Mastodon

The last time Mastodon visited Helsinki was in summer 2011 at Sonisphere festival. The terrible heat and burning sun didn’t do the band’s set much justice back then, so seeing them in a club was a treat impossible to refuse. Especially given the fact that since their previous visit Mastodon have released their 5th studio album “The Hunter”, which now they finally took on the road to Europe, starting their way from Finland (because, you know, we’re awesome like that).

Fast forward to January 12th, Helsinki, sold out Circus club. We arrived about 20 minutes before the show-time, made our way through the queues at the wardrobe, got closer to the stage, chatted a little here and there, when the photographer asked me if the band is already late. I checked the clock: they still had a couple of minutes. At 9 p.m. sharp Mastodon entered the stage and without further ado blasted into “Dry Bone Valley” off of their latest release. Right then and there I finally understood that all the rumours I have heard about the band failing to sound as good live as they do on the record, and all the Youtube videos that seemed to prove it, all of it was utter bullshit. Either that or Helsinki just got lucky and Mastodon had a good day.

In any case, if some lost soul, who has never heard the band before, asked me to describe the show to them, I’d say they were in for some unbelievably beautiful and intricate guitar riffs that take the most unexpected turns and leave you hanging in a WTF-moment, topped with some wild hair all over the place, beards, funny moustache, Troy Sanders’ priceless facial expressions and one clean-shaven Brann Dailor. Noteworthy, a hairless face isn’t the only of Brann’s assets; during the whole show he was beating the hell out of his white polka-dotted drum kit, like it has done something very bad to him. Or maybe he is just really one of the most astounding modern drummers and not all hope is lost in that department.

But I digress from the set list, which was a fine mix of Mastodon’s discography, however, with little attention paid to “Remission” and “Crack the Skye” albums. It’s ok though, whatever they were playing, the crowd was going bananas, and that’s what counts the most, doesn’t it? But when Sanders came to edge of the stage and started to play the unfathomable tunes of my all time favourite “Sleeping Giant”, I think I levitated for a moment. The public had their fists in the air at all times and the front rows were in a state of constant moshpit, mercilessly punishing their necks, which, I’m sure, had their revenge the next day. After the “Ghost of Karelia”, which, though unintended, still felt like a little tribute to Finland, four songs in a row were the heritage of “The Hunter”. And when so very familiar dancey riff pierced the air inside the club and Brent Hinds sang the best lyric line of 2011 “I killed a man ‘cause he killed my goat”, each and every bum present in Circus that night was shaking it to the “Curl of the Burl”, because it’s a bum-spell like that!

The show climaxed with an epic sing-along to “Blood and Thunder” and “Creature Lives”, after which Dailor left his dotted throne, took up the mic and in a speech that seemed a bit longer than the usual deal, thanked the public for the evening and their participation. Ah, those sensitive Atlanta people. It was a brilliant and peculiar show that Mastodon delivered in the best form from start to finish of each of the 23 songs.

WITHIN TEMPTATION

Since forming in the mid 90's, Holland's Within Temptation, led by the charismatic and gorgeous vocalist Sharon den Adel, has become one of metal's most successful female-fronted acts. Alongside the new album The Unforgiven (2011), a comic book series and a series of short films were released as well to encompass concept story. We sat down with the lovely frontlady to talk about it.

It looks like you took a different approach to making the 5th album. How did you get the idea to cross music and comics?

To answer your first question, we really took quite a turn. With The Heart Of Everything we felt we reached a certain end in developing our sound and we had to rediscover ourselves. We finalized our sound with the previous album after working towards a certain sound for many years. We had shut ourselves up from all other kinds of influences and had to renew ourselves to get inspiration to write the new album. The band had all kinds of boundaries – like never listening to the music of the 70s or the 80s - we did not want to be influenced by that cos we had a certain vision of how we should sound. This time is different. It is still Within Temptation, but we added a new flavor to it, the album sounds refreshing again. It is a good step in the right direction. Hopefully the next album that we are already working on is gonna be in the same line that the last work we have done.

