Six albums and over 10 years as a band, A Day To Remember have become one of the biggest bands in the alternative scene by appealing to a wide variety of people, touring heavily, and releasing catchy yet heavy music. It’s easy to forget that the band was once playing small local shows in the Southeast, though. ADTR wasn’t always as big as they are now, and with their most recent album Bad Vibrations being the band’s most successful album to date, where does it rank among their discography? Find out below, as we rank the band’s albums from worst to best.
#6: Bad Vibrations (2016)
Even though Bad Vibrations isn’t nearly the band’s best record, it certainly has its share of highlights. Album closer “Forgive And Forget” is one of the band’s best to date, and tracks like “Reassemble” and the title track reaffirm that A Day To Remember are solid musicians, too. While it’s a bit of by-the-numbers ADTR, the heaviness and rage are a nice touch. The title track even shows off some Eighteen Visions-influenced pinch harmonics that shift into a massive breakdown.
#5: What Separates Me From You (2010)
Prime single “All I Want” (with its video being full of cameos by everyone from Sam Carter (Architects) to Oliver Sykes (BMTH) is one of the best songs on an album that’s full of songs that could be considered among the band’s best. 33 minutes packed full of pop-punk hooks and occasionally ferocious metalcore, album opener “Sticks And Bricks” is a slightly flawed but equally indicative blend of the band’s heavy and light dichotomy, with one of the band’s best choruses but also a moshpit inducing breakdown. There’s little filler here, but ADTR made both better overall albums and more important ones, mainly…
#4: And Their Name Was Treason (2005)
3/4 of the way through opening track “Heartless”, there’s one of A Day To Remember’s most crushing breakdowns to date… but only right after one of the band’s catchiest choruses as well, and though the production is pretty “meh”, And Their Name Was Treason was a groundbreaking combination of metalcore and obscenely catchy pop-punk. It’s really no wonder A Day To Remember eventually became huge, and the raw production is actually one of the things that makes this album a fan favorite. It’s an album that has many great songs, but also signals what the band would do later. “I am invincible.”
#3: Homesick (2009)
Homesick is full of arena-ready anthems, whether it’s album highlight “NJ Legion Iced Tea” or the fan favorite “Have Faith In Me”. The album isn’t full-on pop-punk, though – tracks like the underrated “Welcome To The Family” and “Mr. Highway’s Thinking About the End” show ADTR not going completely soft. Homesick was the band’s breakout album. Of particular note is album closer “If It Means A Lot To You”, which features Sierra Kusterbeck, and is one of the band’s best tracks overall – the buildup to a powerful climax is a great one.
#2: Common Courtesy (2013)
Starting with a powerful ode to their hometown in opening track “City Of Ocala”, Common Courtesy is a serious contender for A Day To Remember’s best album. In fact, the opening trifecta (which also includes the solid “Right Back At It Again” and “Sometimes You’re The Hammer, Sometimes You’re The Nail”, one of the best ADTR tracks ever put to tape, period. It’s then followed up with the metalcore stomp of “Dead and Buried”. Evidenced by “The Document Speaks For Itself”, the album is definitely a middle finger to Victory Records, but the most unexpected song here is “End Of Me”. The slow-burning song has a really, really nice buildup and is a good chance of pace, sitting in the final quarter of the album. Tracks like this would make Common Courtesy ADTR’s best album, if not for…
#1: For Those Who Have Heart (2007)
10 years ago in 2007, A Day To Remember released their Victory Records debut album For Those Who Have Heart. The band’s groundbreaking blend of metalcore and pop-punk was, at the time, a brand new genre that nobody had really tackled yet. The entire album works both as the band’s mission statement and a harbinger of their success to come. Smack dab in the middle of the album is “The Price We Pay”, a slow, quiet song that helped boost their fanbase and keep a different tempo of sorts, while lesser known tracks like “I Heard It’s The Softest Thing Ever” and the chugging riffing/breakdowns of “The Danger In Starting A Fire” are among the heaviest ADTR tracks had released to date. Luckily, they’re broken up by more accessible tracks like the singles “The Plot To Bomb The Panhandle” and “Monument”, the latter being a signal the band truly believed in the style they were playing, despite their detractors. The album is filled with these memorable lyrics.
“And I’ll scream so loud that everyone in this place
Will hear every word I say
Because this is my time, this is my time to shine
let nothing stand in our way
Twenty bucks says you’ll remember me
When you see me on your TV screen
It may be the first time
But it won’t be the last time”
There was a point during my first listen to this album early in 2007. Seeing a promo video which included the song “A Shot In The Dark”, the closing lines “Mark my words, we’re taking over the world” seemed oddly prophetic at the time, and after hearing the song probably a few dozen times, I knew this was going to be a groundbreaking album. And it still is even a decade later, if you considering all the current bands who are influenced by it (Chunk! No, Captain Chunk!, anyone?). In reality, the fusion of metalcore and pop-punk should have fallen on its face. The fact that it even exists at all? It’s a testament to A Day To Remember’s songwriting abilities and hard work. They’re proof you can come from a small town and still do something great. “City Of Ocala” states this well.
“Remember way back when? They said this life was a dream. Well it still is, and I never wanna wake. Standing in my backyard at our old practice space, hard to hold back the tears from streaming down my face.
That was then, this is now. You can’t run before you go learn how, and you won’t.
This is our corner of the world, where we can come to be ignored.
This is our point where we return. This is where I came from.
Remember way back when? This place seemed bigger to me. Learned how to play guitar, and made my mom watch me. We always knew back then, just where I’d be right now. We never questioned it, was more like when and how.
That was then, this is now. You can’t run before you go learn how, and you won’t.
This is our corner of the world, where we can come to be ignored.
This is our point where we return. This is where I came from.
This is what made us who we became. Where they know me, not just my name. There’s not another place the same, this is where I came from. This is where I came from.
You had another thing coming if you were sleeping on us. Same old voices in my ear saying enough is enough. Well, I’m saying me and all my friends don’t need you around.
This is where I came from.
I’m right back at it again.
This is what made us who we became, where they know me, not just my name.
There’s not another place the same, this is where I came from.”
