Recent reviews

Our latest album reviews, featuring the records we've most enjoyed (or not) over the past few weeks.

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

The Faint

Doom Abuse
SQE Music (2014)

It came as a surprise to everyone. The Faint sprung up from the ground out of nowhere after being gone for a few years. They came out of the dark to celebrate Danse Macabre's 10-year anniversary. What people didn't expect was for them to accompany the tour with new music. At their merch booth, fans had the chance to purchase a 12-inch with 4 new tracks. Most of the tracks showed promise over the underwhelming, Fasciinatiion. Their new album, Doom Abuse, is a big step up, but does it live up to its predecessors?The record starts strong with, "Help in the Head." It's got the hook you'd want from a Faint song. Something you want to dance to with a blend of Blank Wave Arcade and Fasciinatiion. Production takes a turn into a new direction from their previous work. More open and chaotic. Everything sounds less tight and clean. The next track, "Mental Radio," is a poppy new-wave track--still something to move your hips to, which is all I ask of The Faint. The next track, "Evil Voices," is one that was previously available on the tour EP. It seems to be the same recording. This was the track that … Read more

Brown Brogues

Zoloto
Stolen Body Records (2014)

In an alternate universe, Brown Brogues' "Shit In Your Eye" sits atop the charts; following in the lineage of other … Read more

Helms Alee

Sleepwalking Sailors
Sargent House (2014)

Sleepwalking Sailors is just too good, promptly inserting itself at the top of my list for album of the year … Read more

Helms Alee

Sleepwalking Sailors
Sargent House (2014)

Helms Alee’s Sleepwalking Sailors is a ferocious asteroid of post-hardcore, doom metal, and noise rock. The Seattle-based trio’s third album, … Read more

Blackrat

Whiskey and Blasphemy
Xnihilo Records (2013)

Whiskey and Blasphemy (Xnihilo Records), the 11-song debut album from Canadian trio Blackrat, is a grittily produced 28 minutes of … Read more

Various Artists

Capitalist Kids/Tight Bros. - split 7"
Toxic Pop (2013)

If sweet and easy pop punk is your thing, this is the split for you. Capitalist Kids take Side A, … Read more

Browse our review archives

Review categories

200 Words Or Less

754 reviews

Book Review

42 reviews

Classic Album

25 reviews

Multiple Authors

300 reviews

Review

5004 reviews

Video/DVD Review

19 reviews

One from the archives

Giorgio Moroder

Deja Vu
RCA (2015)

I admit it: arguably the guiltiest of my guilty pleasures is Euro disco, a genre which found (sometimes quite dubiously-talented) European musicians exaggerating the basic tenets of '70s dance music to the point of near-absurdity. Hard as it is to resist the infectious but undeniably cheesy keyboard lines in many of the genre's songs though, it also would be difficult for me to claim that there's any truly outstanding proper Euro disco album: if any genre of music is best represented by its singles, this may just be it. Taken in large quantities, Euro disco simply loses its appeal and I get lost amongst the pounding rhythms and woozy melodies. Of all the people working this genre, among the most successful was Italian Giorgio Moroder, whose pioneering production work for … Read more

More album reviews

Twilight

III: Beneath Trident's Tomb
Century Media (2014)

Twilight is a difficult band to define. Throughout the years, since their inception back in 2004, the band has seen some very interesting line-up changes which obviously resulted in the evolution of their sound. The core members of Twilight always were N. Imperial of Krieg, Wrest of Leviathan and Blake Judd of Nachtmystium (even though he was not a part … Read more

Owls

Two
Polyvinyl (2014)

Post-hardcore merges the experimentation of noise rock with the energy of hardcore punk. During its first two decades, post-hardcore was pretty underground, but it produced notable acts like Shellac, Fugazi, and Big Black in the 80’s and Chavez, Slint, and Unwound in the 90’s.In the 2000’s, post-hardcore broke with The Used’s 2003 self-titled album and My Chemical Romance’s 2004 album … Read more

Brain F≠

Empty Set
Grave Mistake / Sorry State (2014)

Apparently this band is called “Brain Flannel.” I don’t know what that means, but as somebody capable of reading the English language, I’m pretty sure it’s actually “Brain Unequal To.”Empty Set here is their second full-length, and it’s really only a full-length by a hair, totaling 20 minutes for the 10 punk rock jams that it contains.The band itself is … Read more

