All Wound Up is one of the biggest surprise in music of the year 2001. The band is a four pieces and it is made of Troy on vocals and guitar, Jeremy on guitar and backup vocals, Sean on bass and backup vocals and Joseph on drums ( and tattoos); they come from Western Washington and after playing around 150 and more shows with such bands as MxPx, Formula One, Slick Shoes, Dog Wood, they signed to record label Tooth And Nail, althought their songs have not a lot to do with religious beliefs, but they deal more with problems, relathionships and how the guys in the band have dealt with them.

“Hero” is All Wound Up’s debut album and in this CD you can hear different kinds of music that influenced the band: of course Bad Religion and the whole hardcore music, but aslo Metallica, Aliche In Chains, Poison and The Police. The 12 songs of the record are some of the freshest-sounding melodic punk-based rock songs that I heard this year and such tunes as the title track “Hero”, “100% Of Nothing”, “Bittersweet” and “Now Or Never” show this: they have powerful guitar riffs, catchy choruses and a lot of melodies that any pop punk fan can appreciate.

In general the CD has everything a fan could want: some cool guys and also some cool tracks, maybe with not a lot of fantasy, but so catchy and easy listening that I wouldn’t wonder if these 4 dudes will become the next trendy pop-punk band, althought I do not think a lot of people out there will ever notice this album … anyway according to the words of Troy, when he was asked where they see themselves in a year, he said “Cover of Rolling Stone, Counting Down the Top on TRL with Carson Daily”…we’ll see.