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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)

Escape the Fate

There's No Sympathy for the Dead
Epitaph (2006)

Brett Gurewitz clearly smells money like band mate Greg Graffin smells fat teen pussy from Wisconsin, and it gets him just as hard. By his own admission Gurewitz has never "come across a new group with more potential to be huge" than Escape the Fate. The dollar signs must be spinning in his eyes as the Myspace friend requests grow exponentially. And unless Gurewitz has had some form of good taste lobotomy, then the signing of Escape the Fate to Epitaph must have been entirely prompted by the all mighty dollar. Effectively the band's plan is a reasonable one, if not all that cunning/subtle: take parts of all things fashionable in the world of "alternative" music at present and shit it out with some Mötley Crüe haircuts, fake angst and eyeliner. This is perhaps giving them too much credit; they might just like the shit they play. Clean vocals sour over the incredibly standard guitars before the breakdown comes around exactly when you know it will along with the faux tough hardcore vocals ala Atreyu. Oh, and there are some limp solo's in there too (see "The Guillotine" for laughable evidence). Each of the five songs has a fairly prominent … Read more

Men's Recovery Project

The Very Best of Men's Recovery Project
5 Rue Christine (2005)

The idea of releasing a "Greatest Hits" package for a band like Men's Recovery Project seems laughable on the surface. … Read more

The Killer

Better Judged by Twelve than Carried by Six (Reissue)
Organized Crime (2006)

If there is one hardcore band in Chicago that truly defines the conventions of "Chicago Hardcore," it is The Killer. … Read more

The Killer

Better Judged by Twelve than Carried by Six (Reissue)
Organized Crime (2006)

If Myspace, YouTube, and various messegeboards have shown me anything in 2006, it is that kids love to mosh. From … Read more

The Futureheads

News and Tributes
Vagrant (2006)

In late 2004, The Futureheads punctured the mope-heavy indie rock bubble with the delivery of their hyperactive post-punk debut album. … Read more

Crime In Stereo

The Troubled Stateside
Nitro (2006)

The lead off track on Crime In Stereo's The Troubled Stateside is titled "Everything Changes/Nothing Is Ever Truly Lost." This … Read more

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One from the archives

Daggermouth

Turf Wars
State of Mind (2007)

Daggermouth's 2005 release, Stallone was a really solid record. For me, the band came along at a time when no new bands were really catching on with me. I was hooked on Stallone from the start and I've been riding the hype train with The 'Mouth ever since. Turf Wars was certainly a long time in the making, but I have to say it was worth the wait. The album kicks off with "Abracadabra, Holmes" which finds Daggermouth displaying a more aggressive sound than anything you could find on the band's previous releases. The band really seems to nail down an almost Pulley-esque sound at times, melding 90's skatepunk with the 00's poppy style of hardcore that is ever so popular. Songs like "Glendale P.D. Hates Daggermouth," "Fact Mike Peecher … Read more

More album reviews

Saviours

Crucifire
Level Plane (2006)

I had been listening to this record for almost three weeks trying to place the sounds and get some kind of footing for writing about Crucifire. After completing some minor bit of research, I was shocked to learn that this album is the product of members of Yaphet Kotto, Bread and Circuits, and others. Saviours do not sound anything like … Read more

Hard- Fi

Stars of CCTV
WEA (2006)

The preamble about Hard-Fi is something about DIY, self-financing, self-promotion and the dole. There's something about the middle-English wastelands in which the band live. Something else about inner city tower blocks adds weight to the working class credentials about which, no doubt, Virginia Woolf would have something or other to say. Some quasi-pretentious blurb about wanting to sell records in … Read more

Neko Case

Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
Anti (2006)

According to Playboy.com, Neko Case is the "Sexiest Babe of Indie Rock." Fortunately for the listening public, such a lofty title hasn't gone to Miss Case's head. "I'm not out to become Faith Hill," she says. "I never want to play an arena, and I never want to be on the MTV Video Music Awards, much less make a video … Read more

Hank Williams III

Straight to Hell
Bruc (2006)

