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Our latest album reviews, featuring the records we've most enjoyed (or not) over the past few weeks.

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Browse our album reviews according to score: Highest (9.5/10 or more) or Lowest (2/10 or less)

Ab Imo Pectore

The Dissociative Path
Debemur Morti Productions (2012)

Ab Imo Pectore has come out of Portugal and after 3 years as a band have managed to put together their first demo and get it released by a label. As with many black metal bands that represent themselves as being of the TRVE variety they have released it on cassette as well. The real question is how does this fare against the ever growing tides of black metal and it's variances?"Meh" seems like the word that comes to mind most while listening to this demo. While I can say that the band makes use of both the old school and new variances within black metal, and at times even doing them pretty well, they do nothing amazing. For the first half of the record the band plays it mostly straight. That is to say they fit right in line with the KVLT black metal brotherhood. Blown out recording and cymbals that stay high in the mix are a trademark. Where things shift is within "Space Devouring Space" which acts almost as an interlude of sorts. Slower paced with a croaking spoken vocal line. This song seems to not only break the monotony of the first half but introduce variances … Read more

September Malevolence

Our Withers Unwrung
Tendervision (2011)

There are some albums that you can just tell everyone can like, and September Malevolence's 2011 album Our Withers Unwrung … Read more

Craig Finn

Clear Heart/Full Eyes
Vagrant (2012)

Clear Heart Full Eyes starts off curiously. Sure, “Apollo Bay” establishes that Finn’s solo debut is a separate project compared … Read more

Æges

The Bridge
The Mylene Sheath (2012)

Los Angeles band Æges are a beautiful combination consisting of equal parts post-hardcore and sludge metal, and you can plainly … Read more

Sick of it All

Self Titled
Revelation (1987)

Sick Of It All are easily the longest consistently active New York Hardcore band in existence today (both the Cro-Mags … Read more

Burn

Last Great Sea
Revelation (2002)

Burn holds a semi mythical place in the pantheon of the hypothetical New York Hardcore Olympus as they were relatively … Read more

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One from the archives

Ronen Kauffman

New Brunswick, New Jersey, Goodbye: Bands, Dirty Basements, and the Search for Self
Sub City/Hopeless (2007)

High fives to Ronen Kauffman for head stomping all over my pretentious attitude about what good literature should be. When I first heard about this book's release I was glad to see a paperback devoted to the subject matter but I was a little annoyed that yet another memoir was hitting the shelves. Are people self-centered enough to think their lives are book worthy? When New Brunswick, New Jersey, Goodbye was in my hands I opened to the first page, expecting Kauffman's work to be worthy of the cannon, or maybe on par, to Jack Kerouac's and some of my other literary heroes who use their own lives as a springboard for the story. Not even a sentence in, I was let down. From the first chapter Kauffman's writing takes … Read more

More album reviews

Texas Is The Reason

Do You Know Who You Are?
Revelation (1996)

Do You Know Who You Are? is one of the best selling albums that Revelation ever released, and Texas Is The Reason flirted with major label courtship (almost signing to Capitol before splitting up instead) on the strength of their what would ultimately prove to be this their sole album; I remember two things about the band when they were … Read more

Drowningman

Rock 'N' Roll Killing Machine
Revelation (2000)

You know that there was never a genre of music that was named something along the lines of sarcastic bastard core or something along those lines, but if there ever was, then Drowningman would have been the undisputed kings of just such a genre; Rock ‘N’ Roll Killing Machine (the only album that they released for Revelation) was not only … Read more

Himsa

Ground Breaking Ceremony
Revelation (1999)

Have you ever had one of those records that you were so extremely excited for that the anticipation was eating at you and you counted down the days until it finally showed up in your mailbox, and, upon receiving said album, you immediately tossed in or on your stereo (regardless of the format that you are listening to the music) … Read more

Corrosion of Conformity

Self Titled
Candlelight (2012)

