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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)

Chelsea Wolfe

Hiss Spun
Sargent House (2017)

Darkness isn’t something everybody can access within themselves. Some are afraid to explore those shadowy recesses, some deny they exist, and some embrace it and find a cathartic release through some outlet of their choosing.Luckily for us, Chelsea Wolfe would appear to be in the latter category. To describe her music by any particular genre would only seem dismissive. Tawdry, even. It is heavy. It is dark. It is as if everything she creates is covered in a black veil.But don’t be fooled into thinking the album is bleak. There’s a warm comfort in all this that envelops the listener and immerses them in her world. Tracks like “16 Psyche” and “Particle Flux” (and indeed the majority of the album have a building, tantric quality that serves to pique the listener’s interest throughout. Hiss Spun is most assuredly not an album to be relegated to the background while you’re doing housework. It demands your attention. To stop whatever you’re doing for 48 minutes and experience it. Read more

Matt Cameron

Cavedweller
Dine Alone (2017)

Matt Cameron has long been the kind of drummer that most drummers wish they were. Seemingly able to play anything … Read more

Converge

The Dusk In Us
Epitaph\Deathwish Inc (2017)

Out of all the bands painted with the seemingly ubiquitous metalcore tag, Converge seem both the most likely to accept … Read more

Code Orange

Forever
Roadrunner (2017)

Code Orange are really hardcore. Not the genre, the noun. As a descriptive and an ethos, they wear it well. … Read more

Book Review

Mark Lanegan

I Am the Wolf
Da Capo Press (2017)

I came late to the party when it comes to Mark Lanegan and his career. It was him opening for … Read more

Iron Chic

You Can't Stay Here
Side One Dummy (2017)

Iron Chic has its own kind of poetry. It’s not quite the Off With Their Heads level of self-hatred, but … Read more

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One from the archives

Caleb Lionheart

Think Hardcore, Play Pop Punk
Farewell Party (2008)

200 Words Or Less

New York outfit Caleb Lionheart's first proper offering Think Hardcore, Play Pop Punk is a bit of an odd title. Thankfully, the band does not play the mosh-influenced hardcore version of pop-punk of A Day to Remember. Instead the band's fast-paced punk is much closer to Lifetime and Bouncing Souls. Musically, I enjoy what Caleb Lionheart has to offer quite a bit. The sound is rooted in the fast and melodic punk sounds of the early Fat Wreck/Epitaph catalogs, but also has hints of melodic hardcore as well. And then there are the slight melodic moments that bring to mind the early years of the Saves the Day. Lead off track "Adrenaline" and "Vultures" are good examples. But the vocals are where I just feel that things are a bit … Read more

More album reviews

Gone is Gone

Echolocation
Rise (2017)

Mastodon are no stranger to side projects. Hell, guitarist/vocalist Brent Hinds has released two in the last year alone, with his new Legend of the Seagullmen album due in September. Brann Dailor released Arcadea, also on this years’ top 25 list, and Bill Kelliher doesn’t need your goddamn validation!Gone is Gone is the amalgamation of Mastodon bassist/vocalist Troy Sanders, guitarist … Read more

Video/DVD Review

Morrissey

England Is Mine
Cleopatra (2017)

Mark Gill's England Is Mine introduces Morrissey while he's on the cusp of adulthood, an enigma of cocksure arrogance presented in the body of a slightly hunched over, uncomfortable young man. A number of key characters in the Mancunian singer's formative years, including the often overlooked Anji Hardy (Katherine Pearce), who died of leukaemia in 1977 and was a strong … Read more

200 Words Or Less

The Holy Circle

The Holy Circle
Annihilvs Power Electronix (2017)

Dream pop, huh?Dark pop?Why not.Baltimore trio The Holy Circle is comprised of vocalist / keyboardist Terence Hannum (Locrian), as well as his wife, vocalist Erica Burgner-Hannum of Unlucky Atlas, and Nathan Jurgenson (of Screen Vinyl Image) on drum duties. All three of their combined perspectives make for a take on a genre that is nowadays labeled as “dream pop” and … Read more

200 Words Or Less

At the Drive-In

In•ter a•li•a
Rise (2017)

