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Ceremony

Scared People
Bridge Nine (2007)

One of the better bands currently existing in hardcore returns with a new EP, their first release since signing to Bridge Nine Records. This time around Ceremony shows they've got more in their songwriting arsenal than just lightning fast demonstrations of hate a la Infest. Showing even more variance in writing than their last release, Scared People shows what promise … Read more

Fucked Up

Year of the Pig
Whats Your Rupture? (2007)

Fucked Up are on intimate terms with ambiguity. It's a rare virtue, since as a rule rock bands tend to seek the comfort of ham-fisted moralism or an apathy either hard-partying or self-pitying. But like Sylvia Plath circa Ariel or the earliest punk bands, Fucked Up stamp their works with an intimidating and sometimes uncomfortable symbolic resonance, leaving it to … Read more

Deathspell Omega

Fas- Ite, Maledicti, In Ignem Aeternum
Norma Evangelium Diaboli (2007)

Wow, I haven't been keeping up with Deathspell Omega. I was lucky to end up with a promo copy of the Kénôse EP from 2005 and I've been hooked on Deathspell Omega ever since. Fas- Ite, Maledicti, In Ignem Aeternum is supposedly the second installment in a trilogy - Si Monumentum Requires, Circumspice being part one - and it marks … Read more

Bad Religion

New Maps of Hell
Epitaph (2007)

Bad Religion may not need any introduction due to their notoriety in punk, hardcore, and various independent and even some mainstream circles, but there are several impressive facts that New Maps of Hell bring to light with its release to the public. One, Bad Religion is, minus a few break ups in the eighties, closing in on thirty years of … Read more

Mark Ronson

Version
Columbia (2007)

To steal from the classic Ben Stiller movie Zoolander, "Mark Ronson is so hot right now!" After producing the latest Amy Winehouse album, Lily Allen's debut, and the best bits of an otherwise awful Robbie Williams album, the New York based, London born hip-hop club DJ turned producer can do no wrong. And now, he's decided to rope in the … Read more

Goon Moon

Licker's Last Leg
Ipecac (2007)

Let's not beat around the bush. Licker's Last Leg is the album Queens of the Stone Age should have put out instead of the bands recent Era Vulgaris. Why the comparison? Well, there's the obvious one founder/vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Chris Goss has long been the unofficial fifth Queens of the Stone Age-er for quite some time, appearing on or producing every album … Read more

Art in Manila

Set the Woods on Fire
Saddle Creek (2007)

With the indefinite hiatus of Azure Ray, the duo of Maria Taylor and Orenda Fink ventured into the lives of solo recording artists with different intentions. Maria offered up her 11:11 album, which was more or less a continuation of the established Azure Ray sound, focusing on the vaguely folk indie pop which had won her over her with the … Read more

The Starting Line

Direction
Virgin (2007)

I'm sure most people reading our reviews here at Scene Point Blank won't care about clicking on this album. The Starting Line is a pretty "mainstream" band; not something the readers would jump to buy, or even care to listen to at all. I know you're thinking that there was that slew of early 2000's Drive-Thru pop-punk bands that were … Read more

Lucinda Williams

West
Lost Highway (2007)

Ever wonder what it sounds like when a bunch of people are falling asleep while recording an album? Or how about the sound of an artist totally giving up on their craft, but still making music? Well, you're in luck because Lucinda Williams has released West, an album that does all of that and more! Lucinda Williams has previously been … Read more

Baroness / Unpersons

A Grey Sigh in a Flower Husk
At A Loss (2007)

Baroness and Unpersons team up for A Grey Sigh in a Flower Husk. For Baroness, it serves as a precursor to their forthcoming album for Relapse Records and as a send off for former guitarist Tim Loose. For Unpersons, this split serves as some people's - like mine - first exposure to the band. The two bands have vastly different … Read more

Every Second Counts

Every Second Counts
6131 (2007)

Here's a band from Southern California that I'm not familiar with, and for the style they play I find that odd. There hasn't been any mention of them on messageboards or any bulletins on Myspace about them being "good dudes" who are "backed hard." It says on the one sheet that Every Second Counts tours but they have probably never … Read more

200 Words Or Less

Matadors

Flame the Whisper
Devil Doll (2007)

Yippeeeee! It's Matadors time! Plug it in and lets party like it's 1992! Yes, that's right. 1992! Forget those bands of way back when. Gas Huffer. Mother Love Bone. The Mono Men. All great bands that never had a tribute band until now (zing!). Fifteen years late, but who the hell's counting? Matadors work on Swedish time, baby. It's not … Read more

200 Words Or Less

Glorior Belli

Manifesting the Raging Beast
Southern Lord (2007)

See: Obscurus Advocam Just kidding. But let's face it. They are pretty interchangeable, no? Both bands are the vision of French musician Infestuus. Both bands are all just too melodic. Now, call me old-fashioned but melody has no place in black metal. Bleak, sure. Twisted? Frightening? Suffocating? These are all bad adjectives for relationships, yet all good adjectives for heavy … Read more

200 Words Or Less

Obscurus Advocam

Verbia Daemonicus
Battle Kommand (2007)

I've been told that France has been home to a few good bands over the years, but like you, aside from Air I'd be hard pressed to name them. Sure we've read about those wacky French kids jumping on the church-burning, murderous bandwagon, but can they play music? Well, let's just say they try, but don't quite get there. Obscurus … Read more

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