Pads & Panels

Best of 2011 – Archie’s Music Picks

 

The Best

Evanescence – Evanescence (Wind-up)

Evanescence’s newest self titled album is more of a return to form rather than a reimagining of their sound. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as their more subdued last album, The Open Door, was a bit of a departure from what fans of the band’s breakout hit “Fallen” had come to expect. Songs like “The Change” are laced with the Amy Lee’s signature melodic vocals, heavy drum beats and rich guitar-laden tracks, all while maintaining a generally uptempo sound. While it’s great that the band has returned to their trademark sound, there are a few of songs that sound similar to each other. That being said, this is still a great album and a must-have for fans. (more…)

Hopefully some of you remember our “Fall Cleaning Grab Bag” back in October. Well, we’ve accumulated another closet-ful of prizes, so we thought it was time for a “Spring Cleaning Grab Bag.” We’ll be giving away a prize a day to randomly selected readers who comment on the daily posts. That means there will be a ton of chances to win. We also may give away some extra prizes via email, through our Facebook fan page, or our twitter feed (@padsandpanels), so stay alert. We’ve got an incredibly kickass arsenal of prizes this time around  (read below).

Everybody (meeting our usual guidelines) is eligible for this contest, but you can only win once in this series of giveaways. As we pick winners by various methods, we will allow those winners to each pick one (1) item from what is left of the following list of items for a prize. Remember, though, we will be picking winners all week, so if we email you the list, don’t hear back, and a later winner has already picked your hopeful prize, you’ll wind up stuck with what’s left. Is that clear? (more…)