Aiden - Nightmare Anatomy (CD)

All Music Guide

Billed as a band that blends punk, posthardcore and goth sounds, Aiden is actually a bit more straightforward than that: their sound is a surprisingly welldeveloped blend of melodic punk and screamo. The goth influence is mainly visual: in the liner photos their heavily madeup eyes all glare out at you from under diagonal, dyedblack bangs. Ink, piercings, baleful stares they've got the whole look down pat. In fact, Aiden's visual image is so generic that it actually lowers expectations for their music, which takes you by surprise with both its lyrical subtlety (okay, its relative lyrical subtlety) and its popsmart structure. None of the eleven songs on Aiden's sophomore album is less than good, and several including the disturbingly hooky (given its subject matter) "Die Romantic" and the rhythmically disjointed "Unbreakable (I.J.M.A.)" border on excellence. "Genetic Design for Design" offers a surprisingly sincere plea for parental forgiveness, and "Goodbye, We're Falling Fast" is p...erhaps the most fun and exhilarating slab of screamo yet recorded. Very young and very early in their careers, the members of Aiden offer much hope for their future here. - Rick Anderson, All Music Guide Read more Less