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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)

Mission Of Burma

Unsound
Fire (2012)

In the early eighties when the Boston post-punk band Mission of Burma announced their decision to stop playing and recording due to guitarist Roger Millers tinnitus issues it seemed like the end of an era. The band enjoyed notoriety, not on the charts, but among music lovers/fans in general who were in love with the pure ferocity, quirky melodies, and raw lyrics espoused in songs like “Academy Fight Song” and “That’s When I Reach For My Revolver”. As time wore on and enabling technologies grew, Miller found the balance between live performance volume and preserving his hearing. The band reunited in 2004 and after a 19-year hiatus put out ONoffON, followed by The Obliterati in 2006 and the Sound the Speed the Light in 2009. Each of the releases was well received, and justifiably so. Mission of Burma as a band, and singly as artists, have always strived to make the audience feel as if they were part of the journey. Speaking as a fan since ‘78, I have always been drawn by their sheer intensity—you certainly feel it at their live shows. This July, Mission of Burma released Unsound, continuing to push themselves to the limits.The album opens with … Read more

Elway

Hence My Optimism
Red Scare Industries (2012)

Following a name change from the audibly slick 10-4 Eleanor and absurd legal debacles with John Elway of the Denver … Read more

200 Words Or Less

Balance and Composure

Acoustic
No Sleep (2012)

From Doylestown, PA, Balance and Composure has created a lot of buzz in the past few years for their melodic … Read more

New Bruises

Chock Full of Misery
Kiss of Death (2012)

Chock Full of Misery as a title sets a bleak tone for a group best labeled as pop-punk. Yet, New … Read more

Absolace

Fractals
Spellbind (2012)

Emirati band Absolace certainly know their stuff. After releasing their debut Resolve[d] in 2010, they easily paved their way for … Read more

Ephel Duath

On Death And Cosmos
Agonia (2012)

Releasing new material for the first time since 2009, Italian avant-garde/progressive/jazz/black metal group Ephel Duath cast aside their woes and … Read more

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One from the archives

Imani Coppola

The Black and White Album
Ipecac (2007)

The lights, the sounds, the excitement If you've ever been to New York City, you know what I'm talking about. Regardless of the borough, walking around the city is exhilarating, bordering on overwhelming, keeping you hyper-vigilant for fear of missing something really, really cool. Imani Coppola sounds like New York. The Black and White Album is just like the city - a countless array of styles and sensibilities whose differences compliment each other so completely that it creates a world you can't really experience unless you've seen, or in this case heard it. Can't afford a plane ticket? This album is a lot less expensive and well worth the trip. Ms. Coppola manages to be both tough-as-shit and cute-as-hell on these fourteen tracks of rock-hop goodness. Making an album about … Read more

More album reviews

Teenage Bottlerocket

Freak Out!
Fat Wreck Chords (2012)

I’ve been hearing about the new wave of pop-punk for a while—how bands like Menzingers and Teenage Bottlerocket are reshaping the genre, building off predecessors like The Ramones, Screeching Weasel, The Queers, etc. while bringing something new to the table. It’s personally taken me a while to get around to checking them out myself, but with the release of Freak … Read more

Terror

No Regrets, No Shame: The Bridge Nine Days
Bridge Nine (2012)

Terror is a band that needs no introduction. Hardcore legends in their current age, Terror hails from Los Angeles, California and has brought a more metallic sounding hardcore into the foreground of the scene. This is a live CD/DVD of a show in 2003 at the Showcase Theater in Corona, California and the entire thing is interconnected with interview clips … Read more

Gaza

No Absolutes In Human Suffering
Black Market Activities (2012)

Continuing where 2009s He Is Never Coming Back left off, Gaza move forward as a band whilst remaining true to their core values as a dangerous and destructive entity. No Absolutes in Human Suffering is a monumental and much matured work, with Gaza finding their space as a group with something important to say whilst focusing their aggression in a … Read more

Reks

Rebelutionary
Gracie Procuctions/MIM Entertainment (2012)

