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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)

Big Chungus

Big Chungus
Wet Cassettes Records (2020)

You have to appreciate a concept that’s primarily focused on making you uncomfortable; where’s the fun without a healthy dose of shock and awe? Young Philadelphia-based label Wet Cassettes is built on those foundations, describing themselves as torchbearers of “weird dirty music for weird dirty people,” a concept that deserves to be saluted from where I’m sitting. Their latest project is Big Chungus, a grimy synth-punk outfit disguising themselves as an underworld creature that I picture to be a drugged-out version of the Golgothan from Dogma. It should be noted upfront that there’s a hefty portion of absurdity at play here, and while there’s a fecal obsession that Chungus puts front and center, rest assured that there will be no poop innuendos coming from me.The six songs found on this self-titled EP showcase an eccentric combination of electronic drums arranged in punk-adjacent forms, overdrive-distorted bass and synths, and a high-pitched squealing scream that’s reminiscent of Bob Otis from Dropdead. It feels a like a satanic response to New Wave with a lot of those early-80s hardcore tendencies, sporting a very similar disregard for convention. “The Long Pee” might be the closest thing to a single, and it’s almost dance-able with … Read more

Left Hand Black

Left Hand Black
Wolverine records (2020)

Back when I was listening to everything with the stamp Horrorpunk on it I discovered a band called The Dead … Read more

Broadway Calls

Sad in the City
Red Scare Industries (2020)

Sad in the City doesn’t mince words. Opening with the lines of “If my country collapses/ can I crash on … Read more

Era Bleak

Era Bleak
Dirt Cult (2020)

It’s really tough for me to review this full-length. Why? Because I loved the band’s demo tape and it’s really … Read more

Hyborian

Volume II (2020)
Season of Mist (2020)

Hyborian is balls to the wall raw sludge metal hailing from Kansas City, Missouri. Volume II is their third album … Read more

The Lawrence Arms

Skeleton Coast
Epitaph (2020)

When a band is releasing its third new record since 2006, you’d expect some inconsistency. The Lawrence Arms seem to … Read more

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One from the archives

Pallbearer

Foundations of Burden
Profound Lore (2014)

When Pallbearer released their debut album, Sorrow and Extinction, I was stunned. No matter how good their 2010 demo was, there was no way you could be prepared for an album of the caliber of Sorrow and Extinction. And of course the expectations for the sophomore album of the doom metal act are now much higher, but they are still able to meet them. In Foundations of Burden, Pallbearer just top their game, taking their music a step forward.Even though five out of the six songs of Foundations of Burden are long in duration and they are heavy as fuck, they still somehow remain easily accessible. The heavy riffs of “Worlds Apart” have sorrowful leads sitting on top of them, making the whole process more easy listening, without the band … Read more

More album reviews

King Buzzo w/ Trevor Dunn

Gift of Sacrifice
Ipecac (2020)

Simon and Garfunkel.Seals and Crofts.Hall and Oates.Captain and Tennille.Some artists just go together. Sure, they might make music on their own. But once they find their “other”, their “person” - you never want to hear them with anyone else.Such is the case the case with Buzz Osbourne and Trevor Dunn. So long Melvins and Fantômas. So long Mr. Bungle and … Read more

Chain Whip

14 Lashes
Drunken Sailor (2020)

This is the kind of hardcore that makes my throat hurt just listening. It’s also the kind of hardcore where I can’t sit still while listening, even when tethered to headphones at work. It’s high energy, relentless and, somehow, it just never lets up. To keep coining silly phrases, this is sweaty, gasp-for-air hardcore. As each of the songs fade … Read more

Old Ghosts

Crow
State of Mind (2020)

These last few weeks I've started to notice that the creases in my forehead are deepening. It's a subtle change to my face, but it's progressively becoming more noticeable. My pores are becoming more visible as well, and my skin doesn't have the same spongey, moist quality to it that I remember it having in my early twenties. And of … Read more

Inject the Light

The Apocalypse Is Boring
Dirt Cult (2020)

