Anberlin is back in action with a new full album on Tooth And Nail; after the brillant debut “Fingerprints For The Black Market”, this Florida quartet is still here to make us enjoy great music. If you expected the band to slow down after anthems like “Ready Fuels”, “Cold War Transmissions” and “The Undeveloped Story”, you’re wrong, as the new 11 track “Never Take Friendship Personal” is even better and with great songs. The disc, produced by Aaron Sprinkle (Dead Poetic, Underoath and a ton others) is a gem of pop rock, influenced by any music genre from pop punk to hard rock: you can find anthemic and powerful songs as “Paperthin Hymn” or the title track, with screams, catchy hooks and the unique vocals of singer Stephen Christian, which is by far the most original and strong in the underground scene today. Anberlin gets really hard on tunes like “A Day Late” and “Audry, Start the Revolution”, two songs that have got heavy guitar riffs, breakdowns and a perfect structure made to be stuck in your head. The melodic parts and the catchy choruses of “The Runaways” and “Stationary” make justice to Anberlin’s pop attitude, while the ballad “Symphony of Blasé” is what I’d call a slow, lonely and soft song to become the perfect soundtrack of all couples. The disc is closed by the rawing “Dance, Dance Christa Paffgen”, which is a sum of all the Anberlin’s skills: super catchy melodies, an unique vocals who could go on even without the instruments, and a perfect production. In two words: great album!

Ferret Records is re-releasing the debut LP from Killswitch Engage in these days: the new version of the cd has got a new and improved artwork, four new demo songs and a bonus cd which is a compilation with songs from all of the bands of the Ferret roster ( A Static Lullaby, Scarlet, Remembering Never, Zao, Boys Night Out, Blood Has Been Shed ) and new tunes from the upcoming albums of Every Time I Die and A Life Once Lost. But let’s speak of Killswitch Engage. The disc is filled with heavy hardcore songs, inspired by metal, punk and screams: heavy breakdowns, stunning guitar riffs and a perfect drumming. The disc is nothing sort of new, musically speaking, but the four demo songs, never released before, are a very cool thing to understand how a Killswitch Engage song is born and gets to life.

I am a bit late with the review of the laast great album from LUCERO but I am sorry, I swear. “That Much Further West” is the new fantastic creature from this four piece band who plays like The Weakerthans doing Tom Waits’ covers: their songs are semi-acoustic, ranging influences from folk to punk rock to pop. Imagine Against Me! playing Murder By Death’s tunes. That’s it. The album starts with unique tunes as “Mine Tonight” and “Sad And Lonely”, and it’s really amazing to see how the band can play catchy music with a punk attitude, singing about loneliness, lost love, life experiences and so much more. The disc has got the higher moments on songs like “Hate And Jealousy” and “Tonight Ain’t Gonna Be Good”, two punk songs that show how LUCERO are not only great musicians but even original songwriters. If you ever liked the bands mentioned in this review, check out LUCERO because I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

Not By Choice is a four piece pop punk band that hails from Canada, and write music inspired by such bands as Sum 41, God, Simple Plan, Wisecrack, Reset, Fm Static, Hawk Nelson and a lot of other Canadian acts. It could be said that Canada is very healthy on the pop punk side, and even tough Avril Lavigne is the most famous artists in pop punk, this is not a bad thing as it gives exposure even to bands like NOT BY CHOICE. “Second Hand Opinions”, the band’s latest effort, is a collection of catchy and easy listening songs played with the heart, with a super polished prodution and strong personality. Tunes as “Out Of Reach (Too Far Gone)”, “Call Out” and “Save Yourself” could perfectly fit in any kind of American comedy as “American Pie” and the likes, but Not By Choice are not that interested in playing soundtrack for movies: their stuff is in fact strong, solid and with a large inspiration from Californian skate punk rock as Lagwagon, No Use For A Name and Pennywise too. If you did not enjoyed how Simple Plan turned out and want catchy but powerful riffs, this one is for ya.

