By Julie-ana Hopkins, Rockledge Senior High School, Rockledge, Florida

With the talk of the apocalypse coming at the end of 2012, it seems that many bands and artists are scrambling to release new music for their fans. While the two may not have a connection, numerous bands do have release dates for new albums for the latter half of 2012. Whether it is an overwhelming amount of creativity flowing, or simply the need to make some more money, these six bands have pumped out music waiting to be released for your listening pleasure.

6. Don’t Panic – All Time Low. The pop punk band’s fifth studio album is expected to be released on October 9th. The band’s front man, Alex Gaskarth, said this of the album: “…the goal was to make an album that we felt reflected the best aspects of our previous releases.” Two singles, “The Reckless and the Brave” and “For Baltimore” have already been released and are available on iTunes.

5. Transit of Venus – Three Days Grace. This will be the fourth album released on October 2nd from the hard rock band and has quite an interesting back story. The band released the album title and date on June 5th, 2012, the same day as Venus’ visible transit across the sun. The motto of the album is “some things will never happen again in your life time”, referring to the transit of Venus and the album’s music and lyrics.

4. The Connection – Papa Roach. The alternative band’s seventh album will be released on October 2nd. Jacoby Shaddix, the band’s singer, has described the album: “There’s some hip-hop, more keyboards than before, sound loops, textures – it’s dynamic, diverse and vulnerable.” As for the title, he also stated “what ‘The Connection’ means to us, it’s our connection to the music, it’s the connection of this music to the fans, it’s the connection that we make onstage with our music, it’s the connection from fan-to-fan on the social Internet marketing media world.”

3. Battle Born – The Killers. This will be the fourth album from the alternative band, scheduled for release on September 18th. The album’s full track list has already been released along with the first single, “Runaways”, a sort of desolate love story between two teens.

2. The 2nd Law – Muse. This album, due to be released on October 2nd, will be the alternative band’s sixth release. Matt Bellamy, the band’s singer and lead guitarist, described the album as “christian gangsta rap jazz odyssey, with some ambient rebellious dubstep and face melting metal flamenco cowboy psychedelia” on his Twitter. Whether or not this was joking or completely true will not be revealed until the album comes out.

1. ¡UNO! – Green Day. This will be the ninth studio album from the punk rock band. As opposed to most of the previous releases, bearing political messages and trippy lyrics, the album will be “punchier, more power pop – somewhere between AC/DC and the early Beatles” says Billie Joe Armstrong, the band’s singer and guitarist. ¡UNO! is the first album in a trilogy that the band will release, ¡DOS! being released in November and ¡TRÉ! in January.