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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)

Kaonashi

Dear Lemon House, You Ruined Me: Senior Year
Equal Vision, Unbeaten Records (2021)

Let me start by saying that, if you’re into good hardcore and haven’t heard of Kaonashi, you’re missing out. The Philadelphia based five-piece brought their second full-length record to our ears a few months ago. Dear Lemon House, You Ruined Me: Senior Year sees the band maturing in a lot of ways and finding their voice with focus and clarity. Dear Lemon House, You Ruined Me: Senior Year is a finely cut collection of sounds, which shows us that Kaonashi is capable of a tightly knit and cohesive manner of expositing their ideas. The record manages to traverse widely between mathcore and post-hardcore with a progressive mindset and a highly emotional approach. Although, stylistically, the album doesn’t simply make a checkbox out of the above, it seeks to bring an organic sonic unity which is equally pissed off, anxious, and wistful (in a sense). The mathcore element is the most traditionally explored and delivered part, but it’s clearly done with a lot of personality. The chaotic nature of it is toned down compared to other representatives of the sound, in favor of a more calculated impact, while remaining just as hard hitting. It does however maintain the savagery which is … Read more

Totally Slow

Casual Drag
Refresh Records (2021)

I don’t hear skatepunk-influenced bands that catch my attention very often. What was once new and vibrant has grown stale … Read more

Eastern High

Halo
Independent (2021)

It feels like people have sort of given up on doing prog metal with clean vocals, no? Or maybe that’s … Read more

Talk Show Host

Mid-Century Modern
Disconnect/Disconnect, Wiretap Records (2021)

Talk Show Host is a power-pop group from Toronto. And while it’s chock-full of those pleasant, soaring melodies expected of … Read more

200 Words Or Less

Gentlemen Rogues

Do the Resurrection
Snappy Little Numbers (2021)

Austin, Texas never disappoints when it comes to being a hotbed for great independent bands and Gentlemen Rogues is no … Read more

Hysterese

Hysterese
This Charming Man Records (2021)

The second record of German band Hysterese is a record I own and play quite frequently. To me it is … Read more

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One from the archives

Invade

Invade
Independent (2006)

My roommate likes to call early 90's hardcore "The Dark Ages of Hardcore" with its metal influences, all the way to the left neo-hippie politics, poetic non-sense, and mosh parts. In many way he's right, but the beginning part of the 90's wasn't all bad and we got some great bands like Undertow, Unbroken, Integrity, Indecision, and others that start with vowels. New York's Invade draws heavily from the bands listed above, and by the lyrics they surely recall the politics. I personally love early 90's hardcore. It's what I grew up on and what brought me into the hardcore scene, for better or worse. So I like Invade's demo although there is nothing that really stands out for me. It rumbles and plods along at an angry pace. It's … Read more

More album reviews

Alien Nosejob

HC2
Iron Lung (2021)

It seems that Jake Robertson spent a lot of the past year playing with himself. But haven’t we all? Bad jokes aside, the one-man band put out multiple full-lengths in 2020 and now a new 6-song EP too. Overall, the project is diverse, falling generally within the punk umbrella but different influences scattered as Robertson feels like it. But this … Read more

200 Words Or Less

The Black Black

Careful on Your Way Out
Ewel Records (2021)

If one were to define post-punk as the departure from the musical rawness and simplicity of punk rock and the adoption of dancey rock elements, Brooklyn-based The Black Black would fit the bill quite well. Their third long-player spans eight tracks, which sonically traverse bass-centric territory between 1980s sentiments left in the wake of Joy Division and the groovy end … Read more

Proud Parents

At Home With
Independent (2021)

At Home With Proud Parents caught me a little off guard, right from the start. While the debut showcased a variety of influences, this one is even more toned back and chill, in contrast to some members’ other work with The Hussy. The opening track on this sophomore album, “Cellophane” is more of a folk-punk or cowpunk vibe with some … Read more

Hangman’s Hymnal

Small News Travels Fast in a Bad Town
Snappy Little Numbers (2020)

Hangman’s Hymnal is a nice addition to the Snappy Little Numbers roster and every bit as archaic as the title suggests. With a Wild West vibe pervading the songs, they manage to evoke mental images of them holding court in a saloon to perform their seasoned murder folk to a bunch of buzzed delinquents as part of a debaucherous hootenanny … Read more

