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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)

The Slow Death

No Heaven
Rad Girlfriend Records (2013)

If you haven’t heard of The Slow Death by now, you probably aren’t as depressed as the majority of us. Luckily their new album No Heaven hits the spot for the more cynical listener. Which, lets face it, punk rock has never been about sugar coating the bullshit that comes with life. If it wasn’t the album cover with a toilet bowl full of roses that gives away their dark demeanor, Jesse "Pretty Boy" Thorson’s lyrics are bound to. The Slow Death can easily be placed amongst the handful of typical Midwest punk bands, but whether it’s Thorson’s diehard ‘life is shit’ attitude or his alcohol-induced vocals, they are standing out amongst the crowd.Although, I have to admit that the first few listens to No Heaven didn’t grab me as much as Born Ugly Got Worse, but once I got past comparing the two albums, I got more into the former. Born Ugly Got Worse is the kind of record you can listen to in your room and feel like you’re at a punk show. No Heaven isn’t quite there for me and and I could see it becoming more dynamic at an actual show. I don’t think No Heaven … Read more

The Tangent

Le Sacre du Travail
Inside Out (2013)

If there's anyone who can make the mundane interesting, it'd have to be progressive rockers The Tangent. As evidence, I … Read more

What's Fluffy

Happy B-Day Mike
Independent (2013)

On Happy B-Day Mike, the latest self-release from math rockin’ boys What’s Fluffy, the Bloomfield, NJ quartet fires out six … Read more

Nirvana

In Utero (20th Anniversary Reissue)
Universal (2013)

It’s easy to read a posthumous reissue as a mining of a band’s demos and outtakes. Nirvana saw the deluxe … Read more

Nirvana

In Utero (20th Anniversary Reissue)
Universal (2013)

Some anniversary reissues are like tapas. Small, manageable servings of exactly what you want and you wind up leaving utterly … Read more

Ash Borer

Bloodlands
Gilead Media / Psychic Violence (2013)

Do you love tossing on a record that is just crushing from start to finish? I mean regardless of dynamics … Read more

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One from the archives

The Strokes

Room On Fire
RCA (2003)

The first words to leap out at you on the sophomore LP by the Strokes are "I want to be forgotten." How literally this can be taken is anyone's guess, but for a band under the amount of pressure the Strokes have been, Julian Casablancas' turn of phrase might be the downright truth. Five children of fortune who formed a band that unexpectedly blew up and ushered in an entire scene of hipster kids to the forefront of MTV culture, as well as kicking down the doors for an entire subgenre of rock-n-roll that had been ignored since the sixties, the Strokes might be wishing they'd never formed the group in the first place. Sure, they're rich and famous, but they were already both before, so why form a band … Read more

More album reviews

Jesu

Every Day I Get Closer To The Light From Which I Came
Avalanche Inc. (2013)

When you go travelling for a while (be it physically or mentally), sometimes there is this ache or longing to return to more familiar surroundings where the memories of comfort and solace both act as a salve and additional salt for the wound of being away; and in the midst of such feelings perhaps more work from Justin K. Broadrick’s … Read more

Highness

Hold
Magic Bullet (2013)

With one fell swoop Highness manage to confirm suspicions and completely avoid them. When a band made up of more than a few well known underground acts get together there is bound to be a few ideas as to what they should or will sound like when the finished product is available. When your band consists of members of such … Read more

Motörhead

Aftershock
UDR (2013)

Motörhead have the blues. Sure, they've worn their influences on their sleeves for the entirety of their 40 year career. But on Aftershock, the band's 21st studio release, the ghosts of Chuck Berry, Robert Johnson and Little Richard come home to roost like never before.This doesn't mean that they've slowed down, of course. From beginning to end, Aftershock is an … Read more

Seidr

Ginnungagap
Bindrune Records (2013)

