(Blog Credit: Ember)

And, as that picture aptly states, what happened was definitely unforgettable!

A long and amusing run of hints, teases, and an interactive multiple-website scavenger hunt all lead up to much-beloved band Five Iron Frenzy announcing their return— to a truly amazing fan response.

Because, along with revealing a fantastic newly-recorded track, the band also set up a $30,000 Kickstarter project to fund a new record and tour… and the goal was reached in less than one hour of its posting! And, in fact, by just two days later the pledge amount had gone over $100,000, and only kept on climbing from there.

As a fan of FIF myself, this was a pretty moving event, because it vividly showed just how much love we all still had for the music, message, and hearts of this band, even 8 long years after their last show.

Congratulations, Five Iron— and welcome back!

Ember is the owner of several businesses and the main writer for ListenUpReviews.com. She lives in the American Midwest, and enjoys action sports, technology, science, reading, being a part of certain sci-fi, fantasy, and mystery fandoms (and just a geek in general! ), playing her violin, piano, and electric guitar, and most of all listening to great music (both recorded and live).

…Or at least it will be fairly soon. And thus, every year from November 1 to December 31, we Spotlight ListenUpReviews.com’s Rockin’ Christmas Picks, our special review of the best Rocking Christmas music!

We hope you enjoy— and have a safe, Blessed, and very Merry Christmas!

We support every band and artist that we review, along with the following organizations:

Compassion International
(Releasing Children From Poverty)

Project AK-47
(Rescuing Child Soldiers)

Rock For Life
(Human Rights For Every Person, Born And Preborn)

CRASH: Love On Japan
(Disaster Relief)

(Screencap Credits: Ember)

Portal 2 is the full-length sequel to hit video game Portal (and if for some strange reason you haven’t actually played the original Portal yet, by all means you really should do so first ).

Amazingly— considering the excellence of the first game— every element in Portal 2 has been given an upgrade, from its music to its story to its characters to its humor to its gameplay to its complexity to its length (…etc.). Indeed, as awesome as the first game truly is (as we mention in its review, literally the only reason we gave it 5 & 1/3 Stars instead of 5 & 1/2 was because it’s short!), Portal 2 somehow manages to be even more awesome. And with the introduction of numerous new gameplay elements, several satirically and/or anti-humorly witty new characters, a fairly comprehensive backstory, and some truly excellent near-realtime escape-for-your-life sequences, Portal 2 is also even more immersive.

(Screencap Credits: Ember)

Also newly introduced is two-player co-op, which is basically a second full-length game (as of course the storyline and all the puzzles have to be quite different to accommodate two players). And the true teamwork necessary for this portion of the game is actually quite amazing (and quite fun ).

In short, this is everything Portal fans hoped it would be— and a truly excellent game in itself.

So what are you waiting for? Go play Portal, and then Portal 2— because they are both absolutely fantastic.

Our rating for the Portal 2 video game: 5 & 1/2 Stars.

It’s March 1st— and that means it’s time to reveal the results of our annual Music Awards!

Head on over to the brand-new 2010 Edition to check out who won, or view all of our editions by going to our Music Awards section. Enjoy!

Best First Release:

I Am Alpha And Omega, The Roar And The Whisper     (Screamo/Rock)

Best Second Release:

Children 18:3, Rain’s ‘A Comin’     (Punk Rock/Rock)

Best Third Release:

NONE CHOSEN THIS YEAR.

Best Fourth Release:

 
tobyMac, Tonight     (Rock with a little Hip-Hop (Rap) flavor)

Best Fifth Release:

 
Haste The Day, Attack Of The Wolf King     (Metal/Screamo)

Best Sixth Release:

NONE CHOSEN THIS YEAR.

Notable 7th-Or-Higher Release:

Disciple, Horseshoes & Handgrenades     (Hard Rock)

Best Live Show:

Family Force 5 (TIE)

Skillet (TIE)

Best Festival:

NONE CHOSEN THIS YEAR.

BEST FIFTH RELEASE 2010 Award Winner!

Runners-Up: NONE.

