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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)

Deafheaven

New Bermuda
Anti (2015)

Deafheaven’s Sunbather was the antithesis of a sophomore slump. The album produced armies of lovers and haters, who debated whether or not the album was “metal” enough to deserve all the media attention proclaiming it as one of the greatest current metal albums. Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll ever forget waiting in line to see Deafheaven and hearing the couple behind me discussing the wonders of using beeswax to waterproof your TOMS shoes. So, I probably stand in the “eh, not that metal” side of the Deafheaven debate. But frankly, who gives a shit, because that Deafheaven show rocked (metal or not), and I can’t wait to see them again in a few weeks. Deafheaven combines metal (yes, metal) riffs with reverbing walls of sound reminiscent of My Bloody Valentine and somber instrumentals echoing Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Explosions in the Sky. Some call it blackgaze, others call it “not metal at fucking all,” but whatever you call it, it’s distinctly Deafheaven.Obviously, Deafheaven had a lot to live up to after Sunbather, and they largely did with their latest album, New Bermuda. While Sunbather had an actual-song/ambient-song/actual-song layout that I thought was cute but boring, New Bermuda cuts the … Read more

Deafheaven

New Bermuda
Anti (2015)

Looking back at Sunbather, Deafheaven's sophomore release, it is very easy to understand how that album was able to become … Read more

Summer Homes

Nocturnes
Independent (2015)

Though the album might attract some of the same listeners that gravitate towards otherworldly new age music, Summer Homes’s 2015 … Read more

Six Feet Under

Crypt of the Devil
Metal Blade (2015)

Twenty years ago today, Saturday September 26, 2015, the reincarnation of Chris Barnes’ death metal crusade known as Six Feet … Read more

Deadmen

Anger Rising
Afraid of the Basement (2014)

This is some metalpunx ouf of New Jersey. Superfast and snotty as all hell. Like some spikey-haired snot punk singing … Read more

Sleaford Mods

Key Markets
Harbinger Sound (2015)

"worker bees can leaveeven drones can fly awaythe queen is their slave"- Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club When people talk about … Read more

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One from the archives

Love Collector

My Baby Goes Waaah!
Big Action (2009)

What you get with Love Collector is pretty straightforward. Only a few seconds into "My Baby Goes Waaah!," the titular track on this 7", it's clear that this is a band that plays punk-fused garage rock, with lots of guitar, a few pedals, and lots of attitude hovering around the two-minute-per song mark. It's also the kind of rock where lyricism is a near non-factor. The lyrics tend to be insipid: a case in point being the titular song and excerpts like "I want to be her man / When she hits me with a frying pan / My baby she's such a brat / I want to beat her with a baseball bat" It's irreverent and fun, with the guitar hooks being the primary force. The lyrics are a … Read more

More album reviews

Theologian

A Means By Which To Break The Surface of The Real
Nothing Under The Sun (2015)

It is quite difficult to follow a project as active as Theologian. The career of the dark industrial unit has spawned a large number of releases, with albums such as The Chasms of My Heart and Finding Comfort In Overwhelming Negativity standing out. Main man of Theologian, Lee M. Bartow (a.k.a Theologian Prime) works with David Castillo and Daniel Suffering, … Read more

Bangers

Bird
Specialist Subject Records (2015)

Bird is the Bangers record I wanted in 2013. Crazy Fucking Dreams is a good record, it was just a little less direct than I wanted from the band, being a little more on the introspective and drawn out (in punk terms) side of things than an aggressive and, er, banging approach. It was good, but Bird is better.It gets … Read more

Ivy

A Cat's Cause, No Dog's Problem
Katorga Works (2015)

Before I heard this I didn’t know a lot about this band other than that they were definitely not the indie-pop trio of the same name. I picked this 7” up based strictly on the artwork, the title, and the fact that Katorga Works is a fairly trustworthy label. Visually-speaking it doesn’t exactly scream punk. And the title, well, who … Read more

Skepticism

Ordeal
Svart Records (2015)

