Pederson's Playlist: 25 Albums To Get You Through High School

Aging is a funny thing. It sneaks up on you like a ninja in the shadows, or a child waking you up from a dead sleep because it's 6:00 AM and they want to watch television, which makes you have to get up and turn it on and then change your pants because it has scared things out of you that you'd rather not have drying up on your legs. Lately, whenever I get out of bed, I feel pains that I didn't have the night before. It's like all of the things I used to make fun of my dad for feeling have hit me like a freight train. Before I go on, let me just say that I'm only thirty-six years old, which I know is still considered "young" to people on the other side of forty. With the exception of my poor eating habits, I'm fairly healthy and still somewhat young. That being said, I've seen quite a few posts on social media lately that say things like, "Can You Believe This Album Turns 20 Today?" or "20 Years Ago, this Band Was Started!" A lot of them, I can remember actually buying those albums on the day they came out, and I'll tell you what . . . it didn't seem like twenty years ago.

Music today, which I'm sure it has been the same for most generations past, seems strange to me. While the bands I used to listen to are, for the most part, still active, either making albums or participating in nostalgia festivals like "When We Were Young", I don't exactly go hunting for new music anymore. As a High School English teacher, I get asked all the time, what kind of music I listen to, and I'm never really sure how to answer that question. That's what has lead me to making this list. Below, you will find twenty-five albums that I listened to in high school. I know this sounds "emo" but I struggled in high school. My mental health was insanely bad. I was depressed, anxious, and I didn't know how to function as a human being, let a lone as a teenager. So when I say that these albums got me through those four years intact, I don't say that lightly. I mean it.

1) Pearl Jam - Ten

You can't have a musical top 25 list without including Pearl Jam. There's a lot of divide on their newer stuff, but Ten is hands down one of the greatest albums ever made. I remember being introduced to them by my neighbor when I was in the 9th grade. I was going through a lot back then, and you could argue that year was one of the worst peaks of my depression. Hearing Eddie Vedder's rip-roaring vocals on tracks like "Why Go", "Even Flow", and "Jeremy," and knowing the meaning behind those lyrics, hit me on a level that really spoke to my teenage self. I would even go as far to say that this album tells the story of what it's like to be a teenager, and all of the emotions that come with it. This is why, even today, when I listen to this album, it still resonates and reminds me that the thing about pain is that it demands to be felt. Without feeling it, you can't process things, and without processing things, you can't move on or heal.

2) Deftones - White Pony

Anybody on the verge of going into high school that watched the music video for "Back to School" probably thought to themselves, "Ah so it's just like the movies. There will be cliques, kids skateboarding on campus, and mean teachers." Honestly, the Deftones probably set the perception of the education system back several years with this album and its music videos. However, it is an absolute masterpiece.

Let's talk about the Deftones for a minute. If you were to look at music objectively, you could not listen to a Deftones track and not marvel at how beautiful each and every one is. There's something about Chino Moreno's voice that hits you like a brutal lullaby. The man sings about eating a wolf fetus on one track, and between his voice and the ambient guitars, you don't hear the brutality of it, all you feel is the warmth of the cosmic blanket that is the rest of the song and the proceeding track list. Yes, we are all aware that "White Pony" is a slang term for cocaine, but I think that's the point of the album. You listen to it and you feel good. No substance abuse needed. They even featured the track "Change" on a Dragon Ball Z movie called "Lord Slug". This was one of the defining albums of the early 2000s, and it still holds up amazingly well today.

