Saosin - Translating the Name (Post-Hardcore / Emo, 2003)

I have a preference for shorter, tight releases and Translating the Name is probably one of my favourites in that regard. This is Saosin at its best - before their self-titled release, and before Anthony Green departed to Circa Survive, they were a band that was messy, poppy and all around fantastic. If more post-hardcore was like this, I have no doubt the genre would be a lot more appreciated.

There's so much happening in nearly every song - they manage to sound chaotic and yet subdued, an embodiment of the adolescent emotional contradictions that plague every teenage mind and leads them to write embarrassing things like this very sentence. Despite the band’s biggest strengths on this EP being their ability to manage the chaos, the best track on here is probably the most straight-forward, accessible one, 3^rd Measurement in C.

Some of the lyrics on this EP are downright strange, such as "I have your voice on tape in a Southern accent screaming at me" and “And I'm sad that you'll be gold upon / gold in my veins  / tango with daddy and separate only / smile my only rights of passage”. It’s difficult to grasp exactly what they mean but the emotion behind them makes you feel like it doesn’t really matter so much.

The only song on here that doesn't hold my interest much is the finale, They Perched on Their Stilts, Pointing and Daring Me to Break Custom. Most of the time when I listen to this EP, I skip this track but when I give it a chance, I’m reminded of why I do. Most of the song is fairly simplistic and subdued compared to the rest of the EP. It’s a bit closer to the sound that future Saosin songs would pursue, and that’s probably why it doesn’t work all that much for me.

It’s a shame that Anthony Green departed Saosin – as much as I enjoy Circa Survive, the potential displayed here could have led to something great. Instead Saosin dumbed down their sound, and they’ve never been able to capture the magic of this EP even with Anthony’s return.

8 / 10

Highlights: “3^rd Measurement in C" and "Translating the Name".

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A Day to Remember - What Seperates Me From You (Pop Punk / Metalcore, 2010)

What Seperates Me From You is a further refinement of the formula that A Day to Remember has used since 2007's For Those Who Have Heart and still continues to use (for the most part) to this very day. It features a lot less fat than their previous releases (and even the releases afterwards) and thus, unlike those albums there are no songs that are just flat out bad or feel outright unnecessary.

There’s a lot less heavy sections on this album too, with only 3 songs featuring heavy verses, but one song is entirely harsh vocals and breakdowns (2^nd Sucks). There are still some occasional heavier moments that add a bit of an edge, but overall the album focuses more on ADTR’s polished pop punk sound. This isn’t a bad thing in the slightest, seeing as ADTR’s heavy metalcore moments tend to come across as fairly one-note and similar and in retrospect this is a huge issue with FTWHH and Homesick if you don’t have nostalgia goggles. By keeping those elements minimal, ADTR is able to keep them relatively fresh throughout its running time.

The same applies to the pop punk style of the band. The album is just long enough and it feels like with just one more song added of a similar sound it would wear out its welcome. Although there are clear standouts (mentioned below), I wouldn’t complain if I heard any of these songs in the band’s setlist. Easily their most solid (but not their best) album to date.

7.5 / 10

Highlights: Sticks & Bricks, All I Want, 2nd Sucks and You Be Tails, I'll Be Sonic

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Ratings for their other releases:

Halos for Heros, Dirt for the Dead (2004) - 3.5 / 10
And Their Name Was Treason (2005) - 6 / 10
For Those Who Have Heart (2007) - 7 / 10
Homesick (2009) - 8.5 / 10 Common Courtesy (2013) - 5 / 10
Bad Vibrations (2016) - 6 / 10

A Day to Remember - Halos for Heros, Dirt for the Dead (Pop Punk / Post-Hardcore / Acoustic Rock, 2004)

A Day to Remember were a very young band at the time of this release, only having been together for a mere year before this EP's release. This is something that's incredibly obvious on this demo, with elements of pop punk, emo, post-hardcore and soft/acoustic rock all blended together over the various tracks, but absent of the polish they’d later deliver on For Those Who Have Heart. A lot of tweaking was required before they could hit upon that sound and become mainstream darlings in the scene.

