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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)

Armor for Sleep

There Is No Memory
Equal Vision (2025)

Armor For Sleep return with an album that treats memory like a weapon. It’s delicate, devastating, and impossible to disarm. For those who may not be as old as me and missed their emergence into the emo/indie scene, the Teaneck, New Jersey band started in 2001. Led by frontman Ben Jorgensen, they dropped gems like Dream to Make Believe (2003) and What to Do When You Are Dead (2005). They built a reputation for emotionally charged post-hardcore/emo with concept-album ambition. The band went on hiatus in 2009, reunited in 2020, and now return with There Is No Memory. It’s ten years on from their original peak but they are sounding as vital as ever. Armor For Sleep never really wrote “songs”. They’ve always written states of mind that take you places. With this newest offering, Ben Jorgensen drags you into the most fragile one yet. This album feels like what happens when the dust settles and you finally must live with the ghosts. There are no metaphors or concept filters this time. Just grief, regret, and the strange way memory keeps replaying moments you thought were dead. The album starts with “The Outer Ring”, and you can feel that familiar … Read more

Imploders

Targeted For Termination
Neon Taste Records, Static Shock Records (2025)

Back in or around 2007 my buddy Jake invited me to a show, I’m not even sure he told me … Read more

Imperial Domain

Portentum
Wormhole Death (2025)

Formed in 1995, Imperial Domain cut their teeth in the Swedish death metal underground with early demos before dropping In … Read more

Chairmaker

Leviathan Carcass
Independent (2025)

There are some musicians that come along and can literally play every instrument and do it well. Such is the … Read more

The Devil Wears Prada

Flowers
Solid State (2025)

Twenty years into the grind and The Devil Wears Prada haven’t lost their edge. However, in recent years, it’s a … Read more

DFMK

Playa Nuclear
Alternative Tentacles (2025)

DFMK have been playing since 2009, but Playa Nuclear is just their second full-length. It kicks off with exactly what … Read more

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One from the archives

At All Costs

Direction
Anti-H (2006)

There's an awkward goofiness to the Start Today album, or any of the first fifteen Revelation releases, that will always make them powerfully classic. None of the bands at the time really knew what they were doing both musically and culturally. These were just a bunch of bored kids, mostly in middle and high school, who felt alienated by their peer group and had enough tenacity to write songs about it. Almost everything after, with a few exceptions here and there, is merely a cheap attempt to rehash a sensation that can simply never be relived authentically. And this is why At All Costs fails as a hardcore band. This isn't to say they're a bad band, or that all current hardcore bands are attempting a youth crew revival, but … Read more

More album reviews

Action/Adventure

Ever After
Pure Noise (2025)

Chicago’s Action/Adventure have been grinding the pop-punk trenches since 2014. They have always played pop-punk like it still has something to prove because for them, it does. They went viral in 2020 on TikTok with their song “Barricades” by calling out the exact thing no one in the scene wanted to say out loud. The genre is full of white … Read more

217

In Your Gaze
Time To Kill (2025)

If you didn’t know, hardcore and punk are alive and thriving in Italy. When I come across bands from there, their scene never ceases to amaze me. Italy gave us Raw Power and Negazione in the ’80s, Slander and Strength Approach in the 2010s. Now 217 picks up that lineage with their own mix of fire and reflection by keeping … Read more

Ugly Stick

Absinthe
Hovercraft Records (2025)

Contrary to what I said on Vh1’s Behind the Music, Tim from Hovercraft is one of my favourite human beings. I suppose in some ways that’s not saying much but Tim plays in one of my favourite bands, I’m a fan of his art and on top of those two things and running a label, his day job is saving … Read more

Ace Enders

Posture Syndrome
Pure Noise (2025)

If the name Ace Enders sounds familiar, it should. He’s been the voice behind The Early November, one of Drive-Thru Records’ cornerstone emo bands in the early 2000s. While that scene exploded, Ace carved his own path with that band, as well as solo experiments under the name I Can Make a Mess, and the occasional record as Ace Enders … Read more

Summer Blue

Self Titled EP
New Morality Zine (2025)

You may not be familiar with the band Summer Blue, but that’s your issue. If you do know the San Jose, CA based band, then you know how enjoyable they are to listen to. For some background for the newcomers, the band started in 2022 as a side project between friends already orbiting the Bay Area DIY and indie scenes. … Read more

Relay For Death

Mutual Consuming
Helen Scarsdale Agency (2025)

At a time when experimental artists are constantly churning out new music, it is curious to find some that take their time. Rachel and Roxann Spikula might not be the most prolific creatives, but when they make an appearance, it is worth paying attention. The twin sisters have performed in Towering Heroic Dudes and Boyzone, but it is their own … Read more

Scorching Tomb

Ossuary
Time To Kill (2025)

Whenever I see the cover art of an album for a metal band and there’s impaled skulls, blood, and a logo I can’t read, I know I’m getting ready to get obliterated. If I’m at the record store, I instantly flip it to the spine of the album to see the band’s name so I can check them out on … Read more

CF98

Stupid Punk
Double Helix, SBAM (2025)

If I said that Poland is known for pierogis and punk rock, would you believe me? Punk has a deep history in Poland ranging all the way back to the late 70s with the band Tilt and from the looks of it, it’s not stopping any time soon. CF98 has been a part of the scene for over two decades … Read more

Cluster Lizard

Herts
Prostir (2025)

Dmytro Fedorenko and Kateryna Zavoloka are two legendary artists who have defined much of contemporary experimental electronic music through both their various projects and through the now-defunct Kvitnu record label. One of their newer collaborations is Cluster Lizard, a project that has undergone an interesting evolution. Starting in 2017, Fedorenko and Zavoloka opted for a deeply off-kilter approach, with Edge … Read more

Street Eaters

Opaque
Dirt Cult (2025)

Sometimes I'm surprised at how averse I am to change. Hearing that Street Eaters had expanded to a trio caused me more trepidation than I want to admit -- and, like most fear of change, it was all for naught. The band hasn't changed and they aren't spilling over with annoying guitar solos either. They just have a little more … Read more

Faulty Cognitions

They Promised Us Heaven
Dead Broke Records (2025)

On their debut, Somehow, We Are Here, Faulty Cognitions made their statement. This wasn't a garage-punk band in the style of the members' previous bands (Low Culture and Shang-A-Lang, among others). It's a guitar-first rock indie-punk band schooled by the college rock of the 1980s. This time around the transition has been so seamless that maybe the debut was a … Read more

The Penske File

Reprieve
Gunner Records, Stomp Records (2025)

I used to dislike punk music where people sing. And, well, I'm still not super fond of it but there is an exception to every rule. The Penske File are one of those exceptions and maybe it's because while they have a singer (as compared to a "vocalist"), it's still authentic and conveys that everyperson vibe I seek in the … Read more

Menace Ruine

The Color of the Grave Is Green
Union Finale Records (2025)

One of the most unique voices in extreme music, Menace Ruine stand out in their sonic evolution. The duo of Geneviève Beaulieu and Steve de la Moth started out in a raw, uncompromising fashion, merging black metal and industrial to create absolute havoc in Cult of Ruins and The Die is Cast. In the coming years, they would expand this … Read more

Extortionist

Stare Into The Seething Wounds
Unique Leader (2025)

With a band name like Extortionist, you instantly know they aren’t messing around. I’ve watched enough true crime documentaries to know when you’re going to get tangled up with someone you shouldn’t. Hailing from the Pacific Northwest, this band gives you exactly what you want and expect – raw, merciless and unforgiving music. Looking at the cover art and their … 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)