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Fall Preview: Polar Bear Club, Saves the Day, and more

Next month, the New York band Polar Bear Club is releasing its fourth studio album entitled, “Death Chorus.”

The post-hardcore band debuted a streaming version of its first single, “Blood Balloon.”

If the song is any revelation of the rest of the album, fans of previous albums such as “Some Things Just Disappear” or “Clash Battle Guilt Pride” might be disappointed to learn that lead singer Jimmy Stadt’s range has changed dramatically.       Gone are the rough tones that were once belted out in such songs as “Heart Attack at Thirty” or “Kneel on Nails,” replaced with a clean and soft range which almost makes the band sound  as if they are in a whole new genre, such as pop punk.

The band still maintains their instrumental riffs, but Stadt’s new vocals really change the tone of the band.  

It’s almost confusing why the band chose to name the album “Death Chorus,” unless the intention was to imply that they were moving away from their post-hardcore roots.

While one song is not the whole album, it gives you insight to the band’s direction with the new album. Many fans have expressed their dislike for the song on the band’s Facebook page.

Polar Bear Club has a headlining fall tour to promote the new album with bands of the same genre, Taking Back Sunday, Citizen, and Diamond Youth. They will be playing in Detroit at The Magic Stick on Nov. 13. ‘Death Chorus’ will release On Nov. 19.

San Francisco Bay Area’s band Heartsounds, released its third studio album ‘Internal Eyes’ on Oct. 15.  

Following up the 2011 release of its album “Drifter,” Heartsounds continues with the same formula that set them apart from other punk rock bands.

Prevalent are the melodic dual vocals from Laura Nichol and Ben Murry and the guitar foundations that they’ve built during their time spent in the hardcore metal band Light the City. The great riffs and fast tempos remain and yet it still sounds new and fresh.

Nichol and Murry have found a formula that works well for the duo and it seems as if there are no plans of changing what works for them anytime soon. “Internal Eyes” lyrics are once again ripped from the headlines of Nichol and Murry’s life.

They sing about their pain and trials that they have overcome and how it affected them. In the song “Afterthought,” Murry sings of how it’s been two years and while he has moved on from the heartache, it still comes to mind, which leads to him losing sleep from time to time. It’s very heartfelt and relatable.

Heartsounds will be promoting “Internal Eyes” this fall with its East Coast tour kicking off on Oct. 24 in Allston, Mass., co-lining  with the Japanese punk band Cleave.

Saves the Day formed in 1994 under the original name Selfer. Since then they have completed eight studio albums, with the most recent being the self-titled and self-produced, “Saves the Day.”

Interestingly, this album was crowd funded through PledgeMusic, which means fans could pledge any amount of money to help the band out. It was released though the Equal Vision Records imprint label, Rory Records.

While the only member who remains from the original band is front man Chris Conley, the band’s overall sound has not changed. Conley has maintained the pop punk tones that hooked fans over the years.

Refreshingly, Conley has evolved in his lyrical writing from the moody and anxiety of past albums. “Saves the day” is a very upbeat, it’s a fun album, yet from beginning to end it sounds the same.

While it would be easy to criticize Conley for not taking risks with the album and doing something more experimental, it’s nice that the band did more of a fan service.

The first song on the album “Remember” feels like homage to the song “See You” from the band’s “Stay What You Are” album.  It’s really nice to listen to something that was tailored for past and present fans.

‘Saves the Day’ was released on Sept. 17 and is available for purchase thought the Equal Vision records websites.