Who Goes There?: Four gentlemen from Ontario, Canada with a penchant for multi-tasking.

How Goes It?: With three members performing on and contributing to the last City & Colour album, Marriage can be seen to be a more personal outlet of raw, emotional rock for this young band. With dashes of country and classic emo permeating this album in a distinctly original manner, Marriage stands on its own as an example of Canadian inventiveness and skill and is well worth a listen or three.

Sounds Like: The Gaslight Anthem / Moneen / The Promise Ring

****

Who Goes There?: Front Counter are a Melbournian quintet with pop-punk on the brain.

How Goes It?: Updating the pop-punk sound for 2008, Front Counter have the knack for writing ridiculously catchy songs which after a few listens, stick in your head like leprosy. Produced by Richard Stolz (Behind Crimson Eyes), A Toast To You And Me contains five tracks of pop-heroin that will see the band hit the Neighbours stage and no doubt Video Hits in the near future.

Sounds Like: Good Charlotte / Lit / A Simple Plan

***

ALESANA – Where Myth Fades To Legend

(Fearless / Shock)

Who Goes There?: Alesana are an exceptionally talented group of schizophrenic music lovers.

How Goes it?; With six members, each contributing their love of metal, hardcore, emo, pop, disco and prog to the mix, Where Myth Fades To Legend is an amalgam of historic proportions. Switching genres on a dime, Alesana manage to still create cohesive and catchy music that challenges modern conceptions of listenability and standard song-structures without seeming too facetious.

Sounds Like: Coheed & Cambria / Heavy Heavy Low Low / Fall Of Troy

***½

Who Goes There?: Metro Station are a Hollywood quartet with synths and stardom on the brain.

How Goes It?: Taking synths and poppy emo and mashing them together has only ever had one result, that being a fluorescent-dressed disaster. Metro Station are no exception to this rule and if anything are slightly more cloying than most and if you listen really closely, I swear one of their songs is on a car advertisement.

Sounds Like: Cobra Starship / Motion City Soundtrack / Sneaky Sound System

*

Who Goes There?: Ligeia are four guys from Western Massachusetts who don’t mind the odd breakdown.

How Goes It?: Despite the horrific cover art, Bad News is comprised of exactly the opposite of its namesake. Boasting eleven new songs which explore the bounds of hardcore and rock, this album is full of ballsy riffs and lyrical depictions of frustration, all of which is delivered without the usual dose of testosterone, instead riding a wave of skill and talent to the finish line.

Sounds Like: The Hotness / Have Heart / Haste The Day

***

HONORABLE MENTIONS

CEREMONY – Still Nothing Moves You: frenetic hardcore with a dash of black-metal.

ALL THAT REMAINS – S/T DVD: Modern metal done good, catchy and live. 

DISHONORABLE MENTIONS

HAWTHORNE HEIGHTS - Fragile Future: emo-pop reworked for the 1000th time…

MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE – The Black Parade Is Dead: Cashing in, pure and simple.

PATRICK PERRIER

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