3) Hawthorne Heights - The Silence in Black and White

I'm pretty sure Hawthorne Heights holds the honor for most played in my car. I remember driving down Pacific Coast Highway, blasting "Ohio is For Lovers", while having a crush on a girl that I knew would never feel those things for me. Hawthorne Heights taught me a lot about love and heartbreak, and that it's okay to feel the weight of it. Being a teenager isn't easy, and knowing that other people felt the things that I felt inside was a comfort beyond words. Even today I'll blast this album while driving around. My kids don't appreciate it very much, but when my daughters experience their first break up, I'll be waiting with this album. "The Silence in Black and White" is one of those albums that will always hold a special place in my heart, as the memories it brings back are visceral and attached to a very specific time in my life. I was forged by these emo anthems, and I hope these songs will one day play at my funeral. I don't want any gospel music or sad country songs. I want the speakers cranked up to max and "Nikki FM" rattling the windows of the church.

4) Finger Eleven - Finger Eleven

Everybody, or at least people capable of rational thought, at some point in their adult lives are able to look back at things they read, or watched, or listened to when they were younger, and are hit with that "Oh so that's what that meant" thought. I always tell my sophomore students the same thing about the books we read, especially Frankenstein. It'll mean a lot more when you've experienced it. This album is definitely in that category for me. There's a lot profound thought expressed in the lyrics that I didn't truly catch until I listened to it as an adult. On the surface, the singer is telling a story about the depths of depression, and coping with thoughts of ending it all. Beneath that, however, it tells a much more significant story, with a far more important message. Though you may not realize it, the way you treat others has a significant impact the course of their lives. Call your friends, call your loved ones, make sure they know they're loved. A simple phone call could be the difference between life and death in people that you may not even realize are struggling. This album is full of "Complicated Questions" and if you listen to it from start to finish, it even answers a few of them.

5) Linkin Park - Meteora

Linkin Park is a band that did something that few bands have ever successfully accomplished. They fused rock with rap. The combination of Chester Bennington's piercing vocals and dark lyrics with Mike Shinoda's melodic raps was a potent one that earned them a spot in music history. I’ve been asked a lot, recently, about how I feel about Linkin Park reuniting with a new singer, after the death of Chester Bennington. I can honestly say that I don’t feel like my opinion should matter on this. While I was a huge fan of Linkin Park when I was younger, "Minutes to Midnight" was the last time I had listened to one of their albums from start to finish, at least by choice. I’m sure their later stuff is fine, but when I look back, I think "Meteora" was an album that I needed to hear at the time that I heard it. Tracks like “Somewhere I Belong” and “Breaking the Habit” really resonated with the things I was feeling and going through back then, as I’m sure many others felt, as well. I was in the ninth grade and I had suddenly become aware of all the things from my childhood that I would never get back. It's like they were making the soundtrack, that year, to my life.

6) The Used - The Used

"Is it worth it can you even hear me? Standing with your spotlight on me!" Every emo kid who was a teenager in the 2000s knows the rest of the words to this song. They've felt the emotional punch of those lyrics, and they've sung them at the top of their lungs, at some point. I just saw them play in Austin last year, with my wife, and you can bet that I did. They were touring with Coheed and Cambria, and it was absolutely one of the best concerts I’d ever been to. I will be 100% transparent. My taste in music was changing in the ninth grade, when this album originally reached my ears. I didn’t immediately enjoy it, as they were a band that didn’t seem to stick to the traditional “rules” of how music should sound. Of course, that was my perception at the time, having been raised on 90s country and whatever albums my mom bought from our local Bible Book Store. However, when I started to crave those heavier sounds and deeper meanings, “The Taste of Ink” and “Box of Sharp Objects” became one of the many anthems of my emerging emo years. Even now, as a high school English teacher, I think Bert McCracken is a poetic genius, who, if he’d been born at the height of classical poetry, would probably be a writer whose works are taught in classrooms.

