**The Album Reviews published on Dying Scene are written and submitted by regular users of the site. These users are not professional music critics nor are they paid for what they write. If you disagree with an album’s rating, feel free to voice your opinion and give it your own rating in the comments. If you’d like to submit your own review do it here.

Don’t you just love it when bands still play the old school type punk/hardcore that we’ve gotten to love throughout the years!? We Will Fly, a Berlin (Germany) based band originally from the city of Hof in the state of Bavaria play some classic Swedish style hardcore from the 90’s reminiscent of early Misconduct and Raised Fist, all while including some powerful energy and speed. WWF’s sound can be linked much more with hardcore but you can hear a tiny bit of skate punk in the overall picture. I’ll let you decide.

The first track I heard of this band was “Scales” and at that point I instantly associated them to the previously mentioned Misconduct, especially once the vocals and drums got going. Misconduct might not have been the band that “created” the Swedish hardcore scene but they sure as hell left their mark on many bands.

Lyrically, on this album, WWF is involved in issues happening in the world today such as the violence and injustice happening in Tibet, humanity’s dependence on animals (for pets, food, clothing, research, etc.), capitalism, politics, and much more. These Germans play as a three piece but if you heard the band you would definitely not know it! Another fine and important point to mention is that they all sing and I can’t comment enough about bands that have this rare luxury! You don’t know how much it affects WWF’s music, it’s like having three lead singers in a way.

The album starts off with a little instrumental intro (before the hardcore kicks in with the first song) and from the get go you can tell a storm is brewing up, some shouts and some softer guitar parts are the calm of the storm in this case, and the guitars are the little thunder clouds. Suddenly the “fast stuff” begins with blazing drums. As Kramer says, “giddy up”. The dual vocals really add the touch for the rest of the album as you’ll notice. It’s a great job up to this point. Remember, all members sing very well although it may be hard to distinguish when there’s a change. The guys can go from loud, to soft, to a hardcore pitch even. “Tribute” brings a sweet ass upbeat mid-pace song! I simply love it and it could have been a definite single for the album. Chorus wise (a strong one btw) vocals are the type of street punk “gang vocals” which make for a good live song! “Utopia” keeps the train moving as you’d expect with a hardcore band, and speed is essential. Again, just listen closely to vocals on this one. I hate repeating myself but the guys have such good variation. They all compliment each other as good as any band with the mics. Bravo! The middle of “Utopia” slows down in the middle and the way in which it transcends to that part is pretty nifty. Moving along through the album, other high points I just had to mention were the 2:05 or so mark in “Calling for a Change” where you hear a newer Raised Fist sound in the music. Another point is that this band is not afraid to try out new things in their songs such as slowing down things and vocal delivery, of course. With the start of “Make em Fall” the guys give us with some Randy style (again Swedish) vocals and the end of the track has a really cool outro as they slow down things and have this minor Pink Floyd/classic rock touch on guitars. And don’t forget “Scales”, I just knew that something fast would come out of hearing Will Smith, even though -The Pursuit of Happyness- was a touching movie. As he says in the sound bite, “…you want something, go get it” so go buy this album already! Again, pure Misconduct in this one. And the best track to define the band/the album in my opinion. In finishing, every track has their own “thing” from the straight up hardcore, to more upbeat songs, to the original “EmpTV.”

All in all, a solid release from Germany’s We Will Fly. They know that they have talent and they use it efficiently on this album. It serves as a nice business card for any punk or hardcore fan wanting to know more of the German scene. Many central European bands follow the commitment to the cause(s) they are preaching and you can’t go wrong when you hear such passion and dedication. Support the true WWF.

Michigan’s The Bravest Kids are giving away a free download of their demo album Break It, Fix It, Break It Again right here.

The band has a 7″ split with In Bear Country due out this summer via Barrett Records.

Lungs are the band for those with short attention spans.  Oh look, a dollar!  They combine the best of thrash, a little bit of metal then throw around some grand punk and/or rock riffage to pour out some of the punchiest punk-rock tunes Australia has been responsible for in a long time.  Sydney doesn’t have much to offer but these three came together in the cities inner-west, put their heads together and Lungs was born.  Creativity constantly works overtime, writing and recording four releases in four years.  A number which puts some of the world’s hardest working bands to shame.  Their most recent piece of work, The Two Chief World Systems, was actually released last week.  A constant recording and touring schedule has made them a household name for punks around Australia.  So if you’re sitting around just waiting for the internet to provide you with something awesome, head on over to their MySpace page. Oh look, something shiny…

Atreyu have premiered the video for their song Gallows and you can check it out right here.

Gallows is off the band’s most recent album, Congregation of the Damned, which was released October 27th on Hollywood Records.

[Read more…]

Ottawa punk rock act, Year Zero, are streaming 10 songs off their new album Year One on their MySpace page.  I’m not exactly sure when the album is being officially released but I believe it is sometime soon.

Year Zero are currently on tour with Tiltwheel.  Check out their Dying Scene Shows page for dates and locations.

Salt Lake City’s, The Willkills, have been pretty quiet for sometime but seemingly out of nowhere they appear to be recording new music as evidenced by the new demo song titled 10 Years Down on their MySpace page.  No word yet on what this means for the band in terms of a new release but we’ll keep you posted as details surface.

The Willkills last release was their full-length Rough Times Ahead put out on Old Shoe Records in 2008.

**The Album Reviews published on Dying Scene are written and submitted by regular users of the site. These users are not professional music critics nor are they paid for what they write. If you disagree with an album’s rating, feel free to voice your opinion and give it your own rating in the comments. If you’d like to submit your own review do it here.

