Fool Of Gold’s Essential Picks..

Darkest Hour – ‘So Sedated, So Secure‘
Victory Records

This here my friends is metal at its best. As most of you know, all of us here in BEP land love Darkest Hour, in fact, if you don’t like the dudes, you’re not allowed to read the page. Let me start from the beginning. Back in the year of 2001, right around Christmas time, my friends Jason Krutzky and Kevin Phillips (of the pre-Stonerider, Chronic MD) presented to me a gift card to Best Buy in appreciation of my loyalty to the local music scene and band. So I, BK, Cody, and BEP Native Baz ventured up to the Stone Mountain Best Buy to spend our free moo-la. We walked up and down the few music aisles and pondered our choices, eventually this disc caught my eye. ‘Hmm,’ I said, ‘this looks kinda cool, Darkest Hour-that sounds pretty metal.’ Lets jump back to 2001 for a moment, the extent of our metal listening went as far as Mudvayne, Slipknot’s new disc Iowa (which was great-and heavy), we were also introduced to bands like Poison the Well and Every Time I Die and From Autumn to Ashes..each of which hold their respectsful spots in my top twenty cd’s of all time. Without boring you readers with labels and music tags, I’ll get to the point of saying Darkest Hour introduced our weak little eardrums to modern day thrash. 2001’s So Sedated So Secure, when put into Brandon’s car cd player, was like seeing Star Wars for the first time. ‘Has this kind of music been out there for long? How have I not heard this before?’ This cd is arguably the most solid metal cd you will hear. From beginning to fantastic end this is gold the whole way through. Each and every riff is sonic bliss. Soon enough this cd was a constant in all of our lives, becoming ring tones, car stickers, too many shirts and hoodies, every time the band came to Atl, or Athens, or even Savannah, we were there. I won’t talk about these guys’ live show, because you’ve all heard about it before. Eight years and three releases later we are still faithful followers of the machine gun. These fuckers rock like its going out of style and they have to make the best of it before it dies. While SSSS is my favorite disc, Bk and other’s alike will take their pick to other discs, but nonetheless, we all agree that they’re all great, and that So Sedated So Secure started it all. Thanks DH Duders for all you’ve given us, especially for the word ‘ballbag’, it’s our favorite derogatory word to call someone.

Thursday – ‘Full Collapse’
Victory Records

Ah Full Collapse, what a wonderful cd you are. Back in 2001 a little band named Thursday released this disc upon my ears and forever changed the way I listened to music. In 2001 for sure, and most likely 2002, this was by far the most listened to disc in my cd player. I think that goes for everyone I knew eight years ago as well. Brandon, James, my brother, the guys in Chronic MD (Stonerider), everyone, this cd was perfection.

It started out kinda like eh, emo crap, singer dude has a horrible voice/scream, and the music was nothing really to talk to about. It wasn’t heavy at all. No breakdowns, no high pitch guitar noises. But I tell you what, for some reason I kept leaving this cd in, over and over and over again. I became so infatuated with this record it was ridiculous. The lyrics are ever so simple but front man Geoff Rickley sings them with such passion and heart. Very quickly songs such as Understanding In A Car Crash and Cross Out The Eyes became staple songs that if I didn’t hear them during the day, it was a shitty day. Not long a little song entitled How Long Is The Night? tickled my fancy just right. This is one of those songs thats just like, ‘man, what a song. It doesn’t really get much better than this.’

And then I remember Thursday came to the Masquerade in Atl. Talk about a show, these guys here know how to do it. It was one of those shows that every soul in the building knows the words and each one of them are singing their little hearts out. James and I were front row and found a new love for the band that night. To top it off they finished with How Long Is The Night?. That song perfomed live was up there with Tool’s Pushit and Staind’s Outside for me.

Full Collapse is a timeless cd that will forever hold a spot in my heart. It transports me back in time to a summer when things were simpler, music was better, and times weren’t so tough. Late nights, Taco Bells, and friends. And Thursday. 2001 was the year for music. To be continued.