7) Hopesfall - A Types

Back when music videos were played on television and weren’t resigned to the depths of YouTube, there was a station called MTV 2. On this station, they had a show called “Headbangers Ball”. It was a pure act of fate that I came across this band when I did. In fact, if I hadn't turned on the television at that exact moment, this is a band that probably would have gone under my radar . . . and what a tragedy that would have been. After seeing the music video for “Icarus” and hearing the screams and seemingly endless talent of their lead singer, Jay Forrest, I was momentarily struck with this feeling I couldn’t explain. It wasn’t just Jay’s voice, but also how it was matched with the ambient guitars and lyrical content. There's a beautiful rawness to it all that leaves you floating somewhere between thought and feeling. I actually had the opportunity to interview the band's drummer, Adam Morgan, back before their last album, "Arbiter" came out. The passion that these guys have for the music they make, and the fact that they do it all in their spare time only adds to the appreciation I have for their music. Don't sleep on Hopesfall. Start with "The Satellite Years" and check out the entire catalogue. You won't be disappointed.

8) Breaking Benjamin - We Are Not Alone

I miss New Release Tuesdays. Once upon a time, the weekly release of new media was a sacred thing. Target, Walmart, Bestbuy, all of these places would have entire sections dedicated to the release of brand new music, movies, and video games. I guess the rise of the all digital future has sort of ruined that. Throughout all four years of high school, I was a huge fan of New Release Tuesdays. I remember I was at Bestbuy when I saw this album on an end cap. I bought it purely on a hunch that it might be good. Not only was the album great, but it also paved the way for me to talk to girls by simply asking, "Have you heard this album?" For an acne covered, anxiety ridden freshman like myself, it was a pretty big self-confidence booster. I could make them a copy and then continue to talk to them as they listened to the album. The music video for "So Cold" was also pretty amazing, as it was inspired by "The Crucible". As a literature nerd and English teacher, I still appreciate it to this day.

9) Chevelle - Wonder What's Next

There are albums that have songs on them that you skip, and there are albums that are incredible from front to back. Chevelle’s “Wonder What’s Next” is one of those rare gems that has solid bangers from start to finish. Even the closing acoustic track, “One Lonely Visitor” is packed with all of the emotional baggage that people never admit to having. Being born and raised in Southern California, we had a radio station called KROQ, that played “Send the Pain Below” and “The Red” a few times a day. I remember hearing these songs and feeling those lyrics full of pain, and insecurity, and fear. Every track resonated with who I was and what I was feeling at the time. High school isn’t easy. Even at the best of times, it can be tragic. “Wonder What’s Next” really captures those feelings and leaves you wondering . . . what is next? Does it get better? What else will I have to endure before it gets easier? Unfortunately, it never does. You just find better ways to manage it. Listening to this album is a good place to start.

10) Atreyu - The Curse

Mom, you don't need to look at the front of the CD, it tells you everything you need to know on the back . . . is what I tried telling my mom when this album came out. Luckily, I had a driver's license and just went back to Target for it after she said no. The Curse is an interesting album. Most of the "post-hardcore" or "screamo" albums that came out back then were about unreturned feelings. Atryeu sang about betrayed feelings. It wasn't sad music. It was angry music, and it was spectacular. Atreyu is one of those bands that I’ve had the rare privilege of seeing multiple times in concert. However, they also have the honor of being the very first band that I saw in concert. It was the Taste of Chaos lineup in Downtown Long Beach. They played with Thrice, The Deftones, and a little band from Sacramento called Dredg. The show was great, but I have a lot of fond memories of this album. It was the soundtrack to one of the best summers I remember having. I’d spent a couple of years drowning in my own depression, feeling like I didn’t have friends or really anybody who cared about me. That summer, things changed. I got out of my head, started hanging out with people. Out of necessity, I had to breach that metaphorical wall, and if I hadn’t, I would have never discovered this album. I would have never done anything except exist . . . and just barely.

