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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)

Muse

H.A.A.R.P.
Warner Bros. (2008)

Muse is a band that has long had their music overshadowed by comparisons to the giants that are Radiohead, U2, and Queen. Rather than worry about dispelling said comparisons, Muse have taken the allegations of being a "rip-off" and "lacking originality" in stride and maintained its artistic credibility while continuing to deliver what many, even the most crass of critics, consider to be the finest rock music this side of, yes, Radiohead. H.A.A.R.P. is the band's second live offering and the follow-up effort to the band's extremely successful Black Holes and Revelations. The album is comprised of two discs, one featuring only audio, the other in video form. Like the many live audio recordings that have preceded this offering, the retail value of such a recording is for the most part non-existent. Unless you a) were at the actual show, b) are diehard collector fanboy, or c) have boatloads of money to purchase everything, purchasing live albums really isn't necessary. I don't really fall into any of those when it comes to Muse... so let's refer to the DVD portion of this recording (which for those keeping score features all the songs found on the CD, but with more songs … Read more

Diamanda Galás

Guilty Guilty Guilty
Mute (2008)

Diamanda Galás is unlike any artist in music. Take a moment and think about this. That statement is not embellishment. … Read more

Moving Mountains

Pneuma
Deep Elm (2008)

Let me get this out in the open right off the bat; I wanted to hear this because the band's … Read more

Plain

Different Not Strange
Independent (2008)

One could say Lugano, Switzerland’s Plain is a risk-taking collection of artists simply for the sheer bravery (or stupidity) of … Read more

Jonquil

Lions
Try Harder (2007)

As a staff member here at Scene Point Blank, I get to choose the promotional discs that I review. Bands … Read more

Gnarls Barkley

The Odd Couple
Atlantic (2008)

Since the arrival of the 80's and the consequent death of the era when there were true funk/soul titans, each … Read more

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One from the archives

Pas Musique

Inside the Spectrum
Alrealon Musique (2015)

Forming in Brooklyn in 1995 as a collective based around abstract sound, Pas Musique translates to “Not Music” in French, a fact which gives some indication of what the adventurous listener is in store for on limited 2015 release Inside the Spectrum. That being said, much of what is contained in the wild, ten-track album is actually quite musical, though it goes well beyond what the vast majority of listeners might be familiar with. Perhaps the best way to describe this album would be to label it as sound collage: throughout Spectrum, wispy melodies are heard alongside pulsating electronic beats and an unrelenting swirl of weird sounds. Vocals of the almost inconsequential variety pop up intermittently to create an even more bizarre, some might even say unsettling atmosphere, but the … Read more

More album reviews

Tides / Giant

Split
Teenage Disco Bloodbath (2007)

Level Plane Records and Teenage Disco Bloodbath Records have partnered together as they team up two extremely underrated artists, at least in my eyes. Originally released on vinyl format last year, this split release is finally available as a CD (from what I can only assume to be the success of the vinyl version). For this offering Tides, now hailing … Read more

H2O

Nothing to Prove
Bridge Nine (2008)

Time lapses between albums can be a tricky phenomenon and this tends to ring especially true for punk and hardcore bands. The conventional wisdom holds that return albums are lackluster and leave longtime supporters wishing the band simply played shows and left their recorded legacy in tact. But H2O never adheres to convention. Their widespread appeal is a result of … Read more

Polar Bear Club

Sometimes Things Just Disappear
Red Leader (2008)

Every once in awhile a new band comes down the pike and reaffirms your love for music. A couple years ago it was Crime in Stereo before they decided to become Brand New. This year's candidate is Rochester, NY's Polar Bear Club. It's not that Sometimes Things Just Disappear is an adventure into new musical landscapes as Polar Bear Club … Read more

200 Words Or Less

Farmers Market

Surfin U.S.S.R.
Ipecac (2008)

Those familiar with Ipecac Recordings know that regardless of the release, whether the listener likes it or not, it will, above all else, be different. Farmers Market is a Norwegian band specializing in Bulgarian folk music presented at an even faster tempo, with a smattering of just about everything else you can think of. The result can most assuredly be … Read more

