Originally released in May exclusively at Starbucks as part of the coffee giant’s “Hear Music” CD series, Antigone Rising’s “From the Ground Up” is a live, acoustic performance that was recorded for Starbucks customers at Sony Studios in New York City.

Comprising both newer and older songs, every track is a testament to what five women with the instrumental skills and one hell of a lead vocalist can do.

Lead singer Cassidy lays down thick and powerful vocals track after track. It takes about one note out of her mouth to realize you’re not dealing with the all too common good-band, shaky-vocalist situation. Cassidy’s strong vocals alone are enough to fill each and every track on the album.

The band coasts back and forth between folk rock and adult contemporary melodies, but tends to stay low key, delivering only backdrops to its lead’s vocals. This makes for a consistent feel, but a lack of variety.

“From the Ground Up” is proof why Starbucks chose Antigone Rising to be the first band to kick off its series – it showcases the strong and powerful female vocals which, in the past few years, the music industry has seemed to take for granted.

– Katie Piepel

Animosity

“Empires” (Metalblade)

Compare to: All Shall Perish, Despised Icon, Dying Fetus

In the past few years, American extreme metal bands have fallen into the bad habit of ripping off Swedish melodic death metal albums that came out 10 years ago. Seemingly unable to mimic the Swede’s guitar pyrotechnics, the Americans have resorted to generic breakdowns and clean vocals to hide an apparent lack of shredding ability. This is not the case with Animosity, a young band from San Francisco who appears ready to sound the death knell for wimpy metalcore once and for all.

On “Empires,” the members of Animosity aren’t afraid to be heavier than a sledgehammer to the skull, taking full advantage of every opportunity to mangle listeners’ aural cavities with a sound derived from old-school grindcore and death metal acts such as Carcass, Napalm Death and Cannibal Corpse.

It bypasses the tired In Flames and Soilwork worship so typical of today’s American metal scene.

Although there is still a hardcore influence on “Empires,” Animosity makes each breakdown count, rather than using them as something to fall back on.

Although Animosity is by no means reinventing the wheel on “Empires,” the unbridled violence of songs like “Commoditism” and “Shut it Down” are a refreshingly brutal reprieve from the sugar-coated melodies that have become so fashionable in today’s metal scene.

“Empires” proves Animosity is a hungry young band, willing to buck the scene’s current trends and deliver a ferocious sonic beatdown that any heavy music fan would be wise to investigate.

– Joshua Haun

Our Lady Peace

“Healthy In Paranoid Times” (Sony)

Compare to: U2, Train, Switchfoot

Our Lady Peace has always been pseudo-culturally relevant in its lyrics and it is apparent in its newest album, ideally labeled “Healthy In Paranoid Times.”

Although not always positive in lyrics, Peace’s continually catchy riffs lighten the mood and give a heightened air to the listener’s soul.

Many see a band’s pop tendencies as either foreshadowing a sellout or a generalization of its compositions, yet Our Lady Peace is consistent with its music throughout each of its released albums, and has made a successful platform for audiences to expect and, hopefully, look forward to.

With Hurricane Katrina swallowing the Gulf Coast and Discovery Channel rehashing memories of the ill-fated passengers of Flight 93 in 2001, “Paranoid Times” offers a lyrical remedy to the dark cloud looming above our country’s morale and passionately proclaims brighter corners for us to turn in the future.

By far, the most poignant song on the album is “Where Are You.” Its intoxicating verse and a chorus of seemingly hundreds of men, women and children screaming out their fears and hopes about whether “this could be the best day,” becomes a sort of epic musical therapy.

Easily listened to time and time again, more factors determining the complex ironies and courage of this album can be discovered with every spin, giving this enigmatic symphony an edge against most of Our Lady Peace’s modern-rock competition.

– Alex Switzer

Audio Adrenaline

“Until My Heart Caves In” (Forefront)

Compare to: Newsboys, PFR, Smalltown Poets

Audio Adrenaline is one of those decade-spanning bands that just never seems to get annoying or go away.

It sounds, however, like age is starting to take its toll on the band in “Until My Heart Caves In,” an album that is confusing at best.

The new disc starts out solid with the anthem “Clap Your Hands,” a semi-punk, guitar riff-based song that sounds uncomfortably reminiscent of the lead-off track on the bands previous album, “Worldwide.” Things decline from there.

The upfront, poetic and Biblically-based lyrics have taken a fall. The vast majority of the lyrics sound like a poem a 17-year-old kid would write for his high school creative writing class.

Audio Adrenaline is still very much a Christian band with faith-driven lyrics that don’t beat around the bush, but the well of ideas is definitely running a little low. But Audio Adrenaline shouldn’t throw in the towel just yet. On every other album starting with 1994’s self-titles album the band seems to get itself into a songwriting funk where one or two tracks will be excellent and the rest are mediocre at absolute best. Then, just when it seems like the band is starting on its neve ending downhill slide, it makes a spectacular album like “Bloom” or “Underdog.”

In other words, there is nothing to worry about here. Die-hards who don’t mind the slumps should enjoy “Until My Heart Caves In” just as much as all the other Audio Adrenaline albums they know and love.

– Dan Hopper

This week’s essential album is N.W.A’s 1988 masterpiece “Straight Outta Compton”

N.W.A.

Straight Outta Compton (Ruthless)

Compare to: Public Enemy, 2pac, Dr. Dre

Right about now, N.W.A. court is in full effect/Judge Dre presiding/In the case of N.W.A. v. the police department/prosecuting attorneys are: MC Ren, Ice Cube and Eazy-motherfuckin’-E.”

So starts the controversial hit “Fuck Tha Police,” by N.W.A. from 1988’s album “Straight Outta Compton.” Not only did this song stir up controversy between the group and the Los Angeles Police Department, but the entire album made parents run to cover their children’s ears.

The success of “Straight Outta Compton” launched the solo careers of Ice Cube, Dr. Dre and Eazy-E, with such hits as “Gangsta, Gangsta” and “Express Yourself.”

White suburbanites began to cling to anything that was seen as dangerous and “gangsta” and soon the majority of fans were kids who were secretly listening to the album while hiding the black and white “parental advisory” from their unknowing parents.

Although these kids have gotten older and their music tastes have expanded beyoned the bounds of Clear Channel, they still love to kick back and listen to this classic album and reminisce about N.W.A. and the innocence of their youth.

– Joe Crimmings