Hailing from Long Island, New York, Bayside has kicked off their new album, The Walking Wounded in grand fashion. With their recently released album (Feb. 6^th), the quartet is on pace to top their old sales numbers, and crack into the upper regions of the Billboard chart.

The Victory Records label band is an energetic and enticing band that blends emo, punk and Weezer-style alt-rock for a fulfilling new album. On the 12-song Walking Wounded album, the band excels on tracks like the title track, which has a old school hard rock style riffs, before moving into waltzy verses. It’s switch ups like that make the album interesting. Even though it hasn’t been mentioned, the guitars in the band seemed heavily influenced by 80s style hard rock. Tracks like “Choile Hops and Bottled Self Esteem” owe a bit to Guns 'n Roses style riffs. Lead singer Anthony Raneri’s provides a nice balance with the wailing opening riffs.

The band does like to switch things up; such as the tracks after “Esteem” with the sturdy emo jams “Dear Your Holiness” and “A Rite Of Passage.” The real winner on the album is the Weezer-esque “Head On A Plate,” with a highly infectious hook, Victory would be out of their mind to not release this as a single.

The Walking Wounded is produced by the team of Kenny Gioia and Shep Goodman, whose previous credits include Hall & Oates and Mandy Moore. That is no reason for alarm, as Bayside puts together a very complete and satisfying record. The album sold 6,000 copies in the first day and is hoping to make some major noise in their first week album sales when they are released this week.

The band is about to head out on tour with Anberlin and Meg & Dia starting February 21^st in Charlotte, in their first ever national tour. Bayside will be back on the road this summer in the punk-rock summer camp better known as the Warped Tour. Let’s to hoping to Bayside continues to have a steady climb up the ranks of the circuit. Because The Walking Wounded gives them a real chance to do that.

Bayside will be playing with headliners Anberlin at St. Andrew's Hall on Thursday, March 1st. Tickets are available.