Weak. Shallow. Lame. Insipid. All of these words have been used at some point (by me) to describe country music. I fucking hate what passes for country music today and thankfully, so does Hank Williams III. He knows that the crossover into pop music in the late eighties/early nineties signaled the death of whatever creativity or credibility was left in … Read more

Slayer

Eternal Pyre
American (2006)

It's been a quite wait for Slayer fans, who are as rabid as music fans come. We last heard new music from the metal masters on 2001's God Hates Us All. Well here in 2006 we have been graced - an ironic choice of words I know - with Eternal Pyre featuring a brand new Slayer song, "Cult." On "Cult" … Read more

Aoria

If I Slow Down Everything Will Disappear
Independent (2006)

I love unsolicited review materials, especially when it's a band I've never heard before, and even more so when said band turns out to be surprisingly good. Aoria is a four-piece outfit from Sweden that plays rock music with the electro-pop influence of The Cure. The songs of this three-song EP are strongly written and the intricate composition of the … Read more

Defcon 4

File Under Fuck
Black Box Recordings (2006)

A lot of bands claim influence from early hardcore favorites like Black Flag and Minor Threat. Nine times out of ten it is complete bullshit and nothing more than a marketing ploy - "We blend the intensity of Minor Threat with the brutality of Slayer and the social awareness of Catharsis." Actually that band sounds kind of sweet, but you … Read more

Apiary

Lost In Focus
Ironclad/Metal Blade (2006)

Lost in Focus is the debut release from a Southern California five-piece know as Apiary. I listen to a lot of music, and have jaded fucking ears that just don't prick up the way they used to. It takes a good shot of aural Viagra to get my attention. My attention was grabbed not long into "Pain Is The Reason" … Read more

Guiltmaker

Driven By Arms
Kiss of Death (2006)

Despite featuring ex-members of Combatwoundedveteran and Reversal of Man, Guiltmaker is distinctly less heavy than you might initially assume they would be. In fact the band does a fairly catchy take on the mid 90s emo rock/ post hardcore sound. Reminiscent of both bands like Rival Schools, Jets to Brazil and Jawbreaker, as well as uber popular present day acts … Read more

Boris

Pink
Southern Lord (2006)

Initially released late last year on Japanese label Diwphalanx, Pink now finds a worldwide release through Southern Lord. It also see's the band at their scuzzy rock best. Similar in sound in many ways to their 2005 Southern Lord release, Akuma No Uta, but upping the ante considerably with tighter more memorable songs. Tracks like "Regardless it is not Separable" … Read more

Genghis Tron

Dead Mountain Mouth
Crucial Blast (2006)

Genghis Tron is something of an anomaly in the world of music. On their Myspace site they list themselves as Grind/Electro/Metal, which is a pretty disconcerting declaration to some. It sounds a bit off-putting, like a botched crossbreeding that has yielded mentally handicapped offspring in the form of songs that should have never been written. That's the way it usually … Read more

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone

Etiquette
Tomlab (2006)

My initial experience with Casiotone for the Painfully Alone (henceforth referred to as simply 'tones, to save me a fair bit of typing) was not an audio one. Rather, for sometime the only working knowledge that I had of the band was their lyrics which I read through after Soulseek dropped the ball and returned no search results. This, granted, … Read more

Paatos

Silence of Another Kind
Inside Out (2006)

Prog-rock is quite an unstable ground to tread upon. One uneven step can send you hurtling into the abyss of ridiculous pretentiousness. As Silence of Another Kind begins, Paatos is already dangerously close to losing their footing. "Shame", while aptly named, does nothing more than give the impression of a rather uninspired band that is simply going through the motions. … Read more

Ceremony

Violence Violence
Malfunction (2006)

Hate is a tough thing to grasp for many people. They say they hate, but I'm not sure I believe it because the term "hate" is like love. It's thrown about haphazardly and used in offhand comments and that makes it lose it's true, immensely dark and angry feeling. So when a band aims to go for hatred as the … Read more

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