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Fucked Up

Hidden World
Jade Tree (2006)

By now, you've probably already heard Hidden World. It leaked months ago, and the band even posted a link to one of its downloading proxies on their blog. Before long the Internet was awash in reactions, most grouped along two polarities - while plenty of listeners thought they were hearing something important, just as many others lamented that "the drums … Read more

The Mars Volta

Amputechture
Universal (2006)

Have The Mars Volta finally become predictable? Were they already? Are they still churning out jaw-droppingly unexpected music? Did they ever? All these questions and more probably won't be answered in this review. Amputechture, the fairly quickly-released third full-length from the El Paso, Texas group, is in some ways a sequel to 2005's Frances the Mute, but still retains some … Read more

Phillip Roebuck

Fever Pitch
Manual (2006)

Phillip Roebuck will never be explained in writing. Writing does no justice to what Phillip Roebuck does. He plays a banjo at breakneck speed. He is a one-man band that bashes away at a bass drum and tambourine on his back. See, it just doesn't sound right, does it? It conjures images of Groundskeeper Willy yelling, "I'm a maniac, MANIAC!" … Read more

Your Eyes My Dreams

Weapons are Useless
Indianola (2006)

Of all of the promos in the pile in the corner of my room, Weapons are Useless has been languishing there the longest, festering silently, crying out to be reviewed. From time to time I would pop the disk into my laptop, in a vain attempt to make something of what Your Eyes My Dreams had dumped upon me. It … Read more

Know the Score

All Time Low
Eulogy (2006)

A lot of bands get labeled as "angry" or "pissed off" as a result of their lyrical content, and I'm sure you could apply those same adjectives to Know the Score. However, I feel that doing so would be doing a great disservice to them, not to mention those descriptions are rather played out. I feel a better way to … Read more

Eyes Averted

Paralyzing Passion and Motion
Independent (2006)

It seems strange that a band like Eyes Averted would end up having to self-release their debut album. Before Paralyzing Passion and Motion was completed, the band was abruptly dropped from their label. Why would this happen? What acceptable excuse could there possibly be? The technical, almost progressive, hardcore style the band embraces has reached a level of popularity that … Read more

Voivod

Katorz
The End (2006)

As tragic as it was, the death of founding member and guitarist Dennis "Piggy" D'Amour in 2005 was not the death of Voivod. The final nail in the coffin was hammered with the departure of Jean-Yves "Blacky" Thériault fifteen years ago. Although songwriting and arrangements were always credited to the band as a whole, the void left in the overall … Read more

Dead to Me

Cuban Ballerina
Fat Wreck Chords (2006)

In this day and age, it seems to take way more effort than it should to get a new band's name out there. There are so many ways people can check out a new band, not to mention it's so much easier than it has been in the past. It used to be that you had to release a song … Read more

Have Heart

The Things We Carry
Bridge Nine (2006)

It seems that in the current day and age the process of starting a hardcore band has become an act of great ease as compared to, oh let's say, five years ago. Listen close to the first ten Revelation releases, rip off the riffs and place them just right, (don't forget your dive-bombs!) grab all your friends together to record … Read more

Jefferson Third

This is Only a Test
Independent (2006)

Oh the joys of a local band starting to make it big! I've been a friend of two members of Jefferson Third since I was a freshman in high school. It was only a matter of time before the two of them started a band. And when one of them was randomly assigned a college roommate and they started jamming … Read more

Micah P. Hinson

Micah P. Hinson and the Opera Circuit
Jade Tree (2006)

So, my brother calls me out of the blue one day and excitedly explains to me that he has discovered the most "amazing" singer-songwriter that he has heard in ages. I was skeptical, as he usually likes the absolute worst music imaginable within the punk, hardcore, and indie genres. Thus I returned his enthusiasm for this newfound artist, Micah P. … Read more

Alexisonfire

Crisis
Vagrant (2006)

Scream, sing, scream, sing, scream, and sing. This simple recipe, which was discovered and completely exploited these past few years, has created a plethora of bands that for the most part are really really bad. Thankfully, there seems to be a lessening of this herd and some fine gleaning has thinned the crop to what we are supposed to believe … Read more

Black SS / Raining Bricks

Split
Organized Crime (2006)

I was relieved to find out that Black SS stands for Black Sheep Squadron, and not some Nazi organization, upon receiving this record. The cover art for one side of the split featured a fearsome black widow spider, so for all I knew, I was about to hear some intense hate anthems. Instead, what I got was some intense hardcore … Read more

Radical Attack

Priority
Ghost Town (2006)

There are a lot of hardcore bands out there who claim to be old-school, but the truth of the matter is that an insane amount of metal has infiltrated the scene. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it sure does make it harder to find a speedy, non-metallic, non-chugga-chugga hardcore band when you're in the mood for it. You … Read more

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