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)

Sinking Ships

Ten
Revelation (2007)

If the rumor serves correct, this may be the swansong for Sinking Ships. I for one will be sad to see them go (if said rumor is true) as they always played a decent version of emotional melodic hardcore that the Northwest seemed to spit out weekly after the demise of Champion. Ten gives you three tracks of speedy harmonious hardcore with shouted vocals and cathartic lyrics about loves, lives, and regrets. The highlight on Ten is the cover of Seaweed's "Losing Skin." I guess after you cover such an influential band like Seaweed there's really not much for a band to do. Sinking Ships, if this is your final offering, I bid you ado and wish the band members tons of luck in whatever future endeavors they may partake in. Read more

Snake Eyes

Snake Eyes
1917 (2007)

Snake Eyes is just another one of those side project bands that doesn't get a lot of love outside of … Read more

Wasted Time

No Shore
Grave Mistake (2007)

Wasted Time basically sounds like Time to Escape but with more gruff vocals and more influences that stem from early … Read more

Time to Escape

Time to Escape
Grave Mistake (2007)

Bands like Time to Escape are the reason I picked up a record player. It's not so I can score … Read more

Little Lebowski Urban Achievers

Is This a Party or an Intervention?
Evil Owl (2007)

Little Lebowski Urban Achievers are a slightly indie and extremely drunk pop-punk band that, when I actually leave the apartment, … Read more

Rosetta

Wake/Lift
Translation Loss (2007)

If you're unfamiliar with Rosetta, punch yourself. Seriously, I'll wait. Go ahead and punch yourself if you've never heard of … Read more

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One from the archives

Kickback

No Surrender
GSR (2009)

Apparently Kickback is from France and is controversial as well as infamous. I'm not trying to doubt these claims but I haven't been able to find any reason why they'd be either of the last two things save for some of their artwork and the music video now streaming on their Myspace page. For a band that is nearing twenty years old you would think it would be easier to find out something about them but sadly it is not. The band clearly wants to be taken as a threat of sorts. Between the confrontational lyrics, the fuck yourself - fuck your scene message on their Myspace, and the over angry nature of the music. Once again none of these things seem particularly upsetting or offensive to someone who listens … Read more

More album reviews

The Lotus Eaters

Wurmwluv
Troubleman Unlimited (2007)

I love The Lotus Eaters. Not many people know the surprisingly laid back side project of Aaron Turner (Isis, Old Man Gloom, House of Low Culture), Stephen O'Malley (Sunn 0))), Khanate, and a myriad of others), and James Plotkin (Khanate, Phantomsmasher, Khlyst, etc); this may be due to the fact that the group does not release records at the clip … Read more

The Mock Heroic

Dignified Exits
SuperFi (2007)

Contrary to popular belief, screamo isn't dead. Granted, it could very well be crippled and unable to be even a shadow of it's former self, but it isn't dead and will probably never die. Aside from a handful of bands in the States playing the genre well, including Cease Upon the Capitol, Kid Crash, Loma Prieta, and to some extent … Read more

Manes

How the World Came to an End
Candlelight (2007)

Linkin Park, by and large, are looked upon as a joke. With few exceptions, they are loved solely by young fans who really don't know any better and are unable to find any other kind of "heavy" music at their local Wal-Mart in Smalltown, U.S.A. What does Linkin Park have to do with Norway's Manes, you ask? Well, they kind … Read more

Jesu

Pale Sketches
Avalanche Inc. (2007)

Pale Sketches is the second full-length that Jesu has released this year, and it marks an important step for Justin Broadrick. Broadrick started recording new material following the demise of his long running group Godflesh that would become Jesu. Over time he amassed quite a bit of songs and other musical pieces. Earlier this year, he decided to release the … Read more

Jesu

Lifeline
Hydra Head/Daymare (2007)

As unbelievable as it may sound Lifeline is Jesu's fifth (and possibly the sixth if Robotic Empire gets the split with Battle of Mice out before the end of 2007) release of the year and comes right on the heals of the Pale Sketches record. With all of this activity and music released in one year, I have two thoughts: … Read more

Bark Bark Bark

Haunts
Retard Disco (2007)

Jacob Cooper, the solo man of Bark Bark Bark, is quite an ambitious fellow. Though, I regret to say that his ambitions don't take him that far. Bark Bark Bark is an electronic effort fused together by "synthesizers and keyboards, borrowed musical equipment, and sampled cuts and clicks." Look a little confusing? Well it is. Haunts is Cooper's debut album, … Read more

Flotilla

Disaster Poetry
Independent (2006)

Taste is a strange thing. You start to form an opinion on something from the first contact with it. Take Flotilla for example - a four piece indie-rock band that includes a classically trained harpist and, according to their press release, "a noted composer of contemporary concert music." Now to be honest, the first thing flashed into my mind was … Read more

Pinback

Autumn of the Seraphs
Touch & Go (2007)

After three years of Rob Crow sowing his wild musical oats with namely Goblin Cock and his solo album, he has joined back with Armistead Burwell Smith IV to put out another album under the name Pinback. Autumn of the Seraphs is Pinback's second album for Touch & Go and you can tell right from the first note that the … Read more

Om

Pilgrimage
Southern Lord (2007)

Sleep was great. High on Fire is pretty good. But Om consistently impresses me, and seems to gain momentum with every album. Om seems to be getting closer than ever to carving out its own unique corner in the psychedelic genre that I could simply call "zen doom." These days "hypnotic" is a much-overused word in review writing, especially since … Read more

Alcest

Souvenirs D'un Autre Monde
Profound Lore (2007)

To listen to "Souvenirs D'un Autre Monde" (which translates into Memories Of Another World) is to experience a world free of pain, darkness, and despair, and to enter a world of beauty and harmony. The scenario that such an album paints is one where pure joy and happiness triumph through the overbearing cascading light, where innocence prevails, and where the … Read more

Just Surrender

We're in Like Sin
Broken English (2007)

Rob Gordon once said "The making of a great compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard to do and takes ages longer than it might seem. You gotta kick off with a killer, to grab attention. Then you got to take it up a notch, but you don't wanna blow your wad, so then you got to cool it off … Read more

Okkervil River

The Stage Names
Jagjaguwar (2007)

It's a rare commodity to find a record that just seems to get it right. I mean really get it. The kind of disc that echoes your little world, your thoughts and your feelings, back to you in lines that you just wish you had the talent to write yourself. The kind of album that has you walking the long … Read more

Sons of Azrael

The Conjuration of Vengeance
Metal Blade (2007)

"Trail of Flesh," "Sweet Blasphemy," and "Scent of a Dead Whore". Sure, we all know these titles as classic children's books, but did you know that they've been adapted into songs by a group called Sons of Azrael? Yes, that's right - all your favorite bedtime stories set to music on one convenient disc as sung by the cookie monster. … Read more

Cloak/Dagger

We Are
Jade Tree (2007)

Last year a band by the name of Cloak/Dagger released a 7" record. That record, Piñata, was easily one of the best slabs of wax I had heard in a long long time. The record was eventually re-released with their original demo following the band's singing to Jade Tree Records. As time elapsed my anticipation for new songs from 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)