Now the next song on the album is a really odd one, a metal song called Lock N Load. This song might sound odd at first, but after listening to it for a few more times, it will grow on you. The song’s intro is consisted of continuous strumming of distorted power chords by Carl and Troy followed by JC’s tremolo picking and Tristan’s hi-hat, metronome like sound. The song then explodes with JC’s metal riff, Troy and Carl playing the power chords, JPC playing an extremely complex bassline, and Tristan playing heavily on his drums to the point where it looks like he wants to destroy his own drums. The song’s lyrics are very brutal and talk about man’s abuse of guns and their addiction to violence, the lyrics are quite abstract though, but if thoroughly understood, you can see the sad message inside. The chorus is made up of a crescendo of instruments with Troy’s voice imitating the progression; the chorus ends with Troy singing in a high G5 note scream followed by the intro riff again. The song’s solo is consisted of Troy playing rhythm, JC playing the whammy and Carl playing the distorted guitar; these different riffs, when put together, form one new sounding riff. The song then slows down to the outro where Troy and JC’s distorted guitar have a duet, Troy sings the last few lines of the song, imitating the sound of the bluesy riff JC was currently playing. The song includes three different genres, blues in the outro, metal for the rest, and that alternative rock sound coming from Troy's voice. "Though a metal song, my voice still makes it sound alternative, I can do some screams but it just didn't fit the song right" says Troy. "The lyrics are about a guy who walks in to a club and starts shooting everyone.." says Morrisson, who wrote the lyrics. "The song was a bit influenced by Mind and Blood of Wecz since we joined the battle of the bands, we heard some of their stuff and it was incorporated into this song" says JPC. Well in my opinion, this has got to be one of the band's best songs to date, it completely shows their versatility in music incorporating different styles of music in just one song. Only a few alternative rock bands have the guts and talent to go metal, and Reckoner might just be one of them.

Up next is the post-grunge song, Grudge. The song begins with Troy playing a clean ascending guitar riff. A few seconds more and the rest of the band come in; the most distinct part though is JC and Carl’s heavy distortion. The verse starts with Troy singing in a gentle yet noticeably angry voice and JC playing in clean guitar, the lines in each verse are separated by JC’s guitar fills. The pre-chorus is consisted of a semi-distorted riff imitating Troy’s vocals played by both JC and Carl. It soon breaks down into the chorus where the intro riff is also played. Troy’s voice goes from gentle to rough as it is accompanied by 3 heavy distorted guitars. The song goes on for another verse and chorus before going into the solo. The solo is still consisted of the 3 guitars but with altering effects. The bridge connecting the chorus to the solo is made up of heavy distortion; it is then followed by a clean guitar riff played by Troy. It is connected back to the chorus by another heavily distorted riff; the chorus riff has minor alterations for the third time it is played though. The song’s outro is made up of a clean guitar riff, and a heavy distorted riff imitating the former followed by seconds of improvised solos and notes. The song ends suddenly like it was cut off. "The song has got to be the hardest song we have ever written, so many chords, so many solos." says Troy. "This was the same song we played in the IMAs, it was then Untitled but now we came up with the name Grudge since it sounded like grunge." says Carl. In my opinion, this song is genius. I mean the solo was a really creative part of the song and it really shows JC's genius with his guitar. Troy's vocals also play a great role in this song because of his soulfulness in singing, shifting into different types of singing in each part of the song. This song needs to be released as the next single!

Almost every album has a downer, and that's what Brittlebone is. It talks about Troy' s over consciousness with his health with lyrics that almost keep repeating itself. The melody is very simple and gets boring at a point. I love this band but I just really hate the song, it should have been made into a b-side instead. The song only consists of a 4-chord progression, drums, a bass that follows the progression and Troy singing, that's it. I'm really sorry guys but this isn't that great of a song.

With that very negative review of Brittlebone, up next is a very postitive review for Daydream. "It's a very druggy song, written in our normal minds, but recorded drunk." said Troy about the recording sessions. Daydream is a psychedelic song with dominant whammy pedals and JPC’s first song playing the slap bass technique. The song starts of with JC who plays the lead whammy, and Troy who plays a few notes on clean guitar. The whole band then comes in with Carl’s slightly distorted guitar, JPC’s slap bass, and Tristan’s snare and hi-hat combo. The chorus is consisted of a different chord progression for Carl and even more complicated riffs from JC. After another verse and another chorus, the solo then comes in. The solo is played by JC’s whammy guitar as Carl plays the intro chord progression and Troy just played with his guitar’s delay. The song ends with another whammy riff by JC followed by a loud applause from the audience. "The song psychedelic trip to wonderland with meaningless lyrics, groovy beats, and Carl's crazy back up vocals which use this ghostly effect echoing through the air." describes Tristan. The song would get a positive remark from me, it was pretty experimetnal and as I said, this band is very brave in trying out new stuff. Kudos!

It was fun reviewing the album, but now we are now ending it with the final track, Blackout. "The song's title explains the whole song itself, a lonely tunnel with no light at the end. It's about losing everything you have and fading away without a trace" says Troy. The song begins with clean arpeggios played by Troy, followed by lead guitars played by JC and Carl. Troy then sings in a haunting voice which consistently slides up to falsetto and back to his modal voice. The strings then come in accompanying the lead guitar riff as Troy sings the chorus. Tristan stars hitting his hi-hat as the second verse comes in. The whole band come in for the second chorus with more strings coming in. The outro is consisted of Troy's falsetto and the strings all alone with everything else, fading away. This is a great album closer, period. It perfectly ends the whole journey of the album and I consider this a great track. It was all haunting yet beautiful, something unique from the bip-bop pop we hear these days, Reckoner have just proven themselves worthy of being called musicians..

OVERALL:
Now the final judgement comes... After reviewing the whole album, I have come up with a conclusion, it is genius! All tracks except Brittlebone have proven this album great, showing the versatility of Mr. Mascenon and the band's songwriting. It is a very unique sounding album and deserves whatever praise it gets from the other reviews it will have. The album gets 4.7 stars out of 5. Congratulations to Reckoner!
Christopher De Leon(NME)

(OOC: Worked my ass off this review, comments please!)

Thanks man, though post-grunge is just a genre in this album, we stay alternative rock..
-Troy Mascenon

OOC:Thanks for commenting though!

Thanks Eric, want a free copy?
-Troy Mascenon

Wow! I feel complete..
-Troy Mascenon

Thanks Aaron, and I'm glad you like the album since you'd be playing those songs in our tour!
-Troy Mascenon

Thank you Mr. Hernandez! We really are happy to have worked with you and we look forward to still be working with you in the future..
-Troy Mascenon