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Debut EP from new post hardcore outfit Dead American. The band is notable for being fronted by Cove Reber, former front man of Saosin for a time. Reber was fired from the band after two LPs and both he and Saosin went away for a long time. He's back fronting Dead American and arguably has never sounded better. Most notably, his uncleans are much improved, even if he employs them sparingly.

The sound is very much from the heyday of 00s post hardcore. For fans of Finch, Saosin, Circa Survive and early Coheed and Cambria.

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Canadian hardcore punk outfit Fucked Up is back with their first new full length since 2014. The group has been known for their art rock output as of late, concept EPs they put out years following the Chinese Zodiac. The band is known for disliking each other, sometimes to the point of physical altercations. It is likely a side effect from both the front man and one of the guitarists being songwriters and lyricists, resulting in butting heads. But the result is hard to argue with, Fucked Up has been adored by critics since they came on the scene.

This album sees one of those two songwriters, lead vocalist Damian Abraham, take a back seat. His vocals don't even appear in ever song on this album. Instead, the whole group does leads at various points throughout the record. It's much more experimental and broad in its genre, employing a lot of pop influences. This results in an album that some how continues the art rock sound they had been cultivating and challenging the listener, while at the same time being very poppy. With a mammoth 18 tracks, the album gives the band plenty of room to explore this new space they find themselves in.

Like the past couple Fucked Up albums, it's also concept. It has a story and follows a main character in rock opera-like fashion. Their anti-capitalist message comes through in the magical reality of the story of a factory worker that is shown the drudgery of modern life by a sorceress.

It's ambitious, fun and at the end of day, still very much punk. Super enjoyable, in my opinion. A good introduction to the band if you've never heard them, though you may find their past work a little more one dimensional.

I don't put a ton of stock in rateyourmusic's numbers, but I do think it's fun to check in every once in a while to see how my tastes line up with the votes from the userbase. Occasionally I'll find an album I love that, for whatever reason, has a particularly low score.

For example, I was listening to Something to Die For by The Sounds and was surprised to see that it has a 2.88 rating. I love pretty much all of The Sounds' output, and everything else of theirs was well-received by the site. This album, however, was not.

The same goes for Glasvegas's Euphoric Heartbreak which sits at 2.93. Granted, the title is terrible (it has unnecessary slashes that I couldn't figure out how to format right), and it strays from their debut, but I still thoroughly enjoy it.

What are some of your low-rated favorites?

EDIT: If you've never used rym, you can search for any artist in the search field on the top right. That will pull up a list of all artists with that name (or a similar name). Select your desired artist from the list and you'll be taken to their discography page which will show the average rating for each release, as well as the number of ratings and reviews.

I just love good piano, whether alone, with vocals, or with other instruments. Two of my all-time favorite artists are Vienna Teng and Regina Spektor, both of whom use it to great effect in their music. Anyone have any good recommendations? I'm open to any genre.

Edit: Awesome suggestions, everyone! I've got quite the playlist right now that I plan to explore over the coming week. Thanks all!

New release today, Erra's Neon.

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Currently the number one metal album on iTunes' chart, Erra's Neon is the latest release from the underground metalcore act. While they've attracted a cult following, Erra rarely gets headlining tours. Neon is their newest attempt at reaching the next step.

My personal opinion is that this is the perfection of the sound the band switched to with their last release, Drift. Just as atmospheric, with little less of the chug-chug-chug of most metalcore outfits, Erra may have finally found out how to make what some call "progressive metalcore" a bit more accessible. I personally enjoy how present the bass is in the mix. Metal and hardcore both seem to forget about the instrument and put it low in the mix as an after thought. The clean vocals have always been reminiscent of post-hardcore's darling Anthony Green, and Neon is no different.

It's a little bit of a shame that we have to wait until track three to really hear some of the noodling guitar solos they are known for. In a genre more punctuated by breakdowns, Erra is a breath of fresh air when it comes to lead guitar work. But when it does happen, it is up to the standard they've put out for themselves. They seemed to have moved even further away from the djent sound of their earlier work here. I don't mind that, even if I do like djenty sounds, as I think this crisper sound is better overall for Erra. While the uncleans do hit like a truck on first listen, they stay in a mid-range throughout most of the album and it would have been nice to see them go low, as JT has been known to do live.

Overall, I gotta say this is one my favorite albums of the year so far. Every song slaps a bit, gets the head bopping along at the very least.

I was looking over some of my charts of albums recently and I thought this might be a cool idea.

If you don't know what a chart is, basically you can go here and put together a chart of up to 100 of your favorite albums to show people a quick look at your taste or whatever. I've seen people use this as favorite albums, albums that mean a lot to them but aren't necessarily their favorite, people putting custom pictures and making a list of their favorite artists, people making a chart of albums with a "theme" (food on the cover, albums about break-ups, albums of certain genres, etc.), the possibility is whatever you feel like putting together a bunch of albums/artists/anything else you can think of together to show to other people interested in them. I thought it might be a cool idea to see what other ~music users enjoy listening to.

You can also use this to show your rateyourmusic account if you have one, your last.fm, your sputnikmusic, anything pertaining to music that would be cool to look at.

Gorillaz has a new album coming out next week, is anyone else really excited?
Some of the singles already released from the album:
Humility - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5yFcdPAGv0
Sorcerez - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40xG4bMr9F4
Fireflies - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCet4yrfp4o
Lake Zurich - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68JpPpSc7bs
Hollywood - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgwE94KZJ7E

Of them, I think Fireflies has to be my favorite. What's yours?

What do you guys think are the best albums released so far this year? Obviously this is subjective, I'd just like to hear some of your opinions :-)

My favourites out of the ones I can remember are:

• Kids See Ghosts by Kids See Ghosts
• Egg on face. Foot in mouth. Wriggling Wriggling Wriggling. by Crywank
• Moe Moe by Moe Shop
• Little Dark Age by MGMT
• Veteran by JPEGMAFIA