May 05 2025
2
Haven't these guys already had an album in the user list?
Oh god this is "myspace-core" if ever there was such a thing lol. I dunno, not really my thing. It's just a bit too amateur - the music doesn't do much, the clean singing/trade-off vocals are weak, etc. Actually, weak is the overall word here. An album this loud and heavy should at least be POWERFUL, but this isn't at all. 2/5.
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May 07 2025
5
I submitted Watch Out! so of COURSE I'd give this a 5/5 hell yeah
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May 06 2025
3
Woof these guys are sure mad about something
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May 08 2025
3
On repeat: There are so many really great post-hardcore and emo albums and this is not one of them.
I like this one better than "Watch Out!", but still I do not like it that much. The spoken words parts are interesting though, they should do this more often (I get a Slint feeling). I'm in a happy state, so I'll give it 3 stars.
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May 06 2025
2
I did not like their album Watch Out! Not looking forward to this one… and my hesitation was merited. Not for me.
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May 08 2025
2
Mostly with (post-)hardcore, I like the music, and not the screaming vocals. This one is no exception.
But the music isn't that great on this one too.
So not a high score for Alexisonfire
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May 06 2025
5
I was a City and Colour kid first. Saw him live and he did an Alexisonfire set in the middle of the show. It blew my mind. It wasn't really my cup of tea, but I liked the versatility Dallas had.
It's only grown on me over the years. Nowadays I think I prefer Alexisonfire to City and Colour!
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May 23 2025
4
Pretty damn good, but I'm already a fan
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Jun 13 2025
4
Loved alexis when I was 16, I prefer watch out to their debut though.
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Jun 16 2025
4
I'm pretty sure we didn't need two Alexisonfire albums on the user list, but I do prefer this one to Watch Out! from a coupla weeks ago. It's angrier, somehow, but the guitar work is better throughout and they do a better job of cutting through the wall of angsty noise and driving some good melodies; A Dagger Through..., Polaroids of Polar Bears, Waterings are all good blocked together through the middle, it's all done in 40 mins or so and blasts home with Pulmonary Archery which is evocative of some of the best screamo from this era. Watch Out! got a low 4 so on the entirely arbitrary scale we work on this is a middling 4.
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Jul 02 2025
4
For me, not a classic by AOF, but excited to see it anyway. This gave George the spotlight rather than a balance with Dallas.
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Jul 16 2025
4
I never knew they were Canadian! An absolutely rock solid emo album, though that screamer sounds like he is in PAIN.
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May 05 2025
3
Rating: 6/10
Best songs: Polaroids of polar bears
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May 05 2025
3
Metal emo
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May 05 2025
3
Nice bit of screamo to accompany my lunch
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May 07 2025
3
Never thrilled to see Screamo on the genre list. I just don't like the vocal style. At times this does some interesting things blending in clean vocals, though the spoken word bits did nothing for me. The music is fast, competent, nothing much new here.
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May 08 2025
3
The classic shitty Midwest Emo vocals were to be expected, but the guitar work here was interesting enough to keep me tuned in the entire LP. Reminded me at points of Mars Volta with some pop-punk flair, which was a surprisingly workable combo.
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May 09 2025
3
Why did all early 00s emo bands seem to have one singer from a boy and, and the other from a mine in Middle Earth?
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May 11 2025
3
Default preset screamo. Not great, not terrible. Their later albums are more interesting from what I remember. 3/5.
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May 24 2025
3
Pretty good for 2002 emo
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May 28 2025
3
God this brings back high school. I remember hearing this band back in like 2003ish and disliking the music. But it makes sense why it was popular amongst the high schoolers. It's the perfect emo-My Space era music.
Listening to it now 2 decades later, I can't really connect with it. I imagine if you really liked it back then it means a lot but to me it just doesn't work.
My personal rating: 3/5
My rating relative to the list: 3/5
Should this have been included on the original list? No.
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Jun 27 2025
3
two singers early emo
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May 06 2025
2
Not nearly as good as their later album Crisis. This is more of the emo screamo and less of Dallas green on the melodies. Crisis had a really solid mix of those that made the album great. This album falls short of that and it’s stuck in the early 2000s emo scene that doesn’t really age well. 5.5/10
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May 06 2025
2
You know what, musically this was not bad at all really. The vocals just kill it for me though. The whole clean/unclean thing is beyond me. It's like taking a piss on a well manicured lawn. Some people might think I mean that in a good way, but I don't.
