Haste The Day went through a dramatic change in their music style, particularly when longtime frontman and lead singer Jimmy Ryan decided to leave the band in late 2005 to focus on his marriage. The remaining members wanted to continue on with music and brought on Stephen Keech as their new lead singer. Jimmy Ryan's vocal approach on the first two albums was somewhat identical to the screaming vocals of Dan Weyandt of Zao. With Haste The Day's latest album, Pressure The Hinges, Stephen offered a different vocal approach that is very reminiscent of the screaming vocals of Demon Hunter, Living Sacrifice, and Becoming The Archetype. In early 2007, along with the release of the latest record, Haste The Day also released a Special Edition package of Pressure The Hinges, which included three bonus tracks as well as a limited edition DVD. Mostly, I will be covering the bonus tracks and the content of the DVD in this review.

Before I go any further, I just want to point out that I enjoyed the original release and I regard Pressure The Hinges as Haste The Day's strongest and best album to date. They finished the album on a strong high note with the closing track, called "Chorus of Angels." In the special edition, the bonus tracks include "In Memory," "Sea of Apathy" (which is the original demo of the song "White Collar"), and the demo version of "Chorus of Angels." "In Memory" is a great song about remembering a loved one who has left this world, but I feel that it is out of place and should have been put in between the songs "Stitches" and "Vertigo." The demo tracks hardly messure up to the finished songs that made it to the album and I also feel that the demo tracks should have been left out. At the end of the documentary on the DVD, brothers Brennan and Ben Chaulk point out that there were a few songs that their producer GGGarth wanted them to re-work before they could make it to the record and I believe these demos songs are what they were talking about.

With all of that said, the DVD is what will make die-hard fans of Haste The Day want to buy this special edition release. The DVD of Pressure The Hinges includes an almost one-hour-long documentary of the band as they were on tour as well as some behind the scenes footage of the band as they recorded the new album with Stephen Keech, a full-length concert of Jimmy Ryan's last show that was recorded in their hometown of Indianapolis in December 2005, and all of the music videos from Haste The Day - including "American Love," "The Closest Thing To Closure," and "When Everything Falls." The documentary is very interesting as it will give the viewer an idea of who the band members are as people and what kind of pranks they play on each other. The best part of the DVD is seeing the band members at a friend's house as they find a hidden basement in the living room. The only turn-off on the documentary is that there are times when someone in the background utters some bad language and Haste The Day wanted to edit these bad words out with some recorded dialogue such as "Fruit Cup," "Philly Cheese Steak," and "What?" The editor should have either blanked out the bad language or should have placed a "beep" sound over the dialogue. Jimmy Ryan's last show is very memorable as it is the only show that was recorded with Jimmy to be featured on a DVD release. It's also great to hear Jimmy share his testimony at the show of how he came to know Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. The music videos are great and I wish there could even be more.

As an entire package, the Pressure The Hinges: Special Edition is an excellent release that will appeal to die-hard fans of Haste The Day as well as anyone who enjoys Christian hardcore metal. The included demo tracks can be easily forgiven and "In Memory" is just out of order. Be sure to catch these guys on tour as well as the release of their fourth album on Solid State Records expected sometime later this year.