A DAY TO REMEMBER COMMON COURTESY

Welcome to A Day To Remember, king of catchy riffs, hardcore breakdowns, and choruses that you can never freaking get out of your head!

I'm reviewing their new album "Common Courtesy" that was released on the web October 8th, while the physical copy is due to release on Novemeber 25th. But first, a little background on the band.

A Day to Remember is an American Metalcore band from Ocala, Florida, founded in 2003 by guitarist Tom Denney and drummer Bobby Scruggs. They quickly became famous for their unique combination of punk style clean vocal choruses with metalcore screams and instrumentals. The band consists of vocalist Jeremy McKinnon, rhythm guitarist and backing vocalist Neil Westfall, bassist Joshua Woodard, percussion and drummer Alex Shelnutt and lead guitarist Kevin Skaff.

When the band was first starting out, they played numerous shows in their home town of Ocala Florida, racking up a portfolio of over 200 independent shows. With a sizable crowd of dedicated home-town fans, they self released their very first EP, which was sold at their live shows. This got the attention of Indianola studios, a metalcore record label studio which offered to sign A Day To Remember. Through Indianola they produced their first full length album debut, And Their Name Was Treason, selling over 8,000 copies. The band's success grew further, which got the attention of the prestigious record label, Victory Records. Victory offered to sign them, and ADTR agreed, producing multiple albums through their label, including For Those Who Have Heart (2006-2008), Homesick, (2008–2010), What Separates Me from You (2010–2012), and their newest album Common Courtesy (2012–present).

I've been a HUGE fan of ADTR since the release of their album "What Separates You From Me" in 2010. After I heard the song right below, I bought everything they've ever made, all before showing them to my friends and making them buy all their Cd's too! Now that you know a little bit about A Day To Remember, lets hear how badass they sound and how fabulous their music video is! Song name is "I'm made of wax larry what are you made of" from their 2012 album, What Separates Me from You . Don't question the song title, just listen and watch. The second video under it is a leak of the song "Sometimes you're the hammer, sometimes you're the nail" from their new album, "Common Courtesy".

Badass synchronized headbang

A Day To Remember is a bit unique in their progression; most bands in the metalcore genre change dramatically throughout their career, going through "phases", while A Day To Remember keeps their catchy punkish metalcore theme through and through every album, simply improving musically instead of changing. When you compare the song from their older album to the one from "Common Courtesy" their signature punkish metal theme rings true, while their guitarist Tom Denny became even better at making tasty guitar licks, their drummer Alex Shellnut dishes out even faster blast beats, their bassist Joshua Woodard drops the bass harder than ever, and their main and backup vocalists Jeremy Mckinnon and Neil Westfall sing and scream better than ever.




A Day To Remember is a special band in it's intriguing uniqueness, ESPECIALLY in their newest release. It stands out with it's compelling amalgamation of punk-rock with metalcore, totally avoiding the stereotype for the usual "high pitched clean vocalists" common to strictly metalcore bands, providing a new sound for the metalcore fan base. This awesomely unique sound reaches out to a demographic of people who love both metalcore and punk-rock, often times even bringing them together. I for one can say I never had much interest in punk rock, but once I got the punk style choruses of "Common Courtesy" stuck in my head, I found myself YouTube-ing some classic punk bands. Another thing that makes A Day To Remember's newest album remarkable is the message they spread through their music. They have a repeated trend of telling their audience that it doesn't matter where your from, what your background is, or what anyone or anything tries to tell you about yourself. You are what you define yourself as and you can do anything you want to do in life. This encouraging moral breaks the mold of the stereotypical "dark" or "evil" label metal has, helping reflect to society the fact that just because you scream doesn't mean you're screaming about death and misery. Lastly, the range of the music in this album goes even past their unique combination of two genres. The band can create songs ranging from a catchy punkish tune, to a hardcore mosh pit song, to a song that makes you cry every time you hear it. The video below is a song  "If it means a lot to you" that is about Jeremy's (the lead vocalist) wife whom divorced him over the fact that he was away too often with the band. The song is extremely powerful and touching.

"COMMON COURTESY" STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES!

Strengths

1. Great lyrics with an inspiring message of self-worth
2. Improved instrumentals throughout the band
3. Impressive range of songs (mosh pit songs to love songs)
4. Ridiculously catchy choruses 
5. Greatly improved screams from Jeremy when compared to the previous album

Weaknesses

1. The combination of metalcore and punk-rock is awesome for some, however, if you personally hate one of the genres in the mix, be it metalcore or punk-rock, you won't like "Common Courtesy" where as you might love it if it was strictly metalcore or punk-rock.
2. ADTR's new album stays very true to their specific sound. This will be great for those who adore their sound, (me) but for those who prefer the metalcore stereotype of change, you might be disappointing by the lack of stylistic innovation.

Professional critics made about the same conclusion I did. The albums strength comes in it's catchy lyrics and development of the bands musical talent, however, their newest album is "Truly a textbook A Day To Remember album" (Alternative Press Review). The sound does in fact improve in quality, but their is no stylistic innovation. "You can easily both condemn the record for being formulaic, or praise it for staying true to the band’s clearly defined sound. It’s really all a matter of how you look at it." (Alternative Press Review)

MY REVIEW OVERALL!

As a whole, the album is one of the best metal albums that has been released in years. Solid lyrics, vocals, instrumentals, and the catchiest choruses of all time. The only thing that held me back from saying it was perfect was just how textbook-of-an-album it is. I truly do love the sound A Day To Remember brings with "Common Courtesy" although I would love to see that sound have a few new tricks up it's sleeve.