Angels & Airwaves' I-Empire Early Album Review

Angels & Airwaves is an alternative rock group featuring members of very successful rock groups such as Blink 182, Boxcar Racers and The Offspring. The lead vocalist and guitarist of the group is Tom DeLonge of Blink 182 and Boxcar Racers fame. The lead guitarist of the group is David Kennedy also from Boxcar Racers. Atom Willard and Matt Wachter are both from The Offspring fame handle the percussion and bass respectively. The group is back on the scene with their sophomore collaborative album I-Empire. Will the group be able to live up to the high standards of their debut album We Don't Need To Whisper?

The album opens with Call To Arms. The track has all of the grandiose nature of a rock epic and is the perfect track to open the album. The song is very strong melodically and lyrically.

The first single of I-Empire is Everything's Magic. The song is an up-tempo rock track which features elements of the groups many influences. The song is catchy and did fairly well on the charts. The song was featured on the MTV show The Life Of Ryan and in advertisements for The N's new fall lineup.

The second single off the album is Secret Crowds. The song is very strong lyrically with a harder edge than most of the tracks on the album. Each verse starts off with the phrase "If I had my own world." The song is fairly catchy yet it is just very different than other tracks on the album. The track is featured in Tony Hawk's new video game Tony Hawk'sProving Ground.

Breathe is a take on more mainstream alternative rock. The song is more radio friendly than the other tracks on the album. The song features a hint of 80's new age influences on the track. The song is a very strong track and one of the best on the whole album.

Star Of Bethlehem is a strict instrumental track with no lyrics in the song expect for five words towards the end of the song. Jumping Rooftops also features just instrumentation. Both of these songs are extremely different than commercial music nowadays.

Sirens features very interesting percussion patterns throughout the song as Tom DeLonge's voice carries over the catchy track. The song is a strong track and just interesting to listen to.

I-Empire is a very interesting album. Most of the tracks fail to obey to the traditional standards of music. They are either incredibly long or short and do not seem to follow the same principles for verses, choruses and just organization of the songs. This is a good thing because you are always listening to something different than you expected. Overall, I-Empire is a solid album and gets 7.5 out of 10 stars. If you're a fan of Angels & Airwaves, make sure you pick up its sophomore album, I-Empire when it is available in stores on November 6.