New Vibrations - The Living End--Modern Artillery - Reprise - October 28, 2003

This Aussie trio's new album is a pleasant jumble of punk and pop styles that stays generally upbeat. Modern Artillery was produced with the help of Mark Trombino, who has worked with the decidedly top-40 bands Blink 182 and Jimmy Eat World. The style of these bands is similar to that of The Living End, but the songs on this album are set apart by some striking guitar solos and the smooth combination of various instruments.

Artilliary is without the dissonant screaming that is characteristic of many emo-punk bands. The Living End's music is more reminiscent of pop-punk bands, like Bowling for Soup, that add elements of rock and ska to the basic punk formula. The songs on the new album range from the upbeat ("What Would you do") to the chaotic ("End of the World"), the more mellow and introspective ("Maitland Street") and the angry ("Short Notice"). However, unlike Bowling for Soup, or even Jimmy Eat World, The Living End manages to mix various styles to create a relatively distinctive sound.

The band's lyrics are a nice alternative to the typical angry whining of many pop punk bands who sing about girls who screwed them over and not having faith or hope in anything. Instead, Chris Cheney, the lead singer and sole song-writer of The Living End, tries to get the listeners to question their actions and emotions and to get the motivation to overcome their issues. A prime example of this is in track 12, "Rising from the Ashes," in which Cheney sings, "You've outgrown all the anger / you know that's not the answer / Rising up from the ashes / you know we never meant to burn."

Many of the songs, written while Cheney was recovering from an auto accident that prevented him from playing guitar, probably reflect his own frustration at the unexpected cancellation of their 2002 tour and the scheduled recording sessions. However, he has managed with the band to direct his frustration towards the creation of some of the band's best material yet.

As Cheney states on their web site, "It's the combination of putting together great material and letting loose the energy we've been storing up for over a year. The music itself is a natural progression from what we've always done, it's just more focused and directed. We've never sounded better."