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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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The Jonbenét

Ugly/Heartless
Pluto (2006)

The Jonbenét Ramsey murder case has weaved its way in and out of our news chomping lives since the latter part of 1998. This was the time when the world was flummoxed and enraptured by the eight-year-old beauty queen's slaying. Lately the case has returned from the abyss again to haunt us with dolled up pictures of a little girl's face that has been deceased for nine years. The Jonbenét, the band from Houston, not the family from Colorado, take their name from the media shitstorm that has relentlessly ensued over the years, borrowing their namesake from the deceased to emblazon their merch and records. Ugly/Heartless is the brand new full-length on Pluto Records from this Houston, Texas quartet whose only prior proper release is a short five-song EP entitled The Plot Thickens, which served as a decent introduction to the then-new band. The Jonbenét are a four-piece screamy whatever-label-you-want-to-put-on-them rock band with a gripping affinity for southern rock and an aversion to the worst parts of mall-metal. If you're looking for machinegun fire blast-beats, technical guitar work, one-minute songs, and constant guttural screams go listen to the new Phoenix Bodies record instead. The Jonbenét are categorically slippery, yet retain … Read more

Cataract

Kingdom
Metal Blade (2006)

Heavy metal and I have been struggling through a rocky love affair since I was thirteen years old. Aside from … Read more

Jawbone

Hauling
Loose (2006)

Blues is a word all too easily thrown around these days; attached to the current clique of US indie bands, … Read more

Death Before Disco

Barricades
Lifeforce (2006)

I'll be the first to admit that I often judge a book by its cover the same way I judge … Read more

Multiple Authors

Strike Anywhere

Dead FM
Fat Wreck Chords (2006)

The return of Strike Anywhere seems to be met with mixed emotions by a lot of people, and that's tough … Read more

Multiple Authors

Strike Anywhere

Dead FM
Fat Wreck Chords (2006)

By now, you probably know exactly what to expect with a Strike Anywhere record, and I mean that in the … Read more

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One from the archives

Rust Belt Lights

These Are the Good Old Days
Paper + Plastick (2011)

There is a ridiculous amount of variation in pop punk as of late. There was one band back in the early days that crossed between pop punk and hardcore in the late 90's. That band was Saves The Day. With their first two full lengths they made a habit of including two step parts sing alongs and breakdowns into their pop punk songs. Very few bands have done that with any true efficiency since. Well, Rust Belt Lights have brought that back in style. A group containing various Buffalo hardcore mainstays have made a great pop punk album. This is an album meant to be played on both car trips and by a band in vfw halls. Everything clicks from the start of the album with "It Ain't What It … Read more

More album reviews

Wrong Day to Quit

Vicissitudes
Exotic Fever (2006)

It's a fact of life that hardcore bands, especially those involved with the late 90's screamo era, love to break up. They play a tour or so, leave us without about an hour worth of music, and then they're done. School, jobs, and families understandably take priority, and the band ceases to be. But the great thing about this scene … Read more

Another Breath

Mill City
Rivalry (2006)

Fulton, New York's Another Breath have returned with their debut full-length, Mill City. This is their follow-up to their first offering, 2004's Not Now, Not Ever, which blasted through eight songs in just fifteen minutes. Mill City may contain nearly twice as many songs, but the album clocks in at just over thirty-five minutes. So what we have here is … Read more

Multiple Authors

Cult of Luna

Somewhere Along the Highway
Earache (2006)

It has finally arrived. It is something I have been searching for months now and feared did not exist. It is the ultimate doom metal/post rock album. I'm sure most of you will grumble that this has been done to death. But, my friends, do not write this off as another Neurosis and/or Isis rip-off, because, it is not. The … Read more

Multiple Authors

Cult of Luna

Somewhere Along the Highway
Earache (2006)

Cult of Luna is a guilty pleasure of mine. They are a good band that has the tendency to get hammered by the music press for being derivative of Isis and Neurosis, in essence a third generation Neurosis influenced band. Prior to this album, the band's sound has progressed along the same general game plan that was set up by … Read more

