Jump on the rockin' rollercoaster tour-de-force this fall

Who said rock is dead? Oh, never mind, nobody has made that argument since 2000. Rock is alive and well and this fall looks to be one of the best new music seasons in quite a while.

Here are some of the big albums coming out in the next few months.

Green Day
American Idiot
September 21st
"American Idiot" might be the most anticipated album of the fall. And for good reason, as it's been quite a while since a punk band has written a rock opera. Following the character, non-ironically named Jesus, through the likes of Suburbia and the fall of the American dream, "American Idiot" combines quick bursts of power chords, guitar ballads and nine minute anthems to make an album that should cement Green Day as one of America's best bands. If you really can't wait, check out MTV.com for a full preview of the album. Yes, it really does sound like a rock opera.

Sum 41
Chuck
October 12th
Sum 41 named their new album after the UN peacekeeper who helped save them from a civil war fire-fight while on a humanitarian mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in May. The band was filming a documentary for a Canadian television network at the time. Anyway, musically the band has described their new album as "the heaviest they've ever done" without sacrificing any melody. If their first single, "We're All To Blame," is a barometer of the rest of the album then the explanation serves true. The song is heavy and fast but also slow and melodic. It has the sense of a band that has gone through a lot and has matured (which I guess is what happens after you date Paris Hilton).Good Charlotte

The Chronicles Of
Life And Death
October 5th
I really like Good Charlotte (pause for slurs and threats) and I enjoyed 2002's "The Young and Hopeless." It was catchy, forceful and it made a good stand against suicide. Now the band is back with the darker and edgier "The Chronicles of Life And Death." The first single, the darkly punky "Predictable," finds the band using strings and piano to make a lusher and more complex sound than most people are used to. This should definitely be interesting…Jimmy Eat World

Futures
October 19th
Don't ask me how, but I am listening to this album right now. I've actually heard from several of my close friends that they already have the album and listen to it quite regularly. Must be one of those damn internet leaks or something. The good news for Jimmy and the most likely pissed off record label is that the buzz on the album is great. I must say that this is some of their best work yet. The energy level has been amped on "Futures," the quartet's fifth album. The title track, my personal favorite, sounds vaguely familiar to "Clarity" but with a heavier guitar line.""Just Tonight" has a sound that is just plain heavier than anything they've done. I'm not talking Slayer but you get the picture.Chevelle

This Type of Thinking Could Do Us In
September 21st
The brothers Loeffler, better known as Chevelle, finally hit the big time with their platinum selling second album "Wonder What's Next." Frankly, they deserved it, especially after their criminally underrated debut album""Point #1""failed to ignite anything but the college charts. The band's third album,'"This Type of Thinking Could Do Us In," is said to be as crunchy and complex as""What's Next""but with"an even more brooding sound. Brooding is a music journalist catch phrase for "deeper and heavier," for those of you who were lost. So yeah, look for a deeper and heavier album but with the signature Chevelle emotion.

Guns N' Roses
Chinese Democracy
Umm…2005
Good news GNR fans (if there are any of you left)! The most anticipated album that no one is really anticipating, Guns N' Roses uber-delayed "Chinese Democracy," could be out next year. So mark your calendar and prepare to rock, I guess (if you still feel like it). According to Antimusic.com, new GNR bassist Tommy Stinson says that the album is finishing up and should see the light of day in 2005. Also, it is reported pigs will fly next summer. The bassist also stated that GNR should do some extensive touring when the album is released. You know what that means kids: prepare to riot.

By the way, also check out U2's new album "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" which drops on November 23rd.

Brian Spiegel is a journalism major at Cal State Long Beach. He covers music and reviews concerts for the Online Forty-Niner.