''Our Gangs Dark Oath'' is the debut studio album released by

post-hardcore Post-hardcore is a punk rock music genre that maintains the aggression and intensity of hardcore punk but emphasizes a greater degree of creative expression. It was initially inspired by post-punk and noise rock. Like post-punk, the term has been ...

band

Aiden Aiden was an American horror punk band from Seattle, Washington that formed in the spring of 2003. They achieved underground success during the mid to late 2000s with their classic lineup, featuring vocalist William Francis, guitarists Angel Ib ...

on June 1, 2004. Originally, the album was only available in North America, but it was recently re-released in Europe and again by

Victory Records Victory Records is a Chicago-based record label founded by Tony Brummel. It operates a music publishing company called "Another Victory, Inc." and is the distributor of several record labels. It has featured many prominent artists including Thur ...

. "Our Gang's Dark Oath" is also the name of the second chapter of "

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ''Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'' or as it is known in more recent editions, ''The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'', is a novel by American author Mark Twain, which was first published in the United Kingdom in December 1884 and in the United St ...

" by

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...

.Griffiths, Mark. ''

Kerrang! ''Kerrang!'' is a British weekly magazine devoted to rock, punk and heavy metal music, currently published by Wasted Talent (the same company that owns electronic music publication ''Mixmag''). It was first published on 6 June 1981 as a one- ...

'' #1261, May 16, 2009. Treasure Chest. An Intimate Portrait Of Life In Rock. wiL Francis, p. 58

Track listing

Background, music and lyrics

''Our Gangs Dark Oath'' is a

album with elements of punk rock and sometimes

screamo Screamo (also referred to as skramz) is an aggressive subgenre of emo that emerged in the early 1990s and emphasizes "willfully experimental dissonance and dynamics".Jason Heller, "Feast of Reason". ''Denver Westword'', June 20, 2002Access date: ...

. The album's style is similar to the band

AFI AFI may refer to: * ''Address-family identifier'', a 16 bit field of the Routing Information Protocol * Ashton Fletcher Irwin, an Australian drummer * AFI (band), an American rock band ** ''AFI'' (2004 album), a retrospective album by AFI rele ...

, with lyrics being about singer

Wil Francis William Roy "wiL" Francis (a.k.a. William Control) (born January 8, 1982) is an American rock musician, record producer, author, and artist. He came to prominence as the lead vocalist and principal songwriter of the horror punk band Aiden. Bio ...

' history of drug abuse and struggles from being on his own by his mid-teen years and leaving jail (Francis was in his early 20s when ''Our Gangs Dark Oath'' was recorded). Francis got kicked out of school in 8th grade and never went to high school. Francis said during Aiden's early years, he was angry at the world but later stopped caring about it.

World by Storm

The beginning of "World by Storm" contains a sound clip from the courtroom scene of '' Boondock Saints''. Also, this song contains two segments of silence along with two hidden tracks. "World by Storm" ends at 3:50 followed by silence until 8:00. Then an untitled hidden track begins, a track which contains nothing but a piano. The "Piano Track" plays in regular time until 10:30, at which point the song fades out for just a second and exactly the same song begins playing in reverse. This plays until 13:00. At this point, the song ends and another segment of silence begins. This silence ends at 15:10 and another untitled hidden track begins: this one containing acoustic guitar and the lead singer's voice. This track leads to the end of the song and album. The breakdown of "World by Storm" is as follows: *Boondock Saints – 0:00 – 0:10 *World by Storm – 0:10 – 3:50 *

silence Silence is the absence of ambient audible sound, the emission of sounds of such low intensity that they do not draw attention to themselves, or the state of having ceased to produce sounds; this latter sense can be extended to apply to the ce ...

– 3:50 – 8:00 *Piano track (

hidden track In the field of recorded music, a hidden track (sometimes called a ghost track, secret track or unlisted track) is a song or a piece of audio that has been placed on a CD, audio cassette, LP record, or other recorded medium, in such a way as t ...

, forward) – 8:00 – 10:30 *Piano track (

, reversed) – 10:30 – 13:00 *

– 13:00 – 15:10 *Silent, Perfect, Deadly (

) – 15:10 – 18:00

Critical reception

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

gave the album a neutral review, writing, "Aiden offer up a competent, if not slightly generic, dose of post-hardcore with a dark punk edge" and noting that "the group sounds more like the younger cousins of

My Chemical Romance My Chemical Romance (commonly abbreviated to MCR or My Chem) is an American rock band from Newark, New Jersey. The band's current lineup consists of lead vocalist Gerard Way, lead guitarist Ray Toro, rhythm guitarist Frank Iero, and bassist Mi ...

who just happened to be weaned in a screamo scene."

Chart positions

Personnel

; Aiden * William Francis – lead vocals, piano, programming, keyboard *

Angel Ibarra In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God. Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles include ...

– lead guitar *Jake Wambold – rhythm guitar, backing vocals *

Nick Wiggins Nick may refer to: * Nick (given name) * A cricket term for a slight deviation of the ball off the edge of the bat * British slang for being arrested * British slang for a police station * British slang for stealing * Short for nickname Place ...

– bass, backing vocals *Jake Davison – drums, percussion ; Production * Steve Carter – producer, engineer, mastering, mixing * Aaron Edge – artwork, construction * Jeff Hayes – cover photo

References

Aiden albums 2004 debut albums {{2000s-punk-rock-album-stub