It is no coincidence that listeners of STRAY FROM THE PATH will often have a difficult time confining them to a specific genre. The have made it a point to remain unpredictable, intricate, and intelligent. Listeners can expect their music to surpass the gratuitous and/or contrived music that is all too common today, and instead perform articulate songs that refuse to compromise their precision, honesty, and genuine desire to impress. This aggressive Alt-Hardcore outfit out of Long Island, NY closed out a very successful 2010 with an East Coast U.S. tour alongside The Chariot and Cancer Bats. Following the run, the band will close out a productive 2010 with a stint of headlining shows. The group’s highly acclaimed album, Make Your Own History, is now available.

Stray from the Path strive at making their own style of metal, fused with hardcore, rock, and countless other influences they come across. This can easily be distinguished from most of the cookie cutter music that has been drowning the scene over the last couple of years.

Stray From The Path played their first show after only a month of rehearsals, and soon after found themselves filling opening slots for bands such as Sky Came Falling, As I Lay Dying, A Life Once Lost, Curl Up And Die, Misery Signals, Between The Buried And Me, On Broken Wings, and many other national recording acts. This large-scale exposure aided Stray from the Path in gaining a steady following amongst the local scene before ultimately signing with Sumerian Records to take them to that next level.

Since dropping their debut full-length, 2003’s Turn It Around, COMEBACK KID has been an undeniable staple of the hardcore community. Each subsequent release has built upon the foundation of its predecessor while continually experimenting with and incorporating new musical elements from beyond the confines of modern hardcore. Five seconds into the band’s latest release, Symptoms + Cures, though, it’s made clear that this time around, COMEBACK KID has pushed their output to a new plateau.

Originally formed in 2000 by members of Winnipeg, Canada’s underground music scene, COMEBACK KID has amassed a catalog of four full-length international releases along with a live CD/DVD. Says vocalist Andrew Neufeld about the band’s origins: “We wanted to keep the intensity from our other bands or those we looked up to at the time, but also took influence from ‘90s skate punk and more melodic acts.” He continues: “We wanted the music to be heavy, but the vocals were meant to incorporate a bit more melody than was found in traditional hardcore. Still, I don’t think we knew how far we could go with it at the time.”

The band’s sophomore effort, 2005’s Wake The Dead, affirmed their position atop the heap of modern hardcore bands; however, when writing commenced for 2007’s Broadcasting…, vocalist and founding member Scott Wade announced his departure from the group, finding Neufeld abandoning his axe to take over vocal duties. But Broadcasting… didn’t miss a beat. With Neufeld more than capably filling Wade’s shoes, CBK delivered a powerful record that was undeniably COMEBACK KID while incorporating further-developed musical ideas and a more colorful vocal performance.

Having delivered their pure and passionate brand of hardcore to fans around the world since 2002, COMEBACK KID released a live CD/DVD package dubbed Through The Noise in 2008. On top of accurately relaying the intensity and attitude of a CBK performance through a 17-song set list comprised of favorites from the band’s three previous releases, it also included an hour-long documentary entitled Our Distance that shared the band’s story to date. Since then, the band has dominated stages on several continents and worked on an array of other projects, musical or otherwise, all while composing the fourth COMEBACK KID record.

Officially dropping August 31st, 2010, Symptoms + Cures is the latest offering from the lineup currently consisting of Neufeld on vocals, founding members Kyle Profeta on drums and Jeremy Hiebert on guitar, as well as guitarist Casey Hjelmberg and bassist Matt Keil.

The album is firmly rooted in the brand of hardcore that its three predecessors helped established, yet incorporates more musical layers and vocal variance than we’ve heard from the band thus far. “We really found our mesh with Andrew singing,” says Profeta about the effort. “Our last album was more of a ‘feeler.’ We were just getting in the mode of Andrew becoming our front man. With Symptoms + Cures, we’ve really found our sound with him and we’re all really excited about it.”

Trademark elements of the band’s sound are abundant on Symptoms + Cures – gang vocals, half-time bridges, and tastefully-placed breakdowns among them. However, the record also features a more dynamic vocal performance than we’ve previously heard, weaving a much harsher and urgent vocal delivery with sing-able passages, not to mention new musical expansions that stray from the straight-up simplicity of hardcore.

Still, these new elements only serve to enhance, not overpower, the core of COMEBACK KID’s sound – and this is assuredly a COMEBACK KID album.

Once the record’s been delivered to the masses, COMEBACK KID will embark on a world tour, hitting North America, Europe, Asia, and South America and sharing stages with acts like Madball, Sick Of It All, Four Year Strong, A Wilhelm Scream, Parkway Drive, Bleeding Through, and others. Says Neufeld: “It’ll be nice playing with some new bands as well as some of our hardcore heroes – bands we all really respect.”

While fans will undoubtedly find much to embrace in Symptoms + Cures, it’s notable that the band members themselves believe this to be the pinnacle of their cumulative output. “It’s a good feeling that despite how long we’ve been doing this, we can still get so collectively excited about our music,” shares Neufeld. “We love doing this. There’s no better feeling for any of us than being in a room, losing our minds, and watching others lose their minds to the music.”

