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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)

She Said Destroy

Bleeding Fiction
Mas-Kina (2012)

Let's face it: a lot of the music we listen to is just plain ol' forgettable. Of course, every once in a while, an album will come along that sticks in your mind solely because it makes you wonder just what godforsaken orifice the band pulled it out of. Even more rarely will come the occasion when you make the same remark not out of unbridled disgust, but out of sheer dumbfounded amazement and awe. She Said Destroy's 2012 release Bleeding Fiction, though merely an EP consisting of a single 27-minute piece, is one such work.What's most surprising about this release is that there was no real way to see it coming. Sure, She Said Destroy aren't a band exactly known for staying in one style for very long--anyone who's heard their eclectic 2008 album This City Speaks in Tongues can tell you that. But even then, there was absolutely no hint from the band that they could create such a dense, sludgy post-metal epic, let alone one that is as immaculately and intricately composed as this one.The piece starts with some lightly strummed guitars, setting an uncomfortable atmosphere right from the get-go. Then, some drones begin to slowly emerge, … Read more

Martyrdöd

Paranoia
Southern Lord (2012)

Sweden’s Martyrdöd are whole heap of metallic vitriol interspersed with a frenetic melody and more spiky riffs than you can … Read more

Drivin' N Cryin'

Songs From The Laundromat
New! (2012)

Drivin’ N Cryin’ formed in Atlanta back in 1985 have announced their plans to release four EPs over the next … Read more

Better Than A Thousand

Just One
Revelation (1997)

Seeing how I feel about Youth Of Today (i.e. I do not really care for them at all), it may … Read more

Youth Of Today

Break Down The Walls
Revelation (1988)

Please allow me to drop this little disclaimer here before we delve any further; I am not nor was ever … Read more

Kiss It Goodbye

Choke (EP)
Revelation (1999)

Waiting for a follow up record from Kiss It Goodbye felt like an eternity, and rumors were rampant regarding a … Read more

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One from the archives

Chuck Ragan

Los Feliz
Side One Dummy (2007)

Chuck Ragan used to play guitar in Hot Water Music, who happened to be one of my favorite bands of all time. He left Hot Water Music to lead his own life, which left us with The Draft in his place. Now we have a solo effort from Mr. Ragan and I can't help to wonder if Los Feliz were released by any other schmuck would I ever care to review it? Hell if I saw it in the record store I'd probably not bat another eye at it. So now here's my conundrum, should I give Los Feliz a good review just because Ragan used to be in Hot Water Music? I've never been a big fan of unplugged solo live albums, or live albums in general. There's only … Read more

More album reviews

Shelter

Quest For Certainty
Revelation (1998)

Now a days, seeing a bunch of dudes with weird looking tufts of hair sticking out of the back of their otherwise bald heads jumping around on stage making a weird version of punk rock while yelling about the Krishna (the focus deity from the sect of Hinduism called Hare Krishna) probably would not be met with much controversy or … Read more

Judge

Bringin' It Down
Revelation (1989)

Who has never seen the iconic (OK, iconic in the hardcore punk scene) crossed hammers logo (that shaped an “X” ) of the band Judge? Judge ultimately proved to be a short lived musical unit that produced just one album Bringin’ It Down (discounting the very limited release of Chung King Can Suck It which in it of itself has … Read more

Pinkish Black

Self Titled
Handmade Birds (2012)

Texan duo Pinkish Black employ synthesised loops of terrifying, droning pulses and a deliciously dangerous swagger filters through this debut. Daron Beck’s clouded voice dips in and out of throbbing electronic beats whilst currents of perilous doom cut through the loaded atmosphere, Beck’s voice often hidden in the murky depths of the all consuming sounds layered by cohort Jon Teague … Read more

Touche Amore

Parting The Sea Between Brightness And Me
Deathwish Inc. (2011)

