My Chemical Romance ''Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge'' (2004)

My Chemical Romance is one of those bands you listen as a teen, cringe at after a year and then come back to later on to wallow in it's nostalgia and find a new appreciation for it's edgy lyrics and emo/screamo influences. Although this album is MCR's second release they ditched a large part of the screamo that made up their debut album ''I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love''. 

With 12 songs, and interlude and 39 minutes of listening time this album is jampacked with incredible songs, personal favourites would be ''Helena", the first track on this record, it immediately sets the mood with dark tones and mystifying vibes. ''Give 'Em Hell, Kid'', which utilises this band's incredible instrumentals and Gerard Way's paralyzing vocals. And many other songs that I love, but the truth is, not a single one of these songs is lacklustre, all of them have their unique quirks and tones. Alt Rock, Emo, Post Hardcore and Punk Rock are all ways to describe this album and band but none of that quite does their revolutionary sound justice, thriving off of gnarly riffs and almost scary screams is something they excelled at, cementing their sound and the genre of emo. 

Shout along choruses, machine gun fast drumming, horror themes,  guitar with huge Metal influences, complex song structures and a generally raw feel created the incredible sound that is this My Chemical romance, even in songs that feel lighter like ''The Jetset Life Is Gonna Kill You'' we don't get given peace, we are still bombarded with catchy hooks and Metal tinged riffs, in a good way of course.

An album like this has so much you can say about it but I do not know enough about this record or it's history to write it all down for you, all I can say is that this 12 song masterpiece is a must listen to anyone

9/10

Puppy ''The Goat'' (2019)

 Finding this band through Xisuma's Music Blog a few weeks ago and their general aesthetic of the album cover and titles like Entombed, Bathe In Blood and I Feel An Evil made me prepared for some crazy glamour and heavy metal riffs, I felt slightly relieved when that wasn't exactly the case, I have appreciation for music like that but it doesn't quite satisfy my ears, instead this record came at me with some epic Metal riffage, Alt Rock melodies and pop-tinged infectious hooks.

With their Alt Rock moods and some dabble into Classic Rock licks Puppy makes this Groove Metal track do wonders. Main focus on the guitar work is no exception in many bands but Puppy doesn't feel the need to exaggerate theirs with heavy distortion or cheap thrills. The vocal presence from this 3 man band is nothing to laugh at either, combined with perpetual riffs and tugging tones the constant rockage gives you a sore neck. Beautiful layered harmonics illuminating the whole album and giving off a Deftones like feel.

Continuously intertwining some quirks make sure this record never tires, having had this on repeat almost every other day. The band proudly wears their influences that range from the 70s to the 90s, howling rock solos, glamorous guitar licks and occasional hazy psychedelia are frequently found. Tracks like Handlebars even bring in the heavy churns I've only heard before in KoRn's music. Bathe In Blood is a beautiful combination of metallic riffs, prog-tinged spiraling and the raw emotion often experienced in Deftones' records, making it a surreal listening experience. 

An arsenal of riffs, amazing supportive drumming, crunchy and limitless tunefulness all riding on the currents of sinister undertones make this debut album incredibly accessible, there will be songs for everyone on here, an irresistible spell cast on anyone fortunate enough to come across this band's path. Their easy listening might be the one downside of this record, with so many resources at it's disposal this band would do great with experimenting around with different song lengths or some more daring styles. They're not unfolding their wings and utilising their full potential, this is only their first record though, I am super excited for what they do in the future.

10/10

 Challenger Deep ''Challenger Deep'' (2019)

Showing up in my Spotify Weekly not too long ago this band pulled me in with their allure of strong basslines and powerful instrumentals. I'm glad I've got to know Feed Me Jack and Polyphia before listening to this, getting to know Math Rock better, this band uses a slightly more aggressive and sloppier sound than what I've gotten to love from Feed Me Jack, and in comparison to Polyphia they don't quite have as genius riffs. Another comparison I'll make is to Intervals and Plini, both instrumental bands I've discovered quite recently, Intervals a bit more energetic than Plini but still not on the level of Challenger Deep.

This 4 man boy band's biggest asset on this debut album is their powerful basslines, often taking the front stage for a while with rhythmic riffs, droning onwards, though the main attention is still on the electric guitar, this band's main skill lies on merging technicality and earworm worthy melodies into beautiful songs. With their catchy hooks, electric energy, and graceful technicality these song jump out at you catching you by storm. 

The intro track 'The Bloop (It Begins)' sets atmosphere, a good reference to the geographical name Challenger Deep, the deepest natural point know to date, it gives us a mystical welcome before we get dragged into the frenzied finger tapping guitar work and aggressive machine gun like drumming of 'Welcome to the Show', that's not all they know to do though, punctuated stops and punchy basslines grab you by ear once you start to decipher the sound a little.

For 30 minutes of completely immersing, amazing sound and skilful guitar licks this record has surprisingly little listens, a real shame. In 8 songs the band has outdone itself, selling their point of beautifully merged punctuated technicality and their catchy hooks for their debut album to us like real masters.

8/10

 Weezer ''Weezer'' (1994)

For the first post on this Blog it's only appropriate I start with one of the first albums I listened in actual album form. Weezer's blue album was the first album I listened to that wasn't something young me had picked up on the radio in car rides with my mom, when getting this album recommended to me somewhere online I was very reluctant to listen to it, and rightfully so, the grungy electric guitar wasn't something you ever heard in the Alan Walker or Imagine Dragon songs I used to religiously listen to.

The blue album was Weezer's debut and also the high of their career, there now are fantastic individual tracks who rank a bit higher on total amount of listens or copies sold but overall the blue album is yet to be beat. The grunge electric guitar is amazing and the drums and riffs are kept quite simplistic with lyrics that are easy to follow which makes these songs so satisfying to listen to, I still get Buddy Holly stuck in my head occasionally.

The intense geekiness of Weezer and this album is very apparent in the album cover and lyrics, but the sound is a page straight out of Nirvana's book who Rivers was massively inspired by, yet the band made this their own album, with enormous hooks and incredibly catchy riffs, melodies and lyrics. 

Weezer has been constantly growing and developing their sound which is almost sad to see, you can see the numbers dwindling in comparison to their origins but I will not look at the blue album and think ''Oh we could have had more of this'' but instead I am happy that there is no album that's a straight repeat.

6/10