Combining the album with the short movies and comic was something we wanted to do for a while now. We have always loved bands that added something more interesting to their show. As kids we loved Pink Floyd’s concept album, The Wall. We did our concept different in the way that we don’t tell the story in the chronical order but we made soundtracks to the story that we developed ourselves. The idea involving the movies came first. We wanted to release a movie with the album but it is kind of tricky cos you always have to wait until the film is finished. That wastes a lot of time in case there is a delay so we thought we might not stick to a big movie immediately but do short movies that explain the main characters of our storyline of the comic – what their background is, who they are, why they make the decisions they make in the comic. But we still thought we wanted to have something to do with the movie and produce it ourselves as well.

So the fulltime movie is still in the plans.

Yes, it is. It is going to take time of course, but we will take the time, even if it is a few years. And in the meantime we will write another album. Hopefully we get to release both simultaneously.

It also happens that two of the biggest names in symphonic metal, Within Temptation and Nightwish, have both released soundtrack concept albums in the same year. Does it worry you those two might be compared?

Not at all. If you listen to our album you will notice it is taken in an entirely different direction than Nightwish. Nightwish is still in the same corner where they have always been, in the fantasy side of things, which is great in my opinion. The movies we made are based in the real world, they are mostly realistic with a very slight fantasy touch. In our case it is more like the X-Men where characters have certain powers. So we are more on the comicbook side of things while they are more on the fantasy side. Of course when you are doing a concept album you might end up with the same set of tools, but the outcome is always different since the bands are different.

Since you specifically mentioned X-Men, was the series among the main influences for the comic?

Not the X-Men, but the books we read as we were growing up and a wide assortment of comic books we read when as kids. This is why the medium we chose was a comic book, but the story elements are more based on fiction we read as kids. What would the lead for the story be? What would motivate characters? The biggest question – how will the story end - all came from our favorite books. A lot of reporters ask me if we were inspired by Dexter, but we did not know about Dexter around the time we were working on the concept. Looking back at it now, because I have seen it in the meantime, there are some similarities in the storyline but our characters also have supernatural abilities.

How exactly was the band involved in creating the storyline? Did you have some definite suggestions about what the characters should be like, or offer some certain events to take place in the story?

We have worked with Romano Molenaar who is a comic artist. He worked on the Chronicles Of Spellborn with us for The Heart Of Everything, the Internet game that we wrote some songs for, and we stayed in contact with him. When the idea of the comic and short movies came into our minds we contacted him. “We wanna develop our own comic, do you know anyone who can write the story for us?” He came up with the American guy, Steven O’Connell. He did not have any scripts lying around at this point, and we decided we would be creating something new. We told him about what kinds of movies we liked, what storyline elements we like, and after that he came up with the basic idea of a medium that gives the second chances to the people who have made the wrong decisions in life. She gives them the second chance to live again, undo some wrongs they might have done in the past in different situations and take out the really bad guys.

How crucial are the comics to understanding the album?

We did take it into consideration that there may be a part of the audience who is not interested in the comic idea and that of course the album needs to be able to stand on its own. The music speaks for itself, it has a certain flavor going with the 80s. There is a lot of metal involved as well, sometimes some dance tunes and some pop elements. It’s an uptempo and really heavy album, I think. People of my age, a bit older and some of the young people as well will feel they are back in the 80s, it is like a good memory you can pick up again and dive into. But to answer your question, you can perfectly separate those two.

You took quite a brave move incorporating some dance and pop elements into the album. In the future is there any genre of music you would feel uncomfortable to work with?

R’n’B? [Laughs] Maybe separately from Within Temptation I would not say no but this one is the farthest away from what we are. The synonym for pop music is popular music, but this is not really what we are trying to do. To us, it is more in the direction of…

...Catchy?

Yes, catchy. We DO love catchy music. But heavy music can be catchy, too. We were afraid in the past to go through with our ideas and state that this is what we want to sound like. We felt that the 80s flavor was a bit too far from what we are as well but we still managed to incorporate it.

Are there any particular bands that influenced you?

Well, it is definitely Metallica and Iron Maiden, I think it really shows on our album. For instance the song Iron has the strong Iron Maiden vibe to it, and when we wrote Faster we thought it sounds a lot like Wicked Games by Chris Isaak. I was really inspired by Chris Isaak and when we listened to the song our first reaction was – “Nooooo, we have written a song that already exists!”But then after some more listening we understood that it is in fact really different.

But it was one of the songs I listened to a lot when I was a kid – Wicked Game. Such a sexy song! [Laughs]

When you are working on an album, do you take into account the critique from the fans and critics on your previous works, or rather entirely trust your own judgment?

