First, I must say what freakishly cool album artwork accompanies Bone Palace Ballet, the new release from Michigan's Chiodos (pronounced Chee-OH-Dose), their second full-length, now out on Equal Vision Records. The Tim Burton-esque skeleton figures are odd and intriguing, just like the completed work.

The closest immediate comparison I can make is to My Chemical Romance. Both bands feature captivating, unconventional frontmen and punk rock set to a grand scale of classical and cinematic aspects. While My Chemical Romance went the way of a rock opera, Bone Palace Ballet plays as some sort of morbid, abstract form of art, its title taken from poet Henry Charles Bukowski. Let's get this out of the way: The most annoying thing about this album is the quirky and utterly ridiculous song titles, sometimes a sentence long; for instance: “Is It Progression if a Cannibal Uses a Fork?,” “If I Cut My Hair, Hawaii Will Sink” and “I Didn't Say I Was Powerful, I Said I Was a Wizard.” But the music is the main focus and it's a strange brew of punk rock, post-hardcore, prog-rock, metal and classical. Lead vocalist Craig Owens whines, moans, screams, growls and whimpers through all these variations in style like some sort of mental patient. His vocals take a little getting used to, but they fit the band's diverse style. Many music fans will overlook this as some sort of Hot Topic trend or the latest “in" thing, but Bone Palace Ballet is an ambitious recording, which is becoming rare these days. There are moments of brilliant guitar work surrounded by piano and orchestral arrangements and other moments when Chiodos seems like they even forgot what direction they were headed. Hardcore, punk-rock sing-alongs find their way into a few tracks, and dark, strange lyrics (which seem suicidal, if you ask me) stand out, even if the listener has no clue as to what statement they are trying to make. The best part about the album is that it plays out as some sort of dark ballet. Now we just have to find a movie that it plays along with for any of this to make sense.

Chiodos gets high marks for going out on a limb and not composing an album for Top 40 radio. Their first release, All's Well That End's Well, sold more than 100,000 copies, so it would have been easy for them to do so. Bone Palace Ballet is certainly an acquired taste, but any music fan can give Chiodos props for their vision and drive for experimentation, even if we don't know what the hell they're trying to do.