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I agreed with the last 2 5 star ratings. This record however is not a 5. Good, but I don't think it merits a 5 in any way. 

Yeah.... this is far far far from a 5. 

I am not a fan of hardcore music in general, so I can't give an unbiased rating to this album. The RIYL alone makes me want to turn and run. 

Seeing as how Jake and I are pretty much the only two (minus a few here and there) that ever discuss hardcore on this site, I usually agree with what he says. I do know that Jake has an odd system on rating shit so I wasn't too surprised when I saw this. I'm giving this album a 4... this album is not perfect in my eyes, mainly because of production quality but it's definitely one of the better straight up hardcore albums to come out this year... besides the new This Is Hell.

Great CD to jam while driving, but no where near a 5 to me.

The new This Is Hell is another one that mines the NYHC/cross-over thing as well as the new Bitter End (which will be posted soon) and Alpha & Omega. I feel that this record is transcendent in the respect that it not only taps into those influences and nails them, but combines them with some others that outside of a few outliers don't necessarily get much traction in hardcore. Beyond that, the track sequencing, an often overlooked factor, is perfect, the vocals are more variegated from the previous effort and still excellent, I love the lyrics (also diversified), and this band is flat-out airtight instrumentally. As far as production goes, the record leaked a while ago at a very low sound quality, so don't be too quick to judge before hearing it with the intended dynamics. I also felt that Prying Eyes was a 5, so to follow that up was going to take a Herculean effort. It was matched.

...and there was nowhere near this amount of griping about Tony Danza which I find not only shocking but obscene

Tony Danza did something different with a tired metalcore genre. This album, while solid and definitely worth high marks, does NOTHING to push the hardcore/thrash genre in a new direction. And honestly? Those James Hetfield ripoff vocals are pretty weak. 

5's are albums that people should want to come back to in a couple of years. A 5 should be a testament to a particular genre and style of music. This, is not that. It does nothing that Alpha and Omega, Downpresser, Violation and the rest of them haven't done.

I will also clarify, I can understand that Tony was a 5, but would not have personally given it a 5, feeling it to be more of a 4.

5's need to be considered hallowed ground. 

Yeah, I personally don't think Tony Danza or letlive are perfect albums, but I can definitely see how they could potentially earn a 5/5 rating.  This, on the other hand, I personally think is pretty average and have a hard time seeing the justification for the 5/5, even after reading through the review a couple of times.

And, y'know, if the sequencing and lyrics and such were also important points that helped explain why this is a 5/5... well, maybe include that in the review :-)

You’re right, I should have included those things in the review. When I was writing it I was so fixated on how Lock & Key had evolved from Prying Eyes that I neglected to fully explore the record on its own merits. I firmly believe that it does stand alone as a great hardcore album for the reasons both in the review and comments section. Jamoncito, as far as a 5/5 album is concerned I think all of us have differing opinions. As Bill said, I can get weird with my criteria haha, but the thing for me is I am wholly comfortable awarding as many as five 5-star reviews in a year. I don’t view them as sacred, they’re more album of the year records that I feel are so spot-on and well-executed that they make me giddy, with a high replay factor. Not to say that revolutionary albums don’t cut it either, they do, but in today’s musical landscape it’s much harder to really obliterate any kind of expectations; most everyone is working with some kind of formula or another. I just think Cruel Hand nailed what they were looking for as far as a combination of the mosh, old-school death, thrash, NYHC, and cross-over with enough little surprises and evolution from their previous disc to warrant another perfect score. I didn’t expect anyone to agree with me really, something about this band strikes a chord with me. And it’s not just cause we’re both from Maine…haha

It's interesting to see different people's criteria for giving out the coveted 5/5 score.  For me, I might come across one 5 star album a year.  Maybe a couple if it's really, really good. I look at them as albums that will stand up as tent-poles in their genre 5-10 years down the line. 

anyone who rates this a 5 hasn't heard prying eyes.

this album sucks compared to it.

resist sundials

anyone who rates this a 5 hasn't heard prying eyes.

this album sucks compared to it.

You're right, I must not have heard Prying Eyes, given that I mentioned it seven times in the review. And if you read the comments, I mentioned that I also gave that a five. Read before you write.

Cody Rogers

Great CD to jam while driving, but no where near a 5 to me.

I also enjoy this while driving.