One of our favorite labels, Slospeak Records, are currently giving away a summer sampler over at Noisetrade, featuring free songs from Blood & Water, Sons, Owen Pye, Pioneer, and Golden Youth. The sampler can be downloaded below or right here.

You may remember hearing the name Blood & Water, from when we reviewed their fantastic album In Character, but now our good friends over at Indie Vision Music are offering the whole album for free! That's right, you can download In Character until next Friday, April 8th, completely for free, no strings attached, right here.

In addition to that download, the folks over at Facedown Records are offering a free sampler of their many bands in honor of this year's Facedown Fest, including new songs from Hope For The Dying, Take It Back!, Gideon and Onward To Olympas, as well as some great songs from My Epic, Your Memorial and A Plea For Purging, to name a few. The 17-song sampler can be downloaded at AmazonMP3.

Artist: Blood and Water
Album: In Character
Release Date: 7/13/10
Label: Eden Records

Sophomore albums can be a big deal for a band. Especially if following up a good debut, the follow up always seems to hold high expectations. Well, the young talent of Blood and Water are back with In Character, certainly satisfying my anticipation for hopes of a great second album. Their self-titled debut showcased a lot of energy and power from the band, which is now much more polished off and matured.

In Character is filled with 13 infectious pop punk tracks that serve as a great summer album to roll down the windows and drive to. The opening tracks, "Sleep It Off" and "McGee and Me," start off the album with a bang and are two solid pop punk/rock tracks that get you ready for the musical journey that you're about to embark on while listening to the album. The highly catchy "Opening Band" has some of the best hooks on In Character, no doubt. The pop flavored verses are sweet to the ears and also tell the story of things that Blood and Water have gone through as a band. A ska influence can be heard on "Opening Band" and especially on "Oblio." The guitar line found throughout the song shows comparisons to Five Iron Frenzy's "Every New Day." This comes as no surprise as the band worked with acclaimed producer Masaki who in fact produced Five Iron Frenzy's albums.

A maturity shows in the songwriting and acoustic style of "Feeling Better," offering up a chilling question, "Is anyone listening?" The song also talks off not being able to move on without God. The upbeat "Sinking" includes some more great guitar work and a chorus of "You know I'm trying my best to keep my head above the water, I can work this out." The piano that comes in midway through the song brings to mind a style along the likes of Relient K and Stellar Kart. A few tracks later comes "Gakou," with some of the most honest lyrical content on In Character, "I can't be everything, I can't do what I say I will do, I'm just trying to keep us all singing now." The song is a cry for God to let us know that He will make everything okay. The ballad "Interstate" ends the album and is another acoustic driven song. The bridge of "Sleep It Off" is also repeated to end the album, which has the message that we can put our troubles and trust in God.

Rating: 9/10 Blood and Water have done it again with In Character, showing that Blood and Water are not slowing down. The album has a great theme lyrically, being that we need to get past our expectations and make a difference for God in our lives. This is a message that we certainly need to hear and Blood and Water have presented it quite nicely in one of the best albums that the summer had offered thus far.

Tracklisting:

1. Sleep It Off
2. McGee and Me
3. Opening Band
4. Hear Me Out
5. Oblio
6. Feeling Better
7. I Am Spartacus
8. Sinking
9. Given Up
10. Weighed and Measured
11. Gakou
12. Secondhand
13. Interstate

(Buy Here)