Before We Begin May we just admire this album cover for one moment, which looks like Gordon Ramsay turned into a giant fruit bat? Good. Also, I would like to note that, while I typically select a band's best rated release on RYM to give them the fairest chance, Aiden's discography ranged from a 1.99 to a whopping 2.6, so in this instance I have chosen their lowest-rated release. Now that I bring it up, I had a difficult time finding a decent bitrate of this album, because you know, when you're listening to bad music, only the purest and cleanest horse**** will do.


Total Plays 8

What I Remember Maybe it's because the lead singer looks like a vampire toad, but I feel like I remember his nasally voice, and I know that after 8 plays, I hated this band. That might have been on its own merit, but I also remember that they were the laughing stock of the Scene back when I was seventeen. Yes, kids who listened to Avenged Sevenfold thought this band was horrible.

01 Knife Blood Nightmare Literally the first lyric on this album is "AUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGHHHHH". All of my expectations are thus met.

02 The Last Sunrise A bit of chugging and noodling, and then a clearly teenage voice snarling lyrics, possibly about being a vampire. Choice lyrics include "This nightmare won't last long//are you scared to sing this song?" All of these allusions to Dracula make me think about how I once ruined Interview With a Vampire for my best friend by pointing out all of the homoerotic undertones in the interactions between Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise.

03 Die Romantic This is the third consecutive song to mention nightmares, and considering the album title, I'm starting to wonder if it's coincidence or some semblance of a concept album. Wikipedia tells me nothing, except that this is the band's most commercially "lauded" album, which resolves the question of why Scenekids hate it.
The chrous of this song is inevitably going to become lodged in my head as a result of its simplicity and repitition: DIE ROMANTIC, ROMANTIC, ROMANTIC, IT'S ALL WE NEED /repeat.

04 Genetic Design For Dying This is the quintessential "slow anthem" song on the post-hardcore/pop punk album, about running away from your parents and doing heroin.

05 Breathless And the word "nightmare" is mentioned before I can even type up the countdown joke about it. I am going to go out on a limb and say that this is deliberate, though I'm pretty sure it takes more than just repeating a word in every song to make something a "concept album". No? Okay, I'll tell Pink Floyd to go home.

Musically, nothing has changed from the first track, although some songs include less throaty anguish than others. Mostly it's quick power cords and a bit of noodling with some borderline-shouting, but wait! This song has an outro! Two acoustic notes alternating and some wind noises? Epic.

06 Unbreakable (I.J.M.A.) Going to go out on a limb here and predict that I. J. M. A. stands for "I'm Just Mad at Adults".

07 It's Cold Tonight This is an ode to slitting wrists, throats, and setting fire to buildings (probably highschools). This reminds me of a fun game to play with all of the youths you know: Teenage Boy, Or Serial Killer! E.g. The new guy at work says "people are so stupid, haha, there are a lot of them I'd just like to shoot". Is he: A) A teenage boy or B) A potential shooting suspect the FBI should know about? Can't tell? THAT'S THE FUN!

08 Enjoy the View For some reason this track is completely missing from what I downloaded, so I don't even get to listen to it. OH SHUCKS WHAT A SHAME.

09 Goodbye We're Falling Fast Chugchugchug-ch-ch-chug (noodlenoodle). The nightmare motif seems to have faded away after track 6, so I no longer understand the direction of this album, but I think this is a retelling of Romeo and Juliet, where lovestruck teenagers jump off a building together. And wait for it... YES! EpicXcore slow acoustic breakdown! This album is everything I'd ever hoped it would be.

10 The City is Far From Here The penultimate track makes an effort at sounding aggressively hopeful, with some sort of uniting and uplifting chorus, including a buildup of guitars and intensely (hilariously) spoken words into the chorus. And this treasure, "Look what I've done now//I'm dying for love and you're bleeding".

11 See You in Hell... This is the only track over 3.5 minutes (blessedly), which is naturally supposed to be the enraged-anthem track, complete with call-and-response gang vocals. No pop punk album is complete without gang vocals.

Conclusion This was pretty much run-of-the-mill-awful, without being outrageous enough to really make fun of. Perhaps that lack-of-impression is the entire reason even 00s emos have trashed this band. A lot of artists would rather make a bad impression than none at all.

Oh, but before I end this, I want to share this with you.