200 Words Or Less

Primordial

To the Nameless Dead
Metal Blade (2007)

When I think of "folk metal," I think of the scene in This is Spinal Tap with the dwarf dancing around the tiny Stonehenge. This is because I'm incredibly immature. The term is actually used to define any metal band that incorporates its country of origin's indigenous sound within their own. Within this framework, Enslaved, Bathory and later year Burzum … Read more

200 Words Or Less

The Delicious

The Delicious
Independent (2008)

Recently signed to Joyful Noise Recordings, The Delicious is a Bloomington, Indiana quartet that just bug the shit out of me more with each subsequent listen. This super-fun-happy cuddle-core twaddle is not good. They want to be The Pixies. Bad. You can almost see that desperation stink wafting from every sad little note like a little green cloud floating from … Read more

200 Words Or Less

Shit Outta Luck

Family Tradition
Organized Crime (2007)

Not to be confused with Hayward's Shit Outta Luck, a ska band - this is Milwaukee's Shit Outta Luck, a meaty, Midwest "hardcore" band. The quotes are for the mere fact that the hardcore term is thrown around with such carelessness these days as to render its true meaning useless. Is S.O.L. hardcore? Not quite by my definition, but they … Read more

200 Words Or Less

Dust is Everywhere

Attics and Catacombs
Creeping Vine (2008)

Dust is Everywhere. D.I.E. Get it? [cough] Anyway it could be worse. Ask their labelmates, Rumplestiltskin Grinder. D.I.E. is a band in the black metal ilk, somewhat on the amateurish side, Attics and Catacombs provides a look into the deep, dark recesses of um, Havertown, Pennsylvania - pop: 36,711. Featuring the musical stylings of "Dust" on "Chains, Shackles and Screams" … Read more

200 Words Or Less

Slap the Culture

Slap the Culture
Cock Suck (2008)

Fast pissed off old school hardcore from Japan. Sounds straight from the American Hardcore soundtrack with a better production. It's speedy, furious, and somewhat entertaining. For some reason this is what I expect when I hear people talking about Japanese hardcore. This stems from the fact the only two Japanese hardcore bands I've heard (That was before Michael sent me … Read more

200 Words Or Less

Now or Never

Now or Never
Cock Suck (2007)

Now or Never features members of Gordon Ivy & The Jaybirds and play fast melodic hardcore that came from Scandinavia in the mid to late 90's. I see your Pridebowl and raise you a Wizo and a Satanic Surfers. Now or Never are completely nuts with the breakneck songs and completely inane lyrics. "Fuck this Asshole" includes this lyrical masterpiece; … Read more

200 Words Or Less

Gordon Ivy & The Jaybirds

Happy Couples Never Last
Cock Suck (2008)

I have never been a big fan of bands from the Island Nation of Japan. They were always so over the top and the "Engrish" lyrics were never worth anything than a couple of giggles. Oh, I am such the ignorant American. Anyhow, one would think that a band called Gordon Ivy & the Jaybirds they would sounds like the … Read more

200 Words Or Less

Goldfinger

Hello Destiny
Side One Dummy (2008)

Men in their late-thirties making vague statements about the future's uncertainty under the guise of it being punk rock, there's something concerning about this. It's as if their quarter-life crisis is stretching into mid-life, arresting their development into adulthood. Hello Destiny, the newest album by Goldfinger, finds the SoCal band exactly in this position, angry at the world, rehashing the … Read more

Testament

The Formation of Damnation
Nuclear Blast (2008)

Since the mid 1980's Bay Area thrashers Testament have persevered in the world of heavy metal, undergoing numerous lineup changes and even a few medical scares. While their peers in Metallica, Anthrax, and Slayer consistently received glorious praise and popularity with metalheads, Testament instead maintained a mediocre level of success as their unleashed album after album. Now, twenty-five years after … Read more

Eugene Robinson

Fight
Hydra Head (2008)

Okay, so the more that I thought about this, the more ridiculous this concept feels to me, books on tape or CD or whatever. I am able to read so the existence of these types of paraphernalia are completely useless to me, and yes, I get that not everyone can read or not everyone has time to read (which is … Read more

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