Recording a live album isn’t a new concept, but for Skepticism, who don’t do anything by halves, recording their brand new album completely live, was certainly a new experience. The Finnish funeral doom band have been plying their gothic trade for longer than most of their fans have even been alive, but their timeless sound and gorgeous tone is enough … Read more

Queensrÿche

Condition Hüman
Century Media (2015)

At the time of the release of their eponymous 2013 full-length album, the Geoff Tate storm had passed and cleanup efforts had begun.It was most definitely a return to form under the new stable guidance of Crimson Glory vocalist Todd LaTorre and Queensryche delivered their strongest album so far this century.With Condition Hüman, the band continues on with the same … Read more

Editors

In Dream
PIAS (2015)

Long considered the perennial sons of British 1980s post punk, Editors have never quite been able to shake off the Depeche Mode and Joy Division comparisons that are a near constant every time their name is mentioned. Embodying a haphazard approach in their output, such as on the simmering synth gloom of In This Light and on This Evening and … Read more

Extinction A.D.

Plague Prophecy
Good Fight (2014)

A storm has ostensibly been brewing in Long Island, New York beneath the surface of the hardcore outfit This Is Hell. For those in the know, This Is Hell has been an East Coast staple for the better part of the millennium. Interestingly, the band had been bearing the teeth of metal and thrash in their later records, moving off … Read more

Tit

Tit
FDH (2014)

So I’m a fan of The Hussy. People who read this site have (hopefully) picked up on that. Well, TIT is a two piece with Bobby Hussy and Shawn Foree of the more popular (but previously unheard by me) Digital Leather. Let’s just say that their 12” is an interesting record, and not what I expected.Where I expected ballsy and … Read more

Code Elektro

Superstrings
Iceberg Records (2015)

Boasting precise mixing and near-flawless musical execution, Code Elektro’s 2015 Superstrings may be one of the best albums of cyberpunk-inspired electronica one would hope to come across. This shouldn’t come as much of a shock considering the album is the product of Danish musician Martin Ahm Nielsen, who makes a living composing music for commercials and television. What did strike … Read more

Various Artists

Soaked in Bleach
MVD Visual (2015)

On March 31,1994, singer and guitarist Kurt Cobain, frontman for Nirvana and heralded as the spokesman for a generation, escaped from a drug treatment facility in Los Angeles. Eight days later, as rumors of Nirvana’s breakup spread after it was announced the band had pulled out of that year’s Lollapalooza Music Festival, Cobain was found dead in the greenhouse beside … Read more

Scorpions

MTV Unplugged in Athens
Sony (2014)

In the interest of full disclosure, this reviewer would like to go on record as saying that he loves The Scorpions. They are exceptional musicians and have a catalog of hard rock classics that go far beyond the power-ballads they became synonymous for in the 80's and 90's. There's been the odd misstep over the years (see Eye II Eye) … Read more

Slayer

Repentless
Nuclear Blast (2015)

Since the 1983 release of Slayer's debut album Show No Mercy, guitarists Jeff Hanneman, Kerry King bassist/vocalist Tom Araya and drummer Dave Lombardo have built a long and respectable career by maintaining the number two slot in the Big Four of thrash metal, second only to Metallica. But if the measure was the loyalty of their fan base, one would … Read more

Le Butcherettes

A Raw Youth
Ipecac (2015)

"secret consciousness of power is far more delightful than open domination"Dostoevsky - The Adolescent. Le Butcherettes came seemingly from out of nowhere a few years ago. In this case, nowhere was more specifically Guadalajara, Mexico.Fronted by Teresa Suárez, otherwise known as Teri Gender Bender, the band was quick to gain the attention of music notables and began to appear as … Read more

Dark Oz

¡Piratas!
Independent (2015)

I’m not sure I could come up with a worse scenario for a band than having one of its players pass away while the group was touring, but that’s sadly what occurred in September 2014 when Lorein Bourne, a.k.a. Styx and drummer for Portland, Oregon-based and self-proclaimed “garunge” duo Dark Oz, died of complications from Turner Syndrome after a show … Read more

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