Edgewater is an up-and-coming band that is from Texas, whose music could be categorized as modern rock, while also sounding heavy and melodic at times. While Edgewater had released two preview albums up to that point, they started getting popular when they had the lead single, "Eyes Wired Shut", on the Gold-certified Punisher Soundtrack. That track is taken from the bands third album 'South Of Sideways', which was released in April of 2004. Following the release of Edgewater’s third album, they toured with Three Days Grace, Seether, Finger Eleven and Default, really starting to make a name for themselves. Edgewater's fourth album, 'We're Not Robots...' is in stores on August 22nd.

This album really sounds like with some work, Edgewater has the potential to be a really big band. The sound is good and quality of the songs is consistent. The band really meshes well together and has good chemistry. You have your typical mainstream rock songs, but then you've got some good melodic songs and a few songs that are heavy with some yelling. The band doesn't overdue it with the album being to soft or heavy, and that really keeps this CD from sounding boring and repetitive. The bands first single, "Caught In The Moment" is a pretty catchy song that is a good choice for their first single because it is a preview of the entire CD in one song. The track has yelling, melodic vocals and a good fast pace, which is pretty much what you get with this CD.

There aren't any bad songs on this CD but some of the songs are just forgettable. Either the beat isn't that good or the chorus isn't up to par with some of the other tracks. Overall there aren't any bad songs, but there are just some that sound good but you'll only want to listen to for a short time because it just doesn't sound as good as the some of the better tracks on this album.

This is a good CD that you will most likely pick up in a few years when this band hits it big and you want to get their previous CDs. This CD stands out a little and doesn't sound like your typical modern rock CD. The guitars are fast paced, the singer does a solid job and for the most part this album is consistent from beginning to end. This isn't going to be on anyone's best album of the year list but it is still a pretty good CD that you might want to check out.

Slow Motion Reign is a progressive rock band signed to System Of A Down singer Serj Tankian’s Serjical Strike Records. The band is a slower, more melodic progressive band that sounds a little similar to Pink Floyd and other bands of that genre. The band got their record deal with Tankian’s record company in 2001 and released an EP in 2004. Since the release of their EP, Slow Motion Reign has toured throughout North America. Their self-titled full-length debut was released in July of 2006. Narek Pogosyan does a solid job on this CD. He does good, melodic vocals and his work on the piano is good as well and adds a nice sound to the songs. Vigen Sayadian does a good job on drums and is the best musician on this album. In most songs his drums are more noticeable than the guitar. This CD might be good to listen to while you’re on a long drive as it sounds simple and relaxing. Nothing is going to wow you on Slow Motion Reigns debut album, but the sound is decent and the effects that they add like the piano and keyboard are good and help the CD sound different. Although the sound is melodic I wish that the band showed more energy. Pogosyan sounds pretty good on vocals but he never really shows off his voice and doesn’t tend to show much emotion. Rafik Oganyan’s guitar work is okay but isn’t really noticeable because he does nothing to stand out. His sound is generic and nothing out of the ordinary. While there are some faster songs on this album, this CD is best suited for people more into melodic progressive rock. If you’re looking for a faster progressive band then this CD might disappoint you. Overall, Slow Motion Reign’s debut CD might sound good to people who like the genre, but nonetheless it doesn’t have much emotion to it to make this a memorable album.