The 7th release in the “Live In A Dive” series comes from Lagwagon, and it is quite possibly the most complete, original, interesting and best played show on the series. The live set of the band ( recorded at the “House Of Blues” in Hollywood on the day of by birthday, 5/31/2003, and on another day, 6/1/2003 ) is made of 22 songs and a cd-enanched part ( with a band interview by Fat Mike) and with a full comic book for the LP version. The tracklist is very great and includes anthems from any of the band’s releases: you get a lot of the best stuff Joey Cape and friends ever wrote, such as “Alien 8″ and “Making Friends” from Double Plaidinum, “Violins”, “Bombs Away”, “Sleep” and “Sick” from Hoss, as well as newer songs like “Never Stops” and “Falling Apart” from the band’s latest effort “Blaze”. The show is very powerful, and even tough it is recorded perfectly by Ryan Greene, you can still hear the crowd screaming, the mistakes that a band does when they play live and it’s not as polished as the No Use For A Name live disc. There are also plenty of songs from “Let’s Talk About Feelings”, like “After You My Friend”, “May 16″ and “Messengers”, which are amazing tunes. The band does dedicate a lot of space to older tunes as the ones taken from “Trashed” but not a lot from the almighty “Duh”: from the first one they play “Island Of Shame”, “Give It Back” and the closer “Stokin’ The Neighbors”, while from “Duh” they only have “Beer Googles” and “Mr Coffee” only the enanched part. There is still one new never released before song, which goes under the name of “The Chemist”, as well as some “rare” stuff as “Coconut”, “Mister Bap” and “Back One Out” off the “Trashed” CD. In the end the disc is real fun and it’s more than a full hour of live crazyness, with Lagwagon really making you feel like you were there.

After the debut with “Lost Memories And Faded Pictures”, Symphony In Peril is back. Headed by ex-Zao member Shawn Jonas, the band worked during a good part of 2004 closed in the studio with Eric Rachel (Hatebreed, Scarlet, Skid Row, Misfits, Dillinger Escape Plan) to complete their new creature, “The Whore’s Trophy”, titled after a passage in the book of Revelation. The disc is a 12 track metal core assault like I never heard before, and if this is a sign, I think this record will be considered as a solid rock in the milestone of metalcore genre and bands, as an album that people will look back and consider. The record is made of noisy metallic riffs, a strong voice and extreme experimentation with sounds, which are always taken to the extreme: the work with production is nearly perfect and you cannot see anything wrong with that: bass lines and guitar hooks sound clean and direct, and there is never a weak moment during all of the disc.

After the “Rodeo And Picasso” success it seemed like this band had to follow what Thursday did. Instead, they changed direction, from a strong and powerful sound inspired by post hardcore with screams, on their major label debut Recover sounds like a pop punk band with Emo lyrics and pop melodies. Look, this is not bad at all, and I have never been so serious. The record is in fact filled with catchy anthems as “Simple”, “Disappear” and “Fuck Me For Free”, that have got some hints of electronic riffs and rock melodies. “This May Be The Year I Disappear” is a disc filled with the modern sound of rock’n'roll and I am totally into that.

Strike Anywhere is back on the hardcore scene with the release of a kind of b-sides album which is just more than a b-side album. “To Live In Discontent” is a collection of rare Strike Anywhere material released during the years, from the early years of “Chorus Of One” to the newer unreleased material of “Exit English”. The disc contains 13 songs that touch all the band’s career: it starts with “Asleep” and “Antidote” off the collector’s only 7-inch on Fat Wreck Chords, the whole “Chorus Of One” EP with five songs, and then outtakes from “Exit English” as the tune “Two Fuses”, while “Sunspotting” is taken from the 1999 demo. The cd even features cover songs as “Values Here” by Dag Nasty, “Where Are They Now” by Cock Sparrer and “Two Sides” originally by the Gorilla Biscuits. This record is a real display of power, raw energy and social active lyrics by one of the best independent bands around today, so I guess if you love good strong music and this band, this one is a must. Nuff Said.

The F-Ups is a four piece pop punk band coming from Rochester, Minnesota: influenced by the likes of NOFX, The Vandals, Blink182 and Green Day, this band releases a major label debut album that brings me back to 1994, when pop punk bands were coming out from everywhere after the great success of “Dookie”. This time it’s not difference with THE F-UPS, as they mix pop punk music with catchy choruses, easy lyrics that could be written by a high school kid speaking of adolescents, rebellion, sexual experimentation, dealing with parents who don’t understand and so much more: songs like “I Don’t Know”, “Crack Ho”, “Screw You” and “Lazy Generation” show all the will of Travis and Co. to make their skills for writing easy melodies enjoyable to everyone and this self titled disc is all about this: having fun!

This album is pretty amazing. For a couple of reasons at least. The first one is that Rumbleseat is the new project of Chuck Ragan and Chris Wollard from HOT WATER MUSIC. After the not so great latest album, these guys are back at what they to best: playing acoustic songs from the heart with guts. Samantha Jones on bass and vocals join the duo, to make Rumbleseat a trio. The second reason this disc is amazing is the fact that the songs do not macth the CD tracks: I do not know how to explain it, but the third song is not the third track of the CD, it is the 15th. So it’s very hard to make mp3’s and if you download the disc under mp3 format, you will surely miss some songs or some parts, as one single song is divided into more than one track. The third reason this disc is amazing is the music, of course.