Story of the Year Reflect on ‘Page Avenue’

He really sounds like a douche in that quote. Ugh

 

Page Avenue is iconic for what it is, but In The Wake of Determination is actually the album I connected with most and still frequent most out of their catalog.

 

Page Avenue is that one for me, haha.

It came out when I was in my prime of college (and first started getting into what I guess we'll call screamo/post-hardcore for that time), and this was a perfect mix of everything for me.

As refined as all of their CDs sounded after this one (and while I liked all of them), Page Avenue is still my go to :)

 

Page Avenue is what got me into them, but I've always been a sucker for Sophomore albums, not sure why. Probably always feels like a more authentic effort.

 

I remember seeing FOB and my chemical romance open for Taking back Sunday and Story of the year who were co-headlining.
SOTY played really bad metal covers and used strobe lights throughout their set.

 

Maybe fewer people connected with the second album because they were expecting more like the first? Establishing those expectations means it's impossible to know how they would have done had the band led with the sound they wanted from the start. And I say that as someone who loved Page Avenue at the time and never really got into their following releases.

 

He reminded me of Trump in that second paragraph.

“He wanted to make something heavy, so they hired a metal producer to do the second record, which failed horrifically. It got them dropped [from the label] and it didn’t connect.”

 

Maybe a tinge but I think he has a point tbh.

 

Ha, but that is essentially what happened. I remember people being super pissy about this band when they first seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Their debut was definitely a streamlined version of what a lot of bands in that scene were doing at the time but had some good songs and solid hooks. It helped that they had a super tight live show. This record hasn't aged particularly well, very much of its time, but still a good listen.

I fell off after their 2010 release. How does their most recent material compare?

 

I owned that same exact Letter Kills shirt (but change the red coloring for silver in the letters).

 

I'll never understand the appeal for that particular album. The following ones are so much better and made them stand out in the scene among their peers (Senses Fail, Finch, Silverstein, The Used, Hawthorne Heights, etc.).

 

Their newest album was a continuation of the 2010 release mixed with the poppiness of Page Avenue. Not as good as I expected after the hiatus, but it was great to hear it after all these years of waiting I guess? Moreover, Aaron Sprinkle's fingerprints are all over it. Don't expect any metal riffs though.

 

I love "in the wake" but Feldmann definitely isn't wrong.

 

Check out their new album.

 

The new album is brilliant. Maybe my favourite yet

 

Wolves is fantastic but it took me awhile to really appreciate it.

 

Also the 2004 Nintendo Fusion Tour is still my all-time fave show. Letterkills, SOTY and Lostprophets

 

Really. My first thoughts immediately was the catchiness of it

 

It's weird to be so proud of forcing a band to completely change their sound/what they want so they could fit into the current soundscape of bands to sell records. I believe that's the definition of "selling out." That said, I really did like Page Avenue.

 

That was my first concert. Except it was SOTY, My Chemical Romance, Letterkills and Autopilot off. Lostprophets were my favorite bands at the time and the reason I bought the tix, but I was young and stupid and didn't check which dates they were going to be on. Looking back, I'm not too upset about missing them haha.

 

Yeah, it's interesting to get this kind of perspective on a writing/recording process 15 years later. I'd be interested in hearing how they got signed to do the album in the first place if their original ideas were a lot different from the finished product. The guys are all crazy talented and obviously the potential was there either way, I just wonder how they decided that "this" band was the one to clean up and send to the radio.

Also, I remember thinking it was funny that "Anthem" had a radio version and a slightly more screamy version on the album. Guess this explains that.

 

This is what they sounded like before getting signed

 

In The Wake is fantastic. It’s the only record I still listen to.

 

Do you know if the radio version is available anywhere? Couldn't find it on youtube