Various Artists – Ernie Ball Battle Of The Bands Vol 10

If you look at your CD booklets, chances are you’ll see that in a fair few of them they’ll mention Ernie Ball; after all, his guitar strings are some of the most used in America. Everyone uses them. Still, that’s not the only thing Ernie Ball is known for, he’s also very well known for his work with unsigned and independent artists. Every year he holds battles of the bands all over North America to let local bands win a coveted spot at the Vans Warped Tour. This past year was the company’s tenth year doing it, and out of the 11,500 entries they picked their favorite 14 and threw them together in one nice little compilation CD, Ernie Ball Battle Of The Bands Vol. 10.

For a compilation of bands without any other connection other than winning a contest, Ernie Ball flows surprisingly well. Most of the songs fall under the emo/screamo moniker (with Meriwether and Mayday Parade being direct Fall Out Boy rip offs), but that doesn’t mean they’re afraid to mix it up every once in a while, far from it. Natives Of The New Dawn‘s People has a laid back reggae feel to it, very similar to Westbound Train, while The Flatliners are just an insanely fast ska-punk outfit to pick up the pace and spit out some speed into the album. Hometown Anthem and Karate High School are both piano-oriented synth pop bands to add a little dancing flair to the track listing; and My Favorite Highway‘s biggest influence is definitely Andrew McMahon, and I can’t say I’m displeased with the results. As Blood Runs Black is by far the heaviest track, teetering on the edge of metal and hardcore. While some people may find the random jumps being genres slightly disheartening, none of them are too far from one another to really scare anyone away. Instead, it shows how many different styles there are inside just one scene, which is sometimes nice to be reminded about.

As you listen to the album, you can normally see why the bands were selected. It’s clear that some are just playing the right sound for the right group of people at the right time. At the same time, some songs just jump out at you instantly, like Brightwood‘s Sit Still which could easily become a giant hit if played to the right audience. The biggest annoyance on the album is that out of the 14 tracks, four of the bands are already signed and have albums out under respected labels. This is supposed to be a compilation of unsigned band, so I can’t help but wonder why The Flatliners, Mayday Parade, Karate High School and A Heartwell Ending make an appearance, all of which have recently released new albums with support from different labels. Just seems like they could’ve picked four unsigned bands to fill the spots just as easily.

While it’s not the best compilation around, it does have a fair few bright sides. Apart from flowing nicely and showing a wide variety of different genres, it is sure to introduce you to at least a few bands you haven’t heard before – and at the end of the day, that’s what this compilation is supposed to do.