When I received this promo I wasn’t very enthusiastic about the music. In keeping with Metalhead tradition I dismissed this band early on all based on the fact that this just had angst-y Metalcore written all over it. Well, after a couple of spins my opinion changed somewhat. CASEY JONES hail from Florida and they play straightedge Hardcore with some Metal and groove touches. They lyrics may be a bit goofy and preachy at times, but I cannot deny that the actual music contained herein is actually fairly powerful and packs enough punch to sate the need of any fan of Hard– and Metalcore.

I don’t know a whole lot about these guys, but apparently this is their sophomore effort and that the lineup features various members of another unknown band to me, EVERGREEN TERRACE. Anyway, “1 Out Of 3 Has A STD” (ouch!) kicks proceedings off in grand style with a fest tempo Thrashy riff and forceful vocals. This is nothing new in this style, but these guys pull it off with much needed conviction. Another song that had me grinning from ear to ear was “Punch-A-Size”, with its heavy groove and to-the-point lyrics. This is not overtly complicated material, but the songs aren’t as simplistic as is usually the case with so many faceless Hard/Metalcore bands these days – overall the album actually has more than enough in the way of solid riffing, and layered guitar work, with the occasional clean vocal and melodic lead. Even though all this “look at us, we’re ‘edge” stuff is kind of lost on me I have to commend the band’s directness in terms of their beliefs and views.

But as solid as this is (for this style anyway), I am still not that big a fan of this specific style to cause me to loose my head over this release. SICK OF IT ALL’s new album (“Death To Tyrants”) is still my favorite Hardcore release of the year, so unless a miracle happens “The Messenger” will be gathering a fair amount of dust in my collection.

(Online November 21, 2006)