Artist: Story of the Year

Album: “The Black Swan”

Release date: April 22

Label: Epitaph

In the mist of last Tuesday’s overabundant swarm of releases, I decided to review Story of the Year’s third full-length release, “The Black Swan,” which was released by the band’s new label, Epitaph.

Thankfully, this bird soars with its powerful anthems and energetic vocals. The album opens with arguably its hardest track, consisting of scream-laden singing and nu-metalesque sonics. If the non-screaming-listener can manage to voyage these waters through the rest of the album, thou shall not be led astray.

“Wake Up” seems to be fit enough for widespread radio play with its catchy melodies and hard to resist chants. “The Antidote” further cures any disbelief in the album with its similar likeability and a small solo midway through the track that is fit for a Rock Band cameo.

A solid effort, “The Black Swan’s” otherwise polished scheme is minimally scarred by multiple filler songs though the middle of the album that blend together with minimal differentiation. Tracks such as “Message to the World” and “Terrified” hinder the album’s potential for a flawless release although each is not, by any means, a bad listen. Because this is a SOTY release, however, each song manages to hold its own weight in the listener’s ear.

The album ends the way it started, with “Welcome to Our New Year,” an anthem which starts with a ’90s grunge intro before giving way to roaring instrumentals and powerful vocals lead by frontman Dan Marsala.

The quintet successfully manages to harness the addictive qualities of Page Avenue and the powerful heaviness of In The Wake of Determination to make “The Black Swan” take flight in a beautifully dark manner.

-Tanner Davis

Artist: Portishead

Album: “Third”

Release date: April 29

Label: Island

Portishead helped pioneer the trip-hop genre in Brighton, England, in the mid-’90s. More than a decade later, the trio’s third act proves it was not the sound that defined them, but the innovation. “Third” ostensibly maintains the group’s downtempo electronica roots, but it branches out with creative instrumentations that capture the dark, languid motif that is uniquely Portishead.

Part of that inventiveness lies in the ability to hold together songs that contain a seemingly incompatible patchwork of sounds. The gorgeous verses of “Hunter” are interrupted by haunting beeps and terrifying guitar strikes. In “The Rip,” simple guitar picking is washed away in a sea of lush synths. The jarring industrial/house beats of “Machine Gun” follow an all-acoustic folk number, “Deep Water.” Portishead’s other strength, as always, is Beth Gibbons’ voice. At times soft and pensive, at other piercing and direct, it serves as an anchor for the myriad sonic experiments carried out over the course of the 11 tracks.

“Third” is a relentlessly addictive listen that deserves to stand alongside Portishead’s previous work and is destined to become one of 2008’s best.

– Thomas Grundmeier

Artist: Constantines

Album: “Kensington Heights”

Release date: April 29

Label: Arts & Crafts

Constantines sound like a group of punks who made it halfway through anger management classes before calling it quits. As a result, the Canadian five-piece cranks up their amps and channels all their anger and angst into impressively intimate and mature words without ever losing the raw emotion and impetuousness that fuels all young punk bands.

Singer Bry Webb’s raspy howls of “I will not sing a hateful song / Though it’s in me to sing” do the best job of illustrating this restraint. The pacing of “Kensington Heights” is similarly top-notch; the crunch of “Shower of Stones” and bounce of “Our Age” build blissfully into the power-ballad centerpiece “Time Can Be Overcome.” The album ends on a high note as well, with the fist-pumping anthem “Do What You Can Do.”

“Kensington Heights” is actually the fourth in the line of Constantines’ records, which are all chock-full of the same muscular brand of rock they’ve been known to produce. On the Arts & Crafts label, the band may have finally found a home among Canada’s other unsung heroes such as Broken Social Scene and Feist.

– Thomas Grundmeier

Artist: Hanif-Jamiyl

Album: “Krushed Grapes”

Release date: May 6

Label: Bukarance Records

I don’t know if any of the student body is old enough to remember 2 Live Crew, but they had an album called “As Nasty As They Want to Be” that was probably the raunchiest thing to come out of 1989. 2 Live Crew’s schtick is the blunt, dirty, sexual themes that run rampantly through their work. Think lots of alcohol and bodily noises.

I only bring this up because Hanif-Jamiyl tries ridiculously hard to live up to the legend of the Crew. Unfortunately, his rhymes fall a bit short. If Shel Silverstein wrote porn, it would sound something like this.

Songs like track 13 “Just a Nut (beware of dog)” illustrate the failings of this album perfectly. “There’s nothing more to us than just a nut,” whines Hanif-Jamiyl, the album’s sole vocalist. His nasal voice alternates between a faux-sexy growl that is reminiscent of what rotten chocolate would sound like, and the keening wail of a rap banshee – if there were such a thing. It all culminates into a sound so distracting that it’s impossible to even pretend to dance, which is unfortunate because some of the beats thump nicely enough to encourage a booty quick-shake were it not for the shamefully underwhelming vocals.

Do yourself a favor – don’t buy this album.

-Rashah McChesney

Artist: North of Grand

Album: “Setbacks are scheduled for

tomorrow”

Release date: April 12

See them: 9 p.m. Saturday at DG’s Tap House, 125 Main St., $3

Label: self-released

North of Grand has released its fourth and strongest album yet. This guitar-driven album relies heavily on catchy lyrics and up-tempo rock that gets up under all of that wax and sticks in the ear like aural honey -the all-natural kind, of course.

The album’s one downfall is the somewhat less-than-masterful vocal recording, with Sean Wilson’s vocals often falling to the wayside behind the interrupting, heavy electric mess of the guitars that seem to cloud the ear.

North of Grand, a reference to the area of Des Moines where the band hails from, could easily be lost in the background of more politically driven or complexly motivated music. But they’ll do just fine tucked between Lit and Green Day in your music collection. Reserve for a day of cycling, jogging, juggling or anything that requires repetitive motion that would be serviced by the steady timing of the album.

-Rashah McChesney