(By the way, from here on in this review I will be referring to myself in the third person as if I was being interviewed).

A random meeting with a very random man: Mike Rapin. He began to describe the new album from The Fall of Troy: Manipulator. He sits down in a red leather chair and begins to talk...

Mike Rapin describes this album as "a magnificent work of art... something that should be given to any fan of good non-pop-sh*t/country music." Manipulator begins with two of the catchiest songs Mike Rapin has ever heard come from The Fall Of Troy, "Cut Down All the Trees And Name the Streets After Them" and "The Dark Trail" (the latter being Mike's personal favorite.). Mike added, "I remember first listening to this album and saying, 'hell yes, this is awesome' within the first 45 seconds. The first track had me hooked like a baby on crack and it didn't heap that I fell in love with 'The Dark Trail.' I don't know what it is, but I love well structured music and 'The Dark Trail' just hits me as an outrageously well-structured song. Holy hell I love that song. And things only get better."

Progressing into what appears to be a slower "Quarter Past" you the listener are brought into a world of small headbangs. "This song reminds you that this band has decided to kick you face in with awesomeness," said Mike. "I never wanted this song to end." "Problem!?" begins with more of that awesome guitar riffage expected and things keep on that track making sure you stomach hurts with pleasure. "After 'Problem!?' I nearly started beating off to the straight up bad-ass-ness of 'Semi-Fiction,'" Mike added out of the blue, 'the song has everything I love about this band: prominent and outrageous guitar riffs with definite bass talent and perfectly fit drums. Things usually don't get better than songs like this."

Mike got up and walked around for a bit trying to find the words for the next song, "Oh! the Casino!?." He runs his hand through his hair saying, "Well, the song starts off as something happy yet heavy and progresses into what I once called 'Weezer-like.'" He pause, rubbing his chin, "It's probably the strangest song on the album because it seems like something that came out of the 1950s. Nevertheless, it kicks a lot of ass. I mean, this is The Fall of Troy!" "Sledgehammer." The second longest song on Manipulator. "This song hit me like a bag of lead statues, given the song that preceded it." says Mike with a grin, "I remember seeing this song live and was like, 'how can this be one song? It's too crazy!'" Mike shakes his head, still grinning, "Really though, you have to listen to this song to get the gist of what I mean."

"I think," says Mike, "if there is a random song on this album, it has to be 'Seattlantis.' The song goes in all directions and somehow manages to end up at one of those sing-song choruses that The Fall Of Troy is known for. Hell, there is even some screaming. This song really has it all." Mike stares off into the distance as if remembering parts of the song. "Yea, it's very f**king random, but absolutely fantastic." "Ex-Creations" follows and brings some pain. Upon mentioning this song, Mike immediately shouted, "F**king heavy and f**king guitar-crazy." After, he simply crossed his arms and said, "There is nothing else to say."

Nodding as if annoyed, Mike said, "Yea, I forgot to mention that 'Shhh!!! If You're Quiet, I'll Show You A Dinosaur' is pretty damn heavy too." He scratches the back of his head and begins, "Things are pretty crazy on this one too because of the amount of stopping and starting within the song. I don't know how The Fall Of Troy does it, but they manage to make things not sound like a breakdown and just make music rock your head square off your neck, and it's songs like this that make an exact cut." Next, the unexpected slow, guitar and vocals-only song "Caught Up" was described by Mike as being, "just too right for the album."

When the song "A Man. A Plan. A Canal. Panama." was mentioned, Mike laughed at what he said was "one of the coolest Teddy Roosevelt references ever," but didn't stop at just saying that about this song. "The song is over eight minutes of pure rock-your-socks-off music that doesn't waiver. Every bit is well crafted and set up perfectly to make you not even realize you've been listening to one song for eight minutes; it's all so damn interesting. It's like a book you start reading and is so creative and well thought out, you would only be able to stop if someone interrupted you or there were chapter marks. It's insanely outrageous. Hooray for a kick-ass ending to an album."

On how the CD was as a whole and a 'sum-up' of everything Mike finished with this: "As I said a moment ago about the whole not wanting to stop thing, you could say that's how the entire album is. Everything is so damn interesting and worth listening to you just want to keep going, and if it weren't for the separation of tracks, I think most people would just listen to one whole track of Manipulator. It's amazing how great this album is, but now that I think of it, that's how every album is when it comes to The Fall Of Troy: awesome."