11) Coheed and Cambria - Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV - Volume One: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness

Trying to get people to understand why Coheed and Cambria are such an amazing band, especially in high school, can be rather difficult. They always say, “that singer sounds like a girl.” Well, let’s be honest, a majority of the bands coming out at that time, especially emo bands had singers that sounded like girls. It might have been because everybody was borrowing jeans from their sisters. Claudio Sanchez does not sound like a girl. He’s just able to hit unnaturally high notes that normal people can’t. This album played in just about every car I traveled in during my senior year. My friend group was obsessed with it. I was, too. Even today, I blast “The Suffering” in my car. I listen to it so much, my kids know every word to it, and have it added to their Alexa playlists. I got to hear the album live a couple of years ago in Austin. I had a pretty severe panic attack midway through and had to go get some air, but it was still absolutely incredible. There has been a Coheed and Cambria album released during every significant stage of my life. They’ve become embedded in the soundtrack of my life, and I'm sure there are still plenty of songs to add.

12) Madina Lake - From Them, Through Us, To You

Out of all of the bands on this list, Madina Lake was truly just a phase. I don’t say that because they were bad, but because I was discovering so many new bands at the same time, that I never really kept track of what these guys were up to. Apparently their last album came out in 2011 and was titled “World War III”. If that would have dropped in 2024, it would probably be incredibly relevant. I remember my brother and I became obsessed with their debut album, “From Them, Through Us, to You” and played it until we nearly wore the CD out. “Here I Stand” and “House of Cards” definitely stand out in my mind, but what gives these guys an extra edge in my memories is the fact the singer and guitar player (who are brothers) were on Fear Factor, which was the story we would tell when people would ask why we liked them. "Why do you like this band?" They do cool stunts, bro.

13) Slipknot - Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses

Slipknot is a band that definitely comes with some stereotypes. Baggy clothes, spiked hair, nose rings, shops at Hot Topic, all very much valid, but also probably makes up less than 30% of the people who listen to them. Slipknot is actually quite a complicated band and their lyrics are incredibly deep. They just seem to pummel you with them instead of gently landing them in your ears. It seemed with this one, Slipknot matured out of the satanic gimmicks of their freshman and sophomore albums and created an album that didn’t just feed into the rage of teenagers, but also helped them to deal with it. “Duality” speaks to the two beasts raging in us all and the fight over which ones we're going to feed. “Circles” talks about death and mourning what’s lost. “Before I Forget” talks about the battles we face with our mental health and dealing with our metaphorical monsters. Most would consider it bad parenting to recommend a Slipknot album to a sixteen year old, but from the perspective of somebody who studies and teaches literature to teenagers, this album is still amazingly relevant to what they’re going through.

14) Staind - Break the Cycle

I used to pride myself on being a connoisseur of musical knowledge, especially in the realm of Nu-Metal bands. My knowledge always had women lining up . . . to talk to everybody except me. Anyways, a fun fact for you, Staind was actually discovered by Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit. Apparently he was offended by the cover of their EP and ended up helping them get signed in the midst of his disgust. Objectively speaking, it’s impossible to listen to “It’s Been a While” and not immediately be emotionally struck by the lyrics. Say what you want about Aaron Lewis’s performance of the "Star Spangled Banner" at the World Series, back in 2014, the guys from Staind have always been incredibly gifted at taking the Nu-Metal sound and turning it into something that reaches people outside of the genre. As a fifteen year old kid in the mindset I was back in high school, this album gave me hope and comfort. I remember listening to it on the bus ride to school in the morning, and hearing the story it was telling. These songs carried me through some difficult times, and I am incredibly grateful for them.

15) Yellowcard - Ocean Avenue

"There's a place off Ocean Avenue, where I used to sit and talk with you. We were both sixteen and it felt so right, sleepin' all day stayin' up all night." I love this album, but I also hate it. Whenever I listen to it, I get this gut punch to my nostalgia. It's like getting hit by a semi-truck full of memories. This one is different from the rest on this list, because the songs actually talk about places that I spent a lot of time near when I was growing up. Long Beach, California, was my old stomping grounds, and I can picture a lot of the places this album references. It takes me back, and I miss those days. I also remember listening to this album almost every day, as the person who took me home from track practice was obsessed with it. He was a friend of my sisters, who just happened to live down the street from us. We didn't always talk in the car, but we both knew every word these songs. I still know them, and you can bet I can sing them at the top of my lungs whenever they come on.