Well, Attack Of The Wolf King ended up being Haste The Day’s last album, but they sure went out with a bang, because it also ended up being their best.

It’s a concept album, featuring three groups of characters— some sheep, some wolves who are trying to devour them, and some lions who protect the sheep. With excellent, very dynamic Melodic Metal music, a great vocal style blending traits of Metal and Screamo (complete with some quite memorable singing parts), and perfectly-fitting lyrics, this is an all-around excellent record.

Special Edition Bonus Content:

The Deluxe Edition features an exclusive DVD as well as three bonus tracks on the CD. The first of the bonus tracks is “Meet Me Half Way”, and we’ll be honest— it had never crossed our minds that someone might do a Hardcore cover of this Black Eyed Peas song. However, we’re quite glad that it happened to cross theirs, because not only does HTD’s cover blow the original away, but it’s downright fantastic in itself! Also included are two live tracks, “Blue 42″ (recorded in Auckland, NZ) and “Pressure The Hinges” (recorded in Capetown, SA).

The DVD contains an excellent 50-minute documentary titled “To The Ends Of The Earth”, featuring live show footage, behind-the-scenes adventures, and interviews from different tour stops around the world (which are available to watch in either separate, location-based segments or as a whole). Also on the DVD are 2 music videos (“Mad Men” and “Stitches”) and an item called “The Traveling ABCs”, which is a short, hilariously goofy bonus.

In the end, with Attack Of The Wolf King Haste The Day gave everyone the best farewell gift possible— and it is definitely worthy of Best Fifth Release.

Our rating for Attack Of The Wolf King: 5 & 1/3 Stars.

BEST FIRST RELEASE 2010 Award Winner!

Runners-Up: Sky Sailing (An Airplane Carried Me To Bed), Close Your Eyes (We Will Overcome), Submission Red (Vision Tour), Abel (Lesser Men), Shonlock (Where Never Begins).
Honorable Mentions: Shapes Stars Make (These Mountains Are Safe), Satellites & Sirens (Satellites & Sirens), Paper Tongues (Paper Tongues), The Letter Black (Hanging On By A Thread), Sixteen Cities (Sixteen Cities).

The Roar And The Whisper kicks off with great, memorable intro track “The Last Breath Of Self-Expectancy”. The track opens with sound effects and drumbeats, and then the guitars kick in along with a great interwoven vocal mix of lyricless background singing and a Screamo verse.

“The Lost And The Captor” is also memorable, with dynamic music, screamed verses, and a sung chorus.

“My Greatest Need” continues the screamed verse/sung chorus vocal formula, though this time with accompanying music that has a more pronounced melody of its own. This track also has a surprisingly delicate outro (which actually fits it well).

Title track “The Roar And The Whisper” features a double-layered rough-sung/screamed first verse, and several very well-placed musical and vocal shifts throughout.

“Irreversible” is another memorable track, with dynamic guitarwork and vocals that are actually mostly singing with some screaming just for emphasis.

“Deceiver” kicks the vocals back to mostly Screamo, and also speeds up the pace. There are some interesting musical shifts, too, particularly when the bridge considerably lightens musically while the vocals still remain screamed.

“The Rescue” is an instrumental that begins soft and slow and then builds in staggered steps to excellent Rock.

“The Bride” is an excellent heavy track that is surprisingly catchy and very memorable.

“Wolves” has unusual verses in that the vocals are screamed but have Rock ballad music underneath them, but this does work well combined with the sung chorus.

“Beaten, Betrayed, Denied” is another builds-in-steps interlude, though this one is not completely instrumental as it does contain some vocals as well.

“A Whistle Falls” initially features fast-paced heaviness, then shifts down into a great, long, slower-paced outro about halfway through its length.

Finally, closer track “Chasing” interestingly contains no screaming at all, and in fact is actually a medium ballad with no heavy elements whatsoever. Despite this stylistic difference from the rest of the album, it’s a good track.

In all, with its great Screamo/Rock blend and absolutely fantastic lyrics, The Roar And The Whisper is a great album, and worthy of Best First Release.

Our rating for The Roar And The Whisper: 5 & 1/4 Stars.

