Losing All

Personnel: Joe Pangallo (guitar, background vocals); Chris Pangallo (piano, background vocals); Evan Bradford, Rogers Masson, Randy Cantor (piano); Zach Simms (drums, background vocals).
Audio Mixer: Mark Needham.
Recording information: Echo Mountain, Asheville, NC; Smoking Gun Studios, Nashville, TN; The Rog Mahal, Nashville, TN.
Photographer: Kristin Barlowe.
Day of Fire's third album securely walks the line between all-out rock warfare and accessible pop stardom, a balance for which they can credit the contributions of their friend and tourmate Chris Daughtry. The Idol alum was a guest writer on Losing All, the Nashville band's first studio effort in three years. Like Daughtry and Nickelback, Day of Fire light it up with ambitious guitar work and vocals that are swirling and dark without resorting to screams. Guitarist Joe Pangallo plays dirty, heavy rock from start to finish, giving fans another tour de force of post-grunge anthems that teeter on the precipice of full-on sonic blasts. The slow, thuggish romp of "Landslide" is at once brooding and forceful. Frontman Josh Brown has rarely sounded as effortless and personal as on the super-charged energy of "Airplane" and "Cold Addiction," the latter of which describes moving past a near-fatal cocaine overdose. The redemption of Brown's own personal life -- which came during drug rehab -- is on full display throughout this disc, at the same time giving listeners reason to think and to rock out. ~ Jared Johnson