16) Underoath - They're Only Chasing Safety

This is it. This is the pinnacle of the post-hardcore albums released in the early 2000s. Every teenager who grew up in this time period has memories attached to this record. How could you not? I mean look at it. The cover art is freaking intense, and the mixture of Spencer Chamberlain's screams and Aaron Gillespie's clean vocals created this powerhouse of musical intensity, while also highlighting everything that hurt about being a teenager. Funny story about this one . . . I got this album when I was a freshman, and my mom was still clinging to that idea that we were going to be the perfect Christian family in the eyes of her friends and the church. She would only ever let my brother and I listen to music we got from the local bible bookstore. A lot of people don't know this, but a majority of the post-hardcore bands that were popular at the time, actually started out in the Christian genre. My mom bought me this album, thinking I'd finally stepped into the light, but when I put in the CD player on the way home, and "Young and Aspiring" blared through the speakers of our Chevy Suburban, she knew then, that I would never be tamed.

17) Hundred Reasons - Shatterproof Is Not a Challenge

This might come as a surprise to many of you, but I was sort of a nerd in high school. Currently, I'm a nerd that teaches high school, but that's not the point. What I mean to say is that when I was in high school, I spent a lot of time playing video games. One year, on my birthday, I was gifted Sony's first handheld console, the PSP. I felt insanely cool. Anyways, with this PSP, I was given a copy of Midnight Club Racing. The game changed my musical taste forever. Actually, that might be a bit of an overstatement, as most of the songs on that game weren't actually that great, but one song stuck out to me. It was called "Stories With Unhappy Endings", by a band called Hundred Reasons. This was way before iTunes had the diverse catalogue of music they had today. Back then, you had to go to Tower Records, if you wanted music by anybody outside of the United States, and you had to dig through their "Import" section. I must have been in there just at the right moment, as I found a single copy of this world-changing album. I listened this one from start to finish for several weeks, loving every track, and hating that I couldn't just jump in a plane and go see them play in the United Kingdom, where they were from. Eventually, iTunes got all of their music, and I was able to hear the rest of their catalogue. I even got the opportunity to interview their lead singer, Colin Doran, on my podcast, "The Super BS Gamescast", where we got to talk about music and video games. It was actually one of the coolest conversations I've ever had, as his gaming knowledge far exceeds my own.

18) Norma Jean - Redeemer

In high school, there were always plenty of days where I just wanted to close myself up in my room and yell at the top of my lungs. When I couldn't do that, Norma Jean was a good substitute. Now, not to be confused with Marilyn Monroe, Norma Jean put what could be seen as a southern tint on the post-hardcore scene. While their lyrics are full of religious material from the works of C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and the Bible, they never classified themselves as a Christian band, which made them that much cooler to Christian kids who picked up their music. They challenged the conventional idea of what organized religion is, while still feeding teenagers with positive messages. "Redeemer" is a masterpiece with so many layers of intellect hiding beneath Cory Brandan's piercing and heartfelt screams.

19) Limp Bizkit - Results May Vary

It seems like people lose credibility with music enthusiasts when they say they like Limp Bizkit. In fact, on their last album, "Still Sucks", Fred Durst wrote a track about it. Personally, there has been things by Limp Bizkit that I've enjoyed and things that I haven't. That being said, I've always been incredibly fascinated by this album. "Significant Other" and "Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water" are albums that both came out at the peak of the Nu-Metal era, however, much like screamo began to taper off in the late 2000s, so did Nu-Metal, just a few years sooner. "Results May Vary" is an album about a band trying to find its place in a shifting musical landscape. Because of this, Fred Durst had to also figure out who he was, which caused them to create music that went a little deeper than their previous songs about chainsaws, impressing women, and cookie storage. "Results May Vary" is exactly what the title makes you think, they took a chance and the results varied amongst fans, but "Eat You Alive" and their cover of "Behind Blue Eyes" will forever stand out in a catalogue of highs and lows, for a band that has defied the odds more than once.

