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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)

A Perfect Circle

Eat the Elephant
BMG (2018)

Regardless of which band Maynard James Keenan is recording, promoting or touring with - he is usually the one unfairly maligned for holding up the proceedings, but make no mistake...A Perfect Circle is the brainchild of guitarist Billy Howerdel. And until he was ready to record again (in this case, 14 years after the band’s previous effort, Emotive) - it just wasn’t gonna happen. So here, in 2018 we finally have a new APC album, Eat the Elephant and what’s on everyone’s mind is whether or not it was worth the wait.Well the answer, in short, is yes. Sort of. Eat the Elephant isn’t what one would typically expect from a band after a 14 year absence. Usually after that much time has passed, the result is a mere facsimile. A shadow of what once once. Luckily for us, A Perfect Circle casts a long shadow and is able to span such a time as to make it feel like only a year or two has passed. Ok, this maybe isn’t evident in the album’s first and title track, but look beyond the piano heavy syncopation, and the APC groove starts to glow.Then, as “Disillusioned” strikes its first chords, the … Read more

Street Sects

The Kicking Mule
Flenser (2018)

This deviant punk/industrial hybrid sprout onto the scene in 2014 with their EP Gentrification I: The Morning After the Night … Read more

Dödsrit

Spirit Crusher
Prosthetic (2018)

2017 saw the release of Dödsrits' self titled debut album. I was impressed by the quality that I discovered on … Read more

Behemoth

I Loved You at Your Darkest
Nuclear Blast (2018)

The fanfare that surrounded 2014s The Satanist was not an unwarranted reaction and for Behemoth it marked a significant turning … Read more

Fórn

Rites of Despair
Gilead Media (2018)

Boston’s Fórn have been making slow, emotional music that rips your heart to pieces since 2012 and in that time … Read more

Maniac

Dead Dance Club
Dirt Cult (2018)

Across the board Maniac reminds me of several bands. The vocal timbre of lead vocalist Zache Davis recalls Mark Ryan … Read more

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One from the archives

Jennifer Otter-Bickerdike

You Are Beautiful and You Are Alone
Allen & Unwin Publishing (2021)

1966 saw the first incarnation of Velvet Underground serenaded by the deep alto wails of Nico and resulting in more of a performative shock value prank than a musical act. From the get go it was clear that what Nico brought to the table fundamentally altered the DNA of Velvet Underground and added an idiosyncratic melange of melancholy, gloomy glamour and a chilly otherworldliness. Pop music scholar Jennifer Otter Bickerdike’s biography of the woman born as Christa Päffgen starts off by shedding light on her trauma ridden life before joining Velvet Underground and her work as a model and actor. Dissatisfied and underwhelmed on the intellectual front, she deliberately chose to branch out into an artistic existence, of which the twelve months with Velvet Underground were only the start. Detailed … Read more

More album reviews

Four Fists

6666
Doomtree (2018)

Four sixes, four fists, two rappers and some punchy production that’s equally space age and heavy hitting. It’s my own interpretation here, but the group name is more a reference to solidarity and kinship between rappers P.O.S and Astronautalis than it’s a statement of anger or frustration. The group is built on the fluid, and often laid-back raps of Astronautalis … Read more

Editors

Violence
PIAS (2018)

Editors first appeared as part of the British indie music scene in 2003, when there was a swell of guitar bands dominating the charts. They released their Mercury-nominated debut album The Back Room in 2005, which has endured over the years thanks to its anthemic songs and dark lyrics, and since then their albums have traversed genres and attracted an … Read more

Author & Punisher

Beastland
Relapse (2018)

Tristan Shore, the man behind the Author & Punisher project, has been on a warpath since the release of his debut, self-released record The Painted Army. By drawing inspiration from his background as a mechanical engineer Shore has created his own range of instruments for Author & Punisher, his infamous Drone Machines. As a result, these machines have allowed him … Read more

I Against I

Small Waves
White Russian Records (2018)

