Album Reviews

With the hardcore punk of “Lens” almost nothing more than a distant memory by now, “Die On Stage” finds Hostage Calm sounding at their poppiest. Is that a bad thing? Not really…

The one-two combo that is opening track “When You Know” and “A Thousand Miles Away From Here” are two of the band’s finest songs to date. My personal favorite would have to be “Raised”, Hostage Calm’s take on a ballad with the help of I Am The Avalanche’s Vinnie Caruana. Great stuff! During their best moments, these dudes manage to whip up a tasty combo of 60s pop, 70s punk and 80s new wave that bounces all over the place and comes with some ridiculously slick choruses.

Unfortunately the band also felt the need to include a xylophone in pretty much every song along with writing one good song with a crappy chorus (“Someone Else”) and one absolutely cringeworthy ballad (“12/31”) made even worse by including Auld Lang Syne in the end. That song also shows that Chris Martin can at times sound equally grating as that other Chris Martin who fronts a band, a fact that Hostage Calm usually manages to hide by including a lot of gang vocals.

Not too sure about this one… it starts off pretty good but the errors on here are kinda hard to miss.