You can only follow your own judgment at the moment you are making the album. When you are constantly afraid of what other people will think of your music this puts you into constraints. You have to believe in yourself and love what you are doing. It is impossible to make music for other people. Of course afterwards there are useful things that people can say and you will take it with you for the next album if you think it makes sense.

What is your favorite track of the album and the one you most enjoy performing live?

In The Middle Of The Night is one of my favorites because it is just a heavy, heavy, heavy song. The riffs are just amazing. But playing live I do think Sinead is the one that always gets to people. It is a very uplifting song.

What has touring with Stefan Helleblad been like so far?

[Laughs] We have definitely improved our English because everyone started speaking English in the band since he can’t speak Dutch. But he plants in really well and we have known him for a lot of years already. He was behind the scenes working as an engineer in the studios.

There are still very few women in the metal scene. Would you say you are treated differently by the fellow band members, the fans and the community? Also, have you ever encountered any crazy male stalkers?

[Laughs] I blend in quite nicely with the boys, I think. But when I come back from the tour I am like “Ah, it is all going to be female talk now!” You also start talking like them as well. Oh my God, what is coming out of my mouth?

I am used to having the guys around me, and they don’t treat me any differently. I would not LIKE them to treat me any differently. The only thing different for us is that I need my own room backstage. Some of the guys are really hectic, always talking, always doing something, always making sounds, and I sometimes need to concentrate and have a bit of my own space. It comes in handy if I want to focus on something, relax or warm up my voice.

And we have really wonderful fans. Of course you always have some extreme things happening, but the biggest part of our fans are really relaxed, outgoing and friendly. We usually have normal conversations without any hysterical things going on, and there is not much difference between the girls and the guys when it comes to our fans. But we had a couple encounters, especially in Italy and South America. In the North people are more reserved, but in some countries the fans might give you a car chase and the like. But it is fun in its own way! [Laughs]

What is the most important item or demand on Within Temptation’s raider?

Something to eat or drink? The guys really like the whiskey. Or scotch.

Never anything eccentric? Some performers ask for 40 kilos of ice per person or a certain make of car to pick them up.

I think they are just making it up. And they ask for those things because they want a golden halo around them. It is all made up to feel extra special. For us, just a normal cup of tea and some liquor is the real rock’n’roll kind of thing. Just to get loose before you go onstage.

So what is the best way for you to get loose before you go onstage?

I just need my own space to get into the show or to watch a DVD from a band we like with the guys, especially Iron Maiden. We get into the music and get pumped up to go onstage, that works really well for us. And we have a game system on tour with us most of the time, but this is rather for the guys. I might do a racing game once in a while, but Ruud and Robert and Jeroen are really into gaming.

What is your most vivid memory from the tour?

Martijn singing “I’m A Barbie Girl” in a karaoke bar in Tokio! Everyone was totally wasted, him included, and we had a Japanese friend with us who guided us through the city. It felt like a surreal kind of movie! Singing and eating sushi at the same time.

Also countries with a totally different culture from your own are really exciting to play. And of course there is sightseeing. Every culture has its own special things, it is always exciting to see how different people express themselves… for instance, Finland is really beautiful about the way how the people here love music. There are so many great bands coming from here and also almost everybody you meet is playing in some kind of band or has some sort of musical background.

Do you have any particular favorite Finnish band?

I like Stratovarius a lot.

What are you up to in the new year and are you planning to make any resolutions?

I am planning to dedicate more time to charity in Holland. I really like the concept of the company behind it. A lot of people would like to do volunteer work. Myself, I would love to do some when I am home, it makes me feel good to know I can help someone I don’t even know. This company is called We Care. They have a daughter company in a lot of cities. Everyone can sign up for certain days and projects. If you sign up you have to come of course, but it is not like they tell you that you have to do, for instance, 20 days a year. Sometimes, if you have more time, you can do more, and if you have less time, you can do less. For instance it can be packing gifts for children in orphanages who have never had a present from Santa Claus. People just bring gifts for them. A lot of people buy things they never get around to use, so they just bring them in for the kids instead of letting those items sit in the closets. And you just sort the items according to age, package them and write down the name. The person who got me into this said they now have a whole warehouse full of packages, and the people just kept coming and coming. It is such a good feeling to do something good. I am going to do more for that company in the next year, and I hope I am able to also give the project more exposure by doing more work for them. This would be lovely.

