Posted on: December 27, 2007 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

V/A – Change / 2007 Sub City / 38 Tracks / http://www.hopelessrecords.com / http://www.subcity.net /

SubCity Records is an imprint of Hopeless Records. They have been creating samplers for about a decade now (give or take a year), and their funds have went to a number of good causes (anti-suicide charities, and they now have a more general mission – “to have an impact that goes beyond music”. Change! is a Hot Topic exclusive, and it provides a shift in name while keeping the same general sound and genres of music represented as were present on the Take Action discs. Genres such as emo (Chiodos, Silverstein, Aiden), hardcore (The Devil Wears Prada, Converge, Poison The Well), and noisecore (Job For A Cowboy) all present themselves, ensuring that individuals of a number of different stripes can find something that they can appreciate here.

Aside from providing money to non profit agencies, these discs serve to break big some bands that have not gotten to the level of fame that acts such as Chiodos, Converge, or Poison The Well have gotten. This means that bands like Memphis May Fire (Bullet Tooth), The Charior (Tooth & Nail) and See You Next Tuesday (Self) all make it on to the CD section of the disc. Almost without fair, these are all new tracks – out of the 21 tracks on the CD, only 4 are from albums older than 2007. “Change!” thus provides individuals with the music that is the cutting-edge or, in the case of bands that have not broken big yet, the bleeding-edge of independent music. A plus of the DVD side of things is that there are different songs and bands present at points during its runtime – individuals are not paying for two different iterations of the song.

Sure, “If You Could See Into My Soul” (Silverstein) and “Composure” (August Burns Red) are the same, but Kaddisfly and Maylene and Sons of Disaster sneak onto the DVD, while acts like Chiodos and The Human Abstract throw different songs onto the video section of the set. Regardless, for the price that individuals will have to pay to purchase this CD, they are getting a great price. The large number of bands present on this CD/DVD set will allow individuals to ffind bands they’ve not heard of, while the videos will show them acts that normally would not get anything in the way of airtime on a MTV or a Fuse. Pick this disc up wherever you can find a Hot Topic.

Top Tracks: Alesana / Ambrosia, See You Next Tuesday / Here, Take This Pill

Rating: 7.0/10

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