Last year White Russian Records made me very happy by releasing Travoltas’ comeback album Until We Hit The Shore, which ended up being my favourite record of last year. Next to a couple of interesting up and coming bands White Russian Records is now releasing another comeback album of another Dutch punk legend: I Against I. Legendary in part because … Read more

Nordra

Pylon II
Sige (2018)

Monika Khot has been exploring the realm of experimental music both as one half of the avant noise/prog duo Zen Mother, but also with her solo project Nordra. Just last year, Khot released her self-titled record through SIGE, displaying her adventurous ethic towards electronic music. Now SIGE turns back the clock and presents Nordra's first work in Pylon II, originally … Read more

Chain Whip

Chain Whip
Dirt Cult (2018)

There’s angry music that’s angry in tone, and there’s angry by trope. Chain Whip is just plum angry. When Josh shouts, the first instinct is to take a step back and watch for spit. It’s blunt, brutal and literally in your face. This EP rips through 5 songs in 6 minutes. While it’s all short, fast, and loud, it’s also … Read more

Astpai

True Capacity
Jump Start (2018)

Austrian touring machine Astpai are ready to release their sixth full length album unto the world. Astpai has held a low profile recently. Their previous album Burden Calls is from 2014. Ok, there was 7” somewhere between these albums, but still. Astpai once started out as a punk band in the Strike Anywhere camp. Over the time this band has … Read more

La Armada

Anti-Colonial Vol. 1
Creep Records (2018)

I usually lean more melodic than heavy in my daily listening. But there’s a time and place for everything, and La Armada definitely hit that craving for pure vitriolic aggression. The Chicago by way of Dominican Republic band play metal-tinged hardcore that’s blunt, brutal and angry. While there are metallic influences in the guitar, the songs are always under 3-minutes … Read more

Alice In Chains

Rainier Fog
BMG (2018)

It’s been 12 years since Alice In Chains reactivated with vocalist William DuVall - making his time in the band roughly twice that of Layne Staley, but the shadow left by Staley was cast dark and long across the band’s last two albums Black Gives Way To Blue and The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here. Both competent albums that for better … Read more

Benjamin Shaw

Megadead
Audio Antihero Records (2018)

Goodbye, Cagoule World was a melancholy trip into the heart of someone who was trying to find their place in the world. On his previous record, Benjamin Shaw tread the path of experimentation, hoping to discover the place he belonged as well as that people aren’t really terrible deep down. On Megadead that experimentation really comes to the fore with … Read more

Bosse-de-Nage

Further Still
Flenser (2018)

The San Fransisco based band, Bosse-de-Nage, was one of the acts to popularize the post-black metal style in its current form. It all begun with their release of their debut, self-titled record in 2010, with the band showcasing not only a way of combining the nihilistic black metal tone with the haze of shoegaze, but rather a more holistic approach … Read more

Trappist

Ancient Brewing Tactics
Relapse (2018)

I could write way too many words about this album, but instead I’ll keep it short and mostly to the point. Ancient Brewing Tactics from Trappist is a 33-minute album about beer. The band includes familiar faces with scene-ties to the likes of Spazz, Despise You, and the metal-themed restaurant Grill ‘Em All. The latter (which I’ve never been to), … Read more

The Crimson Ghosts

Yet Not Human
Ring Of Fire Records (2018)

Currently I am recovering from a heatwave that seemed be going on forever. Unfortunately for me I am not very good at dealing with high temperatures. I fare well with low temperatures and feel very sorry for myself during large parts of summer. Right now I feel like I am yet not human. The right attitude for an album by … Read more

Black Spirituals

Black Access/Black Axes
Sige (2018)

The sound of Black Spirituals is an amalgamation of various disciplines, lineages and motifs. The duo featuring percussionist/drummer extraordinaire Marshall Trammell and sonic explorer Zachary James Watkins has displayed from day one their tendency to investigate the far edges of the music spectrum. Channelling the improvisational corners of rock, the spirit of free jazz, the modularity of drone music 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)