Music Reviews by 11tmaste

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas...and Thanksgiving...it's been a while since my last review. On the table here we have up and coming band, Crown The Empire, and their recently released EP, Limitless. I first heard about Crown The Empire a few months ago when I got a message on Facebook from their guitarist, Brandon Hoover. He had seen a comment on my favorite band, blessthefall's page I had made, and told me about his band. We chatted for a while and he told me about the EP that they had made. I listened to them on youtube and I thought they were amazing right off the bat. What really drew me too the band was the way they promoted. The band members themselves were talking to people and would answer people's posts on Facebook, they are just super nice guys. I've seen them on a live video chat before and they seem really cool and humble. I had a short question and answer with Brandon the other day and he was really nice:

Me: How did you guys come up with the band's name, and what does it mean to you?

Brandon: The band name was just random! We thought it sounded cool, so we stuck with it

Me: Where are you guys from?
Brandon: We are from Dallas, Texas

Me: When did you start CTE?
Brandon: We started CTE over a year ago

Me: Any hints at future plans that haven't been revealed?

Brandon: 2012 is our year! Lots of huge things happening

Tracks on the EP:

1. The Glass Elevator(Walls )

2. Breaking Point

3. Wake Me Up

4. Johnny Ringo

5. Voices

6. Limitless

7. Lead Me Out of the Dark

My personal favorite is Breaking Point. I love the intensity and the lyrics. Crown The Empire does a great job of getting the perfect mix of clean and unclean vocals. I also really like Wake Me Up for the same reason. A video was made for the song Voices. The last track on the EP is an easy going song: Lead Me Out of the Dark, but I still enjoyed it even though I mostly lean towards a harder style of music. Overall, I really enjoyed this band’s fresh sound, heavy guitar, and face melting screams. Keep an eye on Crown The Empire this year. As Brandon said, “2012 is our year!”

Metalcore band Blessthefall recently released their third studio album entitled Awakening on October 4, 2011. The album was labeled "The most anticipated album of the year" by Alternative Press. I was particularly excited about the album as Blessthefall is currently my favorite band. I pre ordered the album from Merch Now , so I got lucky and received it a day before the actual release date. On a side note, I highly recommend Merch Now when pre ordering items, because they usually have some good bundles. I will now do a track by track review of the songs on the album:

"Awakening"-The title track serves as an intro to the song "Promised Ones". Similar to the way "2.0" was an intro to "What's Left of Me" The track does a great job of kind of setting the pace for the whole album.

"Promised Ones"- The second single from the album gets the album going by hitting you hard with intense screams and quick paced drums. Personally I love the screams of "There will be blood" My personal interpretation of the song is that it's about facing life's challenges head on and letting nothing stand in your way.

"Bottomfeeder"- The first single from the album is another hard hitting song (I think we're seeing a trend). Lyrically it seems to be basically about the same thing as "Promised Ones" It's probably the hardest song on the album, but I love how Blessthefall managed to make it hard yet still not go overboard with the screaming. That's one of my favorite things about Blessthefall, they seem to always have the perfect mix of screaming and clean vocals.

"I'm Bad News, In The Best Way"- One of my favorite tracks on the album....which is hard to say since they're all so great. The lyrical value of this song is my favorite part of it. It's about not letting love go. Here are a few lines from the song that I really liked: "Don't let the darkness surround me. Lift me up, I'll let you in." "I said that you are the one for me. For me!"

"The Reign"- I absolutely adore this song. Again, the lyrics are absolutely amazing. "I swear that this time it's real I promise that I will keep true. My heart belongs to you"...possibly one of the best lines in the album. I still haven't quite figured out whether to take this song as a plea to God or as a plea to a loved one. Either way it evokes a sense of realness of the writer(s). This album definitely wasn't a "let's throw some lyrics together and make it sound good" type of album. Lead singer Beau Bokan had this to say about the lyrics on the album, "Every song on this record is very, very personal. I'm spilling my guts pretty hard on every track. "

"40 Days..."- The third single from the album was released on IGN on September 12, 2011. I immediately put the song on repeat. It is by far my favorite song on the album, in fact it's my favorite song ever by any band. Why?...Lyrics! While the song is great musically, the lyrics really pull on your heart strings. I have a really strong connection with Bokan's lyrics as they seem to parallel my feelings. He wrote the song for his fiance Lights about a time when they were apart for you guessed it, 40 days. Here's what Bokan said in an interview with AP "I've never written an actual love song before, but after meeting the woman I'm going to spend the rest of my life with, it came very naturally. In fact, I took a line from a song she wrote for me and used it in this song. It was a first for both of us! It gets pretty detailed and pretty specific. I think anyone that spends time apart from the one they love can relate." As of now this song has garnered a total of 79 plays on my iTunes, yet it never gets old. Go here to view a lyric video of the song.

"Bones Crew"- This song doesn't have any breakdowns or screaming but it's still lively and energetic. It's a song about growing up and leaving home.

"Don't Say Goodbye" - The band wrote this song for a girl that wrote them a note explaining she was on the verge of suicide, but their music kept her from it. I relate very well to this song. I know there have been times in my life when I felt like letting go of this world. If I didn't have music I don't think I would've gotten through. I'm sure this song will help many people pull through.

"Undefeated"- This one's basically a straight challenge to a certain band. I 'm not going to mention which band because I like them as well and spreading hate isn't my thing. Outside that context the song itself is great. The great thing about music is you can make a song mean what you want it to regardless of the original context.

" 'Til The Death Of Me"- It's so easy to put your faith in people close to you rather than God, and I think this song's about that. I love the guitar on this song. "I don't want to live forever. I just want to live for you."

“Flatline”- there are no lyrics on this song, rather it's an interlude created by Chris Dudley of Underoath.

"Meet Me At The Gates"- I think Beau can give you a better description than I can for this one, "This song is for my grandparents, who I lost a year ago. I was in the hospital with them both the night before they passed away. My grandfather passed away in September and my grandma shortly after that. They meant everything in the world to me. It was a hard one to sing, because I kept tearing up in the studio. This is the longest song we've ever written. It's epic, to say the least. There are many musical layers that get stripped away slowly as the song goes on until there's nothing left. " At the end of this song there is a recording of Beau singing to his grandpa.

Overall this is a great album. Definitely worth checking out. Even though there is screaming in many of the songs I think people that don't typically like that would be able to appreciate this album. BTF FTW!
Chart postions:
#32 Billboard 200, #13 Rock Albums, #7 Independent Albums, #3 Hard Rock Albums, #11 Alternative Albums