William "WiL" Francis - Lead vocals, guitar, piano
Angel Ibarra - Lead guitar, backing vocals
Nick Wiggins - Bass, backing vocals
Jake Davison - Drums, percussion
For those who don’t know Aiden is they are a post-hardcore band from Seattle. Forming in the spring of 2003, they have released
four album with the latest coming this year. Aiden's first full-length album Our Gang's Dark Oath was released on Dead Teenager Records in 2004. Soon after
they were signed by Victory Records and released their second album. The band's third studio album entitled Conviction was released August 21, 2007. Aiden then announced
that the new full length album entitled Knives
would be hitting stores on May 12, 2009. The album opens up with “Killing
Machine” a raging display of sound and attitude. It is a mosh-pit’s dream track with heavy drums and soaring guitars.
The fast pace rips and sheds everything in its path. It’s hard to hear some parts of the track, but when you can they
flow well. They also have some nice backing vocals that add that extra item to the track. “Let the Right One In”
quickly begins and displays another sound of Aiden. This track isn’t has intense and angry sounding though the lyrics
still depicts a bit of hatred. “Scavengers of the Damned” catches your attention from the first couple of notes.
It is a very catchy tone with great music and pretty good vocals. “Elizabeth” is a bit sick and sadistic opening
with “She bathed in blood how apropos/Became a witness to the suffering.” It’s a track I can people singing
along with the band as the lyrics are easy to follow. “Crusifiction” opens up with a voiceover and will defiantly be featured in a live show as “The Asylum”
opens slowly then explodes. It is a bit awkward vocally as it seems like they recorded it in a small room. There isn’t
any zip to them. “Portrait” is a simple voiceover track with a woman reciting thoughts that she has jotted down.
“Excommunicate” gets back into the Aiden groove with a sweet recurring guitar riff, steady drums, and a flowing
vocal set. They also take a stand on a subject that has been being discussed over and over. They speak out against priests
that molest children. “King on Holiday” is the short and could
very well be the fastest track on the album. They continue to rage on with killer sounds and decent vocals. The album ends
the same way with “Black Market Hell.” It too is fairly fast with insane guitars and heart pounding drums. Overall
the album is fair. It has real catchiness to it, the music is fast and hard which will generate a lot of mosh-pitting, and
the vocals are mostly solid. There are spots of inconsistency and the track “Portrait” hurts the album. The bonus
live track at the end of the album (hidden) picks up some of the slack others have created. Its worth checking out if you
are a head-banging junkie, love fast music, and/or hates v
everything in the world.
Rating: 6.5 out of 10
My favorite tracks:
Let
the Right One In and Scavengers of the Damned
Track List:
- Killing the
Machine
- Let the Right One In
- Scavengers of
the Damned
- Elizabeth
- Crusifiction
- The Asylum
- Portrait
- Excommunicate
- King on Holiday
- Black Market Hell
Website
(s): www.aiden.org
