Hey guys, could you take a listen to this stuff and see what you think?
http://www.myspace.com/parklaneband
Listening to "The Fallen" now. Sounds excellent. Catchy leads, good vocals that aren't annoying like the overly emo types, and there are some good vocal harmonies. The writing is clean and well organized. The musicianship is good. I really dislike the type of acoustic lead-in at the beginning of that song, but the rest is excellent.
After writing the above, I've finished listening to "The Fallen" and I'm on to "Bring You Life." It's a nice blend of styles with some good screaming and a nice heavy guitar break. It's not very thrilling for me to listen to, but it's good quality music. I can't put much negative into it.
Now I'm listening to "Hourglass" and it's off to a fairly good start. Pretty cool intro and good chorus, nice dynamics with the volume of the next parts. I like the fact that it doesn't just repeat itself heavily like most mainstream rock. The changes are very smooth and seamless just as they should be with no great disparity between the riffs of the song, but it still manages to go from heavy to soft without seeming whimpy. The soloing shreds pretty hard and the mix of guitar tone with the vocals at the end of the solo is pretty effing sweet if I must say so. Overall I think this one's my favorite so far.
"Within the storm"... hmm, starts off pretty heavy with some drum action. I like it! And hey, there's some double bass in there! Now we're talking. The bass drum's a bit boomy for that style of playing, but it's acceptable. The guitar work reminds me of Trivium. Maybe a little too much. The vocals are a little too whiny for my taste, but the singer's right on every note, so it's fine. Interesting choice of notes on the final riff... much more interesting than the cliche sounding riffs from the rest of the song. Overall it's a bit too stuck in its genre for my taste. In retrospect, I realize my own band is pretty well stuck in a thoroughly explored and not extremely interesting genre of music, so I can't fault Park Lane for that, and they are great at what they're doing. I'd listen to them, but they definitely wouldn't be on my list of favored music. That's just me, though.
for a dying thread. 