To this end, the EP begins with Breathe Hope in Me, a track that essentially features every single style they’d try out on this EP into one song. The first minute is a soft, slow intro unlike any other ADTR opening which explodes into mid-tempo pop punk with harsh vocals scantily used as flourishes to the track. Beyond the style and tempo changes, this song isn’t too impressive.

The standouts are, however, the tracks If Looks Could Kill... and Last Request. As the name implies, the former is an earlier version of the track which appeared on And Their Name Was Treason. What was a middle-of-the-road track on Treason becomes far superior on this release, with the rawer vocals delivering far more passion than the version on the debut album.

This is the only song that really uses harsh vocals extensively, in addition to featuring the only breakdown on the EP. It is very telling that it’s the only song they saw fit to include on the debut release, as it’s probably the closest ADTR comes to their modern sound. It’s not exactly identical to the version featured on Treason, with the song leaning more towards an emo/pop punk mix in terms of structure and vibe rather than metalcore. It suits the song a lot better than the car-crash way it’s blended together on their debut, with them still working out the subtleties of their heavier side.

Last Request is the best track on the EP. Similar to the previous track, it’s essentially an emo/pop punk song with some post-hardcore flourishes somewhat reminiscent of Taking Back Sunday. It’s strange to me that they didn’t pursue this sound a little more, as there isn’t really any other ADTR song quite like this one on any of their later releases despite how effective it is here.

The final two tracks are both acoustic, neither of which are particularly interesting lyrically or musically. ADTR's acoustic/softer tracks have never been their stronger material (with the exception of If It Means A Lot To You and the recent Forgive and Forget) and this isn't any different here. It does however go to show that ADTR have never been a band that focuses too much on their heaviness, even in their earlier days. The only reason I figure two tracks of this kind were featured was because this EP was recorded in merely a day, so they were likely struggling to getting all their material together and ready, figuring acoustic material would easier to fill up the time.

It would be difficult to connect to this release to their later material without And Their Name Was Treason showing the way they eventually developed their sound. They hadn’t quite added so much of a metalcore element to their sound yet, as the heavier elements of their release come off more as post-hardcore flourishes more than anything to their core pop-punk sound. Still, it's clear that at this point they were still trying new things to see what worked and luckily they did, otherwise we wouldn't have gotten great albums later down the line such as For Those Who Have Heart and Homesick. Ultimately, this is only really worth checking out if you're a big fan of the band.

3.5 / 10

Highlights: If Could Looks Kill... Then You'd Be Dead and Last Request.

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Ratings for their other releases:

And Their Name Was Treason (2005) - 6 / 10
For Those Who Have Heart (2007) - 7 / 10
Homesick (2009) - 8.5 / 10
What Separates Me From You (2010) - 7.5 / 10
Common Courtesy (2013) - 5 / 10
Bad Vibrations (2016) - 6 / 10

Opeth - Blackwater Park (Progressive Metal, Melodic Death Metal, 2001)

Blackwater Park is an almost perfect release, but would be improved with the removal of the songs Dirge for November and The Funeral Portrait. Dirge for November is a simply boring song, whereas The Funeral Portrait feels more like Opeth going through the motions compared to the rest of the album's triumphs. There's still so many moments that are captivating on every listen, which usually come from the more melodic sections on the album (Bleak's chorus, Harvest, The Drapery Falls) but they wouldn't feel as impactful without the more punishing moments on here that still strike a balance between the brutality and the beautiful.

8.5 / 10 as a whole, 10/10 with only tracks 1-4 & 8.

Highlights: The entire first half.

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There was only one music video released for the album (Harvest), but it's an outlier in that it doesn't represent the majority of the album's sound. There was also a single version of The Drapery Falls, but due to the song's length, half the song was cut including the climax which is the best part!

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Ratings for their other releases:

Orchid (1995) - 6 / 10
Morningrise (1996) - 7 / 10
My Arms, Your Hearse (1998) - 8 / 10
Still Life (1999) - 9 / 10
Deliverance (2002) - 9 / 10
Damnation (2003) - 8.5 / 10
Ghost Reveries (2005) - 8 / 10
Watershed (2008) - 7 / 10