Interview & Photography: Jana Blomqvist
Foreword: Joanna Tzortzis

Something wicked this way came... (Wednesday 13)

After releasing a new album entitled “Calling All Corpses”, Wednesday 13 quite literally left a trail from Hollywood to Hell…city when he arrived here for the first time with his solo project at the last date of the recent Euro tour. I was fortunate to see two shows, the other one at the beginning of the tour in Berlin, only to have my mind blown twice.

“Tonight’s the night we drink your blood” goes the opening song as Wednesday appears on stage in full make up and judging by the looks of the crowd, they are quite ready to give him their blood, brains, liver… ah, whatever he asks for! The horror-themed lyrics as well as the whole show naturally attracted quite a peculiar audience, though, I have to admit, Germans put a lot more effort in their outfits than Finns. For instance, it was amusing to see a girl in Berlin wear nothing but white undies and a few stripes of white sticky tape around her body, while in Finland it never gets any different than the usual fishnets, corsets and smeared dark make up.

But back to Wednesday 13. His brilliant showmanship and insane charisma allow him to put on a show with minimum stage props yet still maximum amusement. As the concert went on, with the band going through old and new songs, such as “I Walked With A Zombie”, “Scream Baby Scream”, “From Here To The Hearse”, Wednesday was whipping the crowd into a non-stop-dance frenzy. There is something extremely entertaining in reveling in dark humour and lyrics about necrophilia. I had no reservations about jumping and singing along to “Happily Ever Cadaver” and then humming the song for the rest of the night, so what if it’s about wiping the maggots from someone’s eyes!

Frankly, Wed could easily sing about feeding porridge to his grandmother and people would still go bananas about it, because the flow of energy that accompanies his live show is impossible to resist. It’s like watching a scene from zombie apocalypse unfold before your eyes and dying to take part in it. If the stop-start ending of “I Want You Dead” doesn’t make you lose your shit, then I think it’s time you have a serious talk with yourself.

During the encore Wednesday finally sang “Bad Things” which was undoubtedly one of the most awaited songs that night, and the only disappointment was that “I Love To Say Fuck” was omitted from the set list. The show was closed with a song from the new album called “Something Wicked This Way Comes”, during which Wednesday instructed the crowd on the sing-along part where they had to shout “the dust” to “Where do you come from?” and “the grave” to “Where will you go to?” – an endless rollercoaster ride on top of a coffin lid.

To sum things up: this show was not only in this year’s top 3, but definitely close to the top of “all-time” list. It’s so good, you’re gonna crawl out of your grave just to see it again and again.

• Setlist
• Gallery

Text: Tanja Caciur

Photography: Nelly Tatti

REVOLUTION TV: On Tour with Matt from Bring Me The Horizon

Getting into a haasty venue on a Sunday afternoon, we caught Matt Nicholls from Bring Me The Horizon. "He'll do anything you ask him to do. Anything" said their tour manager. Well, we were kind enough to only ask him show us what it's like to be on tour.

Kvelertak

The Norwegian rockers have only released one album by now, but they have already managed to establish a quite large fanbase here in Finland among other countries. This was the band's fourth live performance here withing a year, first time headlining, and Tavastia was packed.

There is something capturing in Kvelertak's live set, they make you nod your head, shake your fist in the air, mosh your heart out and smile. This live set was no different. I've seen Kvelertak once before, when they visited Helsinki with Comeback Kid in April. That was the first time that I heard them, and I've been a fan ever since. So yeah, I knew that I was in for a treat and the band did not dissapoint. The set was tight and energetic. Kvelertak sounds amazing live and perform well, which I personally belive are the main ingredients to a great gig. All their songs are in Norwegian, but you don't really even notice it, at least I don't. It doesn't matter that I have no idea what they're singing about, the set is great to listen to nevertheless.

I'm no fan of big speeches between songs, and luckily the singer Erlend Hjelvik and the band were too busy playing and jumping into the crowd and onto the fence to speak and bore the audience in between songs. Speaking of which, the audience was great. Even thought that it was monday, the worst day of the week, no one seemed tired or annoyed. Instead, everyone kept shaking their fists and nodding their heads. Almost everyone was gathered around the stage during the whole gig, instead of hanging at the bar, which is a rare sight at Tavastia. All in all the band gave the audience what they paid for.

