Tenth release in series as diverse and strong as ever
It's hard to believe that this is the tenth Warped Tour compilation release. It only seems like yesterday that I was holding the first edition, which was a single CD mind you, in my hand. The latest release, as well as the previous few releases, is a double CD that takes a snapshot of the tour's line-up for this year. As always with Warped Tour compilations, they are a fairly diverse affair covering the likes of metal, emo, punk and ska and the various sub-genres within. There's one constant though and that is that it's loud, proud and full of guitars.
Diversity is the key and again, the Warped Tour does a reasonable enough job of that with their tenth iteration. There's emo (represented by acts such as Bayside, Chiodos, Paramore and Aiden), pop punk (with bands like Alkaline Trio, The Matches, Lovehatehero, Street Dogs, Mayday Parade and The Used) and more straight forward punk (via the likes of Bad Religion, Tiger Army, Only Crime, Amber Pacific, Escape The Fate, Guff, Set Your Goals, Ryan's Hope, The Casualties, Strung Out and The Unseen) spread relatively evenly across the two discs.
The heavier side of things, within reason of course, is represented by a number of metalcore and screamo acts including Killswitch Engage, As I Lay Dying, I Am Ghost, Norma Jean, Gallows, Haste The Day, Blesssthefall, Poison The Well, Vanna, Mea Culpa, Greeley Estates and the waving the Aussie flag proudly is Parkway Drive. The diversity of alternative rock is captured by the likes of Cute Is What We Aim For, The Briggs, Madina Lake, My American Heart, Meg & Dia and Bedouin Soundclash, whilst the Ska contingent is the smallest of the genres with Big D And The Kids Table, Buck-O-Nine, Gogol Bordello and The Toasters doing their respective bits.
All up, Warped Tour 2007 Compilation is fifty tracks over two CDs which is an absolute bucket load of music in anyone's books. It's diverse enough to cover some reasonably musical territory and provides some unreleased and new gems in there that will certainly satisfy fans of the tour and the bands and genres that it represents.
(SideOneDummy Records/Stomp Distribution)