I never completely understood the whole ‘face melting/melted face’ phrase that has become common place in the internet vernacular of many album reviewers, including myself.  Truth be told, as a female, the prospect of having my face melt sounds terrifying, horribly painful and ridiculously embarrassing. Then I heard the Mary Jane Kelly release, Like There’s No Tomorrow.  Everything became clear. Not only did it melt my face, it also made me lose my shit, made my pants explode and then called shenanigans on my stereo.

The four gents from Wollongong simply went into the studio and, by studio, I mean they traveled eight minutes down the street to record Like There’s No Tomorrow in a mate’s garage.  It worked.  Released in March through Trial and Error Records, this offering is relentless from go to whoa and a strong contender for Australian album of the year.  It’s not quite hardcore,  it just is what it is and that is brilliant.

It begins with a slow instrumental intro including heavy guitars before kicking into Pigs Of Gluttony which is an attack on the aural senses.  This song also introduces the distinctive voice of Justin Bortignon whose vocals are rough, angry yet passionate but never tiring on the ear.  All qualities I favour highly.

The Imprecision Of My Dimensions carries this through, beginning with Jim Salem thrashing the drums before Matt Velozo kicks in with one of the album’s more technical riffs.  By the time you catch up, a catchy-as-hell melodic vocal part has slipped into the mix.  A voice sounds uncannily similar to that of Lungs front man, Adam Lees.  Adding a pop-punk moment, albeit fleeting, to music this heavy is risky.  However they pull it off.  Bortignon’s gruff vocals in the back ground during the pop-punk inclusion plays its part as a wise move by the band, reminding everyone that it is still MJK at the helm.

The record is heavy on the bass. Brendan Dive does more than prove that he knows his way around a fret board.  This is most evident in Wallflowers and If God Were Here – the latter is one of the finest pieces of work that MJK have produced to date.  The other being Weak, Corrupt, Worthless & Restless in which Velozo opens with a fast clean riff then it picks up the drum and bass before the tempo jerks, finally finishing with the same riff with which it began.

Lyrically the album runs over inspired content.  There is no doubt that Bortignon put time and a vast amount of thought in the substance of each song.  The album covers extremely personal content, all of which, on some level, is easy to relate too.

Like There’s No Tomorrow pushes what it is considered musically acceptable within many scenes.  It’s full of amazing guitar riffs that wouldn’t be out of place on a punk album, interchanges hardcore and metalcore elements with ease yet doesn’t come off as being wanky.  And, despite their gritty, passionate intensity, the vocals retain a level of cleanness most hardcore artists would struggle to match.

The album never allows itself to get pinned into the standard hardcore template.  While hardcore is the first word that comes to mind, it meanders through great elements of hardcore and metalcore amongst others which makes pigeonholing this release a complete waste of time.

The record is practically impossible to fault. Mary Jane Kelly have set their own bar high with this offering and if they manage to maintain their own standards, they are going to need to invest in a pump of some sort at their live shows to extract all the puddles of melted faces.  If you’re overdue for a case of melting face, get yourself a towel and head on over to their MySpace page.  Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to put my head in the freezer in an attempt to reform my own face.

Boca Raton punk act, Fallen From The Sky, will be heading out to California later this month to begin tracking for a yet-to-be-titled follow up to their debut, Tonight We Radiate (Eulogy Recordings). The effort will be produced by Shaun Lopez (Far, Deftones) sharing time at both his own Airport Studios in Burbank as well as Hurley Studios in Costa Mesa.

Drummer Giancarlo “Jim” Aservi notes, “We’ve spent the last 7+ months hard at work writing, practicing & demoing and the outcome is some of the strongest material our band has ever written.” He adds, “We’ve all been long time fans of Shaun’s work, both as a producer and musician, and we feel he is exactly what we need to create an album that will set us apart from our peers. A good producer can have a tremendous affect on the end result [of a record] and we feel this experience will definitely have a major impact on the band. We want Shaun to feel like the 6th member of FFTS, adding in his knowledge and expertise to songs we are already very confident about, hoping to take this album to the next level.”

Tonight We Radiate was released in 2008.

In an interview conducted on KCTV5, Sublime With Rome guitarist/vocalist Rome Ramirez reveals that the band has been working on new material for an album, which he is dubbing the “great album of the decade”.

“My expectation is to do our best. We expect to play really good. If we’re not playing good, we’re not doing this, we’re not doing something right. But further than the tour, our expectations are to get in the studio and write the next great album of the decade.”

The record will likely be released sometime next year. It will be the first full-length from the SoCal ska-punk pioneers Sublime since their 1996 multi platinum self-titled album, as well as the first album to be released under the moniker Sublime With Rome and the first to feature Rome as the late Bradley Nowell’s replacement.

In addition to a new album, Sublime With Rome recently performed a brand new song titled Panic on Jimmy Kimmel. Check it out here. There’s no word yet on whether that song will be on the upcoming debut.

The band is currently on tour. Hit up their Dying Scene Shows page for dates and locations.

Songwriter and guitarist Brett Gurewitz has announced via Twitter that he and his band, Bad Religion are mastering their upcoming album, The Dissent of Man, due out September 28, 2010.

Brett reveals: “Mastering the new @badreligion w Evil Joe B & Brian Gardner at Bernie Grundman Mastering”

The Dissent of Man will be Bad Religion’s first studio album since 2007’s New Maps of Hell, and will likely include the new song “Resist-Stance”, which originally appeared on the live album 30 Years Live. It will also mark the first time since its formation in 1979 that a Bad Religion line-up had not changed in four consecutive studio recordings.

As previously reported, a North American tour is planned for this October and a South American tour for early next year.