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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)

The New Dress

Where Our Failures Are
Red Leader (2007)

The New Dress certainly knows how to make a first impression. Twenty seconds into Where Our Failures Are the tandem sings out, "I'm setting of alarms and planning bombs instead of songs / And if the cops ask I'm their man!" The New Dress holds nothing back, singing stripped down folk-punk about socialism and society, covering Billy Brag and Ed Pickford, while still providing the personal effects to not make Where Our Failures Are a fully political album, but rather of two people unafraid to bare it all. The New Dress is comprised of Laura Fidler and Bill Manning, both tackling vocals and Manning taking the acoustic and electric guitar. The New Dress could easily be a Plan-It-X band, as they play naked, raw folk punk with a focus on energy and passion rather than perfect melody. It's obvious that neither Manning nor Fidler are completely comfortable in their roles, unsure of their voices and abilities. But instead of detracting from the album, it only adds to it. After all, the album is called Where Our Failures Are, and the tandem have no problem putting them all on the table. It's not necessarily about the skill, but rather about the … Read more

Come Sleep

The Burden of Ballast
Version Studio (2007)

That old saying attests that "you only get what you give." Nowhere does this apply better than heavy metal. The … Read more

Skeletons with Flesh on Them

The Fish Don't Mind
Independent (2007)

Some bands just have cool names. Skeletons with Flesh on Them, an indie rock band from Seattle, are one of … Read more

Endgame

Distracted
Get Outta Town (2008)

Endgame is the latest band to emerge from the New Jersey hardcore scene. The four-piece outfit has returned after a … Read more

Orgone

The Goliath
Independent (2007)

Orgone is an interesting term that refers to the "life energy" of humans. It may exist; it may not. That's … Read more

Fight Pretty

Rewiring the Human Body
Dwell (2007)

How do you review an album plastered with a tagline from a review you wrote? We're both about to find … Read more

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One from the archives

Daturah

Reverie
Graveface (2008)

Hailing from Germany, the "post-rock" sounding Daturah offer Reverie, as their first full-length (following a self-titled EP which they self-released in 2005 and Graveface released in 2006) since their inception in 2003. This album, at five tracks long still clocks in with just about an hour's worth of music. The band focus more heavily on the ambient aspects of their music creating extensive soundscapes that still adhere to many of the more conventional mannerisms of other "post-rock" outfits. "Ghost Track" gradually immerses listeners into its menagerie of sound through swirling atmospheric noise, feedback, and spoken samples before exploding into a focused wave of guitars and pounding drums; it is an effective beginning to Reverie and just about immediately catches the listeners ear before the arrangement settles into a much more … Read more

More album reviews

Fire on Fire

Five Song EP
Young God (2007)

I have never been to Maine, but the visual in my head is that the state is a quite tranquil location. I know they have cities and I'm sure some of them are fairly large, but I can't help but picture a vastly rural landscape and unindustrialized setting. Fire on Fire is a group of five individuals that all live … Read more

No Apologies

Survival
6131 (2007)

Survival is the debut full-length from No Apologies. This five-piece outfit comes from the land of koalas and aborigines. This album is filled with plenty of moshy New York-inspired hardcore, but there is also a hint of Westcoast flavor - not a surprise when one discovers Todd Jones (Terror, Carry On) wrote two songs for the album. Tracks like "Survival," … Read more

Various Artists

Change!
Hopeless/Sub City (2007)

Change! is the latest compilation from the team of Hopeless/Sub City Records and Hot Topic. Included in this release are one CD and one DVD. The CD has twenty-one songs. The majority of the songs here are your run-of-the-mill screamo-core acts: Chiodos, Saosin, The Devil Wears Prada, etc. I despise this stuff. I would say there are only a handful … Read more

Trash Talk

Plagues
Malfunction (2008)

2007 was a huge year for this group of young men from Sacramento. A relentless touring schedule in support of their debut full-length, Walking Disease, fueled a hype machine - not necessarily in a bad way - that landed them on Malfunction Records and onto a lot of hardcore kids' favorites of '07 lists. Plagues picks up where the band … Read more

Arms and Legs

Arms and Legs
Closet Trekkie (2007)

With today's music scene escalating into an ever-expanding number of sub-genres, it seems a little risky to invade a style that's already been done many, many times over. Then again, if you think you can capture a genre differently (and better presumably) than anyone else, why not try it? Hailing from the New York City area, twenty-four-year-old Scott Daly decided … Read more

Darkthrone

F.O.A.D.
Peaceville (2007)

Those who know, love, and used to love this genuinely cult Norwegian band will probably know what to expect from their latest disc. Darkthrone have decided to take further musical steps away from the genre they will always be considered legends of and deliberately make all the puritan black metal fans furious. I'm not going to say that they decided … Read more

The Absence

Riders of the Plague
Metal Blade (2007)

The Absence hails from Tampa, Florida. Anyone with a sense of history knows that in the late eighties this meant something. Death, Obituary, Deicide, and Morbid Angel all hailed from Florida and significantly helped mold the clay into what we now know as death metal. The Absence are fully aware of their roots and have set forth to continue the … Read more

Have a Nice Life

Deathconsciousness
Enemies List (2008)

Have a Nice Life is a two-piece outfit from Connecticut that includes a member of the hardcore band, In Pieces; although, this double CD collection has nothing in the way of sound that can compare to that outfit in any sense of the word. Instead, Have a Nice Life actually has a sound that pulls from a variety of influences … Read more

Mouse Fire

Wooden Teeth
Lujo (2007)

Lakeland, Florida has given birth to spawn that has been attempted by many. Consisting of four members, Mouse Fire's debut album Wooden Teeth slices, blends, sometimes smothers, and completes the emo-pop sound forged in the beginning of the 2000's. Musically enchanting in its own right, every one of the twelve tracks contains a sense of musical prowess. Undoubtedly, the talent … Read more

Dub Trio

Another Sound is Dying
Ipecac (2008)

In the year 2008, one might question the relevancy of reggae and dub on today's music. When you take a closer look at things, you'd be very surprised at the answer. Sure, artists like Bob Marley and The Clash aren't around anymore. But others still carry the torch that they brought forth to the mainstream. Tim Armstrong released a reggae-based … Read more

Witchcraft

The Alchemist
Rise Above (2007)

If you have heard of this band recently then chances are that it will be related to a certain "southern super group" and their recent resurgence. These Swedes embrace the seventies and are said to be the sole reason that Down, with former Pantera screamer Phil Anselmo at the helm, were revitalized and released arguably their finest recording in 2007. … Read more

The Huguenots

Discography
Hydra Head (2007)

The Huguenots were a band that existed at some point during the late 1990's, or at least that is what I can conclude based on the limited information available on the band's history and their wardrobe in the select pictures available of the band - no offense. Members of the band have spent time in several popular acts, including Converge, … Read more

Robots and Empires

Omnivore
Trip Machine Laboratories (2007)

For a while it seemed like people in hardcore bands would undergo this metamorphosis that changed them from raging balls of adolescent angst into sensitive young adults channeling that angst with more subtlety in their music. This initially spawned the post-hardcore movement where bands like Into Another and Quicksand came into existence. This cycle seems to continue on in one … Read more

Miles Away

Rewind, Repeat...
6131 (2007)

If you were to listen to the latest offering from Miles Away, Rewind, Repeat , and yet knew nothing of the band, the last place that you would guess they were from would be Australia. If anything, you would have come up with either the Pacific Northwest or Boston. And while both are logical guesses based on the style of … Read more

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