This album has twenty tracks, with is pretty nice! Nice, if your into the band. I listened to this album several times, and the best thing I could come up with was that this is an ex heavy metal band who decided punk was more fun, profitable, whatever so they tried to form this band. The lyrics aren't bad, the background music goes from melodic to fast to hard and doesn't sound that bad, but other than that the one thing that the music relies on heavily, and the thing I hate the most are these vocals. They definitely sound (at times) out of something from the 80's heavy metal scene. When the band plays fast, like on "unknown," the music is great, and the vocals blend with the music nice. But on tracks like "Family Matters" the vocals go a lot slower than the music, and have a very whiny ring to them. If the vocals just stuck to a fast paced thing, and weren't mixed in so heavy the music might be nice. Because, honestly, the only thing I didn't like about this band was the vocals, which means a lot! So turn down the vocals in the mix, and sing fast and everything will be fine. Of course, we need to take everything into consideration. This is a re-release, which means it probably was self-released and poorly recorded in the first place (it sure sounds like it). Had they had better equipment, everything might have sounded a lot better. I guess we won't know until they put out a new album.

All You Can Eat had a little too much too eat one night and then recorded this album (I'm not serious, but it sounds like it.) And everyone knows when your belly's full you just want to relax and not record an album...OK, seriously, this band has a lot to work out in the future (my opinion.) With some better vocals, and a better recording these guys could sound decent, or even better, they might sound great?

All State Champion: Is It Nothing To You

All-American Rejects, The: The All-American Rejects

[Issue Two // September-October 1997]