands, so no matter what you think of them, they're inspirational, and from this album, I can understand why.

Rating: 8/10
Recommended songs: Even Flow, Alive, Black

Album per day: Day 16

Artist: Beartooth
Album: Disgusting
Released: 2014

If you remember Attack Attack!, well done. Well they're now defunct and Caleb Shomo is now fronting Beartooth, a Ohio band that mix punk and metal to create a sound of grizzly proportions. Having just opened the Kerrang! Tour around the UK, big things are said to be on the horizon for these guys, so I thought I'd see if their bite really is as strong as their name suggests.
Starting off with The Lines, with screams of ferocity and downtuned sludge riffs aplenty, there is a catchy chorus that culminates in a bone-breaking ending. Whilst Body Bag is the name of a song on this LP, it seems fitting as that is exactly what you may end up leaving a Beartooth concert in should you touch the mosh pit. I find myself drawn to the introductory vocal hook from In Between when noticing its familiarity to Sweetness by Jimmy Eat World, and then the chorus just screams A Day To Remember, so amidst all of the modern punk/metal tendencies, there is a pop sensibility that will strike a chord with a wider audience. The guitar lines shine in Relapsing, with a chorus that channels Sacramento metallers Deftones.
So far there isn't much on this album that makes it easy for me to distinguish Beartooth from a lot of American bands plying their trade at the moment on the Warped Tour circuit. I haven't tracked down that distinguishable quality yet.
I have a problem... but enough about me, I Have a Problem is a powerhouse of a tune. It's the loser anthem to end all loser anthems, and Shomo delivers the message as loud as he possibly can. Keep Your American Dream is your typical 4/4 "fight the power" song, and Shomo sounds more like Jeremy McKinnon with every passing word. The extremity of Beartooth's sound is there for all to hear on Dead, a fast blast of blood and sweat. The emotion is there in Shomo's opening lines of closer Sick And Disgusting; "I just wanna feel loved!",  he screams. Its self-loathing nature, coupled with Shomo's alternative vocal style, may just be the birthmark of this band that I was searching for: the feature that makes them different from everyone else. The song is driven with such strong feelings that it sounds like Shomo is crying by the end of the song, and not just crocodile tears either.
Just like Neck Deep's album that I reviewed a few days ago, this is a debut that builds a ship for an army of young fans to get on board with. No doubt they will be on the festival circuit for the next couple of years at least, so check out their live credentials and experience this album in its full power. They're the sort of band that Kerrang! will be hyping up all up until their second album, and then the focus will either double in euphoria, or crash and burn. Honestly, there are bands who do what Beartooth do, but do it better, but that didn't stop me from liking this album. As a new band, they have to hang onto what makes them unique, and accentuate those qualities. Only then will they reach bigger heights.

Rating: 7/10
Recommended songs: I Have a Problem, Sick And Disgusting