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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)

Ty Segall Band

Slaughterhouse
In The Red (2012)

It’s hard to know just how much back story/preamble to include when discussing the music of San Franciscan rocker Ty Segall. His career, to date, has been incredibly varied and his ridiculously prolific output includes countless albums, EPs, cassettes, split 45s, etc. To wit, this year alone has seen the release of three full-length albums: one with White Fence (Hair), and one solo project (Twins, released earlier this month). Each have their merits and unique flavors, but neither compare to the staggering Slaughterhouse, written and recorded with Segall’s touring band and released in June of this year under the In the Red label. Most tracks evince a tongue-in-cheek take on classic forms – here’s menacing, relentless space rock, here’s glam flavored, riff-driven surf. Nothing particularly innovative at first listen, but that may be the secret of the record’s irresistible appeal: keeping it simple. Ponderous, staccato drums and heavy descending riffs are reminiscent of the early metal we all know and love and have privately head-banged to. Bitchin’ guitar solos sure to please the psych-rock lover in all of us abound. All are a little bit familiar, but then all have been tampered with in a deliciously demented way. Take the … Read more

Green Day

¡Uno!
Reprise (2012)

Thank god it's not another concept album.That's perhaps untrue, though: maybe this is just a concept album broken over three … Read more

Masked Intruder

Self Titled
Red Scare (2012)

It’s probably impossible not to smile at Masked Intruder’s self-titled debut. Hidden behind a veil of anonymity, the foursome have … Read more

Whirr

Pipe Dreams
Tee Pee (2012)

Formerly known as Whirl this band has been within the emerging hype machine of the shoegaze / Dream pop underground. … Read more

Planks

Funeral Mouth
Golden Antenna (2012)

The successor to Planks 2010 release, the warmly received The Darkest of Grays, is the destitute sounds of Funeral Mouth … Read more

Grouplove

Never Trust a Happy Song
Canvasback/Atlantic (2012)

Every person with a Smart phone has been in this situation. You’re in a traffic jam and you hear a … Read more

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One from the archives

Enslaved

RIITIIR
Nuclear Blast (2012)

the black metal horde Enslaved seems to have been around forever. Unlike most bands of their genre and pedigree they have managed to add elements to their style to make themselves more their own band with each release. Each album has flirted with their Pink Floyd fascination while stripping away the unneeded kvlt aspects of the band's sound. For most familiar with the band the only question regarding their 12th full length would be "how far are they going to take said prog elements?"Well we get to find out pretty early on as "Thoughts like Hammers" attempts to wreck speakers With a deceptively tradition sounding blackened opening. Soon thereafter listeners are treated to the first of many mood shifts within this song. By allowing room for melodic vocals and contemplative … Read more

More album reviews

Black Moth Super Rainbow

Cobra Juicy
Rad Cult (2012)

Black Moth Super Rainbow are a great group of musicians led by one person mysteriously known as Tobacco that pump out some of the most psychedelically delicious sounding records that I have ever heard in my life, and they are the type of musicians that do whatever the hell they want while still making ass shakingly fun records. With the … Read more

Dave Hause

Time Will Tell EP
Chunksaah (2012)

Dave Hause recently embarked on a little project that involves five indie labels. He took two artists from each label and covered a song from each. The first in the series comes from Chunksaah (though it wasn't the first to be released.) The first half of the 7-inch features alternate versions of Hause's, "Time Will Tell" and "Meet Me at … Read more

Eagle Twin

The Feather Tipped The Serpent's Scale
Southern Lord (2012)

Sophomore albums are always an intriguing milestone for musicians and bands because they kind of serve notice as to how they react to people’s reception of their work (and that reaction ranges from full on ignoring critics and listeners alike and following their own directions to modifying and mass alterations to style and sound depending on what grabbed people’s ears … Read more

The Secret

Agnus Dei
Southern Lord (2012)

