Love and zombies!

Halloween may have passed, but for those still not ready to let go, Mest's new album is sure to keep the holiday spirit alive. Tony Lovato (lead vocals), Jeremiah Rangel (guitarist/vocalist), Nick Gigler (drums) and Matt Lovato (bass) formed the band Mest about four years ago in their working class suburb of Chicago. John Feldmann of Marvin Records helped produce the fourth album, Photographs.\nThe album starts off with songs like "Take me Away (Cried Out to Heaven)" which could easily fool you into believing that this is a Christian group with references to heaven and faith. However, this is only the band's way of foreshadowing the many near-death and death references in the songs to come.\nIf Mary Shelley, blink-182 and Eve 6 somehow managed to produce a love child it would sound something like Photographs. This album is punky, angst-filled and with a flavor of dark romanticism. Songs like "Graveyard," "Dying for You" and "Nightmare" paint pictures closely resembling Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video. The songs are complete with nightmares of enemies closing in and reminders of life, or the lack thereof. \nIt is a paradox how Tony Lovato manages to mix passion and death in every single love song. "Kiss Me, Kill Me," "Dying for You" and "Last Kiss" all deal with this strange phenomena of love secretly waiting for the perfect time to turn into a zombie and then get its morbid groove on. Another interesting element of Mest's album is the amount of gruesome organs and body parts mentioned in the album. The album includes bloodshot eyes, black dying hearts and chests being broken in two. \nNo matter how the lyrics turned out, Mest proves to have some talent. The songs are melodic and all have a great tempo, with the exception of "Can't Take This." Perhaps this was the one song that just pushed itself over the cliff while trying to be edgy. However, it does have maracas in it, so it doesn't exactly suck. \nOverall the album is fairly decent if you don't pay attention to the lyrics. Also try watching "Thriller" using this album as a soundtrack. I haven't tried it yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if it would fit like Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon to "The Wizard of Oz"