Underconstruction

Location: Omaha,United States
Genre: Alternative/punk >>Indie Pop

Biography

Inherent in youth is a kinetic energy, vitality and passion that has the potential to move masses. Every new generation picks a voice that will offer them something to identify with -- something to prove to them that the crazy things they?re feeling and the anger that they?re having and the disillusionment that?s plaguing them is normal. Bright Eyes? Conor Oberst is that voice.
Born 1980 in Omaha and recording since he was 13, Conor Oberst owns a voice that quakes with the tumultuous energy that only youth can produce. Oberst's incredible ability to tell stories with his songs and paint intricate pictures with his words is reminiscent, without being derivative, of mid-period Dylan. And his gift for composing and delivering those songs is pure poetry. As the mastermind behind the acclaimed Bright Eyes collective, Oberst?s genius is found in a pretense-free, orchestral approach to songwriting. His most recent, most musically vigorous and rockin? project, Desaparecidos, toured the nation and released Read Music / Speak Spanish to enormous amounts of critical acclaim.
Lifted or The Story is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground is the latest, most significant release from Oberst and the notable cast of Bright Eyes players. Oberst?s mainstay production team of Mike Mogis and Andy Lemaster (Now It?s Overhead) lend performances on the record along with other noteworthy Omaha musicians including Todd and Clark Baechle (The Faint), Orenda Fink and Maria Taylor (Azure Ray), Matt Maginn and Clint Schnase (Cursive), and Jiha Lee (The Good Life).
The Bright Eyes tour in spring of 2002 saw Oberst take the stage in a powder blue suit, surrounded by six beautiful female musicians, his sense of bona fide showmanship entrancing his audience. At his two sold-out Bowery Ballroom performances in New York City, you could have heard a pin drop between songs as hundreds of fans and new converts fell under his delicate spell -- proof of Oberst?s virtuosity as the consummate performer.
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On Bright Eyes' 1998 release 'A Collection of songs...' it was clearly evident to me through the static and low-fidelity recordings that a brilliant songwriter was emerging. It was the release of 'letting off the Happiness' later that same year, with its giant step forward in terms of fidelity, that gave thousands of others around the world that same hope. It Is with 'Fevers and Mirrors', the third full-length and follow up to last years 'Every Day And Every Night EP', that we can all see where Conor and crew have been heading.
Conor Oberst and friends had the luxury of spending over a month recording 'Fevers and Mirrors' on to 24-tracks at Dead Space Studios (owned and operated by Lullaby for the working class' Mogis brothers). Reunited with 'letting off the Happiness' producers Mike Mogis and Andy Lemaster, they successfully captured both the hi-fi quality of the studio as well as the intimacy of their previous recordings. The most focused and conceptually complete release to date, Bright Eyes' 'Fevers and Mirrors' is a modern day masterpiece from one of the most important songwriters of our time. Twelve songs of brutal honesty and ingenious storytelling bring us a bit closer to this undeniable talent.
Discover for yourself Conor's amazing talent at combining well-crafted lyrics with haunting music and melodies to produce songs that are manic, depressing, honest, and inspiring.
Bright Eyes is an ever-changing entity. It's only constant is singer/songwriter Conor Oberst whose lyrical and musical ability continue to amaze us.

BFMV, A7X, TRIVIUM

Avenged sevenfold review - A7X

The members of metalcore outfit Avenged sevenfold (or A7X) were still in high school when they formed in 1999 in Huntington Beach, CA. Still, it didn't take long for M. Shadows (vocals), Zacky Vengeance (guitar), Synyster Gates (guitar), the Reverend (drums), and Johnny Christ (bass) to make an impression with their aggressive hybrid of metal and punk-pop. The band debuted in July 2001 with Sounding the Seventh Trumpet (Good Life), and followed two years later with the Hopeless release Waking the Fallen before jumping to Warner Bros. for June 2005's City of Evil. That summer they supported the album (which began their breakthrough into the mainstream) with a live run on the Warped Tour's main stage. City of Evil hit number 30 on Billboard's Top 200, propeled in part by the Top Ten success of their single "Bat Country." The video for that song was heavily rotated on MTV and Fuse, where live appearances also helped Avenged's growing profile, and the guys wound up winning the Best New Artist Award (though they were hardly newcomers) at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards. ~ Christina Fuoco, All Music Guide

Trivium review

There's no such thing as a band born to greatness. To succeed in the world of music there's a whole energy-sapping storm of hard work to plough through. Florida's Trivium has surely earned the major contender status that has been afforded them by the international media. After spending the last few years up to their necks in blood, sweat and tears, the formidable foursome, whose 2005 sophomore release (and Roadrunner debut) Ascendancy made them a hit with discerning music fans everywhere, have paid their dues. Relentless touring around the world with over 350 shows in the past two years has sharpened the band's live prowess, making their new album, The Crusade, one of the most hotly anticipated hard rock albums of 2006. The level of charisma and energy that they've harnessed since hitting the global gig circuit has built Matt Heafy, Corey Beaulieu, Paolo Gregoletto and Travis Smith a huge international fan base that is as devoted as it is ever growing. (More on Roadrunnerrecords.com)

