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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)

Dream Fatigue

No Requiem
Daze (2026)

There’s a particular tension that makes alternative rock compelling. I love the emotional push and pull between softness and eruption. On No Requiem, Massachusetts outfit Dream Fatigue thrive in that space, crafting a seven song EP that balances dreamlike melody with bursts of distortion and emotional urgency. Born from the creative partnership between drummer Matt Wood and vocalist Jonali McFadden, Dream Fatigue build their sound on contrasts. Bright, clear vocals glide over thick guitar textures. Rhythms shift between groove heavy momentum and sudden surges of aggression. The result feels fluid rather than chaotic. This is a band that knows exactly when to hold tension and when to release it. The EP opens with “Look Up,” immediately establishing the dynamic palette the band works from. Guitars swell and recede while McFadden’s voice cuts cleanly through the mix, carrying a tone that feels both vulnerable and determined. There’s an emotional clarity to her delivery that anchors the more atmospheric elements surrounding it. Lead single “Be Your Anchor” leans further into that emotional core. The track builds patiently, layering shimmering guitars before the rhythm section kicks in with real weight. It’s the kind of song that feels equally at home blasting through car … Read more

The Went Wrongs

This Isn't What I Ordered
Transcendental Revolution (2026)

I'm not sure what's happening to me in middle age. I used to find samples clever and a nice change-of-pace … Read more

Spillings

Spillings
The Garotte (2026)

Spillings is a minimalist reconfiguration undertaken by two artists whose careers have been about genre deconstruction. The paths of Mathieu … Read more

Pacifist

Five
Independent (2026)

There’s a reason five doesn’t feel like just another EP title. This isn’t a casual release or a stopgap between … Read more

Pure Intention

Pure Intention
Independent (2026)

Pure Intentions is a hard hitting punk band first emerging in the Chicago scene in 2020. Since its formation by … Read more

Exhumed

Red Asphalt
Relapse (2026)

There are few bands in extreme metal who understand their own lane as well as Exhumed. For nearly three decades, … Read more

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One from the archives

Trent Fox & The Tenants

Mess Around
Kind Turkey (2011)

There’s a garage-pop movement afoot in Wisconsin and Trent Fox & the Tenants are just one of the torchbearers. Their five song debut EP, Mess Around, is a quick burst: part ass-shaking party music, part beer-pounding sleaze. The band plays a familiar style with enough attitude to pull it off without making the usual namedropping comparisons.The single is under 15 minutes long, delivering a familiar, yet new sound most easily summed up as garage-pop with a touch of Detroit grit. The title track opens with a prominent bassline and some building snare taps that culminate into a big chorus. The song mixes snotty vocals with some well-harmonized backing “yeah yeah yeahs” that give a unifying effect, somewhat countering the frontman, ego-driven style of his snotty delivery. The structure tends to … Read more

More album reviews

The Dumpies

Lub Dub
Dirt Cult (2026)

Ok full disclosure, I sung backups on (allegedly) three of these songs and one song is a cover (albeit a stretch lol) of a song I co-wrote. What can I say tho? I was a fan of The Dumpies from the get go, before we all became very close friends and constant tour mates! Dub music diehards might be a … Read more

Elway

Nobody’s Going To Heaven
Red Scare (2025)

There’s a specific kind of punk record that doesn’t try to inspire you, doesn’t bother offering solutions, and doesn’t pretend things are going to work out in the end. Nobody’s Going To Heaven is firmly planted in that tradition. Elway returns sounding less interested in rallying cries and more invested in documenting collapse as it happens. They cover every collapse … Read more

Heather The Jerk

Very Motorcycle EP
Goodbye Boozy (2025)

Heather The Jerk is a project from Madison, WI musician Heather Sawyer -- a scrappy punk band with garage and pop influences running rampant through the peppy, raw sound. This 4-song EP is called Very Motorcycle, released about a year after the Not Very Motorcycle tape. I have no idea what the phrase means, yet it sets a distinct mood. … Read more

Toys That Kill

Triple Sabotage
Recess (2026)

