Chiodos - Illuminaudio

No matter how many bands fall they still manage to pull themselves together. This is precisely what happened with the likes of Chiodos. Having such a success with their first two full-length albums “All's Well That Ends Well”, and “Bone Palace Ballet”, and then dealing with the loss of their former lead singer Craigery Owens, everything abruptly came to a halt. There was no denying that Chiodos would ever be the same again....

With "Illuminaudio", being their third release via Equal Vision Records, Chiodos would live on to see yet another day in a whole another light. After Owens had parted ways, fans were thinking rather or not how and would Chiodos continue to make music. Indeed the band had decided to continue to create music and included their new vocalist Brandon Bolmer formerly of Yesterday's Rising who’s managed to settle in just fine. The title track to the album drives it into.

The title track to the album is what opens it up going right into what Bolmer was sent here to do. Now whether you like Bolmer or not he is indeed a great addition to the Chiodos family and is a top notch character that is just as Owen was. His abilities are what builds this album and makes it a solid ground for greater things. Like take "Love Is A Cat From Hell", and "Modern Wolf Hair", both showcase the group's progressive talents that have catchy chorus' with gang vocal tactics that holds the music together. Each of which are heavy yet raw emotion that is expressed thoroughly well.

As the album continues to progress it becomes more diverse and captures directional pulls in various segments being heavy on one side but then mellow dramatic on another. The riffs played through tend to skip on certain tracks like "Let Us Burn One" and "Hey Zeus! The Dungeon", these tracks being the least impressive on this release. "Illuminaudio" comes off to being a better sweet end to lack of music that manages to rebuild a bit too much.