20) Saosin - Saosin

I'm pretty sure the artwork for this album has been tattooed on more emo arms and legs than any other music tribute. If you wanted to perfectly capture what it was like to be a teenager and the challenges they faced in the 2000s, this is the album that would perfectly sum it up. The opening track, "It's Far Better to Learn", talks about finding self-worth and overcoming the struggle to believe in yourself, and "You're Not Alone" digs into the importance of sharing our struggles with others and letting people know that they're not alone in what they feel. Not only is this album an important part of the soundtrack of growing up, but it also speaks to the art of overcoming our internal struggles, something that I have a hard time with, even today.

21) Silverstein - Discovering the Waterfront

If you had to pick an album to define what screamo is, it would probably be Silverstein's "Discovering the Waterfront". It's as if Shane Told took his diary and screamed it to the sounds of shredding guitars and melodic choruses. "Discovering the Waterfront" tackles issues of unreturned feelings and heartbreak. It digs into the very essence of what it's like to be somewhere between the ages of sixteen and twenty, and long for love and acceptance that you will never have. On the opposite side of that, it also talks about obsession and struggling to metaphorically "carve" feelings out that you can't seem to stop having. This album is a rollercoaster of teenage angst and emotion. If you were to shove into a time capsule and open it thousands of years from now, it would paint a perfect picture of the emotional spectrum of teenagers and young adults, not just in the 2000s but well beyond. "Discovering the Waterfront" is all about discovering your feelings and actually taking the time to feel them.

22) Stone Sour - Stone Sour

A band named after a cocktail probably has music full of positive messages . . . said no Christian mother, ever. By the time I discovered this album, my mom had given up on trying to patrol what I listened to. I was a free man, free to explore musical tastes beyond the shelves of the Bible Bookstore and the repetitive sounds of 95.9 The Fish. I found Stone Sour at Bestbuy one day, while trying to find something to listen to during the vacation that we took every year. I picked it up and was pleasantly surprised by the mixture of heaviness melted together with more blues sounding guitars. I was even more surprised when I realized the lead singer was Corey Taylor of Slipknot fame. When the showmanship and gimmicks of Slipknot were peeled back for this more raw look at Corey Taylor's psyche, it created something quite breath-taking, bringing you in with a heavy track like "Get Inside" and keeping you there with the melodic and heart-breaking melody of "Bother". I've said this once, and I'll say it again, Corey Taylor is an insanely talented man.

23) Thrice - The Artist in the Ambulance

When I was sixteen, a friend of mine made me a copy of this album. I had heard my friends talk about Thrice enough times, and I wanted in on the secret. I put this in the CD player of my truck, and over the course of the next month, it never came out. I worked at AMC theaters in Long Beach at the time, and I would take PCH on my way home, while blasting the album out of my open windows. There's something about Dustin Kensrue screaming about foreign atrocities and corporate greed that made me feel like I was going to leave high school and use my voice to make my mark on the world. Then there was the album's title track, "The Artist in the Ambulance", that told the story of a man finding God in the midst of death, which I'm sure was a story or metaphor for Dustin's own path to faith. Even today, I reflect on the lyrics to that song, and I think about my own faith, wondering what it would be like to find God outside of the numb formulas of growing up in the church.

24) Motion City Soundtrack - Commit This to Memory

Have you ever seen those memes where the couple is lying in bed and the woman is thinking about how the man is probably thinking about other women, but the man is actually thinking about something stupid like building a lego set? That pretty much sums up this band. They sing about things that people actually think about but never voice. For example, "Everything is Alright" goes through all of the thoughts that the lead singer has in his anxiety-ridden head but isn't quite sure how to get out. He begins by saying, "I hate the ocean theme parks and airplanes, talking to strangers, and waiting in line," and eventually lands on, "I'm sick of the things I do when I'm nervous, like cleaning the oven or checking my tires." This album is a beautiful insight into not just the emotions of teenage and young adult life, but also the ridiculousness and tragedy of it all. While this album will have you laughing at moments, it's also full of this profound sadness, as is found in the loneliness of "Together We'll Bring in the New Year." I've never related to music as much as I relate to Motion City Soundtrack (even today), and I know that I'm not the only one.

