Search - Gwen Stacy :: The Life I Know

Great CD--Sort of in the vein of Underoath?

Richard Lorenz | Los Angeles | 02/08/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I saw these guys in concert last night as the opening act for Haste the Day and Scary Kids Scaring Kids, and liked them so much I picked up their CD. I've been listening to it all morning, and I can assure you it's great. Great syncopation, and the melodies are solid and catchy in many cases. The CD is sufficiently heavy, and they remind me of Underoath (I'm sure, in part, because of the Christian thing). Seeing as constant screaming can get tiring, the bassist does clean vocals at some point in almost every song. In short, the CD sounds like a sophomore or junior release, despite the fact that this is their first album. Go get it.



Update: Some of my favorites include I Was Born with Two First Names, What Will Happen If I Hit Enter, Sleeping in the Train Yard, and Gone Fishing. See You in a Year."

Decent

Kit Kitsch | 05/03/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This album isn't anything new or special. It's satisfactory at best. Seems to draw a lot of comparisons to Underoath, but they really don't sound alike. The clean singing sounds a lot more like Atreyu. In any case, they fail to deliver anything groundbreaking.



The album gets very repetitive and I got bored with it fairly quickly. It's not a terrible album, but at the same time, it isn't fantastic. I will say, there are a few tracks that I did thoroughly enjoy. Sleeping in The Train Yard is probably the best song on the album and it was very well done. If We Live Right, We Can't Die Wrong is also a good track, although I got bored of it. Some of the songs sound good at first but after a couple of listens you start noticing the problems with the song until it gets unbearable.



Now, the biggest problem with this CD is the vocalist. He has absolutely NO range at all. Normally, that isn't too big a problem for me as long as the vocals still sound good. They do not in this case. The clean singing is decent. The harsh vocals just ruin the song. His monotonous yells just get more and more irritating every time I listen to it.



Also, I want to point out that this sounds nothing like The Devil Wears Prada, Oh, Sleeper OR Still Remains like the previous reviewer pointed out. Absolutely NOTHING like those bands and I don't know why he made a point of saying that. TDWP and Oh, Sleeper are great bands that put a lot of passion into their music, something this album lacks.



This album lacks passion but has plenty of aggression and some "OK" breakdowns and I can't completely dismiss it as garbage because, I admit, I enjoyed this album at first. Had I not listened to it two or three more times I might've rated it higher. I would give it a chance and see if the vocalist doesn't annoy you too much. Worth a listen, especially Sleeping in The Train Yard."

NEW and GREAT

S. Walton | Greenville, TX | 03/11/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I hardly post reviews, much less have the time. But, I thought this album deserved a good review worth my time and a bit of positive rattle from me to encourage others about their band. I have found Gwen Stacy to sound like other bands, but they also play themselves on the front of their music. Band sounds that they spill into are that of Beloved, Evergreen Terrace, The Devil Wears Prada, August Burns Red, and Norma Jean. The most unique song that gives the album a turn toward it's end is #9- Sleeping in the Train Yard, which starts out with a 3 minute intro. All of the other songs are good, have good breakdowns, don't sound like other songs on the album (in my opinion), and it didn't take me "getting used to it" or "letting it grow on me" before I liked the entire album. I agree with the last reviewers choice of songs. They're ALL really good though.



This album has been spun in my car and room many times, for it is not an album full of monotonous songs that sound like each other. That's another reason I was attracted to this band at 1st. Also, they're a Christian band on a secular label (Ferret Style), similar to Stryper on Hollywood Records. They were also outspoken about how the album's lyrics were about faith. This is a solid album. They're also on tour with Inhale Exhale of Solid State Records at the moment."