The mighty COC have returned. In the past few years the band returned to the musical landscape by reforming their original and much beloved lineup. That is the lineup that wrote the much lauded classic Animosity. Records under such pretenses could go a few ways. Will the band return playing a rehashed version of old songs? Will they reach far … Read more

Martyrdöd

Paranoia
Southern Lord (2012)

Swedish ragers Martyrdöd, along with Acephalix and fellow countrymen Wolfbrigade, are the latest to be chosen in the great Southern Lord crust roundup. Featuring former and current members of Skitsystem, Agrmonia and others, Martyrdöd have been unleashing their brand of blackened everything to the crust-consuming masses for over a decade now. Their latest offering Paranoia was recorded at Göteborg’s famed … Read more

A Death Cinematic

The New World
Simple Box Construction (2012)

When you anticipate things, do you find that you build up these lofty expectations that are virtually impossible to reach; or is the anticipation more often than not a good quality that leads to a build up of excitement? Anticipation (for me) is often a double edged sword that may do any combination of building up expectations and or excitement, … Read more

Toys That Kill

Fambly 42
Recess (2012)

It may have been six years since Toys That Kill put out a full-length, but Fambly 42 sounds like it could have been released immediately after Shanked. The melodies are seamless and the precision between band members sounds like they haven’t missed a beat—maybe that’s because the band plays sporadic shows and the pieces of their line-up comprise a number … Read more

She Said Destroy

Bleeding Fiction
Mas-Kina (2012)

Let's face it: a lot of the music we listen to is just plain ol' forgettable. Of course, every once in a while, an album will come along that sticks in your mind solely because it makes you wonder just what godforsaken orifice the band pulled it out of. Even more rarely will come the occasion when you make the … Read more

Martyrdöd

Paranoia
Southern Lord (2012)

Sweden’s Martyrdöd are whole heap of metallic vitriol interspersed with a frenetic melody and more spiky riffs than you can shake a stick at. Furious and without mercy, latest record Paranoia is a crust-laden festival of punk-infused spite. Blackened hardcore at it’s very finest, Martyrdöd are here to rip your world apart with their insanely tight package of darkness and … Read more

Drivin' N Cryin'

Songs From The Laundromat
New! (2012)

Drivin’ N Cryin’ formed in Atlanta back in 1985 have announced their plans to release four EPs over the next year. The first in the series showcases their Southern Rock style, each of the following EPs will focus on a different genre of the Drivin' N Cryin' sound. The EP Songs From The Laundromat opens with the gritty rocker “Dirty” … Read more

Better Than A Thousand

Just One
Revelation (1997)

Seeing how I feel about Youth Of Today (i.e. I do not really care for them at all), it may come as a surprise that I do enjoy Just One from Better Than A Thousand (probably considered a blasphemous notion amongst many “Youth Crew” aficionados), particularly considering that the band was a “Youth Crew” –esque project from Ray Cappo (Youth … Read more

Youth Of Today

Break Down The Walls
Revelation (1988)

Please allow me to drop this little disclaimer here before we delve any further; I am not nor was ever a fan of Youth Of Today (outside of maybe one or two songs), and with that said, I still recognize their impact on what became the hardcore and punk scene and straight edge focused music as they were and continue … Read more

Kiss It Goodbye

Choke (EP)
Revelation (1999)

Waiting for a follow up record from Kiss It Goodbye felt like an eternity, and rumors were rampant regarding a single recorded for Seattle based record label Sub Pop; when the band decided to call it quits (prematurely I might add), that single was scrapped by Sub Pop and left unheard until it was released by Revelation (who released the … Read more

Shelter

Quest For Certainty
Revelation (1998)

Now a days, seeing a bunch of dudes with weird looking tufts of hair sticking out of the back of their otherwise bald heads jumping around on stage making a weird version of punk rock while yelling about the Krishna (the focus deity from the sect of Hinduism called Hare Krishna) probably would not be met with much controversy or … Read more

Reviews by score
Browse our album reviews according to score: Highest (9.5/10 or more) or Lowest (2/10 or less)