We’ve got one copy of Portal to give away. Anyone want it? (And if you don’t, here’s why you should!) @reply or direct message us on Twitter, comment on our Facebook, or just comment on this very news entry for your chance to receive this great game!

[Update: Entering is now closed. Congratulations to our winner!]

(Blog Credit: Ember)

This week all of us here at ListenUpReviews attended a showing of The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader. Going in, we knew that there was going to be a big new plot thread invented by the movie’s creators, but we didn’t quite know its extent.

Well, we found out.

Before I continue, I do want to make a point to note that yes, there were some things that this movie did very well, both in visuals and (at times) adaptation. Indeed, the actual Dawn Treader ship herself was a work of art, and every shot of it— inside and out— was simply gorgeous. Likewise, the Sea Serpent was pretty awesome (as well as being a heck of a lot more frightening onscreen than what I had originally imagined ). On the adaptation front, Reepicheep was brilliant as always; Eustace was quite well-cast and well-acted in his own right; how the children entered Narnia was not done exactly like it was in the book, but (if possible) turned out even better; and (okay, minus Caspian being onshore at World’s End, but we’ll give them that one ) the last few minutes of the film were darn near perfection.

So, what was the problem then, you ask? …Well, unfortunately, most of what occurred in between!

You see, the filmmakers thought that there was no good, strong, connecting storyline running through the narrative (which actually just about anyone who has read the book can easily refute— but unfortunately that argument is irrelevant at this point, as they made their decision, no matter how silly it was). So, they came up with the inspired idea to invent an evil green mist (!) which is threatening to corrupt all that is good in Narnia… along with the directive to our heroes to find the seven ‘magical’ swords which— once laid at Aslan’s Table— will ‘break the spell’ of the mist and put everything right! (And that, of course, is actually what the seven lost Telmarine lords were sent off to do years ago!) And then, for a minor little side-story to support this, a guy (and eventually his daughter, too) gets onboard to try and find his wife, who was taken by the mist as a living sacrifice…!

…Um, yeah.

Now, as I said, we did actually know about most of this invented plotline before watching the movie. The problem was that it basically turned out to be the main plotline, so it was impossible to get away from— every few minutes either the mist or another ‘magic’ sword would pop up and dampen the enjoyment of some classic book scene.

Here’s what I really found interesting, though: When I had watched Prince Caspian in the theater for the first time, there were only about 2 or 3 changes that bugged me enough to take me out of ‘enjoyment’ mode and into ‘critic’ mode, and even then I ‘recovered’ quickly— making me rather enthusiastic about the movie overall, even though I knew very well that it ended up being quite different from the book. In contrast— with the exception of the well-done items outlined earlier— there was very little time during Voyage when I wasn’t in ‘critic’ mode, with only a few short lapses into ‘enjoyment’.

One part of the reason for this was definitely because the changes in Dawn Treader were really lame and cliché compared to the brilliance of C.S. Lewis’ original material; and I think another part of the reason was that they were all so unnecessary in the first place. I mean, let’s face it— while PC certainly had its fair share of bad and unnecessary changes, some changes at least served some function, and a few of them actually ended up being not only good, but an improvement. VODT’s changes, however— except for just one, that being the toned-down undragoning of Eustace, which quite frankly could have been somewhat horrifying had it been done onscreen exactly as it had been done in the book— were all either bad or unnecessary and didn’t provide any improvements whatsoever.

Thus it was that Prince Caspian, despite having probably even more changes, surprisingly ended up being a far more enjoyable viewing experience for me than Dawn Treader did. And while, as mentioned earlier, there’s no denying that some things in Voyage were very well done (particularly its great beginning and really excellent end), there was much more that it left to be desired.

Is it really a coincidence that the most faithful adaptation so far (The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe) was also the best-selling? Let us hope that if and when they decide to adapt the next one, that thought not only crosses the minds of the filmmakers… but stays there.

Ember is the owner of several businesses and the main writer for ListenUpReviews.com. She lives in the American Midwest, and enjoys action sports, technology, science, reading, being a part of certain sci-fi, fantasy, and mystery fandoms (and just a geek in general! ), playing her violin, piano, and electric guitar, and most of all listening to great music (both recorded and live).