Southern Lord have been on a roll this year – Martyrdöd, Wolfbrigade, Eagle Twin and Acephalix to name but a few - and the fourth full-length from Italian masters of all out noise, The Secret, is a worthy addition to a roster that is always expanding and never diluting. Agnus Dei is pure, unadulterated fury and the bile and venom … Read more

Ill Nino

Epidemia
Victory (2012)

Well most people reading this will either look at the and ask one of 2 questions. "who?" or "wait, they're still around?" The who is simple, Ill Nino joined the Nu-Metal races slightly later than most forming in 1998 and releasing their debut for Roadrunner in 2001. That already put them behind the curve what set them apart was their … Read more

General Surgery

Like An Ever Flying Limb
Relapse (2012)

General Surgery has taken a ton of shit over the years. Most of it regarding the band being derivative. The band that gets thrown into every article about General Surgery? Carcass, yeah that Carcass, the British institution of brutality. One can't accuse General Surgery of not wearing their influences on their collective sleeve. So beyond that the band has managed … Read more

Strong Intention

Razorblade Express
Patac (2012)

Strong Intention may be one of Maryland's best kept secrets. The band have played a mix of Grind and NYHC since the '90s and seem to be unwilling to quit anytime soon. After a long recording hiatus the band has returned. What may make this the record that gets them more fans is a certain guest star of sorts for … Read more

Muse

The 2nd Law
Warner\Helium 3 (2012)

The year is 2052. Society as we know it has completely changed. The laws of government and nation have crumbled into dust, trodden down firmly by the feet of innumerable footsoldiers of the new autocratic rulers of the world. Big Brother's voice rings from every speaker; CCTV cameras record every communication between state-fearing citizen and obedient lickspittle. Comrades huddle in … Read more

Future of the Left

The Plot Against Common Sense
Xtra Mile (2012)

The Future of the Left may have released their third full-length in The Plot Against Common Sense but little has changed in terms of band definition. The songs here are mostly built around frontman Andrew Falkous and his direct, biting commentary/lyricism. The music is sharp-toothed and forceful and, when the band drops a new release, the question isn’t so much … Read more

P.O.S.

We Don't Even Live Here
Rhymesayers (2012)

Minneapolis’ P.O.S (aka Stefon Alexander) might not necessarily befit the tastes of most within the punk community, but his music is as heavily indebted to it as it is to hip-hop’s long and storied past. Since his musical beginnings in punk bands from as far back as high school, his music has been predominantly D.I.Y. and its messages of hard … Read more

Franz Nicolay

Do The Struggle
Xtra Mile (2012)

It must be stated that the quirkily moustachioed Franz Nicolay is an intriguing and rather singular gentleman. For those who saw him live during his time in either The Hold Steady or World/ Inferno Friendship Society, it was evident that the multi-instrument wielding troubadour had the potential to become a great front man. However his earlier solo material never really … Read more

Smohalla

Résilience
Arx Productions (2011)

More and more it seems the once outer edges of Black Metal have become some of their most well known to the outside world. Where as at one point bands like Alcest and Agalloch would have very little standing outside of their little piece of the record buying public, they may be a couple of the most well known current … Read more

Legendary Wings

Making Paper Roses
Dirtnap (2012)

Dirtnap Records picked up Kalamazoo, MI’s Legendary Wings based on an unsolicited demo. Seeing that the label gave them a blind shot, why not try it myself? Well, that and the onesheet calls them “Scared of Chaka if they were from Minneapolis.” It’s hard for that not to grab my attention.Their debut, Making Paper Roses starts out strong with “Nachos,” … Read more

Ceremony

Zoo
Matador (2012)

Few bands have covered as much ground within the confines of the hardcore genre as northern California’s Ceremony. The release of 2008’s Still Nothing Moves You saw a stunning display of brash powerviolence, while retaining traditional hardcore influence, and their third album, Rohnert Park, saw a stark evolution into more experimental and melodic territories without relinquishing the viciousness they’ve come … Read more

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