I was most surprised by Roads Untraveled in that I'd have never expected it to be my favorite song on the album. I suppose Castle of Glass was surprising too, in that I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. Until it Breaks is definitely the most unique song on the album, but I honestly never expected anything from it, and therefore, wasn't shocked by how different it was, I suppose.
Skin To Bone was a great surprise. And, of course, Until It Breaks was a bit of a surprise too. I was also surprised that Lost In The Echo was done so well for what they wanted to achieve. I now know that they have a song like that in them still.
Lost In The Echo - Did not expect a 'modernized' take on their formula of old to hit that hard. Lies Greed Misery - Tripped out happy-go-lucky melody mixed with screaming. Great, as it is ridiculous at the same time. Skin To Bone - An unexpected full on, gracefully executed song with elements heard on tracks such as: High Voltage (Hybrid Theory EP), Carousel, When They Come For Me. Until It Breaks - Four different sounding demos merged into one? Surprising! Though, the choir-inspired ending is hard to listen to in the context of the rest of the track.
In My Remains, Castle Of Glass, Roads Untraveled, Until It Breaks and Powerless. All in a positive way.
The three that I listened to the other night all surprised me in different ways. Lost In The Echo was predictable based on the reviews of the song up that point, but the fact that Mike had three verses (I think this is right, I only listened once) was surprising. Victimized was surprising, even after the reviews. I expected full brutality, but was met instantly with Mike's soft verse before the heavy electro-infused punk rock chords kicked in. That was pretty sweet, as was Mike's rap verse. His style is so different in every song now, as opposed to the early days where each verse could fit on a different song. This song shouldn't work, but it does. And Until It Breaks was too awesome. The song shifts gears like five different times, and it seems effortless. The real surprise were Brad's vocals. I like that they are trying different things, even while taking a step sideways and utilizing all of the different sounds up until now. I am really looking forward to next Tuesday. I won't allow myself to listen to anything else, or even those songs again until the release date.
Yep, Powerless. In was expecting it to be the classic LP powerfull balad. It was way more good than that finally.
To be honest most of the songs were surprising to me but the ones that stuck out the most were In My Remains, Until It Breaks, Skin to Bone, and Victimized.