Last week this album came out by one of my favorite Hardcore/Post Hardcore acts Alexisonfire.  The album is entitled Old Crows/Young Cardinals and it is a huge jump in awesomeness from their last album Crisis which was mediocre at best.  The album’s first two tracks are “Old Crows” and then “Young Cardinals” where Crows is more punk and hardcore while Cardinals is more old Alexisonfire where it’s harsh vocals turning into clean vocal chorus which the band has been known for with their clean vocal singer Dallas Green.  The album is very solid and a good mix of what they have done good in the past as far as post hardcore goes but they also pushed it a little on this one by adding other elements such as a more proggy punk to their guitar sound and adding some other obscure instruments as backup.  The most solid track on the album in my opinion is the song “The Northern” mainly because it just builds into this anthem type song with a chorus filled with hallelujah’s and great mix and match of vocals from Dallas Green and George Pettit (who is the main vocalist).  One thing that makes the band so distinct is the harsh vocals of Pettit that change into the very harmonic and soft vocals of Green in most songs.  What makes this album very different and very kick ass is that Pettit had turned his very harsh vocals down most of the time with a more smokey sound to them which gives the dark and light side to the band even more I feel.  Either way if your not a huge fan of this style of music or this band you may enjoy a large handful of the songs especially if your into getting radical.

Alexisonfire Myspace

Key songs:

Young Cardinals

The Northern

Emerald Street

Burial