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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)

Swingin' Utters

Fistful of Hollow
Fat Wreck Chords (2015)

If Fistful of Hollow seemed fast, well it is. Swingin’ Utters released Poorly Formed in 2013 and Here, Under Protest in 2011. With another one in the can in late 2014, the band is showing a little more experimentation this time around.That’s not say their folky version of ’77 punk has lost a step. The best songs here are “I’m Not Coming Home,” “We Are Your Garbage,” and “Spanish,” all of which follow familiar arrangements. The item of note on Fistful is that the band is mixing it up, especially in the vocals. In “Tell Them Told You So” there is an almost toasting/rap kind of thing going on, which doesn’t work particularly well on first listen and , later, in “Napalm South” they adopt backing vocals with an almost spoken vibe. “Tibetan Book of the Damned” is just a little different as well, with a softer arrangement, straddling that acoustic/punk walk the band uniquely does. While it’s catchy, the song never fully jumps out as the vocal flow feels just a bit less fluid than their past work, which is a downer because one the of the Utters’ strengths has always been Johnny Peebucks’ ability to mix a mouthful … Read more

Swami John & The Blind Shake

Modern Surf Classics
Swami (2015)

When it was announced that John Reis (Night Marchers, Rocket From the Crypt, Hot Snakes) was collaborating with The Blind … Read more

Disappears

Irreal
Kranky (2015)

Fifth album for the rock band from Chicago, and they are still at it, blending the elements of shoe gaze … Read more

200 Words Or Less

Metallica

Through The Never Soundtrack
Blackened Recordings (2014)

You had to be there. In the grand scheme of box-office existence, Through The Never was a blip. The release … Read more

Orange The Juice

The Messiah is Back
Independent (2014)

With a hard copy release that’s designed to look like a blood-spattered wedding invitation, The Messiah is Back has to … Read more

Hail The Ghost

Forsaken
Independent (2015)

There's something deliciously miserable about Dublin weather that stretches from the end of January to the early flecks of spring, … Read more

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One from the archives

Ophiolatry

Transmutation
Forces of Satan/Regain (2008)

Ophiolatry is another band that, like their labelmates Black Flame, is a true force in the black arts to be reckoned with. Ophiolatry (the worship of serpents) has more of a grind aspect to their sound than their respected brethren. Relentless blastbeats and truly brutal guitar work that have the ability to pummel the listener into a fine powder. The band hails from Brazil, a country known to take its metal seriously and believe me when I say that these guys aren't fucking around. With Transmutation, they've taken their fellow countrymen Sarcofago's mantra of "Fuck Off Melodic Black Metal" to a whole other level. The vocals are more of a death-rattle than can usually be found in black metal, but Ophiolatry challenges the notion that black metal has to have … Read more

More album reviews

Leviathan

Scar Sighted
Profound Lore (2015)

It has been quite a journey for Jef Whitehead, aka Wrest, and for his solo project Leviathan. The longevity of the band is quite astonishing when you consider that its inception dates back to the late ‘90s, releasing myriads of demos through the years before the debut album, The Tenth Sublevel of Suicide, came out, with the aggressive sound of … Read more

200 Words Or Less

Roses

Roses EP
Stereophonodon Records (2015)

After relocating from Cleveland to Philadelphia, singer/songwriter Matthew Scheuermann put together a self-titled three-song EP released on Valentine’s Day 2015 under the name of Roses. Working alongside crisp acoustic guitar strumming, Scheuermann’s voice reminds me a bit of Band of Horses vocalist Ben Bridwell or maybe even Jeff Mangum since he has a tendency to sing in a higher register, … Read more

Chokecherry

The Future Was a Long Time Ago
Independent (2015)

Expect adjectives. Adjectives and hyphens. For, you see, Chokecherry are a punk band that doesn’t play punk songs. I guess folk-punk is the subgenre tag du jour, but that term steers in the wrong direction in many ways. As does country-punk, though it’s far more apt. Chokecherry play country songs run through a DIY punk filter, influenced by a lifestyle … Read more

200 Words Or Less

Cape Noire

Ad Nauseam EP
Independent (2014)

