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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)

Brainworms

Which is Worse
Rorschach (2007)

Brainworms hail from Richmond, VA, a city with a rich hardcore/punk history. So it's not a surprise that the members of Brainworms have made waves with several other bands. Which is Worse combines up the band's original demo and cassette only release Is it Weird? Musically, Brainworms is teetering on the line between hardcore and indie rock, so I guess you could call them a post-hardcore band, but even that is a little off. They play hardcore punk that reminds me a bit of the Dischord roster, but with just a tad more intensity and ferocity. Lyrically, vocalist Greg Butler is the difference between Brainworms and "just some band." A good example is the lyrics of "Heart Shaped Hickey:" Being punk never changed anything / There's no action inside this vacuum / Don't be confused were not a counter culture / We're just another fucking social clique. Rorschach may be onto something good with Brainworms. Now that we've got the history lesson for the band with this release, it'd be nice to hear a new full-length of material. Read more

Rampage

Limit of Destruction
Lockin’ Out (2007)

Boston-based hardcore outfit Rampage unleash thirteen tracks of thrash influenced hardcore on Limit of Destruction. Some of the cuts here … Read more

Four Days to Burn

Lieutenant/Casino Bitch
Dada Drumming (2006)

Looking at the cover art to this 7" I was anticipating one of two things: stoner metal or art-metal akin … Read more

Kids Explode / Dialogues

Split
Rome Plow (2006)

Rome Plow Records serves up another offering of under the radar music on this split 7". This time around we've … Read more

The Mall

Emergency at Everyday
Discos Huelga (2006)

The Mall plays post-hardcore with aspects of screamo and indie rock. But the most identifiable characteristic of their music is … Read more

Iamb / Candle

Come Back Home
Real Love (2007)

Two artists from California team up for a split 7". Iamb is the work on single individual - Ross Major … Read more

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One from the archives

The White Stripes

Get Behind Me Satan
V2 (2005)

The very First time I heard White Stripes I honest to God thought I was hearing a Led Zeppelin bootleg. I walked into a record store and a minute later was telling a clerk "I'll take it". It wasn't Led Zeppelin. "I'll take it anyway". That was their sophomore album De Stijl, the album I still consider as one of their best. The Led Zeppelin comparison can come in handy with their latest effort Get Behind Me Satan as well. Call it "branching out", "a slight departure" or "unconventional writing", but in my opinion this album is to White Stripes what In Through The Out Door was to Led Zep. Not their last, God no, I hope they keep putting albums out, just... errr, a "slight departure". The job of … Read more

More album reviews

Foot Foot / Casiotone for the Painfully Alone

Split
Oedipus (2006)

Los Angeles-based label Oedipus Records is an independent label run out of an apartment. As an individual doing the same thing with my label, I have admiration for the people of Oedipus. The latest release from the label is a split 7" from two folk/indie artists: Foot Foot and Casiotone for the Painfully Alone. Casiotone for the Painfully Alone lead … Read more

Thieves and Assassins

Martyr Brigade
Iron Pier (2007)

Everything I get in for review goes through the same process. The first thing I do after I greedily rip into the manila envelope like a kid on Christmas is check out the layout. You can tell a lot just from a cover of a CD. Usually if the cover depicts a scene of armored knights upon horseback fending off … Read more

The Degenerics

Generic Record Collection
Soulrebel (2007)

Our recent Scene Point Blank reader's poll told us at least two things about you, the reader: (1) you want to see less reviews of "generic hardcore", and (2) hardcore is your favorite genre. (If this doesn't apply to you, sorry; you should've chipped in!) So you love hardcore, but also hold high standards for it; maybe you're sick of … Read more

New Idea Society

The World is Bright and Lonely
Exotic Fever (2007)

For The World is Bright and Lonely, New Idea Society's Mike Law walks a fine line between poetry and prose. The lyrical structures are simple and for the most part unchanging, and there is a more simple pattern within it all, almost every line the start of a new thought or idea. But herein lies the genius and creativity that … Read more

The Black Atlantic

Send This Home
Five Point (2007)

Have you ever gone to a movie expecting to see an action movie, but as you watch it, you realize it's a drama? Not quite what you were expecting, but unless you're a meathead you take it for what it is and realize it's still pretty good. This is the case for The Black Atlantic's debut EP Send This Home. … Read more

Weedeater

God Luck and Good Speed
Southern Lord (2007)

When a band's name makes reference to sinful pleasures, especially of the herbal nature, it's a sign their sound will be akin to Black Sabbath; the emphasis on slow riffing that sounds even heavier due to down-tuned instruments. Weedeater is a perfect example, taking the suggestive themes of drug abuse and sacrilege made famous by Sabbath to new heights but … Read more

Caïna

Mourner
Profound Lore (2007)

This is the kind record that I enjoy from time to time, a big surprise; it is not what I expected in any way, shape, or form and caught me completely off guard. Mourner is the second full-length, first on Profound Lore, from Caïna, the solo project of Andrew Curtis-Brignell - a twenty-year-old who already has a strong grasp on … Read more

New Found Glory

From the Screen to Your Stereo Pt. 2
Drive-Thru (2007)

Last year I interviewed New Found Glory drummer Cyrus Bolooki about the possibility of another cover album in similar fashion to the band's From the Screen to Your Stereo. He stated that it was a possibility... Well here we are a year removed from said interview and sitting before me is From the Screen to Your Stereo Pt. 2 And … Read more

Die! Die! Die!

Die! Die! Die!
S.A.F. (2007)

I don't know why, but there is something really unsubtle about naming a band Die! Die! Die!. It's like using a nuke to kill a mouse, just a bit too over the top to really ever be needed. It also means that the band has got to do an awful lot to live up to the name, so you can … Read more

Flobots

Fight with Tools
Independent (2007)

Every era has seen the chocolate/peanut butter combination of music and activism mixed together to create the tasty sensation of protest music. Long derided as "hippie shit" by those too lazy to listen, the protest song has been a ubiquitous form spanning the last century. Okay, maybe not the eighties, but every other decade has more than had its share. … Read more

Hi Ho Six Shooter!

Empire
Good Night (2007)

I'm not going to classify Hi Ho Six Shooter! as a gimmick band. Granted they play shows with bandannas wrapped around their neck and sing songs about country twangs and bar room brawls, but knowing some of the members I think it's pretty safe to say that they aren't gun toting Confederates. Rather, I would say that Hi Ho Six … Read more

Soul Control

Involution
Rivalry (2007)

Rhode Island may be the smallest state in the union, so you would think that with them already delivering Verse, they'd be all out of good hardcore bands. Well, they are not, because Soul Control is equally as, if not more, impressive. The four-piece band delivers a modern take on 90's post-hardcore popularized by the likes of Quicksand and Burn. … Read more

Cold War Kids

Robbers and Cowards
Downtown (2006)

With a few EP's and a couple of renowned festivals under their belt - Lollapalooza and South by Southwest - Cold War Kids have finally released (in late 2006 actually) their full-length album, Robbers and Cowards. Like a few of their indie predecessors, Cold War Kids borrows from 1970's legends like Bob Dylan and The Velvet Underground for their sound, … Read more

Coliseum

No Salvation
Relapse/Auxiliary (2007)

In less than four years, Coliseum has proven to be a busy band with their touring crisscrossing the United States as well as Europe, undergoing multiple line-up changes and configurations, and releasing a bunch of records (a self-titled full-length, the split 7" with Lords, the Goddamage EP, and the split with Young Widows); sometimes I take for granted that they … Read more

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