25) My Chemical Romance - Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge

I have a feeling that the internet would probably destroy me if I didn't include My Chemical Romance in some form on this list. Let me first hit you with my controversial opinion . . . "Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge" is leagues better than "The Black Parade". At the risk of sounding like a hipster, bragging about their love of Mumford in Sons, I will simply say that yes, I have listened to this band since their debut album, "I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love." However, I don't believe that everything they ever made was amazing. In fact, it took me a while to even enjoy this album. That being said, when I finally got myself in tune with the band's sound, I fell in love with this CD and the mobster undertones in Gerard's voice. Even beyond the obvious tracks that are "Helena" and "I'm Not Okay", there's still plenty of content here to appeal to fans of this genre. It has all of the sounds of what you might consider an "emo" album mixed with the macabre fascinations of an Edgar Allen Poe story. Even if My Chemical Romance never makes another album, much like the classic writers of yesteryear, they will forever be immortalized in the art they've created.

Mix Tape Version:

I wrote this as an ode to the albums that helped carry me through my high school years, however, I know there are quite a few people out there who don't listen to full albums. If that's you, here's a mix tape/playlist track list to get you through.

1) Pearl Jam - Why Go

2) Deftones - Back to School (Mini Maggit)

3) Hawthorne Heights - Nikki FM

4) Finger Eleven - Complicated Questions

5) Linkin Park - Somewhere I Belong

6) The Used - The Taste of Ink

7) Hopesfall - Icarus

8) Breaking Benjamin - So Cold

9) Chevelle - The Red

10) Atreyu - Bleeding Mascara

11) Coheed and Cambria - Welcome Home

12) Madina Lake - Here I Stand

13) Slipknot - Duality

14) Staind - It's Been Awhile

15) Yellowcard - Ocean Avenue

16) Underoath - Young and Aspiring

17) Hundred Reasons - Stories With Unhappy Endings

18) Norma Jean - A Grand Scene for a Color Film

19) Limp Bizkit - Eat You Alive

20) Saosin - It's Far Better to Learn

21) Silverstein - Your Sword Versus My Dagger

22) Stone Sour - Bother

23) Thrice - Stare at the Sun

24) Motion City Soundtrack - Everything is Alright

25) My Chemical Romance - Helena

26) Pearl Jam - Even Flow

27) Deftones - Change (In the House of Flies)

28) Hawthorne Heights - Ohio is for Lovers

29) Finger Eleven - Stay in Shadow

30) Linkin Park - Numb

31) The Used - Box Full of Sharp Objects

32) Hopesfall - The Ones

33) Chevelle - Send the Pain Below

34) Atreyu - The Crimson

35) Coheed and Cambria - The Suffering

36) Madina Lake - House of Cards

37) Slipknot - Before I Forget

38) Staind - Outside

39) Yellowcard - Only One

40) Underoath - Reinventing Your Exit

41) Norma Jean - Blue Prints for Future Homes

42) Limp Bizkit - Behind Blue Eyes

43) Saosin - You're Not Alone

44) Silverstein - My Heroine

45) Thrice - Artist in the Ambulance

46) Motion City Soundtrack - Together We'll Bring in the New Year

47) My Chemical Romance - I'm Not Okay

48) Pearl Jam - Jeremy

49) Finger Eleven - One Thing

50) The Used - Tunnels

51) Chevelle - One Lonely Visitor

52) Underoath - It's Dangerous Business Walking Out Your Front Door