Its now the start of 2009 which means 2008 has finished, so its time for us to look back and see who are favourite new bands of 2008 were, below is a list of our top ten favourite bands of 2008 and even further below that we have written up a bit about the bands in the top 5.

1. Stone Gods
2. Attack! Attack!
3. Casino Drive
4. The Gaslight Anthem
5. Lavondyss
6. Scars On Broadway
7. Deaf Havana
8. The Why Not?
9. Slaves To Gravity
10. Less Than Me

When the Darkness came to a sad end in October 2006, guitarist and songwriter Dan Hawkins and bassist Richie Edwards decided to carry on working together and pretty soon after a new band was formed with Richie Edwards moving to guitarist and vocalist, the line up was completed by drummer Ed Graham and Toby MacFarlaine, a few months into the bands tours, drummer Ed Graham announced that he was leaving the band, he has since been replaces by Robin Goodridge.

During 2008 The Stone Gods have worked harder than any other band I know, they released their debut EP 'Burn The Witch' on the 25 February, the EP sold out of physical releases on the day of release which meant anybody that wanted a copy of the EP needed to visit I Tunes and all the other big download stores.

Ever since the start of 2008 The Stone Gods have constantly been on tour, they have done a few headline tours, they have played at Download Festival, and they have supported Velvet Revolver and quite recently finished a massive tour with Australian rockers Airbourne.

The debut Stone Gods album 'Silver Spoons And Broken Bones' was released on the 7th July, the album was highly praised with many publications claiming The Stone Gods to be the best new band of the year and having the best album of the year, and its easily to see why, the debut album is crammed with 13 rifftastic punk influenced songs and its quite rare these days to pick up and album and love every song. Their live show has the energy and passion of a band that’s been together for a very long time and the banter between songs from front man Richie Edwards and the fans makes their shows more enjoyable.

Attack! Attack! are a four piece band from South Wales and each member of the band have enjoyed minor success in the past from playing in various different South Wales based bands such as Dopamine, Adequate Seven, Pete's Sake and many others, but I have to say that none of those bands were anywhere as good as what Attack! Attack! are.

I first came across Attack! Attack! back in October when they were opening up for Funeral For A Friend on their mammoth UK tour which took place in pretty much every town/city across the UK. We interviewed the guys and were quite pleased with how friendly, approachable and happy they were and also how much they loved being in Attack! Attack!.

When I got back from the show I put their self titled debut album on and to be honest it’s not left my cd player since, the album is a pure and honest bundle of poppy punk, it features 10 tracks and runs for just over 30minutes, every song is as catchy and fun as the last and its pretty much near impossible to pick a favourite track as every song is of a high upbeat quality.

Attack! Attack! are such a hardworking band, if they are not releasing kick arse albums and singles then they are on the tour, if you check their touring schedule on a regular basis then you will know that they never seem to be at home as they always have a show to play. At the start of February they are playing a few shows across mainland Europe with everyone’s new favourite American poppy punk band Forever The Sickest Kids, which can only boost the bands profile across Europe.

Towards the end of February Attack! Attack! are to embark on a co-headline tour with Tonight Is Goodbye across the UK which promises to be such a good tour that’s worth every penny and on the day the tour starts Attack! Attack! Will release their outstanding new single 'You And Me'.

It’s easy to see why Attack! Attack! are one of our favourite bands of 2008, just give them a listen and see how long it takes you to put their album down.

Despite forming back in 2005 The Gaslight Anthem were a pretty new band when the major music magazine such as Kerrang were claiming them to be the best new band ever, and since then The Gaslight Anthem have enjoyed major success over in the UK.

They released their second album ‘The 59 Sound’ in August and they have gone on and released ‘The 59 Sound’ and ‘Old White Lincoln’ as singles and I am pretty sure a new single is due for release pretty soon to coincide with the bands first UK tour of 2009 which starts at the start of February.

What appeals to me most about The Gaslight Anthem is their sound, they remind me of very early Alkaline Trio, a band that I have loved since the early days and it is good to see another band sounding quite similar but still managing to do things their own way.

The bands album ‘The 59 Sound’ proves to be a great listen, you can listen through the whole album without getting bored, most of the songs on the album are a big infectious ride, and there are only a couple of songs that sound like fillers which isn’t bad at all from a 12 track album.

Every time The Gaslight Anthem head to the UK they seem to get bigger and bigger, the venues get upgraded on their tours and the more people say good things about the band, 2008 has probably been their best year to date an d I can see 2009 beating that especially with the major summer festivals in sight.

I managed to come across and review a lot of new bands in 2008, some were utterly crap and some blew me away with just how great they sounded, one of the bands that impressed me the most was the Midlands based five piece Lavondyss.

Their debut EP for A Wolf At The Door Records was simply outstanding, it featured 6 aggressive sounding experimental tracks that was crammed full of technicality, all the songs on the album were well structured and the guitar riffs and drum beats on certain songs were loud enough to make your ears bleed.

It’s not just myself who thinks highly of the band, if you head over to their MySpace and read through the many different snippets and quotes from reviews from different publications then you will realise that they are a well loved talented band.

2009 may have only just started but Lavondyss already have a really hectic touring schedule where they are touring from now right up until May and this includes their own headline shows as well as shows with State Of The Enemy and also shows with We Are Fiction, Evita and Bury Tommorrow.

Lavondyss blew me away with their EP ‘Nibiru’ during 2008 which means my mission form 2009 is to finally head out and check out the bands live show.

Casino Drive are a 4 piece band from Trowbridge in Wiltshire, they released their debut 3 track EP 'Spin The Truth' just months after forming as a band, and I have to say I never been so impressed with a band after hearing so few tracks, they have the polished sound of a band who have been together for a extremely long time.

'Spin The Truth', was a short but sweet EP, it ran for about 11minutes but those 11 minutes were enough to get you stomping your foot along, doing a bit of air guitaring whilst singing along word for word to their extremely infectious lyrics.

I feel that Casino Drive are a really under rated band, since they released their EP back in early 2008 they haven’t really done much, they have played the odd show in their local area of Bath and Bristol but they haven’t done any full tours across the country or anything to help boost their profile.

It seems that Casino Drive took an lengthy break throughout the later part of 2008, this was mainly due to the departure of their long term bassist James Bice, the band are now proud to announce that they have a new bass player in the form of Sam Robson and they are back playing shows but once again just the odd local show.

They are booked into Longwave Studios in Cardiff from the 21st April until the 25th April, which I imagine is to record new tracks for their next EP, I personally can’t wait to hear these tracks and really hope the band start doing full length tours across the UK to boost the profile of the band as they have they sound of a big band in the making.