Taking Reks’ past few years of productivity into account—dating back to 2008’s applauded Grey Hairs and last year’s R.E.K.S, a record that earned him a “Best Album of the Year” award in his hometown of Boston—it is clear the revered underground emcee is not one to idle by in tranquility for too long. Even with accolades for his Statik Selektah … Read more

Fang Island

Major
Sargent House (2012)

Two years since the release of their eccentric eponymous debut, Fang Island return with Major, the band’s second album on LA record label, Sargent House. It’s quite evident that their self-proclaimed pursuit to “make music for people who like music” ensues. Picking up right where Fang Island left off, Major is an epidemical power rock album, affluent in frenzied, fuzzed-out … Read more

Elizabeth

Where Vultures Land
Throatruiner (2012)

Throatruiner Records have steadily increased their presence in the world of black/hardcore/completely mad music of late, and this little French label continually put out some of the most exciting and interesting sounds out there. The Phantom Carriage, Love Sex Machine, Clinging To The Trees Of A Forest Fire....each hold massive sound and that little something extra that gives Throatruiner that … Read more

Titan

Burn
Hypaethral (2012)

Burn, the debut full-length from Toronto, Ontario’s Titan, wastes no time in establishing itself as the devastatingly heavy powerhouse that it is. Thunderous drums and relentless guitars introduce the bleak, crushing atmosphere that stands through the entirety of the record on the almost 8-minute long “Feast,” with the chillingly powerful vocals kicking in soon after. With 10 songs spanning almost … Read more

Xibalba

Hasta La Muerte
Southern Lord (2012)

It would be impossible to have missed the mark Xibalba have left on the hardcore scene thus far. The band has toured incessantly and released a small handfull of recordings in the past few years. A389 took notice last year and released a discography LP and shortly after Southern Lord took notice and staked a claim upon the band's follow … Read more

200 Words Or Less

Adam Widener

Cola Kids Hanging Out in the Bubble Dome
Big Action (2012)

There are a few red flags that make me avoid records or, if you will, to judge a book by its cover. First, solo records in a punk or garage world. While the last few years have wiped this misconception away in many respects, I’m still hesitant when I don’t know the name coming in. Second, a record with a … Read more

krokmitën

BWV565 Redux
Independent (2012)

After releasing their debut alpha-beta last year, a single 45-minute track and accompanying video of unadulterated technical death metal ferocity, Montréalers krokmitën decided that the only way they could one-up themselves would be to do something completely different. The result is the only slightly more modest 10-minute EP, BWV565 Redux.The EP consists (again) of exactly one track, the band's take … Read more

Arjen Anthony Lucassen

Lost in the New Real
Inside Out (2012)

Few musicians are quite as busy as the Dutch composer and multi-instrumentalist Arjen Anthony Lucassen. Though he's known principally for being the brain behind the immense collaborative project Ayreon, Lucassen has headed no less than four other bands, including progressive metal band Guilt Machine, ambient metal band Ambeon, space rock band Star One and the gothic/symphonic metal band Stream of … Read more

Mårran

Mårran
S-Rock (2012)

Mårran are a traditional rock band out of Sweden, playing only the most barebones, no-frills hard rock possible. They take their name from the Groke, a Swedish character from the Moomins, who is a ghostly figure constantly in search of warmth and light, and yet able to achieve neither due to her innate coldness, freezing all that comes into contact … Read more

Flobots

The Circle In The Square
Shanachie Entertainment (2012)

“A community is democratic only when the humblest and weakest person can enjoy the highest civil, economic, and social rights that the biggest and most powerful possess.” – A. Philip Randolph“No one can do everything, but everyone can do something.” - Gil Scott-HeronA strong foundation was laid with Flobots’ debut album Fight With Tools, and continued on with sophomore effort … Read more

Luther

Siblings & Sevens
Black Numbers (2011)

I remember seeing Luther a few months back at a small venue in Pittsburgh where The Menzingers were headlining. I was really stoked to finally see them live and not all that surprised that half the crowd was outside smoking when they played first. Seeing them live left me with almost the exact impression their EP Siblings and Sevens left … 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)