Recent reviews

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)

Adrenaline Mob

Self Titled
Adrenaline Mob (2011)

Adrenaline Mob is a new supergroup featuring some big names in rock music today. The brain-child of drummer Mike Portnoy, the album also features names like Russell Allen, Mike Orlando, Rich Ward, and Paul DiLeo. Though they come from different genres, their combined talents are...Okay, you know what? I can't fucking do this. I just can't.Mike Portnoy is an amazingly gifted musician. Simply listening to the technical complexity of bands Liquid Tension Experiment and Office of Strategic Influence or the raw emotive power of his combined lyric work and drumming in Dream Theater's “Twelve-step Suite” is enough to make me feel humbled. Yet the man seems to want nothing more than to squander this talent writing dime-a-dozen hard rock. And you know what? If that makes the man happy, fine, so be it. But putting out something as soulless, as absolutely terrible as Adrenaline Mob is just pitiful.You want me to talk about the music? It's lame, alternative metal / hard rock. That's it. Nothing new, nothing fancy, nothing challenging. It's just some otherwise incredibly talented musicians coming together and wasting everyone's time. Seriously. You'd think on a hard rock album we'd at least get some enjoyable guitar riffs, but … Read more

Sleeping in the Aviary

You And Me, Ghost
Science Of Sound (2011)

It was just six months ago that I reviewed Great Vacation. Sure, I was a few months behind the trolley … Read more

Living With Lions

Holy Shit
Adeline (2011)

After their introduction to the more mainstream world Make Your Mark a few years ago Living With Lions went through … Read more

Farewell Continental

¡Hey, Hey Pioneers!
Paper + Plastick (2011)

Farewell Continental went great lengths to keep their members secret for some time. While not anywhere close to a secret … Read more

The Biters

All Chewed Up
Underrated (2011)

I’m a sucker for punk/pop bands, but not just any crap. They have to have it all: great tunes, catchy … Read more

Anthrax

Worship Music
Megaforce (2011)

The story of how Worship Music came to be is longish and a bit complicated—dating back to 2009 in what … Read more

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One from the archives

Laudanum

The Coronation
20 Buck Spin (2009)

Laudanum are a 3 piece band. I opened with that sentiment solely because once you hear what they do it becomes hard to believe. What Laudanum do musically is act as a noisey power electronics group that decided to play doom metal or vice versa. Everything is grimey, filthy and painful in Laudanum's collective world. This almost acts as someone embracing the disruptive urban landscape they come from in Oakland. This album takes advantage of everything that makes one's stomach stir and shudder. As stated this is crust punk filthy and brutal as hell. The band takes advatage of playing a heavier style of music by relying on the spaces between riffs to build tension and fear within the listener. The intro acts as a sensory disruption with a build … Read more

More album reviews

Sleepmakeswaves

...And So We Destroyed Everything
Bird's Robes (2011)

All right, it's time for me to flash my hipster / indie cred. I was totally into sleepmakeswaves while they were still a small band on the Lost Children net label! BEAT THAT.*ahem* In all seriousness, these guys have been on my radar for a long while now. They've already released two EPs (one of which is album length), one … Read more

Amebix

Sonic Mass
EasyAction (2011)

Amebix have been away for twenty years plus, and if you're expecting Arise or Monolith v2.0 then look away now. Because Sonic Mass is so much more than those classic records, and all the better for the band's time spent away from the music scene. In a recent interview we did with vocalist Rob "The Baron" Miller, he explained how … Read more

Low Places

Spiritual Treatment
A389 (2011)

Low Places have done much in a short time. Coming out of California with a style that is unlikeable to most and building on said style till it makes sense while still remaining well outside of the norm. The band go from lurching Eyehategod inspired pieces to what can be either powerviolence inspired hardcore or what sounds like EHG on … Read more

Bad Sports

Kings Of The Weekend
Dirtnap (2011)