Being as an Ocean is an American melodic hardcore band from Alpine, California, formed in 2011. They are currently unsigned. They have released three full-length albums, Dear G-d…, How We Both Wondrously Perish and a self titled album released on June 30, 2015. How We Both Wondrously Perish was released in May 2014 and charted at number 57 on the Billboard 200 in America.

Following an incredibly busy year of shows in support of their debut record Hard Feelings, Major League has returned with a sophomore album that defies any pre-conceived notions and defines their next evolution as a band. With guitarist Brian Joyce now helming vocal duties, backed by Matt Chila (guitar/vocals), Kyle Bell (bass) and Luke Smartnick (drums), the band emerges with a new sense of identity, a renewed focus and an abundant amount of energy for their most personal recording to date.

“Everyday I never stray from the path that I’ve chosen never cared I’m the loose thread, in the tapestry this world has woven
Gravitate towards the ones, who share a like mind.
If that ain’t you stay out my lane ill stay out yours we’ll be fine.”

Everything about Deez Nuts and their frontman / founder, JJ Peters, can almost be simplified down to these four lines. It is tucked away towards the back of their new and third album ‘Bout It’, which is without any doubt the best record their now infamous career. And the track, “Live Your Life”, just reiterates the point that the haters seem to miss, but also that makes the true fan love them more with every fist pumping anthem they produce. The point is that Deez Nuts are gonna do things their way and they don’t give a fuck if you disagree.

The four piece finally has it’s most stable line up in years – JJ Peters is joined by fellow Australian Jon Green on bass, while Mat “Realbad” Rogers and Alex Salinger (both from New York City) play Guitar and Drums, respectively. The lineup has been together for the better part of two years after a slew of short and long stays by members from all over the world – all of whom are part of JJ’s crew of international like minded friends who have been down for the ride at one time or another.

The Deez Nuts back story is anything but secret for anyone in the know, but it’s a history lesson worth retelling now that we are seven years deep. In 2005, the highly influential metalcore band I Killed The Prom Queen had broken up, and it’s founding member JJ Peters decided to do something new to kill his time. He wrote and recording every instrument on a few tracks and filled it with tongue-in-cheek truth bombs about anything that crossed his mind. At the time, it was a fun one-off project for him to speak his mind and do something his friends would enjoy. But the catchy lyrics and big New York Hardcore riffs had an edge to them that no one expected, and lyrics about sex, brotherhood and drinking had people talking right away.

Not long after that, when Peters released the tracks as the ‘Rep Your Hood’ EP and featured himself on the cover drinking liquor amongst a host of tasteful women, the polarising Deez Nuts project really got it’s legs. Peters put together a makeshift band full of friends from other groups, and took the show on the road, and before long what was once a bit of fun became more like a shitload of fun – a full time, worldwide touring act that released anthems and united everyone. Different members came and went, playing this tour and that, while JJ pumped out two albums (2008′s ‘Stay True’ and 2010′s ‘This One’s For You’) between tours. Each album kept the same theme running – expanding on his lyrical thoughts, letting the music and words do the talking and making sure anyone who felt the same way as him had anthems to scream while they got through their lives.

The music has been pumped out, and the tours have been non-stop – hitting all over the world in small rooms and massive venues. From Europe to Asia to the USA and of course Australia, Deez Nuts has crammed into vans and played hundreds upon hundreds of shows with some of the best hardcore bands of all time. Friendships have grown all over the world and thousands of tattoos inspired by the band and it’s own subculture-within-a-subculture have been inked from Russia to California to Indonesia and everywhere in between.

Six years later, Deez Nuts in it’s current form is the same thing it always has been. It’s candid lyrics that say whatever they want. It’s fun shit and songs that are simple and catchy, but original in their unrelenting ability to catch your attention. It’s fist-pumping, free-thinking hardcore that embraces everything it cares to embrace. And it’s empowering to anyone who feels like they don’t want to walk the same walk with everyone else.

But this time around there IS a difference. It’s that ‘Bout It’ is the most amount of energy and time Deez Nuts has put in to making that classic record to make their mark with. The now full-time members have all added their talents, and producer Shane Frisby has taken the time to make sure the sound is as heavy as shit for the fans. Peters and his Band of Brothers have even enlisted help in the form of guest appearances from everyone from Architects to Madball to Suicide Silence to Hatebreed and many more.

From party songs like the already released singles “Band Of Brothers” and “Shot After Shot”, to anthems inspired by a life of living your own dreams in “Keep On” and the previously quoted “Live Your Life” and even some skits and public service announcements friends inside the now massive Deez Nuts family – all of it makes up an album that is set to go down as one of the coolest hardcore records of the modern era.

And in case you were wondering what they think if you disagree, here is some words directed to the haters.

“So kill the bitchin and listen, you cant you deny that we’re on fire. If your rebuttal is muddled, its cause my IQ is higher. Be lying if i said i gave fuck regardless, for every 1 that hates 100 adore us, we are unfuckwithable!”

El Famous is a band. We play music.

We enjoy Capri Sun and Blade.