© Matt James & Kate James

Having not heard of this band until April 2006 where they supported Story Of The Year on there UK tour. Stretch Arms Strong is a hard hitting post hardcore band, who are defiantly have some inspiration from Story of the Year.

‘Free at last’ kicks off with ‘The Hardest Part’, which is a fast paced, well structured song. I’m not a big fan of ‘Screaming’ vocals for a lot of the time, unless it is done right. Stretch Arm Strong using their mix of screaming and melodic singing does appeal to me. The track ends with a fast build up and the line ‘I’ll do my best to be there’.

‘Hearts on Fire’ is track 2 which is a lot slower in tempo, however even with this it doesn’t stop hitting hard. The start of the next track ‘Faces’ reminds me of some punk tracks I have heard, but this quickly changes back into the faster paced post hardcore with several breakdowns and build ups. I could easily see ‘Faces’ being used as an opener for a set.

“Tonight I looked at you and you smiled, will the feeling last forever” is the first lines of ‘The sound of names dropping’. Starting with a slow and soft melodic riff it quickly changes into another fast paced track with a lot of fast and technical double bass drumming being used. I remember this song from April, mainly because of the breakdown of the chants of “Hey, Hey, Hey…”

Drums, Bass and vocals kick in for the start of ‘To the End’, but it’s not long before the guitar joins them. There is a huge variation of tempo in this track with the verse having a slower tempo and a faster bridge and chorus.

Prepare yourself for the most screaming on the album as ‘When All Else Fails’ is next. The amount of screaming in this song is not such a bad thing; in fact I am tempted to say this is my favourite track so far.

I’m not sure why this is but ‘Flight 828’ is a 40 second piano piece with the sound of some aircraft and air traffic control in the background. I’d like to do some research into the band and find out what significance this has.

After this slight deviation from the Post Hardcore the instruments are brought back and ‘Every Last Minute’ begins. The one thing I have noticed with a lot of post hardcore bands is that they can’t get the right mix of instruments and vocals together. However Stretch Arm Strong has managed to get a near perfect mix for this track especially. The track even includes a short bass solo.

‘A Landslide of nameless faces’ is the lyrics to the chorus of ‘Landslide’. This is a medium paced track and I find that the tempo doesn’t change as much in this track, and stays relatively the same. I can say also that this chorus vocal melody riff is extremely catchy as I haven’t been able to stop singing it for a few days now.

‘This Time’ starts off with some complex guitar work with catchy rhythm riffs and some very thought out lead riffs. “Not This Time I want to get away”, these are the lyrics to this chorus and as with the rest of the album there Is clearly a lot of aggression and personal feelings they wish to get out.

‘(This Maybe In Fact) As Good as it gets’ gives us a burst of a mixture of Metal and post hardcore, and I can see this song becoming a brilliant close for a set. It has an extreme amount of energy in the song. I take back what I said about ‘When All Else Fails’, Track 11 is defiantly my personal favourite of the album.

After a so far energy packed album you would expect there to be a big ending. However ‘A Time for Peace’ is an acoustic/piano track. There is clearly a lot of meaning to this song. The singer sings the entire song with a lot of emotion. From the lyrics I can only guess he is singing about someone who has passed away maybe, or someone who has left him. No matter what it is this acoustic track comes from the heart and a lot of emotion is being shown. Personally I think this is an amazing way to end an album and is something that is not done too much. Just when you think the album is ended there are some hypnotic vocals singing alone. It is very odd and strange but somehow it works.

Who do I recommend this album to? Personally I would say it best suits Post Hardcore or Story of the Year fans. However it can be enjoyed by absolutely anyone it is a well produced well written album. I for one will be listening to it again.