Green Day

“American Idiot” (Reprise)

Compare to: Blink-182, Operation Ivy, Rancid

It could have been worse. Horrible even. Green Day is a band that many thought would have run out of steam by now. The band “sold out” and the true punk-rockers say it is nothing but wanna-be pop punk.

But it’s all right. The rock-opera loaded with political messages might even be better than the mediocre previous album Billie and the boys put out, “Warning.” The entire album is very non-punk, except for two songs. Not to say Green Day was ever the pop punk seen today, but punk was definitely a commonly used adjective to describe Green Day. And, in all fairness, no band has ever successfully maintained a punk sound when creating a rock opera.

The songs have messages and sound good together and on their own. The tone goes from sweet, like in “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” to classic punk with energizing beats and riffs, like “She’s a Rebel.”

What’s really impressive is how well Green Day latched onto the quiet craze of rock operas/concept albums. The album tells a good story, starting with the radio hit “American Idiot” to the ending “Whatsername.” And, amazingly, it weaves in some decent political messages in a time of political turbulence.

Its hard to say that Green Day is doing anything groundbreaking here. If you want a good rock opera, go pick up Say Anything’s “Is a Boy.” If you want some good pure punk, this album is not a good place to start.

“American Idiot” will keep Green Day alive for a few more years. As long as they keep fresh and new, someone will listen to them. They’ve kept a bit of the appeal they had in the early ’90s with songs like “Basketcase” and “Good Riddance.”

At this point in their careers, the members of the band couldn’t have put out a better album to keep teenie-boppers excited and twenty-somethings reminiscing. Then again, they still could have put out a better album and amazed us all.

— P. Kim Bui

12 Stones

“Potter’s Field” (Wind-Up)

Compare to: Creed, Oleander, Dust For Life

“Potter’s Field,” the latest album by 12 Stones, is decent in its own right, but Paul McCoy and company need to rethink their strategy or take some more time to work out some of the kinks and think of some stronger ideas.

Listening to the similar-tempo, slower rock songs beyond the fifth track will bring to mind a picture of four guys sitting silently around a table in a dank basement studio, totally befuddled by how they can fill the rest of the album. If the members of 12 Stones were bored with the rest of the album, so are we, the listeners.

“Potter’s Field” suffers from mediocre track placement. The flow is jumbled and doesn’t progress smoothly the way it could. The first songs will deceive many listeners into thinking that every track on the album drops the “hard rock bomb.”

It is evident from the theme in “Far Away” that lead singer Paul McCoy has grown both as a person and as a lyricist. The song deals with McCoy’s reaction to a suicide he heard about and the situation behind it.

The guitar parts are more complicated than those of the debut, and the solos definitely prove that lead guitarist Eric Weaver can shred on the same level as almost any rock guitarist out there.

Greg Trammell’s rhythm guitar work is also solid. He lays down perfectly complimenting riffs to back Weaver’s stellar soloing.

His playing makes it sound like he is much better than the album shows.

The group definitely has talent, but it seems like the album would have climbed the ladder from mediocre to spectacular had the guys been given more time to use all their ideas and resources.

The group might have been trying to more effectively capture the energy of a live show on the new album, but anyone who has seen the band live knows these guys can rock on a much greater level than the last four or five songs on “Potter’s Field” reflect.

— Dan Hopper

Lamb of God

“Ashes of the Wake” (Epic)

Compare to: Byzantine, Superjoint Ritual, A Life Once Lost

Any fan of heavy metal would have to reluctantly agree that the last few years have not been the best for the genre.

Metalheads have seen the name of their beloved Heavy Metal dragged through the mud by the likes of radio-friendly impersonators such as Disturbed and Korn.

They’ve witnessed the demise of great metal bands such as Pantera and seen the Prince of Darkness, Ozzy Osbourne, turned into the laughing stock of prime time.

“Ashes of the Wake,” the new release and major label debut from Virginia’s Lamb of God, should have been the album to propel the band into metal stardom and remind the world what real American metal sounds like.

Unfortunately, “Ashes of the Wake” falls short of anything above mediocre.

Anyone familiar with Lamb of God should know what to expect from this album: heavy riffs, sprinkled with a touch of double bass and singer Randal Blythe’s signature growl, all combined to form an intense and heavy brand of straight forward heavy metal.

However, this major label production can’t make up for the album’s fatal flaw — total lack of creativity.

Lamb of God seems to have been determined to stay in its comfort zone while writing the album.

Lamb of God diehards might go along with the band’s “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” attitude — however, in this case, it restricts the group from becoming the band it has the potential to be.

Lamb of God tried to recreate the anger and raw energy that made its previous albums, “As the Palaces Burn” and “New American Gospel,” huge underground successes.

Newcomers who will be exposed to Lamb of God through the new album will undoubtedly fall in love with it, but the album will do little for anyone who knows what Lamb of God is capable of.

— Dante Sacomani