Emery’s debut album The Weak’s End may well have arrived at the most opportune time. Around the time Emery first emerged onto the scene and started recording their debut full-length, a sea change was going on in the music scene – post-hardcore, emo, and pop-punk bands were getting snapped up by labels everywhere (kinda like what happened with grunge and nu-metal bands previously). It was a time where labels still invested a lot of money in artist development, CD sales hadn’t dried up to the point of irrelevance, and bands like Fall Out Boy, Story Of The Year, and even My Chemical Romance could be headliners by album #2 (or in some cases, right after a hot debut – Story Of The Year toured with Linkin Park shortly after the release of Page Avenue).
Signed to Tooth And Nail Records (where they joined Anberlin, Underoath, and Dead Poetic), Emery became part of that burgeoning group of young talent with The Weak’s End. Released on January 27th, 2004, the album’s blend of post-hardcore energy and emo immediately established themselves as a band to watch out for. Of course, that’s pretty easy to do when your opening two tracks are as impressive as “Walls” and “The Ponytail Parades”. And while later albums in the band’s catalogue would help them experience more commercial success (The Question, …In Shallow Seas We Sail) as well as musical growth, The Weak’s End remains a fascinating look back at what the scene was like back in 2004.