Bullet for my vallentine review

Everyone predicted it. The metal press, the music industry and especially the gig going kids all knew that there was something special about Bridgend based Welsh metallers, Bullet for My Valentine and now it looks like everyone else is going to know it as well.
2005 has been a momentous year for the four piece; selling out their first ever headline tour of the UK, performing bone shaking sets at the Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards Ceremony and the Kerrang! Day Of Rock and that?s before we even mention rocking Reading, video shoots in Slovenian cave systems, making a splash in Japan and preparing for their first US tour.
Of course if there is one group of people who are not surprised by their upward velocity this year it is the band themselves. Matt Tuck, poster boy vocalist and guitarist, is more matter of fact than arrogant when he says: ?I know what it is that separates us from most other bands. It?s keeping our metal roots; keeping all of the aggressiveness and brutality that we?ve grown up on, but at the same time writing good songs. You need good melody, good tunes.? Then his tongue slips firmly into his cheek as he adds: And when you put it all together in one good looking, young, 21st Century rock band, you can't fail!
The debut album "The Poison", which was released on October 3, obviously met the demands of the fans, going straight to number one in the rock charts: with four Bullets.
As well as turning in a blistering set at the Kerrang! Day of Rock, where there was almost a riot, they played another foundation rattling gig at the Metal Hammer Golden Gods, which was all the more surprising because less than 24 hours earlier Matt had been in hospital suffering from exhaustion.
We'd just been doing too much, says Matt. My body just said "No more" and packed in. But the same protestant work ethic has taken its toll on the rest of the band as well. During a hectic and insanely well received tour of Japan, affable drummer, Michael Moose Thomas contracted a potentially fatal strain of bird flu! It was horrible, says Moose I was on a drip for a fortnight. They said it was avian flu but I reckon I picked it up in those caves.
Those caves were the Postojna Caves in Slovenia where they filmed the epic video to their last top 40 single Suffocating Under The Words Of Sorrow (What Can I Do). It was the most heavy metal place you can imagine, underground with all these stalactites. But I thought they were going to snap off and spear me while I was playing, adds the drummer. It had Enter Traveller In To This Immensity carved in big letters in Latin over the entrance, it was mad, adds laidback guitar man Michael Padge Padget. If we don't watch Matt, adds Manga haired bass monster Jason Jay James, that's what the new album will end up being called.
Their hectic schedule has still allowed time for a Kerrang! cover feature and getting a future Metal Hammer cover in the bag. Most importantly, however, is their first ever UK headline tour, which has completely sold out within weeks of tickets going on sale. The UK jaunt kicks off in their native Cardiff on the 18th and winds up in Nottingham Rock City on the 25th after a night at the UK's rock Mecca, The Astoria. Given the nature of what they're embarking on, though surely it would be fair to say that they are, in technical terminology, shitting their pants? But this just elicits an emphatic No from Matt and the boys. We're going to destroy everything, adds Jay simply. Of course, the band have had recent experience of playing in front of gigantic crowds after a volcanic set at this year's Reading and Leeds festivals. Matt adds: It was our first main stage performance at Reading and we fucking killed it man. Jay chips in, indicating the amount of sphincter dilating stress you have to deal with playing the main stage of a festival: I had a dry mouth! But it was fucking cool, you don't look too hard at how many people there are and just get on with it. Given that they have just been picked to do a joint Kerrang! tour with Avenged Sevenfold and they have an upcoming tour with It Dies Today in America, you would think that the band don?t have time to think about the long term but they have solid plans for the future. Moose starts listing the reasons why he knows they're still going to be on people's lips in ten years time: First classic album. Second classic album. Third classic album then a fourth. We're just gonna keep on going.? Matt agrees adding: ?It?s like I said, classic song writing is going to ensure that people will still want to listen to us. I want to be a metal John Lennon!? But for the band one of their personal highlights of the years was the first of many annual parties to celebrate their namesake saint's day: The Valentine's Day Massacre. Matt concludes: ?It was our party at the Mean Fiddler and it was immense, the crowd was just like one big wave and I had to take two seconds to take it all in before we started. It was like . . . wow! And if we've got one piece of advice for the UK's hottest fresh metal act (to paraphrase Roy Scheider in Jaws): you?re gonna need a bigger venue.

UnderOaTH - Define the great line (Review)

Define the Great Line (Solid State/Tooth & Nail)

Released June 2006

Sounds like … a stronger, more visceral version of My Chemical Romance, Hawthorne Heights, Senses Fail, and other representatives of the emo-screamo canon.

At a glance … Define the Great Line not only redefines the sound of Underoath, but also has the potential of redefining the hardcore emo genre.

It's still too early to say if Underoath will truly become this generation's P.O.D., but one thing's for sure—their new album, Define the Great Line, has all the makings of a blockbuster effort, much like 2001's Satellite was for P.O.D. Co-produced by Atlanta-based producer/drummer Matt Goldman and Killswitch Engage guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz, Define the Great Line simply sounds huge, far removed from the tamer and thinner feel of its predecessor. Once recording wrapped, the disc was handed off to mixing guru Chris Lord-Alge, today's authority in mixing rock music. The results show.

Regardless of what you think of the hardcore emo-screamo genre, Define the Great Line unquestionably transcends it as an album discontent with simply staying put in a single subgenre. Thus, it represents the best chance yet of appealing to listeners beyond Underoath's core audience, assuming of course that they can stomach the intensity. There's something primal, ferocious and grandiose about it, as if this was the mother of all lesser albums that predate it, including this band's own material. In a genre that has become as ubiquitous and indistinguishable as late '90s teen pop, kudos to Underoath for raising the bar and setting precedent in both Christian rock and beyond.