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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)

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 more recent signees to the A389 army. The Maryland based 5 piece do little to stay withing guidelines employing whatever they can to create a dark fucked up hybrid of metal and hardcore. Over the past year the band have released things that are fairly normal (a split with Goldust) and the obviously abnormal (a limited release harsh noise tape). Somewhere in between is where this, their debut full length, lies.The band opens with an intro that hearkens back to the aforementioned noise project building layers of distortion one upon the other till it feels like the listeners head is caving in. This is the head clearing preparation one needs to go into this record. Each song builds slightly on this idea bringing in layers of metal (mostly of the blackened variety), noise, or just rage filled artistic hardcore. No … 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 … 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 … 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 … 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 … Read more

Diarrhea Planet

Aloha!
Evil Weevil (2011)

Diarrhea Planet are a garage punk band simple as that. The band make a raucous noise that fits neatly into … Read more

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Various Artists

Litovsk/Hinin - Split EP
Bad Health Records, Dans le Vide, Donnez Moi Du Feu, Going Postal Records, Hidden Bay, Medication Time, Senseless Acts Of Anger (2023)

Two French bands join forces on this EP. Both bands deliver us one new song and one cover. Both play post-punk, although both bands take a different approach to the genre. The first band is Litovsk. I am happy to see them return, as I had not heard from them in a while. They have a couple of excellent releases under their belt and now are back with a new EP and this split. They open this split with “There Ain’t No Answer”. A catchy tune with their typical upbeat but serious and somehow kind of introspective sound. This tune is followed by “Baston” a cover from Bérurier Noir. For this cover they went almost archeological as the original is from 1984. Unfortunately I can not tell you how it … Read more

More album reviews

How Do We Jump This High?

Funny/Not Funny
Answer Key (2011)

Answer Key Records, the new record label formed by Bridge & Tunnel's, Jeff Cunningham, chose How Do We Jump This High's, Funny/Not Funny, for the label's first release--a quartet comprised of members of the short lived Get Bent and Frame. Together, they blend their sound into one melodic-punk explosion. Funny/Not Funny picks up where the band's first EP, Deep Stationary, … Read more

Ancient Wisdom

A Godlike Inferno
Shine Box (2011)

Evil can come in many forms. Everyone can explain the evil in any number of things man can perceive. More rare than that is a true embodiment of evil within a musical context. Many times this gets narrowed to various types of metal. While bands like Slayer seem evil on the outside a look below the surface makes it clear … Read more

Night Birds

The Other Side Of Darkness
Grave Mistake (2011)

The hype had been building for Night Birds’ debut. They’ve released three 7”s and the band, feature ex-members of The Ergs!, Hunchback, and Psyched to Die, and put on a great show at Fest 9 in Gainesville. When that much hype builds, often it comes tumbling back to earth when the actual product is released. Not so for The Other … Read more

Red Hot Chili Peppers

I'm With You
Warner Bros. (2011)

After a quiet five years of whispers, rumors, questions, confirming of rumors and, at last, the revealing of exactly what the fuck The Red Hot Chili Peppers have been up to, they finally release an album. Featuring a new guitarist. And a fly mounting a pill capsule as cover art. Let there be no doubt; the four chili peppers have … Read more

Crone

Endless Night
Translation Loss (2011)

I lost part of my virginity to Jeff Caxide.No, not that virginity. Go get a dictionary, you sleaze. I meant that listening to Oceanic for the first time took just a bit of my naïve concepts of musical perception away. Though I had been a fan of metal albums long before then, that was the first I wanted to describe … Read more

Livimorket & Sequences

Voidness
Sunyata (2011)

Do you know why I find collaborative efforts so appealing in musical and other such sonic arenas (besides that they signal more work by artists that I follow / collect / obsess over)? There is an element of wonder and anticipation surrounding what exactly the final work will sound like once either collaborators or sets of collaborators work their respective … Read more

Palehorse

Soft As Butter, Hard As Ice
Eyes Of Sound (2011)

London's Palehorse, a band so loud that after seeing them live recently my ears would not stop ringing for approximately two days. Was it worth it ? Completely.Palehorse take all that they established on previous full length, Gee, Ain't That Swell released way back in 2003 and firmly thrust it into the present. A line up change here, an addition … Read more

The Cars

Move Like This
Hear Music (2011)

I'd like to take a moment to quote Ric Ocasek, circa 1997, on the subject of The Cars reuniting at some point in the future:"I'm saying never, and you can count on that."I guess that makes him the Brett Favre of rock music, because one spinoff project and 23 years after their breakup, here I sit, holding a copy of … Read more

Winterus

In Carbon Mysticism
Lifeforce (2011)

The band Winterus formerly known as The Ancient are a Michigan band that seems to be wishing it was from the coldest regions of Norway. That is to say they traffic in a cleaned up version of what tends to be called blackened death metal. The band does not rely on keyboards to make their songs interesting which is a … Read more

Voytek

Self Titled
Big Action (2011)

Voytek are a Minneapolis punk band currently taking things to the next level. Whether that level is up or down is in the eye of the beholder, but it will start with reviewing this 2 song 7”—or should I say: this 6 song digital EP? With the bonus material outweighing the physical form, it’s tough to gauge just what type … Read more

Battles

Gloss Drop
Warp (2011)

Okay, I'm going to be honest about my credentials here. For as long as Battles have been on my radar, and despite the amount of praise I have heard thrown at them, I still have not listened to Mirrored. It surprises me even today that I haven't gotten around to listening to an album nearly everyone (yes, even Pitchfork) describes … Read more

William Elliott Whitmore

Field Songs
Anti (2011)

William Elliott Whitmore’s Anti debut, Animals in the Dark, was something of an outlier in his discography—the bigger label release introduced more instrumentation and a more global lyrical scope than much of his earlier work. While an excellent album, it isn’t fully indicative of Whitmore’s strengths, and with Field Songs, he returns to his son of the soil theme, built … Read more

Lavinia

There Is Light Between Us
The Mylene Sheath (2011)

Lavinia are a post rock super group of sorts. being comprised of members of more than a couple Mylene Sheath bands including Caspian and Eksi Ekso. So there are certain expectations most listeners will be placing on this release. The band doesn't stray too far from the post rock foundation built with their full time bands. Guitars shimmer and build … Read more

Buck Gooter

Devil Worship
Flannel Gurl (2011)

When I think of Devil worship I think of all the scary stuff from my youth. I think of serial killer known as "The Night Stalker", Richard Ramirez. Perhaps the most famous Devil worshiper of the era, he had a propensity for heavy metal—flashing the horns while in handcuffs—a pentagram tattooed on his palm—and quotes like, “I love to kill … Read more

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