Most people think of Stone Sour as the side-project of Slipknot singer Corey Taylor, but actually he formed Stone Sour before Slipknot with at the time drummer Joel Ekman. Following the formation of the band bass player Shawn Economaki and guitarist James Root joined the band. In 1997 Stone Sour disbanded because Taylor became the vocalist of Slipknot. In 2002 the band reformed and went on to release a self-titled album in the summer of that year. The album went platinum and peaked at number 46 on the US Billboard charts. In 2006 the band released their second full-length album 'Come What(Ever) May.' While Stone Sour's 2nd album doesn't sound like a huge step forward from their first, this is still a pretty good CD nonetheless. The sound of the band feels like it has gotten faster and improved slightly since the first album. The vocalist Corey Taylor does an excellent job and really shows off his vocals on the slower songs. This CD will have its hits, like "Through Glass" and "30/30-150", but overall the CD is very consistent and there really isn’t one bad track. James Root and Josh Rand do a good job on guitars and Roy Mayorga is a solid addition on drums and fits in well with the band even though he joined during the beginning of the recording of drum tracks due to Ekman leaving the band. Overall, this is a good CD that stays consistent from beginning to end. Although 'Come What(Ever) May' is a good CD, it is not the most innovative rock CD and you could say it's pretty generic. The songs are good but none of them really stand out as different from anything else in the genre. Also, while none of the songs could be considered bad, some of them will get old pretty fast after listening to them a few times, mainly due to the fact that most of the songs don’t really sound different from each other. 'Come What(Ever) May' is a good album from Stone Sour and if you liked the first CD you will enjoy this one, mainly due to the fact that it doesn’t sound very different from their self-titled debut. The main problem with this CD is that it doesn't differ much from your typical rock album. If you can get over the fact that there isn't a whole lot of innovation and the album doesn’t sound really different from your standard rock album then you should be able to enjoy Stone Sour's new CD 'Come What(Ever) May'.

In 2002 Faktion came together in Denton, Texas when guitarist Marshal Dutton was there attending school and he joined up with drummer Jeremy Moore. After that guitarist Josh Franklin and bassist Jeremy Coan joined the band and they began to write songs. Shortly after the band was complete when the fifth and final member, vocalist Ryan Gibbs, joined the band. Just months after their self-titled full-length debut came out they had over 50,000 fans and over 300,000 hits on their MySpace site. Faktion’s self-titled debut from Roadrunner Records is an incredible achievement from this young band. The tracks have deep lyrics, the drums and bass are powerful and Josh Franklin and Marshal Dutton do a fantastic job on guitars. This is especially noticeable on the guitar solo at the beginning of the track “Maybe.” There is a lot of diversity in the songs and they all have strong lyrics. Although the songs deal with emotional topics they still sing about overcoming adversity and being positive. It’s hard to believe that this is just the first full-length album from Faktion. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this album and there are no flaws from any of the five extremely talented members of the band. There are a lot of rock bands around and it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle, but the incredible debut from Faktion will make it nearly impossible for them to get overlooked. All the songs show emotion from top to bottom and this album doesn’t have one weak track. Faktion has released an incredible full-length debut and you owe it to yourself to pick up this fantastic album.

Originally named "Jeff Killed John", Bullet For My Valentine formed in 1998 and started out by playing Metallica and Nirvana covers. Over the past year, this four piece, heavy metal band from the UK have made a name for themselves. The lead single kind of has a punk rock voice while at the same time him and the rest of the band stay true to heavy metal. The guitars are old school, the drums are strong and overall Bullet For My Valentine is a band to keep an eye on in the future. After releasing their full-length debut ‘The Poison’, the album immediately became a hit and started dominating rock radio in the UK. ‘The Poison’ is a solid full-length debut from BFMV. The album shows a lot of emotion and will appeal to most metalcore fans. Listening to this album you will find that the beginning of the album is definitely the strongest part, where the weaker tracks are moved near the end. This album has some big hits on it. The track “4 Words (To Choke Upon)” appeared on the Madden NFL 2006 videogame soundtrack and probably got the most attention of all the songs on this album. Other tracks like “Tears Don’t Fall” and “All These Things I Hate (Revolve Around Me)” are the best tracks on the album because they are heavy at times while still being softer during certain parts and really showing emotion. The album also features some good guitar solo’s that are a nice break from the singing once in a while. The biggest problem with the album is that most of the songs don’t differ from each other too much. With the exception of the big hits you won’t find much diversity in the other songs and they will tend to get lost in the shuffle. ‘The poison’ is a good full-length debut for the band. The songs are good, while unfortunately not sounding very different. Although bullet for my valentine’s debut album isn’t perfect, it is still a solid album that shouldn’t be missed.