It's a blank, black slate. There is little information, and everything about Cape Noire is ambiguous. Live pictures are, fittingly, of a woman in a black cape, her face shielded from the glare of the lights. As far as anyone knows, in the absence of a back story, Cape Noire have appeared out of nowhere. Their Ad Nauseam EP is … Read more

Mastery

VALIS
Flenser (2015)

The origin of Mastery, the one man black metal project of Ephemeral Domignostika, is traced back in 2005. Through the years, Mastery have released five demos, a compilation of which is found in Barbaric Usurpation of the Hypereonic Black Metal Throne, and a couple of splits with Palace of Worms and Skullflower. So it has taken the act quite a … Read more

Viet Cong

Viet Cong
Flemish Eye/Jagjaguwar (2015)

Canadian art rock band Women disbanded in 2012, and ex-members Matthew Flegel and Michael Wallace formed Viet Cong almost immediately afterwards. They released an EP, Cassette, in 2013, but this is the first LP we’ve seen from the band. The elephant-sized question in the room is: Is this album really a Viet Cong debut, or is it just another Women … Read more

Pyramids

A Northern Meadow
Profound Lore (2015)

Back in 2008, Pyramids were setting off with the release of their self-titled debut album. Blending together the different elements of shoe gaze, post-rock, black metal, dark ambient, drone and experimental their first album was nothing less than fascinating. Following the release of the album a variety of artists and bands, including James Plotkin, Colin Marston and Blut Aus Nord, … Read more

Jesse LeBourdais

Long Winter
My Fingers! My Brain! Records (2015)

Long Winter is the third proper full length from former Cambridge frontman Jesse LeBourdais and seems to be his fullest musical realization to date. While his previous solo releases have been folk-oriented acoustic endeavours,Long Winter utilizes a full band for the entire recording. The instrumentals on the album give it depth and dynamism without taking away from the rawness and … Read more

Father John Misty

I Love You, Honeybear
Sub Pop (2015)

I saw Father John Misty in concert about two years ago. Josh Tillman sauntered onto stage in an all-white suit—wild and mustachioed—advertising the caricature of a drug-addled, disillusioned troubadour that he had created for himself. He lit a cigarette almost immediately and somehow, in the carcinogenic chokehold, sang in a way that sent shudders through every vertebrate in Terminal 5. … Read more

The Dwarves

Gentleman Blag
Fat Wreck Chords (2015)

I know what you’re thinking? Why has it already been five months without a new Dwarves release? Never fear, the long-running goodtime smutlovers are back, this time with a 4-song EP on Fat Wreck Chords. Gentleman Blag pulls its title track from their latest, The Dwarves Invented Rock & Roll, as the band is prone to putting out already released … Read more

Filter Distortion

Transition
Independent (2015)

Yet another group that, like Trust, CHVRCHES, or any of the artists featured on the Neonautics compilation, is mining the world of ‘80s synth rock in search of inspiration, British four-piece Filter Distortion seem like an alternate version of Perturbator with vocals, replicating the vintage electro sound very accurately. Driven by bouncing synthesizer lines and punchy rhythms, the group’s songs … Read more

Black Rivers

Self Titled
Ignition Records (2015)

For the last few years any musical output with brothers Jez and Andy Williams at the helm has sounded otherworldly, like it's trying to capture some impossible-to-comprehend expanse that stretches beyond the atmosphere. As two-thirds of Mancunian outfit Doves, there was ready admittance between all three band members that when they were working on tracklists for their albums they would … Read more

Implodes

Reverser
Gilead Media (2015)

Implodes from Chicago is a very interesting act. Their debut album Black Earth which came out in 2011 was an unbelievable blend of noise, post rock and kraut rock which showed the band balancing all these different elements to find their unique sound. A couple of years afterwards this insane company was putting out their sophomore release, Recurring Dream, digging … Read more

Raised Fist

From the North
Epitaph (2015)

From The North is Raised Fist’s first release since 2009’s Veil of Ignorance, and is a continuation of the style and sound honed on that album. Veil of Ignorance was a ridiculously catchy album, and a repetitive guilty pleasure for this reviewer. The reason I could not fully get behind Veil of Ignorance, despite not being able to stop listening … Read more

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