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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)

Dead Best

Dead Best
Don Giovanni (2021)

Dead Best is a pandemic project featuring two friends and neighbors who play in bands…but never together until now. Brian Sorkey (AM/FM) and Adam Goren (Atom & His Package) have some crossover their scenes but play individually pretty different styles. Which makes it interesting to see where they come together on the 13-song debut album. The album kicks off with nearly one minute of instrumental jam in “Life, Love, And Liberty” that pulses and builds to a point of anxiety by the time the vocals kick in. It sets an uncertain tone that prevails throughout. The record is on the brink of disarray, but still contained (you know, just like in lockdown mode). Aurally it’s a mix of dominant rhythms, sneaky melodies and a filter of noise over the top. I come into this review far more versed with Goren’s work, from the synth-punk of Atom & His Package to louder projects like Armalite, both of which have a strong melodic sensibility at their core. And that’s where Dead Best is a left turn for him but fits my limited experience with AM/FM pretty well. This is more experimental and tonal instead of sing-song. Goren’s melodies are there, but far … Read more

Black Altar/Vulture Lord

Deathiah Manifesto
Odium Records (2022)

I'll be completely honest with you I am a bit of an amateur when it comes to black and death … Read more

Solilians

American Klezmische
I Heart Noise (2022)

The first time I listened to this EP I was waiting for it to properly start. I was already halfway … Read more

Plosivs

Plosivs
Swami (2022)

Plosivs are a new band with a lot of familiar faces. And, consequently, familiar voices too. Comprised of John Reis … Read more

Pan American

The Patience Fader
Kranky (2022)

Sonic maturity is not always reached by further augmenting one’s sound. It can also arrive when the artist understands what … Read more

Amorphis

Halo
Atomic Fire Records (2022)

Amorphis as a band have been going for over 30 years and this is the year that they bring us … Read more

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One from the archives

Hot Mulligan

Why Would I Watch
Wax Bodega (2023)

There are many things the Midwest is known for, and Hot Mulligan is making damn sure emo music stays at the top of that list. Their new album, Why Would I Watch, can be categorized as Midwest emo, post-emo, pop-punk, or all the above—one thing that’s certain is it’s emotionally charged. If you’re skeptical of a band with a silly name and even sillier song titles, give this record a chance to cure your skepticism. Why Would I Watch is gut-wrenching and painstakingly honest when you really pay attention to the lyrics, but in true emo form, it’s also a beautifully raw record that you’re likely to keep coming back to. The opener track “Shouldn’t Have a Leg Hole but I Do” sets the visceral stage for the entire album … Read more

More album reviews

Hakan

Hakan Manifesto
Striped Music (2022)

I was pretty into II, the last record by Hakan that I heard (apparently III slipped past me). And while I really dug it, Jeff Burke’s fingerprints were all over the production and it was impossible to listen without recalling The Marked Men. This time around, the Italian trio has enlisted Matt Bordin to record, mix and master, and the … Read more

Black Map

Melodoria
Minus Head Records (2022)

Black Map came to be in a moment of synchronicity. Somehow at the exact time period, dredg, Far and The Trophy Fire were all put on hiatus. As a result, Mark Engles, Chris Robyn, and Ben Flanagan started to collaborate on their new project. And so Black Map’s debut record, …And We Explode arrived in 2014, with the band coalescing … Read more

Salvation

Uncorrectable
Independent (2022)

Do you folks watch the show Queer Eye? Last season had an episode with a school. The kids that were graduating got to bury a time capsule. I have no clue when that capsule is supposed to be dug up. Listening to Salvations debut album Uncorrectable made me think of this episode a lot. The main reason being that Uncorrectable … Read more

Human Issue

Faceless. Nameless
Rad Girlfriend Records (2022)

Hunter Martinez is a scene vet, playing drums and/or guitar with Decent Criminal, Dwarves, and Slaughterboys, among others. In Human Issue, Martinez takes the lead. That’s not to say this is some dude-with-an-acoustic vanity project. Human Issue is a full-on punk band, with Martinez joined by a wide cast of collaborators on the 6-song EP: Rikk Agnew (Adolescents, Christian Death), … Read more

Mire

A New Found Rain
Independent (2021)

The first time I ran into Mire was about two years ago. I was looking for stuff that was at least somewhat adjacent to Gojira and a friend recommended Mire. At the time the band had an EP titled Shed which was released in 2018. For whatever reason, it seems that (mostly) all traces of it were scraped and there … Read more

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 … Read more

Sweat

Gotta Give It Up
Pirates Press (2022)

I’ve had a range of thoughts about this record as I’ve played it on repeat in recent weeks. At first it didn’t really hit me -- it felt too repetitive and didn’t really jump out from the pack. But that changed as I kept coming back. While circle pit hardcore is well established at this point, Sweat’s Gotta Give It … Read more

Alluvial

Sarcoma
Nuclear Blast (2021)

Last year was definitely a great year for metal. Probably the best year for metal in the past like ten or fifteen years. So great in fact, that I’m still trying to catch up with albums I didn’t get to either listen to or review. I actually had to make a spreadsheet for tracking purposes, imagine that, hahaha! Anyway, I … Read more

Various Artists

...And Out Come The Lawsuits
Lavasocks Records, Sell The Heart Records (2021)

Rancid’s 1990s catalog is a unique beast. It’s Clash-influenced street punk. On paper it sounds highly derivative, but its heart always shined through making it stand out in a hard to quantify way. Tim Armstrong’s songwriting is the foundation, but it’s his one-of-a-kind drawl paired with Lars Frederiksen’s vocal tradeoffs that makes it shine. It’s also why I was leery … Read more

Bulletproof

Dynamite
Ossuary Records (2021)

Bulletproof started out as a band in 2017, playing the underground bar scene in their native Argentina. After a while of playing bar shows Bulletproof started playing with a youth organisation called Speed Metal Army who organise metal shows for the masses over a whole range of metal styles across the country. Polish based Ossuary Records picked up the band … Read more

Antinode

The Canary That Named The Stars
Independent (2021)

I’m always up and ready for some good prog, especially when we’re looking at a concept piece. I’m tempted to say something along the lines of ‘they don’t make’em like they used to’, but we’re talking about music, not audiophile grade consumer electronics so that doesn’t ring true. It’s just that these days you have to dig further and deeper … Read more

//LESS

Useless EP
Independent (2022)

Returning readers might have noticed I like to be able to hear the bass guitar. It is an instrument that is too often a victim of a less than stellar production. French band //LESS are here to my aid. Their trick is simple and effective: instead of the more regular trio of drums, bass and guitar they opt to leave … Read more

Book Review

Jennifer Otter-Bickerdike

You Are Beautiful and You Are Alone
Allen & Unwin Publishing (2021)

1966 saw the first incarnation of Velvet Underground serenaded by the deep alto wails of Nico and resulting in more of a performative shock value prank than a musical act. From the get go it was clear that what Nico brought to the table fundamentally altered the DNA of Velvet Underground and added an idiosyncratic melange of melancholy, gloomy glamour … Read more

Persefone

metanoia
Napalm (2022)

I remember discovering Persefone, and their, then, newest album, Spiritual Migration. It was an insanely hot summer day in the shitty college dorms I was staying in. I was digging for progressive metal around on Metal Archives and YouTube. Out of nowhere this video for Spiritual Migration pops in the recommendations. It all seemed alluring so I went for it. … 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)