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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)

Ambitions

Exile
Bridge Nine (2007)

Ambitions have always been one of those bands I've liked but never really got overly into. They always seemed far too cheesy in that super posi Bane way for me to never want to take them seriously. 2007 rolls around, Ambitions signs to Bridge Nine and releases a new 7". They are still cheesy as hell but I usually order my pizza with extra handful of mozzarella anyhow. Ambitions is melodic hardcore with operatic vocals that call to mind Ignite, but the music is a tad more moshy. Ambitions ups the ante with Exile by writing catchy songs and drawing influences from 90's post-hardcore acts like Man Will Surrender and Shift into an energetic emotional outpouring of hardcore that proves it doesn't always have to be fast and metal to be powerful. If this 7" is an indication of what the full-length will entail Ambitions will have one albeit heavy on the cheddar positive melodic hardcore album. Read more

I Rise

Down
1917 (2007)

I Rise impressed me with their showing on the split with Soul Control with their ability to rewrite the best … Read more

Sinking Ships

Ten
Revelation (2007)

If the rumor serves correct, this may be the swansong for Sinking Ships. I for one will be sad to … Read more

Snake Eyes

Snake Eyes
1917 (2007)

Snake Eyes is just another one of those side project bands that doesn't get a lot of love outside of … Read more

Wasted Time

No Shore
Grave Mistake (2007)

Wasted Time basically sounds like Time to Escape but with more gruff vocals and more influences that stem from early … Read more

Time to Escape

Time to Escape
Grave Mistake (2007)

Bands like Time to Escape are the reason I picked up a record player. It's not so I can score … Read more

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One from the archives

Kaonashi

Dear Lemon House, You Ruined Me: Senior Year
Equal Vision, Unbeaten Records (2021)

Let me start by saying that, if you’re into good hardcore and haven’t heard of Kaonashi, you’re missing out. The Philadelphia based five-piece brought their second full-length record to our ears a few months ago. Dear Lemon House, You Ruined Me: Senior Year sees the band maturing in a lot of ways and finding their voice with focus and clarity. Dear Lemon House, You Ruined Me: Senior Year is a finely cut collection of sounds, which shows us that Kaonashi is capable of a tightly knit and cohesive manner of expositing their ideas. The record manages to traverse widely between mathcore and post-hardcore with a progressive mindset and a highly emotional approach. Although, stylistically, the album doesn’t simply make a checkbox out of the above, it seeks to bring an … Read more

More album reviews

Little Lebowski Urban Achievers

Is This a Party or an Intervention?
Evil Owl (2007)

Little Lebowski Urban Achievers are a slightly indie and extremely drunk pop-punk band that, when I actually leave the apartment, I've shared beers with more than few times. Three songs slow rock ditties fill up this slab of wax, everything is played simple and never overpowering. It's a bit melancholy with a biting sense of sarcasm. It's like saddling up … Read more

Rosetta

Wake/Lift
Translation Loss (2007)

If you're unfamiliar with Rosetta, punch yourself. Seriously, I'll wait. Go ahead and punch yourself if you've never heard of Rosetta. Okay now By now, you're probably asking why you just punched yourself? Punch yourself again for thinking that! After you've finish listening to Wake/Lift, the band's sophomore release, you'll know exactly why. Following the release of their 2005 debut, … Read more

The Lotus Eaters

Wurmwluv
Troubleman Unlimited (2007)

I love The Lotus Eaters. Not many people know the surprisingly laid back side project of Aaron Turner (Isis, Old Man Gloom, House of Low Culture), Stephen O'Malley (Sunn 0))), Khanate, and a myriad of others), and James Plotkin (Khanate, Phantomsmasher, Khlyst, etc); this may be due to the fact that the group does not release records at the clip … Read more

The Mock Heroic

Dignified Exits
SuperFi (2007)

Contrary to popular belief, screamo isn't dead. Granted, it could very well be crippled and unable to be even a shadow of it's former self, but it isn't dead and will probably never die. Aside from a handful of bands in the States playing the genre well, including Cease Upon the Capitol, Kid Crash, Loma Prieta, and to some extent … Read more

Manes

How the World Came to an End
Candlelight (2007)

Linkin Park, by and large, are looked upon as a joke. With few exceptions, they are loved solely by young fans who really don't know any better and are unable to find any other kind of "heavy" music at their local Wal-Mart in Smalltown, U.S.A. What does Linkin Park have to do with Norway's Manes, you ask? Well, they kind … Read more

Jesu

Pale Sketches
Avalanche Inc. (2007)

Pale Sketches is the second full-length that Jesu has released this year, and it marks an important step for Justin Broadrick. Broadrick started recording new material following the demise of his long running group Godflesh that would become Jesu. Over time he amassed quite a bit of songs and other musical pieces. Earlier this year, he decided to release the … Read more

Jesu

Lifeline
Hydra Head/Daymare (2007)

As unbelievable as it may sound Lifeline is Jesu's fifth (and possibly the sixth if Robotic Empire gets the split with Battle of Mice out before the end of 2007) release of the year and comes right on the heals of the Pale Sketches record. With all of this activity and music released in one year, I have two thoughts: … Read more

Bark Bark Bark

Haunts
Retard Disco (2007)

Jacob Cooper, the solo man of Bark Bark Bark, is quite an ambitious fellow. Though, I regret to say that his ambitions don't take him that far. Bark Bark Bark is an electronic effort fused together by "synthesizers and keyboards, borrowed musical equipment, and sampled cuts and clicks." Look a little confusing? Well it is. Haunts is Cooper's debut album, … Read more

Flotilla

Disaster Poetry
Independent (2006)

Taste is a strange thing. You start to form an opinion on something from the first contact with it. Take Flotilla for example - a four piece indie-rock band that includes a classically trained harpist and, according to their press release, "a noted composer of contemporary concert music." Now to be honest, the first thing flashed into my mind was … Read more

Pinback

Autumn of the Seraphs
Touch & Go (2007)

After three years of Rob Crow sowing his wild musical oats with namely Goblin Cock and his solo album, he has joined back with Armistead Burwell Smith IV to put out another album under the name Pinback. Autumn of the Seraphs is Pinback's second album for Touch & Go and you can tell right from the first note that the … Read more

Om

Pilgrimage
Southern Lord (2007)

Sleep was great. High on Fire is pretty good. But Om consistently impresses me, and seems to gain momentum with every album. Om seems to be getting closer than ever to carving out its own unique corner in the psychedelic genre that I could simply call "zen doom." These days "hypnotic" is a much-overused word in review writing, especially since … Read more

Alcest

Souvenirs D'un Autre Monde
Profound Lore (2007)

To listen to "Souvenirs D'un Autre Monde" (which translates into Memories Of Another World) is to experience a world free of pain, darkness, and despair, and to enter a world of beauty and harmony. The scenario that such an album paints is one where pure joy and happiness triumph through the overbearing cascading light, where innocence prevails, and where the … Read more

Just Surrender

We're in Like Sin
Broken English (2007)

Rob Gordon once said "The making of a great compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard to do and takes ages longer than it might seem. You gotta kick off with a killer, to grab attention. Then you got to take it up a notch, but you don't wanna blow your wad, so then you got to cool it off … Read more

Okkervil River

The Stage Names
Jagjaguwar (2007)

It's a rare commodity to find a record that just seems to get it right. I mean really get it. The kind of disc that echoes your little world, your thoughts and your feelings, back to you in lines that you just wish you had the talent to write yourself. The kind of album that has you walking the long … Read more

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