Two for the Price of One: It's All In the Family

Normally, I like to post about bands one at a time to give them their shine. 

However, I wanted to switch things up a bit and bring about a theme.

This two for one features two bands who have famous family.

I'll start with the band Citysquare.

Citysquare features Eric Brown, brother of Chris Brown. No, not THAT Chris Brown.

I'm referring to Chris Taylor Brown of the band Trapt.

The band is more poppy than his counterpart, but still has a familiarity about it. Of course, he sounds a bit like his brother and could probably stand in as a ringer for Trapt lead singer.

The next band is Eye Alaska.

Eye Alaska's lead singer is Brandon Wronsky, but he's not the one I'm talking about in this case.

Chase Kensrue is the younger brother of Dustin Kensrue of the band Thrice.

Eye Alaska is an alternative band, but they tread the waters of many different genres, kind of like what Thrice has been doing lately with their latest releases.

If you guys have any other bands I should look at related to this topic or anything that I should post about, you could e-mail me at cfw828@gmail.com.

I don't bite, I promise.

CFW Rocks Live: The Cold Reunion Tour

I haven't been able to go to a lot of live shows, but thanks to modern day technology, for the most part, I haven't had to...although I wish I could.

In this and in future blog posts, I will be posting videos from Youtube and various video portals detailing either artists touring or an entire tour.

In this case, I'll be posting videos from the Cold Reunion Tour. I'd like to thank user IWillResurface and davemoczulski for posting these videos for public consumption.

The Killer and the Star-Hallelujah

This song will be the first single off of their debut album which is coming out on June 6th.

The Killer and the Star is the side project of Cold lead singer Scooter Ward. He recruited Rocky Gray (Evanescence) and Michael Harris (Idiot Pilot) to play live shows.

I apologize in advance that you can't really see anything, but at least you can hear it.

The Drama Club-November

Features former Lifer lead singer Nick Coyle. Two of Lifer's members went on to form Breaking Benjamin. Ben Burnley actually does vocals on their song "Brand New Day".

Cold-Back Home

If you don't know who Cold is by now, Cold had been together for 15 years before disbanding in 2005 after A Different Kind of Pain, one of my personal favorite albums. Year of the Spider is their most successful album and features their most popular hit, the Rivers Cuomo co-penned "Stupid Girl".

A Band a Day...Genedefect

Australia has given me great bands like Sick Puppies and Freestate, but it's time to up the ante with Genedefect, a metalcore band that intends to give you whiplash.

Genedefect is:

Dean Defect (Vocals)

Luke Smith (Guitar)

Dave Tallents (Bass)

Harley Day (Drums)

They only have one EP to their name, but are already getting airplay in their native Australia on Triple M Radio and videoplay on Rage.

Dean's got some great vocals, wailing and growling away with each and every song. The songs are heavy, but have a bit of a progressive sound to it. The music is catchy, but not traditionally radio catchy. It may not hit you the first time you hear it, but when it does hit, it'll be a mack truck.

Hell, they even have a song about a pirate on their Myspace. If that's not enough to make you listen, I don't know what else you want me to tell you.

Here's their video for "My Ready Eye".

A Band a Day...Death Pilot

This next metal band comes from Hollywood, California.

Death Pilot is:

Colonel Midian (Vocals)

First Lieutenant Johnny Death (Guitar)

Second Lieutenant Matt Thrash (Guitar)

Captain Ghost (Keys/Vocals)

Major Ares (Bass)

Lieutenant Colonel Diamonds (Drums)

Get it! They're an army!

The first time I'd heard of this band was on the Kings of A&R blog, which is interesting because I never hear of these types of bands on A&R Showcase blogs.

This band mixes California metal of Avenged Sevenfold and Atreyu with thrash bands such as Trivium and as a matter of fact, they opened dates for Trivium recently.

All gimmicks aside, this band is the real deal. They are unrelenting, unbridled, and unbelievable.

They're starting to release new demos to their Myspace and hope to put something new out soon.

To hold you over, there's a video for "Until the End", which was directed by the lead singer of new Roadrunner signee Dommin.

A Band a Day...Seasons After

We move from Ohio to a little bit further into the heartland of America.

Seasons After comes from Wichita, Kansas.

Seasons After is:

Chris Schlichting (Vocals)

Steve Frank (Guitar/Vocals)

Chris Dawson (Guitar)

Michael Byers (Bass/Vocals)

Tim Rails (Drums)

Within three years of playing together this band has already been living the dream playing dates on the Warped Tour and the Taste of Chaos tour in their region.

Their debut album Through Tomorrow came out in the summer of last year and it has been heavily distributed, enough so that next month, they'll be announcing what label has signed them.

They'll be touring in Kansas, Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma, and Iowa and hope to expand countrywide later this year.

Here's a video featuring their song "Some Things Burn".

A Band a Day...This Fire's Embrace

Columbus, Ohio will be holding the third Rock on the Range this year just as they have held the previous two.

This band comes from Columbus, Ohio, but is surprisingly not on the bill.

This Fire's Embrace is:

Aaron Benner (Vocals)

Zack Koah (Guitar/Vocals)

Marc Leist (Guitar/Vocals)

Steve Malone (Bass)

Josh Hall (Drums)

Lead singer Aaron Benner witnessed a sad moment in music history.

On December 8, 2004, the band Damageplan played at Columbus' Alrosa Villa.

Aaron Benner had been close to the stage when out of nowhere Nathan Gale came onto the stage, shot and killed four people. One of those people was "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott, legendary guitarist of the band Pantera.

There are moments in a person's life which change you forever.

Instead of letting this horrible tragedy get to him, Benner decided to use music not only to heal himself, but to help other people.

Within a year, this band formed.

Within three years, they've played in the region with bands like Pillar, Decyfer Down, Shinedown, Trapt, and Buckcherry and they've also played major Christian festivals such as Ichithus and Cornerstone.

In 2008, the band released a live EP from the very same venue Aaron Benner went to 4 years prior, The Alrosa Villa.

Here's their video for "Home Again" and a cover of Killswitch Engage's "The End of Heartache".

A Band a Day...Amplexus

I normally don't post metal bands, but for this entry and others later this week, I plan on making an exception. This next band from Kent, Ohio has a sound that mixes three of my favorite bands together.

Amplexus is:

Mahlon Rhodes (Vocals)

Cory Kobrinski (Guitar/Vocals)

Billy Liber (Guitar/Vocals)

Curtis von Tacky (Keys/Programming)

Chris Yannon (Bass/Vocals)

Chris McClennon (Drums)

The band has a wide range of influences and you can hear a few of them in their music. Bands they're often compared to are Killswitch Engage, Thrice, and The Receiving End of Sirens.

The brutality of Killswitch's guitars, meets the musical dexterity of Thrice, meets the poetic language of The Receiving End of Sirens.

Not exactly easy to do, but they somehow pull it off. Sometimes all in the same song.

Here's a video of Canaries in a Coalmine and the acoustic version of said song.