Band:	Poison the Well
Album:	The Tropic Rot

“The Tropic Rot” is the latest album from melodic metal mavens Poison the Well. For those of you left cold by the Morricone antics (read western, twangy music), then fear not. The boys from Florida are back on top of their game or, at the very least, rebounding really well from the unfocused madness that was “Versions”.

PTW are one of the few bands that can write a metal-core album without a breakdown and still make you feel like you’re listening to an absolutely vicious

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Band:	Maylene and the S…
Album:	III

Southern rock has me in it’s tight grip. It’s terrifying really. I know that I should be listening to music that’s pushing the boundaries a little bit more, but I could honestly care less. It’s good, straightforward rock and roll. So why did Maylene and the Sons of Disaster have to mess it up so bad?

The entire band except for lead singer Dallas Taylor and bass player Roman Haviland have said their goodbyes and it doesn’t take long to figure this out.

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Band:	Alexisonfire
Album:	Old Crows/Young C…

Alexisonfire doesn’t really adhere to the archetypal standard of what pop music should be. Despite this they have been at the top of the Canadian charts for almost 8 years, having garnered fans in both traditional metal/punk circles as well as the all important 14-year-old-girl-pop-music-lover camp. It’s a pretty strange thing to have seen happen.

Regardless of popular success they have had and a couple

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Band:	Street Sweeper So…
Album:	Street Sweeper So…

Fan expectations are a hell of a thing. Just ask Rage Against The Machine. After three solid original albums under their belt as well as a compilation of covers, RATM called it quits just as they were breaking into mainstream rock radio. A rabid fan base had kept them alive for years before “The Battle of Los Angeles” but for a band with a message as forceful as RATM’s to break into regular rotation on MTV was unusual to say the least.

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Band:	Dance Gavin Dance
Album:	Happiness

So this is what ‘happiness’ sounds like? I’ve never associated happiness with post-hardcore music, but then again neither do Dance Gavin Dance. Despite your first impression of the title, the band tends to stick to the typical subject matter of similar scene bands. Take this lyric from the song “Carl Barker” (There’s no sense in me saying that life doesn’t matter/It doesn’t matter, it never mattered) or this one from “Tree Village” (I didn’t catch a break/Maybe I am dying inside?/February, been so

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