Days Like These- Charity Burns Green / 2004 Lobster Records / 11 Tracks / http://www.daysliketheserock.com / http://www.lobsterrecords.com/ Released 24 February 2004 / Reviewed 20 May 2004

Coming strong from the gate, New Jersey’s Days Like These tie in pop-rock and nu-metal to the current emo-rock sound that immediately strikes the listener as being a mixture of Coheed and Cambria and Drowning Pool. The first stand out track on “Charity Burns Green” is the electric “One in One Thousands”, with a chorus that will immediately drill itself into a listener’s head. With strains of “A Light House Atlantic”, the track inserts itself into the heights of the genre. Losing its focus for the chaotic “Beneath the Surface”, Days Like These still exude greatness, even if the track doesn’t achieve its potential. Still, the sonic vocals of Angel shine through as examples of the talent of the band. Stutter-stepping into the second half of the CD, Days Like These start out “In Time” with a lack of vitality and energy that really makes the disc suffer.

However, Days Like These are able to manipulate the more introspective, slower songs into slow-burning bonfires, much like “The Sergeant’s Son”. In the track, Days Like These are able to create a full sound with a varied arrangement that skillfully mixes their punk roots along with those of their emo-rock pasts. Throughout the entirety of Charity Burns Green, Days Like These are able to construct intricate yet compelling songs that show a band that is never content with the position that they’ve obtained. Instead of just laying down a drumbeat to fill out the tracks, Ron chooses each hit of the skins with the utmost precision, to highlight the extreme emotive force of the lyrics.

Taking a little different approach than the last few Lobster Records releases, Charity Burns Green still follows the high standards held by Lobster in their releasing of album. The penultimate track, “Slip and Descend”, is a mini-epic, using progressive metal style riffs and their diametric opposites in calm and emotive synthesizer lines. Ending the disc with the flawless “Love Spell”, Days Like These show that they are going to be a force in the music industry for an extended amount of time. They may fall and stumble here and there, but the vast majority of the disc is awash with the catchy and musically satisfying sound from these kids. Not able to drink at the time this album was release, Charity Burns Green is a disc that shows that the band has maturity far beyond what their ages might dictate.

Top Tracks: Love Spell, One in One Thousand

Rating:6.8/10