Fuck The Facts

Amer
Independent (2013)

Fuck The Facts have long been a bright spot in the canadian metal scene. The long running band have released a nearly ridiculous number of records in their ever changing musical formula. The formula itself retains grind as a backbone but adds layers and ideas up and above that to create something more dynamic more the bands' own. Amer is … Read more

Kill Matilda

#Punk#Zombie#RocknRoll
Independent (2014)

Blood, decay, and darkness, that’s what I think of when I listen to Kill Matilda’s re-release EP #Punk#Zombie#RocknRoll which derived from their 2011 full length album I Want Revenge. This album grips my mind and twists my emotions! I imagine myself in a dank basement with thirty of the coolest people I know, crammed in, with can’s of PBR, and … Read more

The Estranged

Self Titled LP
Sabotage (2014)

Despite having been formed in 2006 and having released 3 LPs since, the Portland originated post punk band The Estranged have mostly fallen under the radar and out of public awareness. I myself had never heard of the three man act until the release of their self titled LP this month. Since then, I feel I need to make up … Read more

Stop Breathing

Santa Cruz EP
Independent (2014)

Raging, fast, poignant, and so on; any number of commonly used hardcore band descriptors would be apropos when talking about the sonic onslaught of Oxnard, CA's Stop Breathing. Lead vocalist John Crerar says, “I like to think of us as a cross between RKL and Gorilla Biscuits with a dash of D.R.I.” So there’s that for a frame of reference. … Read more

Epic Problem

Lines
Rebellion / Longshot / Rebelsound (2014)

You’ve heard it before a hundred times. You’ve thought it yourself.Punk rock is a safe genre.While I generally hate on talk like this, promoting genre classification over substance and artistic focus, there is a certain argument that can be made (and has been, oh, let’s say a hundred times). When you hear of a “punk record” there are expectations when … Read more

Drawers

Self Titled
Katotoxin Records (2014)

When it comes to thinking about "heavy" music, it's virtually impossible to not immediately think of titans of the genre Sleep and their epic 63 minute long Dopesmoker and the opening lines "Drop out of life, bong in hand/Follow the smoke toward the riff-filled land." On their self-titled second album for Kaotoxin Records, French sludge outfit Drawers shoot for a … Read more

Skaters

Manhattan
Warner Bros. (2014)

Spawned from drunken promises at an LA house party to "jam together", soon-to-be Skaters vocalist Michael Ian Cummings and guitarist Josh Hubbard made a hazy pact. Fast forward a few months, and England-based (and ex-Dirty Pretty Thing) Hubbard informs Cummings that he'll be arriving in New York in a few hours. Not content with flying that far "just to jam", … Read more

Coathangers

Suck My Shirt
Suicide Squeeze (2014)

This Atlanta trio caught my attention with Larceny & Old Lace a couple of years ago, and Suck My Shirt is a continuation of that sound. It shifts into hypnotic, rhythmic patterns and eschews melodies at times, instead just shouting their fury over the beat while discordant guitars clash away. It’s not noise rock—there’s still a firm focus on structure … Read more

T.O.M.B.

Third Wave Holocaust
Black Plague (2013)

T.O.M.B., the one man blackened noise project, has been running strong for many years. the is such a consistency within No One's (the nom de plum of the man behind the project) output that the growth from one release to the next may be decieving to many listeners. Now, with the projects' fourth official full length we as listeners can … Read more

Anathema

Universal
Kscope (2013)

Anathema's live performance had always been something special and their latter day music is built for an arena such as the roman theatre of Philippopolis and the accompaniment of the Plovdiv Philharmonic Orchestra. Outdoors, under the stars and note perfect, Universal showcases the Liverpudlian bands' incredible atmosphere with a heavenly precision.Directed by Lasse Hoile, who has also made concert films … Read more

Trouble

The Distortion Field
FRW Music (2013)

There are few bands that can boast ever having made one of the heaviest albums of all time.Trouble can make that claim not just once, but twice. Those albums being 1984’s Psalm 9 and 1985’s The Skull. Trouble had the market of doom cornered for quite a while. Due in large part to guitarist Rick Wartell’s down tuned riffs and … Read more

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