Album Review
Story Of The Year - The Black SwanStory Of The Year - The Black Swan

A lot of things have changed for Story Of The Year since they released their debut album 'Page Avenue' back in 2004, the album was a poppy-emo album that put the band on the map and songs like 'Until The Day I Die' were anthems for teenagers across the world with its extremely catchy vibe and lyrics. The release of the bands second album 'In The Wake Of Determination' shocked a few people, the extremely poppy sound was almost gone, there was a few poppy moments on offer but the majority of the album was quite hard hitting, the bands stage show also changed a lot and for the better with them showing off more energy on stage than ever before spinning around and doing crazy kung fu style kicks at every opportunity. It all seemed to be going well for Story Of The Year but both the public and the bands record label didn’t think so, the sales of 'In The Wake Of Determination' were extremely poor which then forced the bands record label 'Warner Bros' to boot them off their label.

Story Of The Year have now taken a bit of time off to regroup and figure out what went wrong, the band are now back and signed to Epitaph Records and are gearing up to release their third full length studio album 'The Black Swan' and it seems like the band have gone away and thought about what was right and wrong with their previous album releases and have merged the sound of the two together and have come back with a heavy album with a lot of melodic moments which seems to work quite well.

A recorded radio message talking about the state of people’s children opens up the album on 'Choose Your Fate' and as soon as the message fades out, the song explodes in pure madness, with heavy riffs and angry screams booming out. The song is a well balanced mixture, the instrumental work throughout the song is constantly heavy but the vocals are forever changing from loud screams to more melodic sing a long vocals which seem to work extremely well.

The bands current single 'Wake Up' is a perfect example of how Story Of The Year have changed their sound for the better, the song is really melodic, even when the chorus kicks in, the vocals become a slight bit more louder but everything still stays well in place and full of melody, 'Wake Up' is the perfect Story Of the Year song where everything fits together so well.

The guitar work on offer on 'The Black Swan' is outstanding, the riffs are fast and loud and there are many big solo's on offer such as on 'The Antidote', the overall guitar work running throughout the song is pretty damn good, but it’s the huge sounding guitar solo towards the middle of the song that really stands out.

If you are not a Story Of The Year fan, you could soon well be after hearing 'The Black Swan', it seems like the band have taken the best elements from their two previous albums and worked on merging the two sounds together to create the sound that is on offer on 'The Black Swan'. Think of Senses Fail mixed with Rise Against and the melodicness of the first Story Of The Year album and you will close to knowing what 'The Black Swan Sounds' like.

4/5

Review by Trigger
 Band Members
Story Of The Year - Band
Dan Marsala (Vocals)
Ryan Phillips (Guitar)
Philip Sneed (Guitar, Vocals)
The Skull (Bass)
Constable Wills (Drums)
 Track Listing
1. Choose Your Fate
2. Wake Up
3. The Antidote
4. Tell Me
5. Angel In The Swamp
6. The Black Swan
7. Message To The Web
8. Apathy Is A Deathwish
9. We're Not Gonna Make It
10. Cannonball
11. Terrified
12. Pale Blue Dot
13. Welcome To Our New War
 Band Related Links
Story Of The Year Myspace
Story OF The Year Official Website
 Review Score Code
- Top Cheese
- Brilliant
- Pretty damn good
- Ok I guess
- What Was That?