As a special gift to the Blogcritics readers, I am happy to present to you the duo review. It's two reviews for the price of one! I introduce to you my 13 year old sister, whom I'll call The Sister, for this collaboration.

The Sister's End
Blindside's new CD, "About a Burning Fire," is a great addition to their three previous CD's, "Blindside," "A Thought Crushed My Mind," and "Silence." The best song on the CD is "Shekina," which is definitley on my top ten songs of all time. I could probably listen to this CD a good 5 or 6 times a day, if my family would let me...lol. It's too bad my friends don't like Blindside, they sure are missing a lot.

The Theory's End
I didn't really have much hope for this album. "Silence" was Blindside's major label debut and coincidentally, it also ended up being their worst album. Expectations for change usually prove to be futile and disappoint. Look no farther than The Strokes' "Room On Fire" to see what I mean. "Silence" was listenable. Occasionally.

I dare say that I became aware of Blindside before most people in America did. Their first song to appear this side of the Atlantic was "Nerve" from the 1997 Tooth and Nail Records compilation, "Songs From The Penalty Box." To give you a picture of how long ago this was in music history, Zao was still a small spirit-filled hardcore band with only one album under their belt. They would go on to release one of the most influential underground metalcore albums.

Not too long after that compilation, Blindside released their first cd to the masses. It was raw and unconventional with bold lyrics full of imagery. The vocals were the most unique aspect of "Blindside." They were sung in an intentionally off-key wail. Or shouted. Sometimes the lyrics were a spoken word. Heck, I'd even say there was some chanting on that cd. It was a melting pot of hardcore, with more singing than anything else, with punctuation by screaming a random chorus. This didn't stop lazy critics from dubbing it rapcore, despite the lack of rapping on all but a few tracks. Hardcore fans didn't really understand this album, but for those who got it, they tended to treasure it.

"A Thought Crushed My Mind" was the 2000 sophomore release. Here they dropped almost every attempt at singing or chanting and went with an effort composed of head banging hardcore. On the other hand, "Silence," which was released in 2002, all but destroyed their past fan base. It was a typical major label debut. Following current trends of modern emo hardcore, it glossed up any roughness and found a slick side to Blindside's hard rock. The cd pleased fans of radio friendly screaming. It also sounded completely the same all the way through. A couple of songs stood out thanks to better songwriting, but that's like telling the same joke 15 times with the occasional variance in detail.