200 Words Or Less

Jiffy Marx

She’s My Witch / Warning Sign
Snappy Little Numbers (2020)

Jiffy Marx' She’s My Witch / Warning Sign 7″ does not only look like a 45er from the late seventies, but sonically delivers exactly that, i.e. two snappy lil’ pop punk numbers with the band firing on all cylinders. A snappy, fun 7” recorded in a bit more than a day, and sonically an homage and celebration the jangly pop … Read more

Travoltas

Back To The City
White Russian Records (2021)

Somehow it seems to me that Travoltas released Until We Hit The Shore only last year or perhaps the year before. But nooooo, it’s been four years already. That record is still on heavy rotation here, especially when the weather is sunny and the temperature is high (but not too hot). So I was so happy to hear a new … Read more

Bootlicker

Self-Titled
Neon Waste, Static Shock Records (2021)

Rough and tough d-beat, oi-influenced punk with a boot on the cover. If you follow the scene you probably already have a sense of what Bootlicker sounds like based on that alone. Released on Neon Waste (USA/Canada) and Static Shock (UK), this is Discharge-influenced punk that pulls no punches. It’s angry, shouty, and aggressive as all get-out with memorable lyrics … Read more

200 Words Or Less

Stella Research Committee

A Proposed Method for Determining Sanding Fitness
Independent (2021)

Labels like Amphetamine Reptile and Skin Graft Records and the “now wave” and noise rock avalanche they launched has served as an immense source of inspiration for a myriad of bands. Listening to Stella Research Committee’s fifth LP, they do not only seem to be overly familiar with the output of the aforementioned label rosters, but have channelled those influences … Read more

200 Words Or Less

The Dumpies

Drunk Dial #8
Drunk Dial Records (2021)

A quick word on the Drunk Dial series. Basically, the label asks bands to get intoxicated, then record an original a-side and a cover b-side.On #8, we get The Dumpies, who deliver 4 songs at a total runtime of five minutes. It’s fast, catchy and harmonized rough-around-the-edges garage-punk goodness. Take some of your favorite garage bands and speed them up. … Read more

200 Words Or Less

ZEPHR

Don’t Worry About It
Snappy Little Numbers (2020)

It’s fantastic to still see label holding up the torch when it comes to being dedicated to the fine art of the analogue format, partly because of its sonic superiority, partly as a reminiscence to a time where it was de rigour.Snappy Little Numbers is a label that keeps pumping out quality releases, lovingly illustrated with attention to detail and … Read more

Inhumanity Vortex

Reverse Engineering
Independent (2020)

Inhumanity Vortex started life in Poland in 2008 as the project of Tomasz Dziekoński and has slowly evolved over time into a sort of cyber tech-death metal band that has grown beyond the initial seeds of inspiration from those early days. Having released a handful of pre-production demos and EPs prior to Reverse Engineering in the winter of 2020, Inhumanity … Read more

Various Artists

Ink Bomb - No Breakfast Goodbye - split
Horn & Hoof Records/Dental Records/Concrete Head Entertainment (2021)

Two Dutch punk groups decided to join forces. 2020 saw their dreams of playing live go up in smoke. What to do instead? Write new music! Both bands bring three tracks to the table. Ink Bomb is the most experienced band of the two with an EP and full length under their belt. In my review of that full-length album … Read more

Amenra

De Doorn
Relapse (2021)

Memories burn in the flames while onlookers stare on. Relief washes over those present as though cleansed in the fires and reborn. Screams of catharsis spill from the lips of the watchers, emptying their souls of all the hurt and pain that has brought them to this point. Letting go of the mistakes and agonies that tie us to this … Read more

Pierce With Arrow

Shatter
Dais Records (2021)

Troy Pierce has been creating off-kilter techno since the mid ‘00s, always opting for a non-conformist, adventurous output (just listen to his 2007 full-length, Gone Astray). Now, he is joined by another forward-thinking creative mind in Natalie Escobar, who has also stepped into the off-kilter experimental music realm with her project Poison Arrow. Their collaboration, Pierce With Arrow, finds them … Read more

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

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