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)

Swarm

Menyerbak Asap
Husted Youth (2022)

It is nice to see some friends actually being productive on the pandemic age and finally come up with something new on the scene, like we all know that for some person having so much free time doesn't mean a good thing for her/his productivity. And this goes up for the boys of Swarm. Swarm is a newly formed skramz band from Bandung featuring members from known notable local acts such as Gauth, Glare, Ailis, and Grief. Those are bands, as I know, coming from different kind of music and this what makes the band itself so interesting. It was nice to see this band live a couple months ago and from the first view I was bummed by the energy they presented to the audience during the gig. Swarm is a band that presents an intense and well driven post hardcore sound and I bet this is the band that would still sounded good though all of the song are written in Bahasa. Yes in this context, we might find that music is actually an universal language. The music is also presents its pure quality though it is covered up by so many marketing strategy. And after all, what's … Read more

Celebration Summer

Patience In Presence
A-F (2022)

As the album begins, following a Twin Peaks sample, the guitars build in a familiar punk chord progression with some … Read more

Siblings Of Samhain

Tales of Love, Death and the Macabre
Independent (2022)

UK horrorpunks Siblings Of Samhain offer us up album number three just in time for the spooky season! Tales of … Read more

An Abstract Illusion

Woe
Willowtip (2022)

At a chance recommendation of one of my best friends, I was introduced to An Abstract Illusion some three years … Read more

DFMK

Dame Peligro EP
Alternative Tentacles (2022)

This is how a 7” is supposed to work. Three quick songs and it leaves you wanting more. DFMK play … Read more

Calabrese

Death Cult EP
Spookshow Records (2022)

In my review of the last Calabrese record, Flee The Light, I said I hoped it would not take them … Read more

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One from the archives

Imelda May

Mayhem
Decca (2010)

It’s been said that the second album is always a tough one. Following on from an album that you have been creating for all your life with record label deadlines, baying fans and the increase in expectations often leads to a critical mauling and a mass wave of indifference. Mayhem; the second album by Irish Rockabilly come Jazz singer Imelda May, and follow up to the 2008 cult hit Love Tattoo, had an awful lot to live up to. In the space of 2 short years May has performed with Jeff Beck at the Grammys, supported Elton John and shared a stage with the Queen of Rockabilly, Wanda Jackson. Not bad for a girl from Dublin…Of course it helps when you have a voice as good as May’s. Moving from … Read more

More album reviews

RASHŌMON

Nin-Gen EP
Iron Lung (2022)

Laypeople who don’t listen to heavy music often lump it all together, even while those of us who dedicate our time to the cause can pick up the difference between death metal, thrash and hardcore in seconds. RASHŌMON are one of those bands that would have people in fits right away, likely calling it metal even though there are few … Read more

Lex Lüger

Rey Del Terror
Independent (2022)

I swear that the artists and albums I choose to review are getting harder and harder to research... I like to base my reviews on the facts I can find about out the artist but with this one I'm going in kind of blind. What I do know is that Lex Lüger is a musician from Spain, I'm not sure … Read more

Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers

Pretty Good For A Girl Band
Domestic La La (2022)

There is a tendency, I think, to label any loud band, any loud female band, as Riot Grrrl. Reducing a band to a genre they’re not and plugging your ears while they show you why they’re not that genre is damaging- both to the band in question and to the Riot Grrrl genre. That’s how you get New York Post … Read more

Joyce Manor

40 oz. to Fresno
Epitaph (2022)

Joyce Manor is one of those bands that I always follow, a band that shaped my tastes in my earlier years of digging into pop punk/emo subculture. Let’s say I would like to thankgod, ‘cause 2022 is a year where a lot of good stuff is coming out and unfortunately 40 oz. to Fresno is not so good for me. … Read more

Chained Bliss

Chained Bliss
Drunken Sailor (2022)

There are certain guitar tones that recall another era, and Chained Bliss are rooted in one of them. When I hear the angular riffs and repetitive structures on the band’s self-titled debut full-length, I’m immediately taken back in time to the glory days of Wire or Gang Of Four. But while Chained Bliss shares some similarities with the British post-punk … Read more

Xingfoo&Roy

Green Around The Gills
Independent (2022)

It's always nice to know one of your friends and favorite bands is doing good stuff and this example goes to a Singaporean band called Xingfoo&Roy. I met them initially 6 years ago. Me and some friends in our tiny town arranged a gig for the band. They're super nice and I think I've been in love since they put … Read more

The Chats

Get Fucked
Bargain Bin (2022)

So, then, is it sabotage? Or is it just punk? After 2017’s knockout hit single, “Smoko,” and a solid sophomore album, The Chats have been brushing up awfully close with mainstream success. The Australian trio is one more Wet Leg cover away from rising above the underground. Poised for evening talk show circuits and stadium tours they do what any … Read more

10.000 Years

III (2022)
Interstellar Smoke Records (2022)

It ends here. Well, the trilogy telling the tale of spaceship “Albatross” ends here. Albatross is a spaceship that went on a mission: they were to look for other inhabitable planets in our milky way. In the first part of the trilogy the ship travels through a wormhole into another dimension and ends up on a planet inhabited by ancient … Read more

Strategies

Strategies EP
Independent (2022)

At only four songs, Strategies’ debut EP is a quick play. The project is led by Paul Lask (The Ghost, Tight Phantomz), who created and sent demos to his longtime contemporaries, Brian Moss (The Ghost, Hanalei, Great Apes), and Neil Hennessy (The Lawrence Arms). The EP is wandering and explorative, building off the thoughtful post-hardcore influenced emo of the aforementioned … Read more

The Clever References

Hamish's House
Independent (2022)

Some say Australia is a very nice place to spend your life, saying it's the safest place on earth with its protective system for its citizens. I know it's kind of dumb for thinking that any band that is from a more "wealthy place", like Australia, will always have its own privilege to get known wider around the globe though … Read more

The Mountain Goats

Bleed Out
Merge (2022)

The Mountain Goats have made an action movie. Bleed Out is a concept album of sorts, made in a distinctly Mountain Goats way. Basically, ringleader John Darnielle wrote the record while watching movies: pausing and taking notes, so the lyrics aren’t just about familiar plotlines, but the full scope of cinematic storytelling. That info all comes in the press release, … Read more

Left Hand Black

Lower Than Satan
Sick Taste Records, Sunny Bastards (2022)

Left Hand Black formed in 2019 and took the horrorpunk scene by storm with their first release, the self titled Left Hand Black album during the dark days of March 2020. The Swedish four piece are made up of former members of metal band Lake Of Tears, punk rock band Overdrive Solution and horrorpunks The Dead Next Door so they … Read more

BlackDots

EP2
Motorcycle Potluck Records (2022)

BlackDots are back with EP2, released digitally and on a flexi 7”. The peppy, punky band from Denver are energetic but they aren’t your typical punk band, even if they do check a lot of the boxes. With dual vocals and melodic guitars, the general sound is somewhat quirky but upbeat and bouncy music. It’s emotional and cathartic but built … Read more

without

Be Corny
Raft Records (2022)

To me, the Japanese orgcore scene has always been an interesting thing when you're talking Asian scene and I see many great Japanese 90s-'00s melodic hardcore/orgcore bands as my early influences. What's been so good about the bands is that Japanese bands have always made accomplishment through their music or sound compositions despite the band itself having difficulties with the … Read more

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