Touche Amore have made a name for themselves in the hardcore scene with the release of their past record To The Beat Of A Dead Horse and a slough of 7inches and splits. While some Internet drama has led to a backlash against the band, this new full length Parting the Sea Between Brightness and Me can be held as … Read more

Struck by Lightning

True Predation
Translation Loss (2012)

Struck By Lightning came out the gate hard and fast about 3 years ago with their first LP "Serpents". That record truly set them apart from the ex-members of... tag that they could've carried. Instead of playing the post metal of past projects they built a sound that was more indebted to Discharge than Isis. This worked well for them … Read more

Sleep

Dopesmoker (Reissue)
Southern Lord (2012)

Imagine, if you will, that doom rock band Om and a still-young drone metal band Boris got together in a hallucinogen-induced haze one night. Their inevitable pothead lovechild would undoubtedly be doom/stoner outfit Sleep, as evidenced by their final album, Dopesmoker.Having been released at least four different times (with four different running times, not to mention two different names), this … Read more

Feersum Ennjin

Feersum Ennjin
Dissociated Press (2011)

I really hate being heavily reliant on comparisons to past work in order to form a judgement, but in the case of Paul D'Amour (aka Feersum Ennjin), it's hard not to. As the former bassist for Tool, one of most prolific and undeniably best progressive bands today, it's difficult to take him on his own terms and out from under … Read more

Lionize

Superczar and the Vulture
Pentimento Music (2011)

I rarely listen to music that isn't at least fifteen minutes long per song or lacks internal movement titles, so when I received Lionize's Superczar and the Vulture, understand I was stepping pretty far outside of my normal purview--I was pretty much giving this album a chance based on the incredibly intriguing title alone. Much to my surprise, I wound … Read more

Quelle Chris

2Dirt4TV
Independent (2012)

Hot off the heels his underappreciated 2011 debut full-length Shotgun & Sleek Rifle, Detroit MC/producer Quelle Chris drops his latest EP, 2Dirt4TV. This time around Quelle steps from behind the boards, leaving the production to “Legendary underground MySpace producer” Mr. Dibia$e. The result couldn’t be more seamlessly harmonized, as Dibia$e’s laid-back boom-bap balances Quelle’s nonconformist flow in way that recalls … Read more

Various Artists

Police Bastard & War//Plague - Attrition split LP
Profane Existence (2011)

Attrition brings together two punk bands from opposing sides of the Atlantic Ocean—England’s Police Bastard and the United States' War//Plague. Most of the material was recorded at various points in 2009 but not released on vinyl until May of 2011, when Profane Existence Records pressed up a couple thousand slabs of wax to unleash to patched-up masses. Former members of … Read more

Morning Again

As Tradition Dies Slowly
Revelation (1998)

Without a doubt, As Tradition Dies Slowly is easily the most metal record that Revelation ever put out (at least so far); and the idea of them even touching this album and even Morning Again as a whole with a ten foot pole really just blew me away back in the day (when this came out), and, at the time, … Read more

Elliott

False Cathedrals
Revelation (2000)

There are those records out there where people can point to them as a turning point in their musical taste or a shift in their musical aesthetic and say that the record really changed how they viewed entire swathes of music or entire genres, and I will never forget the day that I bought False Cathedrals from Elliott in part … Read more

Burn

Self Titled
Revelation (1990)

Now this is a classic Revelation release and for some, the classic Revelation release; Burn kind of blew up some people’s sense of what a hardcore record could be, springing from a New York hardcore scene with what at the time were some pretty known names in that scene (members of Absolution and Beyond comprise this group’s make up or … Read more

Himsa

Self Titled
Revelation (1999)

Long before this band went the way of the metal ear candy purveyors that they eventually turned into (check out Courting Tragedy And Disaster for a reference), Himsa dropped this terribly under appreciated and short eponymous EP on an arguably rather stagnant era of hardcore and punk with a dark tone and a bit more of a nuanced view of … 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)