Bad Sports made a smart sequencing decision by opening Kings of the Weekend with “Off Switch.” The punk burner has a lot of garage noise and it rips past in just 1:47. Why is it a smart opener, you ask? Well, from the brick wall band photo to the band’s posture to numerous tracks on the record, this Denton, TX … Read more

Boris

Heavy Rocks
Sargent House (2011)

Boris' sound is defined by their insistence on rocking the fuck out. Their earliest works, like the classic albums Heavy Rocks and Pink, revolve around taking heavy metal and, to borrow from Sp?n?al Tap, taking it up to eleven. These albums have an absolutely huge, dirty quality to them that leaves Boris' peers in the dust. So Boris released their … Read more

Boris

Attention Please
Sargent House (2011)

I absolutely love Boris' work ethic. Four new albums of fresh material in one year is more than anyone should be able to ask of any artist whose name is not either Buckethead or Senmuth, and their dedication to stylistic diversity is a commendable trait that's generally unheard of in modern music. What's more, Boris have a history of significantly … Read more

Witch-Lord

Atomized In The Black Solarian
A389 (2011)

All hail the Cult of the Seven Crowns! Witch-Lord is one of a number of destructive musical forces that is just one head of the hydra meant to smash the world into oblivion, and the difference between those other groups (Gehenna, Gravehill, and others) is massive and due in no small part to the monolithic doom purveyed on display on … Read more

Dead To A Dying World

Self Titled
Tofu Carnage (2011)

I went into this review fully intending to give this band the middle finger. I can't exactly explain my thoughts behind this, but I can say that it started with how the album was introduced to me:“This self-titled, debut double-LP from Dead To A Dying World is for those who truly appreciate the aesthetic value of deluxe packaging and heavyweight … Read more

Des Ark

Don't Rock The Boat, Sink The Fucker
Lovitt (2011)

So far, 2011 is proving to be a great year for music, and a great year for Indie-Rock. Des Ark's second full length, Don't Rock the Boat, Sink the Fucker, is surely doing its part to earn the genre's such high acclaim. It's an album that took 3 years to record, but the time spent on it paid off. Aimee … Read more

Full Of Hell

Roots Of Earth Are Consuming My Home
A389 (2011)

Over the past year or so A389 Records has put out a staggering amount of releases that sit just barely within the confines of metal and hardcore. For every label that insists on putting out breakdown heavy, mosh exercises there are much fewer that choose to stay outside of the simplicity of that. Full Of Hell are one of the … Read more

Gehenna

Land Of Sodom II/Upon The Gravehill
A389 (2011)

Before we get into this, there is always the question that you have to ask yourself; and, with Gehenna, it is a wholly legitimate question that will in a very real sense determine your take on bands or music such as this because, truthfully, this is some of the dirtiest smack of reality and desperation that you probably would ever … Read more

Bangers

Small Pleasures
Kiss of Death (2011)

Small Pleasures is the first proper full-length from Cornwall, England trio Bangers. To shortcut straight to the point, it’s fitting that this record is released in the US on Kiss of Death, as it fits in well with artists such as New Bruises and Mayflower. They bring straight forward, mid-tempo punk to the forefront, with a focus on melodic gang … Read more

Sutekh Hexen

Ordo Adversarial
Wands (2011)

Sutekh Hexen, the name alone has an undeniable air of mystery and darkness that while you may not know exactly what they sound like at this minute but whatever that sound is, you feel in the darkest recesses of your subconscious something telling you to stay away from it; and that little voice in your head might be a smart … Read more

Various Artists

Clinging To The Trees Of A Forest Fire/Nesseria - Split
Throatruiner (2011)

Clinging To The Tress Of A Forest Fire (hereafter referred to as CTTTOAFF for ease) hail from Denver, Colorado and deal in heavy as hell grind in all it's misanthropic glory. Coming to my attention only recently (sorry, I completely missed the boat on this band initially), they just released this split with French group Nesseria on Throatruiner Records. About … Read more

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

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