Foot Foot

Snaggle and Buck
Oedipus (2006)

When it comes to folk music, I'm pretty clueless. Wikipedia tells me there's neo-folk, folk punk, jazz folk, folk metal, pagan folk, folk noir, psych folk, and my personal favorite, apocalyptic folk. While I'm not sure which of the labels is applicable to Los Angeles' Foot Foot, it's safe to say that they're doing something right. Snaggle and Buck begins … Read more

Nadja

Bodycage
Profound Lore (2006)

There aren't many drone and ambient bands out there that can hold my interest for more than a couple of minutes. There has to be a certain something special there - something epic and enormous - to make me want to keep listening. And Nadja is a band that has that certain something. Nadja is a Toronto, Canada duo that … Read more

Souvenir's Young America

Souvenir's Young America
UndeRadar (2006)

When one's prerogative is to spend half their time chilling out and the other half flying to Jupiter, there is a much-debated question on what to listen to. Souvenir's Young America has brought this dilemma upon themselves and answered it with their first full-length, Souvenir's Young America. The album in question is able to juggle some soft prettiness with a … Read more

New York Dolls

One Day it Will Please Us to Remember Even This
Roadrunner (2006)

Okay, let's run down the list, shall we? Billy Murcia (1951 - November 6, 1972) Johnny Thunders (July 16, 1952 - April 23, 1991) Jerry Nolan (May 7, 1946 - January 14, 1992) Arthur "Killer" Kane (February 3, 1949 - July 13, 2004) For you young'uns out there bear in mind - those dates signify deaths, not roster changes. For … Read more

Learn

Life and...
Malfunction (2006)

If we at Scene Point Blank believed in short reviews I could easily wrap this up by saying, "More sweet hardcore with great breakdowns from the fine folks at Malfunction: 8.5/10" and be done with it. What else do you, the reader, really need to know? Well let me fill you in. Providence, RI's Learn reminds me another young hardcore … Read more

Death is Not Glamorous

Death is Not Glamorous / Undercurrents
State of Mind / Dead & Gone (2006)

I know very little about the country of Norway. Sure, I could hit up Google or Wikipedia and shoot off some facts about their leading exports or how many Olympic downhill skiers were born there, but it would be nothing more than useless information. All you need to know, my faithful readers, is that Death is Not Glamorous calls Oslo, … Read more

Guns Up!

Outlive
1917 (2006)

Sure Madball is still kicking, but let's face it, they have already been around the block and back several times over. Cleary they are juggernauts of their style but one day they're going to have to relinquish their title as the undisputed kings of hardcore; but who will be the heir? Meet Guns Up!, one of the Merrimack Valley's best … Read more

Cameran

A Caesarean
Innocent Words (2006)

Apparently best described as "encapsulating the sonic blend of Jack Kerouac's contagious zest for life and Yves Klein's wild and reckless attempts of jumping out of windows," Cameran are probably closer to a severe mix of the art-noise of early …Trail of Dead, Sonic Youth et al, and the irreverently hushed, thunderously deafening post-rock of the Mogwai of old. Moments … Read more

The Vows

The Vows
Indecision (2006)

The Vows is the latest hardcore "super-group" to include Rob Moran of Unbroken. After his departure from the impressive Some Girls, he moved to Seattle, Washington and began this band. In the sparse liner notes, the band thanks old Seattle hardcore band Brotherhood and another older group, Amenity, for bringing them together; this is a good indication of the musical … Read more

Daughters

Hell Songs
Hydra Head (2006)

Man, The Jesus Lizard really left their mark. And as funny as it seems for such a quaint little band from Chicago, to this very day they're still firmly imprinted and can be spotted ever so clearly within modern music all across the board. Maybe its just that David Yow & Co.'s expansive sound was such a mishmash of punk, … Read more

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