Search - Story of the Year :: The Constant

This is truly beautiful

Nick Colosi | Chesterland, OH, USA | 02/16/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Why do bands usually make music that isn't up to par with their old material when they mature? Usually it's because what made the music great in the beginning was the young, passion-drive angst and energy that usually fades away as bands age.



Thankfully for us, Story of the Year hasn't lost their edge, but they definitely have matured. Their fourth effort under the SOTY name brings to the table the most well developed and poetic of anything they've ever done. Having said that the material I believe will be immediatly compatable with the CD collections of fans of all three of the other works.



Most of the songs are mid-tempoed melodic rock with the same punchy hooks we've come to expect from the boys of Story of the Year, with very heartfelt lyrics about trying to grow up in such a confusing world that we live in. This is a CD that is meant to be taken as a whole for how pretty sounding it all is; it could almost constitute a concept album.



Unlike most bands that have been around as long as these guys have however, they still keep their feet firmly planted in the hardcore scene. Whereas bands like the Used and Rise Against have dropped most of the screaming from their music, we have three very obvious examples of Dan Marsala's brutal raw vocal onslaught in "To the Burial" "Won Threw Ate" and "Eye for an Eye" These songs tend to be very political with lyrics that could have come from "In the Wake of Determination" but still manage to keep a little bit of "Black Swan" polish on them. "Eye for an Eye" is clearly a throwback to the days of "Falling Down," closing out the album with a four chord punk based rocker instead of an epic 5 minutes metally song.



And still these boys manage to keep things fresh after all these years by trying new things with the sound they've become so comfortable in. The opener "The Children Sing" opens with a chorus of, well, children singing, giving it an arena rock feel and making it a pretty powerful song. "The Dream is Over" is a straight up rock and roll jam with a bass driven verse (something we have seen very little of since "Page Avenue").



I can't say this will sit well with some fans, it's not like the other three albums, a tad softer at times and very personal, but in my opinion Story of the Year has always been a pretty personal and heartfelt band. This will be spinning in my CD player for quite some time to say the least, and even once the new CD charm wears off I can tell that it will get just about as much play time as other SOTY offerings. An instant classic and the first truly great CD of the new decade."