Well, it’s that time again! Every year we Spotlight the Rockin’ Christmas Picks, our special review of the best Rocking Christmas music (which can also be viewed all year-round in our Articles section). And don’t miss the brand-new Rocking items added this year!

Enjoy— and may you have a safe, Blessed, and Merry Christmas!

NOTABLE 7TH-OR-HIGHER RELEASE 2010 Award Winner!

Runners-Up: NONE.

With Horseshoes & Handgrenades, Micah Sannan and Andrew Welch have now taken on the majority of the guitar-writing and -playing duties (indeed, Brad Noah features on only one track); and while (when compared to their previous releases) the lack of Brad’s distinctive guitar style is apparent, the guitars are in good hands, because they actually still feel like Disciple nevertheless.

The record starts off with “Dear X, You Don’t Own Me”, featuring great low orchestration throughout, and interesting lyrics written to negative emotions and feelings as if they were people, declaring freedom from those old ‘relationships’. It’s an excellent and memorable track.

“Watch It Burn” (the track featuring Brad Noah) musically kicks the heaviness up a few notches and showcases Brad’s classic, rhythmic guitarwork.

“Invisible” has firmly encouraging lyrics, and musically contrasts low verses with a chorus only slightly less heavy than the previous track. It also has a great instrumental outro.

“The Ballad Of St. Augustine” opens with an intriguing, fast-paced drum intro that builds in layers until the excellently heavy (and, indeed, occasionally Metal-styled) guitars kick in. It also contains some fantastic lyrics (particularly in the final bridge, which gave us goosebumps).

“Shot Heard ‘Round The World” features vocals that are generally even more heavy, emphasizing this track’s energetic defiance against death.

“Collision” is slower-paced but still has some great musical heaviness in the chorus and final bridge; and the chorus itself has the amazing quality of almost physically compelling you to close your eyes and just melt into it. This track is very memorable (and gave us goosebumps), and it’s yet another all-around excellent track.

“Battle Lines” switches back to a fast pace, and is again heavy with some Metal styling. The vocals are almost totally screamed or shouted, and (also again ) the lyrics are awesome.

“Remedy” again contrasts low verses with a rocking chorus (though featuring a different sort of guitar melody style in the verses). Interestingly, unusual pizzicato orchestration is also placed at certain points throughout; and the melody combinations in the chorus are very memorable.

“Eternity” is a bit heavier, though it does have an unusual melody combination between the music and vocals throughout the entire song (which may take until about the middle of the first chorus to get used to ).

“Revolution: Now” is a bit heavier still, and returns to their normal music style. It also features a great switch-up towards the end of the track, with some slightly suspenseful sound effects, cutting to a tiny fraction of silence, followed immediately by some great solo guitarwork and then the final bridge and chorus.

“Deafening” (featuring a collaboration with members of Stellar Kart and Kutless) has great lyrics and a memorable musical melody throughout (the chorus is memorable vocally, too). It’s yet another excellent track.

“Worth The Pain” musically weaves in dark, fast piano and a little orchestration throughout, and at several points they are contrasted with the heavy guitars to great effect. Memorable and with lyrics of firm hope, it’s the perfect track to close out the regular edition of the album.

Preorder Edition Bonus Content:

Those who preordered the album through Disciple’s website had the option to receive some exclusive extras, including a T-shirt, stickers, a short behind-the-scenes video, and (most importantly ) 7 bonus tracks. The band had actually wanted to put these tracks on the album but were unable to fit them in due to the limited number that they were allowed; so, they gave them away with a special preorder package. The tracks, which are indeed all excellent and very worthy of release, are as follows:

“Comedy Tragedy” is a heavy track with an intriguing, dark solo guitar line woven in at times. The lyrics are written to and about someone who is outwardly putting on a façade of happiness but underneath it all is really not doing well.

“Disasterpiece” is a classic, energetic and catchy Hard Rocker with (of course ) yet more great lyrics.

