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Artist: HIM

Album: Screamworks: Love in Theory and Practice

HIM returns to the music scene with a deeper, darker sound in their seventh studio album, Screamworks: Love in Theory and Practice. This album features hard rock and metal songs. Most songs on this album are in fact, pretty good. “Ode to Solitude” has a good blend of a dark theme and vocals. Frontman Ville Valo’s voice has a significantly deeper sound than in previous albums Dark Light and Venus Doom, which fits in well with the overall tone of the album. However, the good songs cannot offset the few songs that are not up to par. There is just something about Valo’s voice in the song “The Foreboding Sense of Impending Happiness” that annoys me. Strike that. What I meant was, there’s something about Valo’s voice in the song “The Foreboding Sense of Impending Happiness” that ticks me off. It’s a mix between whiny and just plain infuriating how slow and squeaky his voice is on that song. Literally, I was forced to skip to the end of the song while only halfway through. Most of the songs in Screamworks: Love in Theory and Practice stay true to HIM’s dark Finnish roots, but there is nothing on the album that makes it exceptional. —Jeremy Lin

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Artist: Rogue Wave

Album: Permalight

Rogue Wave, the California-native indie rock band, has released its fourth studio album Permalight. This is their second album produced with Brushfire Records (Jack Johnson’s record label), after leaving Sub Pop Records in 2007. This album comes equipped with a handful of upbeat pop songs like the single “Solitary Gun” and others like “Good Morning (The Future)” and “Stars and Stripes.” Permalight has definitely shown that Rogue Wave is an evolving band and is currently in a techno-pop stage, sounding similar to the band Hellogoodbye. You won’t find many songs that sound like their previous laidback singles such as “Lake Michigan.” Permalight shows a fresh, new side. This will be the perfect CD to listen to while spring begins to blossom. —Stephanie Pavlovcik

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