If you were lucky enough to catch Toys That Kill live last year, you were maybe treated to a set that included classic F.Y.P bangers like “Come Home Smelly” and “Jerkoff”. I made the trip down to Seattle to see them with Off With Their Heads specifically for this reason and was in no way disappointed. I had somehow managed … Read more

Various Artists

Gino and the Goons / Chinese Junk – Talk Trash With
Big Neck Records (2025)

Split LPs can be a gamble, but Talk Trash With lands squarely like a swift kick to those tender testicles dancing in the steel-toe-boot category — ten tracks of loud, unpolished punk mayhem that feel tailor-made for sticky floors, smoky blue air (ahh, remember those years?), piss puddles for those who can’t miss a note, and the smell of a … Read more

Citric Dummies

Split With Turnstile
Feel It Records (2025)

Citric Dummies might be the band I saw live the most often in 2025, yet I put off a thorough review of their latest LP until the calendar turned to 2026. Anyway, Split With Turnstile, besides having a great title, continues the band's garage-punk sound that draws from a deep array of influences from eggpunk to '80s hardcore while mostly … Read more

Pageant Mum

Finis Amoris Est
Red Tape Music (2026)

Breakup records usually announce themselves with a band. There is betrayal, shouting, and doors slamming shut. Finis Amoris Est, the new EP from UK post-hardcore outfit Pageant Mum, takes a different route. It’s a record about what happens after the blowup, when the noise dies down and you’re left alone with the quieter, harder questions. Across these four tracks, the … Read more

Pat Todd & The Rankoutsiders

After The Dolls
Heavy Medication Records (2026)

Pat Todd is a roots rock and roll incarnate — a relentless road dog, grinding it out night after night with his hot-as-buckshot band, The Rankoutsiders. His shows are raw, electric, and lived-in, a testament to decades on the road. With a career spanning over forty years, Todd has earned a reputation as one of the hardest-working men in the … Read more

Dewey

Summer On A Curb
Howlin’ Banana Records (2026)

If you like your pop melodies wrapped in fuzz, your shoegaze grounded in real songwriting, and your records best experienced front-to-back on a quiet night, Dewey’s debut is absolutely worth your time. There’s something disarmingly unpretentious about Summer On A Curb. Dewey don’t arrive with a manifesto, a scene-policing attitude, or a sense of calculated cool. Instead, this Parisian quartet … Read more

Place Position

Went Silent
Blind Rage Records, Bunker Park, Poptek, Sweet Cheetah (2026)

There’s a certain kind of band that makes sense immediately once you see them live. Place Position is one of those bands. Before Went Silent ever landed on my speakers, I caught them at a show I played in Dayton, and they were the kind of band that quietly steals the night. There were no theatrics, no posturing, just total … Read more

Twenty One Children

After The Storm EP
Slovenly (2025)

Hailing and wailing from Soweto, South Africa, rising from the ashes After The Storm comes pounding like a fierce berg wind. Don’t let this trigger your ancraophobia; they are only here (hear) to rip your sagging, middle-aged flesh from your living corpsicle sonically. Ah, Daddy—yes, Son—tell us about a time when punk was raw, dangerous, and would generally stomp your … Read more

Awful Din

Anti Body
We’re Trying Records (2026)

There’s a certain honesty that only comes from bands who’ve spent years playing to half-filled rooms, basements with bad wiring, and bars where the PA is optional. ANTI BODY, the new LP from Brooklyn emo punks Awful Din, sounds like it was built in those spaces. Not as a gimmick, but as lived experience. This is a record that feels … Read more

Mariachi El Bronx

IV
ATO (2026)

As I review Mariachi El Bronx's latest album, IV I'm not going to pretend I'm well-versed in the deep cultural tradition that inspired The Bronx to adopt this project well outside of their fiery hardcore "main project." Instead, I'll grade it on "do I like it" merits. And I definitely dig the rhythmic and festival Latinx flavors. If you're familiar … Read more

Hoaxed

Death Knocks
Relapse (2026)

There’s a fine line between dark rock that feels theatrical and dark rock that feels transportive. On Death Knocks, Hoaxed land firmly in the latter. This is an album that doesn’t just flirt with atmosphere but commits to it fully, wrapping heavy riffs, melodic hooks, and occult-tinged drama into something that feels natural and not staged. Three years in 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)