Inject the Light is a time capsule, a one-person project from Chris Mason that’s about living in the moment of the COVID-19 lockdowns. Mason, who has also plays with Low Culture and Macho Boys, among others, takes a new approach here. This five-song digital release is a little on the lo-fi side, with elements of New Wave, No Wave, synth … Read more

Raging Nathans

Oppositional Defiance
Rad Girlfriend Records (2020)

Boy do The Raging Nathans know how to start a record on a down note. The band plays melodic DIY pop-punk that’s of the verse-chorus-verse variety with driving rhythm to give it that extra oomph. While I tend to think of this kind of music as a little more light-hearted, the band cuts through that veneer instantly with “Tragedy Ghouls: … Read more

Sun-0-Bathers

Floater EP
Morning Wood Records/Thousand Islands Records/Paper + Plastick (2020)

Two years ago I reviewed Local Warming, the debut EP by Sun-0-Bathers. Two years have passed, but not much has changed for Sun-0-Bathers. I am not going to blame them for it. If you have a winning formula, why change it, right?That winning formula for Sun-0-Bathers is straightforward 90’s skatepunk. Summer is the best time for releases of this type … Read more

Sanctifying Ritual

Sanctifying Ritual
Iron Bonehead (2020)

Most death metal bands exhibit a morbid quality to their sound but few would be believed if they said that their music was actually recorded in a catacomb. However, if the German death-thrash thrallers Sanctifying Ritual confessed as much to me, that their raw and cavernous debut was recorded in such an odious environment, it would be a sheer act … Read more

Einstürzende Neubauten

Alles in Allem
Potomak 2020 (2020)

It’s a fairly long story as to the exact circumstance, but a couple of years ago on a rainy winter day in Tasmania I found myself as the only passenger in a shuttle bus when just when we were about to depart, the door opened and three constituents of the Einstürzende Neubauten entered the vehicle. While their World War I … Read more

Skeleton

Skeleton
20 Buck Spin (2020)

There are a lot of skeletons out there. Stuffed in closets. Hanging on metal hooks in medical school classrooms. There is a skeleton in me writing this. And there is a skeleton in you reading it. If you think about all of those sharp, calcified rods and lobes, shifting below tender, malleable flesh, it might unsettle you somewhat. There has … Read more

Sam Russo

Back To The Party
Red Scare Industries (2020)

Anytime it’s just one person on the stage, the music being created is going to be intimate and personal. Sometimes it’s so personal that it doesn’t bridge the gap from the stage to the floor. Fortunately, Sam Russo isn’t one of those artists. When he sings, you know it’s about his own life experiences, but it sounds like it’s coming … Read more

200 Words Or Less

Broadway Calls

Meet Me On The Moon
Red Scare Industries (2020)

Meet Me On The Moon is a teaser single for the new LP, Sad In The City, which also happens to be Broadway Calls’ first new full-length in almost a decade (which will release close to the time this review publishes). While I knew of the band, I’d never really spent any time with their records. On this short-player, I … Read more

Mutant Reavers

Monster Punk
Wolverine records (2020)

Back in the late nineties I started listening to horrropunk. To this day it is one of my favourite scenes. Back in the day I listened to basically everything I could find that would match the description horrorpunk. Nowadays I am more picky. Still, if I see a promo mentioning horrorpunk I am so tempted to review it. I’ve skipped … Read more

Kissed by an Animal

Kissed by an Animal
HANDSTAND RECORDS (2019)

Kissed by an Animal is getting the vinyl treatment a year after release of their self title album from 2019. To describe these guys, well it’s hard to nail down a specific style that the Brooklyn, NY based band is trying to hit. To be honest, this album is hard to get use to in general.To prepare for a review … Read more

Xibalba

Años en Infierno
Southern Lord (2020)

Southern California's Xibalba is back with a new LP titled Años En Infierno. The title of their third studio album translates to "years in hell," and it is a loathsome pillar, raised in tribute to the pain of living in a world populated by misery and ruin. Somehow the band's sulfurous combination of doom and death metal and hardcore from … Read more

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