So, if you haven't checked Kvelertak out yet (shame on you!) do it now. Start with Mjød for example, you won't regret it.

Text: Aikku Salonen

Photography: Joanna Tzortzis

In Flames & Trivium & Ghost

It’s no secret that In Flames come to Finland often, so often in fact that you don’t even manage to start missing them. At the same time, you always know that when these Swedes come over, they always bring an earth-shattering show. This time they also brought guests, namely: Insense, Rise To Remain, Ghost and Trivium. This tour shindig was called “Defenders Of The Faith” and it was not known what prompted this choice of line up, but there we were.

After being forced to miss Insense and Rise To Remain, I hurried in to Jäähalli to catch the magnificent Ghost. Last time I saw them was at Tuska 2011 and they were one of the best performers there. It can be sometimes good to see a band you’ve never heard before, because you might get surprised. As rarely as it happens, this was the case with Ghost. Imagine a red-lit stage, people in black hoods enter to the sounds of the “Masked Ball” track which is most known for being the soundtrack to “Eyes Wide Shut” movie. Those people pick up their guitars, the frontman appears, dressed as a Satanic priest, and you already suspect that what’s to follow must be some Swedish death or black metal. And that’s when you’re in for a treat, because they defy all expectations. I won’t try to label or describe their music, but instead I’d advise you to check it out yourself and make up your own opinion.

The improvement of this performance compared to Tuska was that the band was able to play on a bigger stage and had much better light. Unfortunately their slot was short, merely half an hour and they didn’t even get to play the hauntingly beautiful cover of “Here Comes The Sun”. Nevertheless, I was once again impressed and I do believe this band is destined for greatness.

There weren’t many people to see Ghost, but much more showed up when it was time for Trivium to take the stage. I don’t know if this was due to the fact that In Flames were getting closer or if Trivium really are so popular in Finland. In any case, this was exactly one of those times when I came to see a band I’ve never heard before, with an open mind and ready to be surprised, just to end up disappointed. I can see why Trivium are so popular, for exactly the same reason that 50 other bands are popular as well, but, unless you are a die-hard fan, you won’t be able to tell the difference between all of them. Being original is one thing that matters the most. However, in Trivium’s case I heard the same generic formula: growl/clean vocals + bouncy drums + guitar solos and you’ve got another band to write soundtracks for teenagers and people who never grew out of the teenage angst phase. However, do check them out, judging by the public’s reaction, their formula is clearly working.

Finally, like the cherry on top of the cake, it was time for In Flames. Right from the get-go I was amazed at this show’s production. The band’s light tech clearly did an amazing job with it and all the moving and blinking lights must have had some effect on people’s brains, because it was impossible not to sit with your jaw dropped, smiling like a little kid. Some oldies-goldies and crowd pleasers were in order to get the public properly whipped right from the start with “Sounds of a Playground Fading” and “Deliver Us”. Anders Fridén was in his top form, throwing a dynamic show and getting the crowd more and more worked up to the point when they started a circle pit without anyone even asking them to do so. This was another time when Sweden invaded Finland and took no prisoners. And Finland enjoyed every moment of it.

Britney Spears

Let’s fast forward a certain lifeline; started out in Mickey Mouse Club at 10 years old, released her debut album Baby One More Time seven years after, followed by six other albums (to this date), a movie and a number of awards, a 55-hour marriage five years later, a new engagement six months later and becoming a mother a year later, rehab two years later, put on an involuntary psychiatric hold a year later, a new album Circus was put out at the end of the year, followed by the new album Femme Fatale three years later which gets us to this date and the current tour.

Yes, we’re talking about Britney Spears. I’ve always liked her. Although today we all know her for her downfalls during the recent years, I personally think that they only make her more human and easy to relate to. For me she’s still the girl from next door and I find it’s very admirable how despite all her obstacles she’s still around.

Last weekend I witnessed a show from the current Femme Fatale tour. Britney kicked off the set with one of the new hits Hold It Against Me, which was a brilliant song to begin the concert with. The theme of the concert was built with videos and the choreography rather than huge stage props, although there were some of those as well. I felt that the theme was set a bit uneasy and hard to interpret but visually it looked quite fine.

