Album Review :
I Am Alpha and Omega - The Roar and the Whisper

Band: I Am Alpha and Omega
Title: The Roar and the Whisper
Label: Come & Live!
Release Date: September 5, 2010
Review By: Steve
Track Listing:
1. The Lost and the Captor
2. My Greatest Need
3. The Roar and the Whisper
4. Irreversible
5. Deceiver
6. The Rescue
7. The Bride
8. Wolves
9. Beaten, Betrayed, Denied
10. A Whistle Falls
11. Chasing
12. The Last Breath of Self-Expectancy

So the time is finally here! September 5th we will finally get the much anticipated I Am Alpha and Omega full-length—The  Roar and the Whisper. What can you say about a band that is willing to sacrifice personal gain for their fans? We should all tip our hats to them. I personally wished they would have made us wait a while longer so this album could have been released through a bigger label, but I am glad that it is getting released. The Roar and the Whisper follows two EPs—Georgia May EP (2007) and The War I Wage EP (2009), and with each release, IAAAO has progressively improved. The Roar and the Whisper is no exception!

This five-piece post-hardcore/screamo band out of New Jersey definitely brought their “A” game to the studio. One of the first things I noticed on this album was improved production and the emphasis on the drums and guitars. My speakers and subwoofer got a good work out on this album. IAAAO definitely put a little bit of everything in this album that I am sure will bring a breath of fresh air into this played out genre. IAAAO gives you screams, clean and spoken vocals, aggressive drums, guitar solos, and they even throw in a ballad.

Besides some excellent musicianship in The Roar and the Whisper, Donny does a great job of mixing in the harsh screams and catch clean vocals. Virtually every full song has some extremely catchy clean vocal choruses. It was not long before I found myself singing a long with him. I mention “full songs” because there are four interlude/instrumental tracks on the album. That and a few rough, clean vocals are the only real knocks I have against the album as a whole. Lyrically, you have to love IAAAO’s passion for Christ. You can feel the passion and emotion ooze from your speakers.

The best tracks on The Roar and the Whisper are “The Roar and the Whisper,” “Deceiver,” “The Bride,” and “Chasing.” “The Roar and the Whisper” and “The Bride” are great due to the mix of aggressive music and the mix of screams and clean vocals and are two of the hardest songs on the album. I liked “Deceiver” because there is an excellent guitar solo in the middle of the track, and in a few parts IAAAO slows things down a bit and it feels and sounds like Donny is using a more strained scream, but it actually sounds really good. Normally, you would think strained vocals are a bad thing; however, you can tell that he meant it to sound this way. “Chasing” is a complete change of pace for IAAAO because it is a ballad with no screams, and it is a good way to kind of slow things down and gives the album a good ending.

Overall: there is not much to dislike about this album. If you like a good mix of harsh screams and clean vocals mixed in with some excellent musical arrangements, then this is definitely the album for you. With The Roar and the Whisper, IAAAO is definitely going to impress their current fans and gain some new ones.

RIYL: Fallstar, Confide, See the Light, Post-hardcore, Screamo