I have a boom box where you load the CD's on the top, so when I put in This is Our Revenge into my kickin' stereophonic listening system I thought I accidentally left in my copy of Ignite's Past Our Means. Todd Mackey's vocals sound so eerily close to Zoli Teglas that I actually thought I had just left in an Ignite CD and pushed "Play;" believe me this happened on more than one occasion.
Well after I reassured myself that none of Revelation Records back catalog mysteriously showed up in my stereo I finally came to realization that With Honor has gotten a hell of a lot more melodic since Heart Means Everything and almost completely void of mosh parts. Hallelujah! Rejoice! I don't know about you but I'm getting tired of spinkicks and bandana clad youth messing up my finger point and key sing along parts during a sweaty fight-for-the-mic With Honor set. Also, I consider myself a melodic hardcore superfan and the direction that With Honor took with This is Our Revenge gets nothing but smiles and thumbs up from me.
Don't worry With Honor fans, and by the looks of the photo on the inside tray there's a lot of you, they are still positive as positive can be without being ridiculous about it. It's the best kind of positive, it's pissed but hopeful. Sometimes you realize that you are at the bottom but you know if you just change a couple of things you can dig yourself out of whatever is holding you down. Is there any greater feeling that hearing a band that feels the same way that you do about life and how to live it? No, sorry, there isn't.
I keep finding myself singing along and bobbing along in my seat as I type out this review and quite frankly I was in a real shitty mood when I started because of a sub-par night at work and being rejected by yet another member of the female species earlier in the day. Now I can't stop myself from not smiling and wanting to scream along with This is Our Revenge. I need more CD's like this. I need a collection of CD's of where if I have a crappy day I can just grab it and put them in and everything just washes away. I have a few already but one can never have enough and This is Our Revenge fits perfectly.
So yeah fuck all the naysayers and the shit talkers, With Honor are still a good band. Hell, they are a great band. The melodic retooling hasn't worked more for a band since Shelter's 20 Summers Past. You also couldn't ask for a more positive fun sincere hardcore band and This is Our Revenge is With Honor's Start Today or even Breakdown the Walls. If this isn't my favorite album of 2005 it will diffidently be in my top five.