Existing on the outer realms of the galaxies, where space and time collide, Seidr return with their sophomore release,Ginnungagap. Led by A. Lunn, also of Agnosis, Kolga, Throndt and most importantly of Panopticon, the band is here to build further upon the impact that their debut album, For Winter Fire, caused.Even though the band is at its core a doom … Read more

The Silks

Last American Band
Independent (2013)

When I first caught The Silks playing in a friends living room I was amazed at the raw energy these guys bring to a live show and as we have learned time and again, one of the hardest things to pull off as a record producer is to capture that sound and feel in the studio. Well I'm happy to … Read more

Kodaline

In A Perfect World
RCA (2013)

Mohill is a rural Irish village in county Leitrim, it's nice, quaint and generally doesn't divide opinion. To use an Irishism: sure it's grand. It's also where the majority of the songs on Kodaline's debut album In A Perfect World were written. In effect what Kodaline have done is written a powerful, evocative album, that has them on the precipice … Read more

Rations

Martyrs and Prisoners
86'd records (2013)

Released on 86’d Records, I came to Rations with a blank slate. Thirty seconds of research tells me the band is a four-piece from Long Island and includes, among others, 86’d Records’ own Wells as a member. Trivia aside, most folks don’t buy a piece of vinyl based on any of that info above. They buy it because it’s good … Read more

Pearl Jam

Lightning Bolt
Republic (2013)

Nobody and I mean NOBODY involved with or familiar with the Seattle scene back in 1991 would have guessed that Pearl Jam would be, with the exception of Puget Sound stalwarts Mudhoney, the last band standing. They were the upstarts, the Johnny-Come-Latelys that took a long time to gain the respect from their peers. After almost all of their peers … Read more

Red Fang

Whales And Leeches
Relapse (2013)

There's an untold amount of new bands just waiting to be discovered. Some will be discovered and just as quickly forgotten. Some will be discovered, appreciated for a brief time and then forgotten. The very lucky few will be discovered, loved and will continue to be loved by a few, who will spread the word to a few and, higher … Read more

Galactic Cannibal

We're Fucked
Hewhocorrupts Inc. (2013)

Goddamn, these are some brutally hoarse vocals. Like the kind that makes my voice hurt just thinking about singing along, and I mean that in the best possible way.Galactic Cannibal are a Milwaukee punk band comprised of brothers Nick Woods (Direct Hit!) and Peter J Woods (noise artist). Throw those comparisons out the window, though, as this slams the pedal … Read more

Deadly Reign

Slave
Profane Existence (2013)

Deadly Reign is a three-piece punk unit based in Austin, TX. They are a fairly new band (not to be confused with the ‘80s Cali band of the same name) but play with the skill and poise of a veteran group. And not surprisingly so, as they are comprised of members of crust luminaries like World Burns to Death, Scarred … Read more

Jungbluth

Part Ache
Halo of Flies (2013)

Karl Jungbluth was a German communist involved with various resistance groups that stood up against National Socialism and the Nazis. Expectedly enough, he got arrested twice in a decade and the second time turned out to be fatal. He was executed along with fellow resistance fighters on January 12, 1945.Alpinist was a four-piece crust/hardcore punk band from Münster, Germany formed … Read more

Stone Temple Pilots with Chester Bennington

High Rise EP
Play Pen LLC (2013)

For those who recall, the first time that Stone Temple Pilots got tired of waiting around for Scott Weiland to turn his shit around was in 1997. The DeLeo brothers and drummer Eric Kretz recruited singer Dave Coutts and Talk Show was born. I saw them play live on the second leg of Foo Fighters' Colour and the Shape tour. … Read more

Medicine

To The Happy Few
Captured Tracks (2013)

Imagine being in a band that broke up seventeen years earlier meeting together to divide up copies of re-issues of what are arguably said band’s finest recorded moments, and in those moments being so overcome by the excitement of the moment that you and your compatriots immediately begin writing the first song for the follow-up record to your final 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)

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