Review / 200 Words Or Less
Golden City
Golden City

Magic Bullet (2009) — Jason

Golden City – Golden City cover artwork
Golden City – Golden City — Magic Bullet, 2009

This eight-song EP is completely and utterly awesome. I really wasn't expecting much from former Christie Front Drive guitar player Eric Richter since last I heard he was in the coma-inducing Antarctic. However, Golden City is just great. I'm having a hard time expressing just great these eight songs really are, but I'm going to try, really, I am.

Imagine if you will, eight songs of super catchy poppy indie rock with shimmering guitars playing simple riffs with more hooks that a Peter Pan convention. If you need band influences, think of Christie Front trying to write the best Promise Ring pop song while trying to recreate Jimmy Eat World's Static Prevails and you get just a hint of the greatness that's going on this self-titled debut EP by Golden City.

This was probably the biggest surprise to hit my review box all year and surely will by on my top 25 by year's end. Simply awesome.

9.5 / 10 — Jason • October 6, 2009

Golden City – Golden City cover artwork
Golden City – Golden City — Magic Bullet, 2009

Recently-posted album reviews

Contention

Nuclear Summer
Daze (2026)

Contention, I would argue, has spent the last few years at or near the top of the heap of the return to 90's styled Straight Edge Metalcore. I am being specific because there is no mistaking Contention's influences nor their message. This is a STRAIGHT EDGE band that is far more indebted to Morning Again that anything that uses a … Read more

A Secret Revealed

The Ruin I Summoned Forth
Lifeforce (2026)

There are albums that use heaviness as an assault and others that use it to create an atmosphere. On The Ruin I Summoned Forth, A Secret Revealed manage to does both. The German quintet’s fourth full-length is an enormous, bleak piece of post-metal, but calling it post-metal only gets you part of the way there. Black metal cuts through its … Read more

Time Spent Driving

Lost Leaves
Thirty Something Records (2026)

There's a particular challenge facing bands that came out of the late '90s and early '00s emo scene. You can recreate the sound people remember and risk becoming your own nostalgia act, or you can abandon it entirely and risk losing whatever made the band matter in the first place. Time Spent Driving choose neither on Lost Leaves. More than … Read more