When these guys came out, they splashed onto the scene as a noisy, passionate screamo band loaded with hooks and sonnets about lost youth and misdirected love. Alongside Thursday, Coheed, and Thrice, Brand New was able to complete an artistic genre and deliver it with integrity that introduced many mainstream kids to counterculture, and brushed a somewhat aggressive scene with a streak of color. The band was able to cross the Taking Back Sunday part of Victory's roster and mesh it with the Atreyu and Avenged Sevenfolds of the world, until the whole community exploded into what it is today.
Fast forward almost twenty years, and Brand New are looking back at an incredible career, full of notoriety and critical acclaim. It's no doubt that the band's sound has careened for the mellow, and they sound more like The National than they do their former selves. There's a few moments when the band's classic snarl makes a comeback, but it's always pushed into the background.
It'll be interesting to see if this record does for Brand New what To Be Everywhere Is To Be Nowhere did for Thrice, or if it just kind of reinvigorates interest in the band's back catalogue. Whatever the case may be, the record is still a tribute to a scene that's given so much to the independent music community, and to see Brand New even get the kind of attention that they do is truly heartwarming to someone who's been keeping an eye on the band since their inception.
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