SHREDnews

By: Craig Johnson

There are so many bands whose sound changes almost drastically from album to album. Everyone’s heard of a band they fell in love with, got their next album and went, “What the heck is this?”. Well I can strongly say that Alesana definitely is not one of those bands. They have successfully kept a steady sound between all their albums, The Emptiness is no exception. Although the band has done differently this time is made a concept album in giving it a story. The story follows a character called The Artist who has lost the love of his life, Annabel.

There is a lot of intros and ends of tracks that consist of The Artist and Annabel talking. The album starts out with Curse Of The Virgin Canvas which I think is an extremely strong start to the album. The song also starts with an intro by The Artist. Another strong song on the album I find is The Murderer. I feel like this song is one of the heavier songs on the album and is one of my favorites.

The song The Thespian is also one of my favorites. As being one of the singles off the record it’s one of the first songs I heard and I fell in love with it instantly, the same goes for To Be Scared By An Owl. I feel like these songs really reminded me of the first two albums and just made me super stoked to hear the rest of the album.

The song The Lover is a lighter song on the record to show the sensitive side of The Artist. I really like that song because it give a nice break from their harder songs on the album. The album ends with the track Annabel. I feel like this is such a perfect track to end this record because it’s not too heavy but it still gives a good Alesana touch.

All in all I enjoyed this record but not as much as their first album. I feel like I enjoyed it because they really stayed true to what makes their sound unique with adding piano, four different vocals in each track, etc.

For Fans Of: Blessthefall, A Skylit Drive, Eyes Set To Kill

Overall Rating (Out of 10): 6

Tracks To Listen To: The Thespian, To Be Scared By An Owl, The Murderer

Track List:

1. Curse Of The Virgin Canvas
2. The Artist
3. A Lunatic’s Lament
4. The Murderer
5. Hymn For The Shameless
6. The Thespian
7. Heavy Hangs The Albatross
8. The Lover
9. In The Tomb By The Sounding Sea
10. To Be Scared By An Owl
11. Annabel