Brian Shultz

Make Your Mark Living With Lions' first full-length helps disassociate the comparisons to fellow Canadian melodic-hardcore pop-punks Daggermouth that became common in reviews of the band's Dude Manor EP. Thanks to slick tempo changes and an intermittent spouting of dual vocals, the band make their own mark with their debut LP, despite occasionally holding onto that Lifetime-style hardcore backbone […]

Burning Empires Andy Hurley is best known to shrill-screaming tweens and pop-punk fans as drummer for pop-radio darlings Fall Out Boy, but hardcore nerds are more than willing to lecture you on his somewhat edgier past. Hurley's back catalog alone comprises a multitude of mosh-tastic metalcore acts who never really made it outside of the […]

It Goes On Straylight Run co-vocalist/pianist Michelle DaRosa (ne Nolan) likely sent a shock to fans' system when she abruptly announced her departure from the band in June 2008 to work on a solo record. The resulting effort, It Goes On, is a more polished and full-band effort than one might imagine from DaRosa–and as she and […]

From Sumi To Japan Brian Bonz's voice is so angelic that it sounds perfectly acceptable when the NYC schoolteacher sings, "I'm just next in line with the sharpest knife and the desire to make these children die" ("Dee The Dinosaur"). A disciple of the celebrated circle of friends that includes Brand New and Kevin Devine, […]

Chapters EP It's hard to determine whether the Dear & Departed's newest endeavor will appeal more to fans of the 1980s English rock scene, or really just the modern bands influenced by said movement. Any way you slice it, though, the band's newest release, Chapters, is a competent–albeit not always compelling–five-song EP that will likely gain […]

Old Pride It's okay: You can call Pianos Become The Teeth screamo. The elites should be fine with it. When you take the spine-tingling collision of atmosphere and intensity that allowed acts like City Of Caterpillar and Funeral Diner–admitted influences–to become cult favorites and cake it with a concoction of melody and absolute desperation so […]

Composite, Volume Two EP Small Brown Bike keep the creative juices flowing with their second post-reunion 7" of new jams. Composite, Volume 2 is another double-shot offering of the band's signature post-hardcore laced with worn emotions and charged atmospheres. But which signature, exactly? October 2009's Volume 1 was like a refinement of the gruff, upbeat sing-alongs of 2001's Dead Reckoning (think […]

Breakthroughs In Modern Art Six Gallery were used to be an instrumental post-rock band, issuing two EPs before deciding they were missing a certain element. Vocalist Daniel Francis entered the fold soon thereafter–it helped the dude could play guitar and piano–and suddenly, Six Gallery have a whole new sound for their first LP,Breakthroughs In Modern […]

Great Leaps Forward We Are The Union display the same penchant for horn-assisted, modern pop-punk on their sophomore full-length as they did on their DIY debut, 2007's Who We Are. But is it as much of a positive step as its title might indicate? To some extent, sure. Their most impressive traits respectively improve in some […]