Thursday, June 16, 2011

Review #11: Our City Skyline - Our City Skyline


Album: Self Titled
Year: 2010
Origin: Idaho/USA
Genre: Melodic Hardcore/ Progressive
For fans of: It Prevails, Misery Signals, Modern Life Is War
Rating: 10/5*
 (*because this is one of my Top 10 Alltime Favorites!)

Tracklist:
1. Ruins
2. As The Hand Strikes
3. What It Means To Stand
4. Together To The Sea (I)
5. When it Speaks (II)
6. The Mirror
7. No Relevance
8. Prelude
9. The End (III)

>> Buy on iTunes <<

Review:

This is the first release from the band and it's a pure masterpiece.
The first song "Ruins" starts with an aggressive riff and leads into a fucking carrying Refrain. 
The lyrics part "Set it all ablaze,
will your memories turn to ash?
and with a stare that could bring them to their knees.
Once vivid eyes have now turned pale.
Oh god! How you have changed." totally took me away.
The music is really ambient and dark/depressive and it makes you think! Good work. 
A calm, yet really effective opening song, that forces to listen to the next track!

Second song is called "As The Hand Strikes" starts with an half acoustic melody. The song seems to be sad but it's really breathtaking. Blues sounding guitars, keep the listen to the song really smooth and enjoyable. There is not too much distortion, yet the music is heavy and goes into the heart also!

The third song, titled "What It Means To Stand" is similar to the first. The lyrics are perfection.
for example the refrain: "Keep your head above the water
and your hand in mine
Rest assured, I'll protect your heart of gold.
Sleep easy tonight
You can rest those tired eyes.
Tired eyes". What a genius wrote this epic shit?
The song has a lot of melody, that speaks to the heart and a lot of heavier riffs and breakdowns.
Masterpiece.

Up next, on the fourth position in the tracklist is the song "Together To The Sea". It starts with a half acoustic melody, which leads into a wave of great riffs, that let you think your sailing in a sea of despair. The song is kinda lovesong,  played in a depressive flair. Acutally this song helped me to think completely about my past and get over my ex girlfriend. A heart cleaning song. My favorite part of the lyrics is this one:
"we’re drifting away from this earth
as our memory floats above
as our flesh wastes away
wash away our past".

We've reached the middle of the cd. Track five, called "When It Speaks", is a harder song then the others. 
Carrying riffs and lyrics, but similar to the other songs. But thats not the problem, i think a band should be proud of their way of playing music, similar songs have positive sides!

Next/sixth song is "The Mirror". The lyrics are perfection again! 
"How does it feel to know there's nothing about you that comes from the heart?
There's nothing original.
How does it feel to look in the mirror and know you’re empty and hollow?"
This is just a part. The whole song has lots of more great parts. The guitars and the vocals are synchronized so great in this track. I can't report anything bad on this cd yet!

Seventh song has the name "No Relevance". This song is acceptable, but it does not come along with the part , heard in the songs before. The song has it's moments, but is maybe the only song that isn't that easy to be remembered.

Track eight is and instrumental interlude. The intro to the last song "The End". You don't really get the part, when the interlude leads into the last song, it's more like a long last song. Great work on the instruments here also.

Track nine, "The End". The last song of this cd, sadly.  
The Band shows a last time,what they can do! A lot of riffs combined together, build this song!
Melodies, breakdowns all what the heart wants!
A good last song. 

This is one of my favorite cds. I really listen to it at least once a day! I totally dig this album, because of the lyrics and perfectly fitting music. It helped me a lot to see over things from my past. So a big fucking thanks to Our City Skyline! I also have the most last.fm scrobbles worldwide on this album i think lol.
 This album is a must have for any Melodic Hardcore fan and for fans of Misery Signals, which seemed to be a big influence of this band. But what actually doesn't love, at least like them!

Like these guys on Facebook. And keep an eye out for them, they're working on their next EP at the moment. I'm so stoked on it. 

Note: The album has a fucking bad point, i really hate the band for it. It ends. Lol.
This band is so underrated, without a reason! I love them so much! 
You might have noticed that i don't have that much critic on the band and album, but what would you do, when you? You also have favorite songs, cds, bands!

Get the lyrics here!

Fucking support! ♥