Review: You Me At Six - Cavalier Youth

 You Me At Six's newest release “Cavalier Youth” has shown itself to be a great new rock/punk album that has a classic sound as well as an original style. This album covers a range of styles in different genres such as alternative, rock, punk, and pop. The band mixes these genres well and shows that modern rock bands are still around and rocking as always. This 13-track record is one that can last any listener for a while when looking for something new to listen to.

Eighth track “Hope For The Best” is a great example of showing that pop-rock songs are still out there and doing their best to stick out. This style of songwriting isn't seen as much these days but You Me At Six is keeping the spirit of modern rock alive with these songs. The band also covers softer songs on the album like “Be Who You Are”. This type of diversity has been heard before, but that's because it's a strategy that works. Breaking up the usual sound with these types of songs is a great technique and it shows that this band knows what it's doing.

The only problem I have with “Cavalier Youth” is that although it's great on the outside, I didn't find the songs to have a ton of depth to them. Songs like “Carpe Diem” are great to jam to and add a nice atmosphere to the day and they even have hints of huge bands like U2 and Coldplay to them. This is a great comparison but the songs are very vocal-oriented and the music behind the vocals was just a bit lacking. Most of the drum beats, guitar leads, and chord progressions were generic and sometimes boring. The songs were well crafted, but just fell short of bringing an all-original sound to the table.

You Me At Six is great representation that rock bands are still alive and kicking! This is a great thing to see and although I didn't find “Cavalier Youth” to be extremely creative, it was a nice jam had some great lyrics and vocals in it. Give “Cavalier Youth” a listen if you are into the genre and need a new group to discover!

Rating: 6.5/10

- Jordan

Sick of It All Writing For New Album

New York Hardcore legends SICK OF IT ALL have begun writing songs for their new album which is tentatively scheduled for release this fall via Century Media Records. Once again the band will be teaming up with Tue Madsen for what they describe as a "straight up old school New York Hardcore record."  The band also announced that they will be playing Asbury Lanes in Asbury Park, NJ on March 28th and United Blood in Richmond, VA on March 29th. The band will also be returning to Europe in July and August for a festival run.

Basement UK Are Back

Everyone's favorite Tumblr band are back and planning on touring this summer

In the autumn of 2012 we made a decision as a band to put things on hold, as many of us had other commitments in our lives that needed to take priority. Almost two years on, for the most part now settled in where we want to be, it feels like there is space for change. When we put out the hiatus statement, we genuinely thought we were going to be away for quite a while, and we didn't see any chance of having free time to do anything other than focus on our professional lives. We're glad that this is not the case. We are really excited to say that Basement will be playing shows this summer, and we’re looking forward to seeing everyone again.

Show Review: The Color Morale @ Penny Road Pub, IL

 The Color Morale show at Penny Road Pub last Saturday was a show that everyone in the area was waiting for. It had been a very long time since The Color Morale had played a small scale hometown show and with great local support from Arkham, Leviah, Shrapnel ,and Between Myth and Legend (last show for BMAL) as well as For All I Am jumping aboard, the place was bound to be packed. And it was.

The local bands were all very good, setting the bar high for local groups around the area, most notably Arkham. This band brought more energy to the stage than any of the bands before them as their vocalist was constantly in the crowd and at one point, on the ceiling. Their punk style brought a nice diversity to the show and it was great to see the crowd participating in the action with the local bands.

For All I Am was the first non-local band to take the stage as this was the group preceding The Color Morale. For All I Am did a great job overall as they jumped from playing their popular songs as well as older material and less-popular tracks off the album. The two most notable aspects of their performance was their decision to use their own sound guy and their new guitar player/clean vocalist. To start with, the sound guy is someone that the group has been friends/partners with since their humble beginnings when he was their photographer and once they started to tour, he had started doing their sound for live shows. The reason this is worth mentioning is because their live-sound was significantly worse than any other band that night and even though their slot was still enjoyable, this sudden change in sound quality was a harsh adjustment at first. To counter the poor sound, the new guitarist/clean singer seemed to fit in great with the band and he also performed very well live. His voice sounded great if you are someone who didn't know any better, you wouldn't have even guessed he was a replacement.

Next up was the headliner, The Color Morale. These guys always bring great excitement to any bill they are on and especially one that they are headlining in their hometown. Their performance lived up to almost every positive comment I had heard before I saw them and I was greatly satisfied with the show overall. The band played mostly popular tracks but they did venture back to their first album so old fans could reminisce along with the band. Almost everything about their performance was great. The sound was amazing and despite their recent member changes, everyone seemed to be on the same page. The band even fit in a couple of acoustic songs to break up their usual routine and let the crowd sing (very loudly) along to their own songs as well as cover of “Too Close”. The only picky complaint I had with their performance is that the vocalist very rarely sang the clean parts to their songs. Not that someone else was doing it, it's that he was almost always ad-lib and go significantly off course of the original melody. At first it was interesting but it became a bit annoying towards the end of the show as many people wanted to sing along and hear the melodies that they loved but what was being sung was barely recognizable.

Overall this show was hands down THE best show I have ever seen at Penny Road Pub. Not only were there great local acts but the larger bands all originated in the area and it was a great example of what local shows could/should be. The energy in the room was great and it was nice to see everyone from the area of shows all at one concert.

Rating : 9/10

-Nic

(Also, I didn't address the fight that broke out at the show in this article simply because the fight started in the very back of the room and continued outside so the majority of people in the room had no idea that any sort of altercation was going on until long after the show. Plus, my job here is to review the overall show and the bands' performances, not review the owner of the venue and his decisions for security. If you want to know more about the fight, we talked briefly about it in a separate article where we also linked Arkham's description of what happened.)