Bring Me The Horizon, and bring me a coat while your at it.

It was so cold, I saw a Polar Bear walk by with a coat on. No really, it was, and I would know because I waited outside for two hours in freezing temperatures. After driving for four hours to Ohio to see Bring Me The Horizon play at Peabodys, I was pleasantly surprised by the venue. It had brilliant acoustics and was quite big, the people there where friendly and the death circles where “br00tal”, my sister even has the black eye to prove it. But, this is not a review of the venue, so I will continue.

Bring Me the Horizon were the band playing, and their opening bands were quite good. I didn’t really know the other bands to well, so it was difficult to enjoy the music if your not familiar with it, especially when your avoiding windmill kicks and crowd surfers, but that is metal music for you.

BMTH took to stage after the crowd enjoyed about 10 minutes of Tom Sykes musical stylings on the drums. They started off with one of there old songs from their Count Your Blessings album. After a few fast paced songs they played some songs from Suicide Season. I think their new album shows that the band have developed more as artists, even putting their new sound aside, Oliver’s lyrics had really grown and the crowd responded to this well.

More songs where played and the venue was filled with the sounds of violent riffs and cheers. When the band thanked everyone for coming out and left the stage, the crowd asked for more. Bring Me the Horizon entered the stage once again, and after a few votes took place, everyone decided that Tell Slater Not to Wash His Dick (the band never fails to come up with the most charming song titles)should be the song to end the show. Oliver asked for the place to open up, and of course the crowd responded quite well. I cringed the entire time for fear of another kick to the head, let me tell you the crowd needed little encouragement to start violence that would make a blood thirsty group of pillagers cringe, but as I said before, that is metal music for you. And I’m not sure about you, but the whole impending death thing makes shows a bit more exciting for me.

BMTH are quite a controversial band in the blog scene. Many people accuse listeners of being posers who like the music only for “the scene” and the band has undergone a fair amount of controversy from other metal bands for their trendy and maybe even high maintenance image. To those people, I recommend going to a Bring Me The Horizon show and seeing the band actually play. Forget about their myspace friends and their 13 year old followers and if you can manage it, forget their hairstyles, because when you see this band play, their passion for music and performing may surprise you. They are more than a myspace trend, they are talented artists who have a lot to offer the music scene. I admit it, I generally do not like metal music, with the exception of a few bands of course, and although BMTH will never be my favourite band, you have to respect them as artists, because that’s what they are. Go see them live if your uncertain, you might want to bring a crash helmet with you though.

Had a Whale of a Time

Their name says it all really, Noah and the Whale, a quirky indie-folk band from London, England, with upbeat songs and heartfelt lyrics. Lead singer Charlie Fink sings of tales of the heart over a mish-mash of acoustic guitars, fiddles and even some ukeles here and there. The backing vocals are that of Laura Marling, fellow indie-folk artist and once member of the band. Who is now working on a solo career, a very successful one might I add.

Each song tells a story, usually of love loss, with a clever metaphor that is witty, yet still heart felt. “When the baby’s born, lets turn it to the snow, so that ice will surely grow over weak and brittle bones.” It’s lines like that, that make me think of a nursery rhyme gone wrong, but Mr. Finks lyrics aren’t all of freezing babies. He actually goes on to say “the world can be kind in its own way” and its obvious that he doesn’t enjoy writing malicious poetry about killing children, but uses clever metaphors to get across his points and opinions about life, and that should be admired.

Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down, is the name of the album and even the title reflects the type of band Noah and the Whale is. All eleven tracks on the CD seem to glitter along, each song getting better than the rest and each song full of some form of dramatic irony that should make the listener, well listen, but in awe. Before I ordered the album, I was expecting some type of simple, Folksy CD. After hearing 5 Years Time, the song that quickly gained the band much success in America, I was expecting the rest of the album to be like that song, and I would have been happy with that. Its obvious though, that although 5 years Time is a good song, the band has a lot more to offer then just simple and witty music.

The best way I can describe Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down, is that its sort of like a series of emotions. Each song has a different feel to it and the album sort of givesoff a type of mood. After listening to the album entirely for the first time, it left me with a good feeling, the type of feeling good music is suppose to leave someone with. Noah and The Whale are obviously a talented group of artists, and anyone who respects good writers should defiantly buy the album, even if its just to read the lyrics, but you would be missing out if you only did that.

The band creates scratchy, heartfelt and raw music. Its not for anyone who is a fan of manufactured pop, because its quite the opposite. The album is a series of feelings and moods, each song tells a story that makes up an earnest and honest album. As brilliant as the album may be, I still think NATW have a long way to go, and for a freshman album, they show that they have the potential and raw talent that most bands only dream about achieving.