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May 08 2025
2
Stupid music, though I love Dallas Green's City and Colour project.
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May 08 2025
2
I was giving scream-o rock a somewhat generous pass on the first alexisonfire suggestion, but what we didn't need was a second album on this list. It is way out of balance and is far more annoying than it is engaging.
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May 14 2025
2
I'm glad Alex is on fire.
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May 14 2025
2
Not a fan of the genre and the constant screamo is a complete no-no for me. Music seems competent though. Sorry.
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May 25 2025
2
I like the music itself but why bother with the vocal noise? It's just awful.
It saves itself from a One star but the stupid voice is, well.....err...stupid.
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Jun 15 2025
2
A bit too shouty for me. I don’t understand this type of music but lots of people do so what does my opinion matter?
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Jul 01 2025
2
Alexisonfire’s second album came up a few weeks ago, and I explained then that I just never really got into them at the time but always thought they were fine (I also misattributed the screamed vocals to their guitarist and backing vocalist Wade McNeil rather than the actual lead George Pettit - oops)
Anyway their debut has a lot of the same good things as it’s follow-up - the interplay between those screamed and clean vocals is quite fun, and there’s a lot of inventive riffs on this record - but it does also feel sloppier, both from a performance standpoint and a songwriting one. There’s often a quite linear approach to the songwriting with no cohesion between the sections and no strong hooks (either vocal or instrumental) to return to, which just results in the end product feeling disjointed and unfulfilling
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Jul 09 2025
2
Somehow the overall effect is less than the sum of its parts.
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May 06 2025
1
Once again, I just can't with this band. Every time I listen to one of their albums hoping it'll be different even though deep down I know it'll be the same screamo as always.
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May 08 2025
1
Screamo, emo, post-hardcore. Pero qué mierda... Un 1.
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May 08 2025
1
👎🏻
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May 27 2025
1
👏🤣
There’s no way I’m listening to two albums by these guys!
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Jul 19 2025
1
Yeah, I'm all for including post hardcore in the list -- a genre indeed done dirty by Dimery and co.. But why oh why would you consider this debut clearly produced on a budget (gosh, that HORRID drum sound!)? This waste of a slot IMHO is all the more maddening when the essential At The Drive-In albums -- either also produced on a budget (*In Casino Out*), or not (*Relationship Of Command*) -- are absent from the book. "Mall bands" is a term I've sometimes found online to describe that early and mid-noughts wave of post-hardcore Alexisonfire is arguably a part of. And given the cheap results as listened to here, this derogatory labelling seems just right for them.
At least follow-up LP *Watch Out* (also mentioned in the users' list) is properly produced and more convincing dynamics-wise. And the other huge difference between the two albums are the vocals. In *Watch Out*, the performance of the two vocalists and the way they balance out growled and clean sung parts sounds great, whereas the performance of both is borderline ridiculous in that eponymous debut. Guess they just needed to get better at this, and also write less unnecessary convoluted compositions so that said vocal performances don't sound like an afterthought. The sung parts are also just more pleasant and memorable harmonically speaking in *Watch Out*. Whereas they are quite flat here.
I will therefore probably include *Watch Out* in my "high rated albums". And this debut will also pop up in my stinkers gallery. A quick way to let everyone know my "controversial" mileage on this band.
1/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums.
6/10 for more general purposes (5 + 1).
Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465
Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288
Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336
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Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 32
Albums from the users list I *might* select for mine later on: 42
Albums from the users list I won't select for mine: 79 (including this one)
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Émile, je sais, ça fait un bout de temps que je te promets des nouveaux bouts de réponse (as-tu vu les derniers au dessus ?), mais je suis en vacances à la mer, et les journées sont courtes. Ça fait du bien de moins faire d'écrans, ha ha. Aussi fun que cette petite expérimentation sur le générateur a été, on pourrait aussi ptet simplement se contacter via les réseaux sociaux ou Messenger ? Dis-moi ce que tu en penses...
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