How Do You Sleep At Night?

Yesterday I went to Newbury Comics and I spent some more of my money on some more CD’s….what a surprise! I decided to get Your Demise’s new CD, The Kids We Used To Be.

This is their first album to feature their new lead vocalist Ed McCrae, following the departure of George Noble in 2009. Ed was in the band Centurion before he was recruited to be in this band. The Kids We Use To Be was released on September 20, 2010 and has received generally positive reviews. I checked out a couple of different websites and most places give it an 8 or higher. The album features a nice blend of hardcore punk, melodic hardcore, and even some metalcore. I have only listened to this album once through but I would probably give it an 8. It has a lot of melodic guitar parts in different spots throughout the album which I really enjoyed. They had some breakdowns that had more of a metalcore feel to them than a hardcore punk feel. There was some clean vocals in parts of the album which kind of surprised me because I though that this was going to be a more straight forward hardcore punk album, but I was pleasantly surprised. I thought that at some points the clean vocals fit in well but in other points it just felt to out of place. I think that they will probably work on clean vocals more in the future to make their style even more unique. I enjoyed this album and I really want to check out their older releases. I would recommend at least listening to this album or getting it from a friend. It’s not really worth spending 13$ for it (like I did) but if you can find it for less then 10$ then I would go for it.

The other CD that I bought was by Massachusetts Straight Edge band, Have Heart. I was excited to see that Newbury Comics had their recently released live CD/DVD of their last show entitled, 10.17.09.

The obvious reason as to why this album is called what it is, is because of the fact that their last show was on 10.17.09. This CD is freakin crazy and I really enjoyed it a lot. I honestly think that the DVD (which shows the whole live show) is even better though because it really captures the raw essence and power of what this band was and forever will be. This last concert shows true fans of this band and of the genre as a whole and it is simply beautiful to watch. From an outsiders perspective, it may seem like utter chaos and not even music at all, but if you really look at it for what it is, you may see the true quality of what this genre is and what this life style is all about. If you are looking for amazing vocals and perfected sound, then I would tell you to stay away from this record because it is raw and the vocals are really choppy because of the intensity of the show. You can hear everyone yelling the lyrics throughout the show and it can be bone chilling sometimes because of the pure force coming from everyone in that room. For a person who is just getting into hardcore punk (like myself) I would definitely recommend this to old and new fans alike. This CD actually makes me sad that I haven’t been able to be a part of this until now..but I will be listening to this album for a long time. The only issue that I have with the CD portion of this package is the fact that there are 2 second pauses at the end of each track with silence which really takes away the feel of the whole show. However, I suggest putting the album onto iTunes and just editing the files so that they can flow together seamlessly. Other than that little flaw, this album is truly remarkable and I give it a 9/10. I got it at Newbury for only 9$ and that is one amazing deal that no fan of hardcore punk should pass up.