“Forget Me Not”, a song written to family back home, is excellent and very memorable (and gave us goosebumps)— and though all of the bonus tracks are great, we’d say that this one is easily tied with “The Fury” for the best of them.

“Fear And Suffering” features much heavier vocals and an appealing double sing/scream combination near the end of the track.

“Horseshoes And Handgrenades” has unusual and memorable verses (with slightly muted, and at times semi-spoken, vocals) and a rocking chorus.

“The Fury” is a rhythmic, energetic (and also very memorable) track that makes you want more. As mentioned above, we’d say that it’s tied with “Forget Me Not” for the best of the bonus tracks.

And the exclusive extras conclude with “Remake”. The only slow track of the entire release, it musically features just a bass and a low electric guitar played in a semi-acoustic style to place the focus on Kevin’s emotive vocals.

In all, this is yet another excellent (and Award-winning) album from Disciple.

Our rating for Horseshoes & Handgrenades: 5 & 1/3 Stars.

(Blog and Photo Credits: Ember)

Well, after a round trip of nearly 2,000 miles, we’re finally home— and, as promised, here’s our RevGen report!

Revelation Generation festival, commonly known as RevGen, is a music festival held on a farm near Frenchtown, New Jersey. We like road trips, so we drove, and I have to say that the scenery (particularly as we neared the festival area) was fairly amazing, very interesting, and at times even downright beautiful…

…but I’m guessing that you probably aren’t reading this for a description of the land, so I’ll move on to the music now.

Out of the festival’s two days, we were only able to attend the second, but it was certainly worth it with Showbread, Superchick, Relient K, the reunited O.C. Supertones, tobyMac, and more scheduled to play.

Showbread was up first, and (having missed their show at Cornerstone earlier this year) it was interesting to see them for the first time as only a 4-piece (and with frontman Josh now having to play guitar and stay mostly behind a stationary mic!). Compared with their 7- and 6-bandmember shows in the past, it was quite a lot less energetic onstage; and, while their show was of course still good, we did much rather prefer the glorious organized chaos of their shows in previous years.

Superchick was up next; and, while all of the sets were shorter than usual here (with no encores, etc.)— even from the headliners (!)— it was still easily the best show we’ve seen them do. (In other words, expect a Live Show Nomination! )

Next came Relient K, who (as usual ) also had an excellent show (which also happened to include the best cover we’ve yet heard them perform at a live show— Toto’s “Africa”!). And yes, they’ll be another Nominee.

Following that was The O.C. Supertones, and they were actually one of the most major reasons for our journey to this festival. Having only seen them twice before their former retirement (and the second show, actually on their farewell tour, having been cut very short due to an equipment malfunction— one of the venue’s amps had begun to spew smoke!), it was a must to see their Reunite Tour show (and that the one we could get to actually happened to be the very last stop of the tour was an unintended bonus).

Finally, tobyMac had an excellent show, as always— and this time it was made even more awesome by the festival actually handing out candles to the crowd (which we have never experienced at a rock show before! ).

So, in all, it was a great day (and a productive one for deciding on certain Live Show Nominations this year!).

(Bonus Photo: On our way back, we were also treated to the following brilliant road sign courtesy of someone in the Pennsylvania road department with a great sense of humor! Enjoy!)

Ember is the owner of several businesses and the main writer for ListenUpReviews.com. She lives in the American Midwest, and enjoys action sports, technology, science, reading, being a part of certain sci-fi, fantasy, and mystery fandoms (and just a geek in general! ), playing her violin, piano, and electric guitar, and most of all listening to great music (both recorded and live).

As you may already know, thanks to MySpace many of the albums that we review can be heard in their entirety for free online. Well now, thanks to Google, a number of books that we review can be read either in their entirety or, in some cases, most of their entirety for free, as well!

Head on over to our Recommended “Required Reading” article and check them out!

We have just posted fresh live show photos for Eowyn, Fireflight, Flatfoot 56, and Thousand Foot Krutch— and there will be even more new live show photos on the way soon!

We hope you enjoy the updates; and, as always, keep checking back (or subscribe to our RSS Feed) for more!