Britney changed her outfit often during the set and the stage surroundings changed to the same pace, this made the concert flow and easy to watch. During Don’t Let Me Be The Last To Know a big swing was let down from the ceiling and Britney swung back and forth with it reaching for the air over the crowd. The fact that most of the front crowd didn’t know the only slow song of the evening was quite a bummer.

Overall I was more bummed by the crowd than the performance. Before the show begun I had quite a lot of space around me but I was prepared to be squished against other people once the star of the evening would get on stage. However, once the moment was upon us nothing really happened. People around me stood still with their mouths open staring towards the stage. “Wow, I’m sure that will pass” I thought until around the fifth song I had totally given up all hope towards the crowd.

What disappointed me the most was the fact that when the big ol’ hits like Baby One More Time came on I didn’t get the crazy reaction I was waiting for. Instead, everyone kept standing still with their mouths open and looked like they had never heard of the song playing. (Though, in their defense, most of the people in the crowd around me weren’t even born when Baby One More Time came out.)

Hurts

At the beginning of the year I witnessed Hurts playing a 1500 people venue. I was blown away and left wondering if I could ever imagine them playing on a stadium since they filled the space in a club so well. They left the city, kept touring and returned to the city nine months later to play the biggest show of the whole Happiness –tour and one of the biggest they’ve ever played. Over 7000 people were packed inside Helsinki Ice Hockey Arena as Hurts took the stage once again. This is it, and there’s no going back; they’re one of those success stories that truly deserve their place on the top.

The crowd made me proud; ever since the first band member stepped on stage the ocean of people turned into loud ocean of screams as they welcomed Hurts back to Finland. The band started the set with Silver Lining. To my recollection they could’ve begun with absolutely any song they wanted to because the crowd was going absolutely crazy. 

Did they fill the arena as well as the club nine months ago? Yes they did. Their diminutive gesturing made it even more powerful when they did do 'something more' like destroy the microphone stand by thrashing it against the stage until it split into two pieces. (This happened.)

And kudos to Hurts for bringing an actual orchestra with them instead of delivering their megalomaniac sounds through a playback track. Extra kudos for bringing dancers and sharing white roses to the crowd! Everything in Hurts’ performance was built around their music which is exactly how it should be. Even though Hurts had rather big stage props I didn’t notice it much since I was too busy getting emotional by the performance. 

Hurts’ debut album Happiness is their only one yet, which makes the set list easy to build but difficult to spice up. Luckily they’ve re-discovered some of their old songs that didn’t quite make it to the album and have included more of them to the set list than the last time I saw them. I even think I might have heard a completely new song in the set, but only time will tell if that song will make it on to the next album.

Hurts’ concert is something so magnificent it’s hard to grasp all of it. The orchestra is brilliant, the dancers are beautiful, Adam Anderson is amazing, Theo Hutchcrafts’ voice is haunting, the music is outstanding and the crowd made the evening plain perfect. As all the people in the hall light up their cell phones or lighters and sway them to the air during Illuminated, I feel like every cell of my body is about to cry of plain emotion.

The fact that Hurts has arisen to the mainstream attention so fiercely tells me that music listeners have gotten bored with the plastic sounds that master the pop industry today. They’re ready for something more, something challenging and something powerful. And ladies and gentlemen; Hurts is ready to deliver. 10/10

Radiosurgery (New Found Glory)

It's been a good year for pop punk and it's just getting better. Pop punk veterans New Found Glory have been around for 10 years and are still going strong releasing their 7th album 'Radiosurgery'. These dudes know how to make a good record going through a decade of changing music styles and influences and still staying true to their roots; going from the mellow rock album to the angry break up record now bringing it all back to the good original stuff, that brings you to listen to this band over and over again.

The album starts with the self-titled first single and it's the pure stuff, you can't be still and you get that late summer feeling when you were skating trough the city. Even if you have never done anything like that, while listening to this record you wished you would have.

Neighbourhoods (Blink 182)

The new blink-182 is a mix of Tom Delongs twisted Angels & Airways lyrics with their self-titled album's alternative rock music. That's it roughly in the nut shell.

This album just might be their most unconventional album yet, causing a lot wuss around the world, but mostly revealing a whole new side of this heavily missed band. 'Neighborhoods' has come a big step forward from teenage emotion lyrics, but has still kept the Pop-Punk element fully alive, they sound older and different but knowing what they have been trough - bet you weren't waiting a new 'Enemy Of The State' album.