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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)

The Casket Lottery

Real Fear
No Sleep (2012)

When bands you adore get back together after breaking up or reconvene following a hiatus, there is both a sense of excitement and a feeling of trepidation as the band members become reacquainted with each other (moods, skills, shared synapses, seeming simpatico, etc) behind the scenes, and there is always this standard (whether fair or not) that the band’s previous material is held up to by its former audience; so, following a short teaser single, The Casket Lottery returns with their first full length in quite a while (particularly for them as their first tenure produced three albums and numerous splits and EPs in roughly five years) bringing up just the same feelings for me. Just like with the single for the “The Door”, Real Fear took me quite a while to realize that I was listening to The Casket Lottery until one day the album clicked while “Baptistina” (excellent song with a nice hook in the chorus) was playing really loud in my car; but I believe that some of the problem comes from the fact that the band is no longer a three piece (adding another guitar player as well as a keyboard player), and where the band … Read more

Dan Padilla

Sports Fans
Dirt Cult (2012)

Considering the amount of time it took for Dan Padilla to drop their second full-length, last year’s As the Ox … Read more

Mike Patton

From The Film and Inspired By the Book The Solitude of Prime Numbers (La Solitudine Dei Numeri Primi)
Ipecac (2012)

It's not much of a secret that Mike Patton is an odd fellow. Incredibly talented and carrying a relatively large … Read more

Lil Fame & Termanology

Fizzyology
Brick (2012)

Lil Fame of M.O.P., going by his producer moniker “Fizzy Womack,” has crafted soundscapes for a for the likes of … Read more

Nadja & Picastro

Fool, Redeemer
Broken Spine (2011)

Hate me for it, but this release was the one that kind of soured me on Nadja and (in particular) … Read more

God Seed

I Begin
Indie Recordings (2012)

The inception of God Seed is a torturous tale and is one of many twists and turns and moments of … Read more

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One from the archives

Death Has Spoken

Call Of The Abyss
Ossuary Records (2021)

This is the second album from Polish death/doom metallers Death Has Spoken who formed in 2017. Taking inspiration musically from bands such as Paradise Lost, Swallow The Sun, Hallatar and My Dying Bride to name but a few this 7 track album gives us just over 40 minutes of dark, melodic doom metal. I've got to hand it to these guys they are just as accomplished as their contemporaries. This album captures the imagination and emotional responses perfectly. Whilst it does convey elements of depression, bleakness and desolation it really carries you head long into it as an immersive experience rather then just another doom album. Their first album Fade from 2017 is lyrically loosely based on novels written by Edgar Allan Poe and posed the question: Is death an … Read more

More album reviews

Arms Aloft

Sawdust City
Kiss of Death (2012)

When I speak of a “Kiss of Death” sound, I don’t mean it derisively. What I do mean is poppy song structures with powerfully belted lead vocals and strong guitars. It’s pop-punk, but with a little extra torque under it and maybe a secret passion for melodic hardcore buried somewhere in their basement cd piles from the early 2000s. Arms … Read more

Propagandhi

Failed States
Epitaph (2012)

Unless you’ve only just been introduced to Canadian punk music from the past quarter century, you've already come to expect a few things from a new Propagandhi record. There are no pre-release jitters, no faint thoughts tugging at the forefront of your consciousness that maybe this’ll be the one to disappoint. Time and time again, the Winnipeg-based quartet have delivered. … Read more

Kendrick Lamar

good kid, m.A.A.d city
Interscope/Top Dawg/Aftermath (2012)

What better way to start my career at Scene Point Blank and as a published writer than by reviewing one of the most important releases of 2012? Probably any other way, really, but I feel compelled to share my take on Kendrick Lamar’s second studio album Good Kid: M.A.A.D. City because of the impact it has made in the short … Read more

200 Words Or Less

World Narcosis

Self Titled
Independent (2011)

World Narcosis is a relatively new band as this is their debut EP. The band's style relies on a slightly crusty version of grind hearkening back to early Brutal Truth with all the rage and politics intact. That is not to say they are solely raging against the machine as it were but the anger is most certainly palpable and … Read more

200 Words Or Less

Crystal Castles

III
Fiction (2012)

Vandalism. You know the feeling you get right before it happens? The moment you grip it in your hand; arm above your head and cocked back? Or the instant just after you shake the can and right before you press down on the tip? How about the feeling you get right after it happens? The moment the brick goes through … Read more

Locrian With Christoph Heemann

Self Titled
Handmade Birds (2012)

There is definitely an incredibly creeped out vibe coming out of my speakers right now, and I mean that in only the best possible way because the tension building dark ambience of this inspired collaboration is a work of what could be a singular artist as the music is so spot on in its execution and delivery that the idea … Read more

Audacity

Mellow Cruisers
Recess (2012)

It’s not very often I’ll say a song belongs on the radio and mean that in a good way. With the whispered beginnings to “Garza” on Audacity’s Mellow Cruisers, the song starts with a surf-whisper that builds into an uber-catchy song with rise and fall, singalong choruses and a rhythm section that pulls the listener in and pummels through 3:01 … Read more

Cheap Girls

Giant Orange
Rise (2012)

It takes approximately 30 seconds to decide whether or not Cheap Girls’ latest album, Giant Orange, is to your liking. The overall, upbeat feel of the album is firmly established within the first few lines of “Gone All Summer,” instantly pulling you into the downtrodden world of bassist/vocalist Ian Graham and co. and not letting up once throughout. Combined with … Read more

Ministry

Relapse
13th Planet (2012)

Al Jourgensen has managed to create a genre early on in his career and according to most has never quite surpassed the classics of the genre he helped to create. In a sense it would be a hard task for anyone to do such a thing. Imagine a 50 something year old man trying to recreate "Thieves" would that be … Read more

Germ

Loss
Eisenwald (2012)

The Germ project has been in some form or another for quite some time yet the first record (Wish) from this Tim Yatras production only saw the light of day this year. It’s surprising then, that an EP should follow Wish quite so quickly, yet here we are with the melancholic yet strangely uplifting sounds of Loss on our hands. … Read more

Godspeed You! Black Emperor

Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!
Constellation (2012)

Sneaking an album out to the public regardless of the mass of information that seems to leak (including albums and other music related info) in this day and age seems completely fitting with regards to the first album in over ten years from Godspeed You! Black Emperor and their well communicated anti-corporatist and sometimes luddite-esque demeanor; but instead of such … Read more

Anaal Nathrakh

Vanitas
Candlelight (2012)

Anaal Nathrakh have always been on the very edge of extremity, teetering on the brink of absolute annihilation and destruction. Their sound is imbued with total hatred for mankind, the world and all life and the two-piece push themselves ever further towards the threshold of utter desolation with Vanitas. How two people can make such harsh and deadly sounds between … Read more

Vinnie Paz

God of the Serengeti
Enemy Soil (2012)

Over a decade in the rap game, Vinnie Paz has been a pillar of the independent scene as the front man of Jedi Mind Tricks and Army of the Pharaohs, as well as one half of the duo, along with Ill Bill, known as Heavy Metal Kings. God of the Serengeti is his second solo outing and the highly anticipated … Read more

Code Orange Kids

Love Is Love//Return To Dust
Deathwish Inc. (2012)

Much of the press that Pittsburgh-based hardcore act Code Orange Kids garnered with the release of its debut 7” Cycles late in 2011 was centered on the young age of the members. Almost a year later, the band has gone through three pressings of Cycles, signed to Deathwish, Inc., released a split with another rising band - Full Of Hell … 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)