Interminable slack-ass Omar Rodriguez-Lopez only released 12 solo albums this year on Ipecac Records. So to alleviate the presumed guilt, he’s gotten the old band back together again. That band is At the Drive-In and as far as “reunion” albums go, In•ter a•li•a is a monster. While not quite a complete reunion, in a presto-change-o move, guitarist Jim Ward has … Read more

Tim Barry

High On 95
Chunksaah (2017)

Nobody can doubt Tim Barry’s heart. He’s worn it on his sleeve since he began his solo career with a 2005 demo. Depending how you count live records and demos, High on 95 is his eight record since then. Besides being prolific, his songs are largely first-person accounts of a drifter watching the world around him in wonder. The sound … Read more

Book Review

Keith Morris

My Damage: The Story of a Punk Rock Survivor
Da Capo Press (2017)

Keith Morris is one of the remaining original punk rock figures that is still going and has never really ceased to have an impact on what is widely perceived to be punk and hardcore at large. With a career spanning over four decades as the frontman of genre coining outfits not Circle Jerks, Black Flag and more recently OFF, he … Read more

200 Words Or Less

Long Knife

Sewers of Babylon 7”
Beach Impediment (2017)

Oh man, haven’t heard Long Knife’s name called in a long time. You can choose to split pubic hairs over whether they’re back or still here, but what’s not up for debate is that Portland’s second favorite antiheroes have dropped a damn fine slab o’ new wax upon the jean vest-wearing masses. It comes via the mostly-reliable Beach Impediment label, … Read more

Hard Girls

Floating Now
Asian Man Records / Specialist Subject Records (2017)

Hard Girls are a complex band – or maybe they’re not. They sing about hard life choices, serious moments, and buying candy and cigarettes. A post-punk influence and precise arrangement style seamlessly blend into a more traditional pop structure. At its simplest definition they’re a punk band, but that doesn’t feel like it hits at the fact that both vocalists … Read more

200 Words Or Less

Fried Egg

Back and Forth 7”
Beach Impediment (2017)

Fried Egg is hardcore punk band from Central Virginia. They rule. But that’s not important. What’s important is that I can’t possibly listen to a band named Fried Egg without thinking about, well, not just fried eggs, but all types of prepared eggs. I eat a ton of eggs – fried hard, over-easy, sunny side up, scrambled, hard-boiled, poached, deviled, … Read more

Book Review

J. Hunter Bennett

The Prodigal Rogerson: The Tragic, Hilarious, and Possibly Apocryphal Story of Circle Jerks Bassist Roger Rogerson in the Golden Age of LA Punk, 1979-1996
Microcosm Publishing (2017)

After pilfering the band’s vehicle in 1983, the man in charge of the 4-strings, a reprobate by the name of Roger Rogerson, disappeared into the ether. Almost fifteen years after his disappearance, he emerged with the demand for a reunion of the Circle Jerks in a bid to become the biggest rock’n roll band on earth. Shortly after, he died. … Read more

Gnaw

Cutting Pieces
Translation Loss (2017)

Formed by Khanate's vocalist after the demise of the legendary drone band, Gnaw doubled down on the extreme sound of Khanate, filling the drone/sludge hybrid sound with noise injections and industrial pacing. This post-apocalyptic vision was first introduced through This Face, a wretched work of heavy, experimental music, containing all the extreme weight, glacial pace and misanthropic philosophy the band … Read more

No Use for a Name

Rarities Vol. 1: The Covers
Fat Wreck Chords (2017)

I harbour a weak spot for No Use for a Name, a band that eventually became a melodic pop-punk band that landed on Fat Wreck records.What not too many contemporary and younger fans devotees would be aware of, is the fact that No Use for a Name evolved from having started as a much rawer hardcore outfit in the late … Read more

200 Words Or Less

Katastrof

Katastrof
Beach Impediment (2017)

Oh Jesus Christ fuck yeah! It’s been a minute since I checked in on Scandi-core, a genre that at one time ruled my turntable. These days it has to be top shelf to grab my attention, and, well, when the lead singer of Totalitär teams up with the guitar player from Herätys you’ve got my attention. Drop the needle on … Read more

Myteri

Ruiner
Alerta Antifascista (2017)

Why do I do this? I just reviewed the vinyl release of Myteri’s debut album and now, a couple of weeks later I’m already listening to their second album. How am I going to say something new and inspiring about it? I guess the answer is twofold. First of all I really liked what I heard on that first album. … Read more

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