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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)

These Arms Are Snakes

Easter
Jade Tree (2006)

Easter, the second and highly anticipated full-length from These Arms Are Snakes, is finally upon us. But just how anticipated was this album? Well it is no coincidence that the album leaked to the Internet three months prior to its official release date. It's also no coincidence that every review that I've read has been written by a journalist smitten by Easter. People love this band, a lot. I am no different; I have been dreamy-eyed with These Arms Are Snakes since hearing This is Meant to Hurt You and am just as infatuated now as ever before. It is often said that the first song on an album sets the tone for everything that follows. Though I doubt These Arms are Snakes took this into consideration, they really know how to get things rolling. These Arms Are Snakes begin with "Mescaline Eyes," a nearly five-minute track composed of everything that makes this band so damn good: Ryan Frederiksen's angular guitar notes, the vibrant bass playing of Brian Cook, tasteful drumming provided by newcomer and producer Chris Common that is never too overbearing but always prevalent, a variety of keyboard and guitar effects adding a whole other dimension to the … Read more

The Blood Brothers

Young Machetes
V2 (2006)

The Blood Brothers are one of those bands that can get you into shit with people. Not that anyone should … Read more

Xasthur

Subliminal Genocide
Hydra Head (2006)

If you ate nothing but the guts of ravens, the shells of beetles, and the wax from vinyl, your shit … Read more

Fucked Up

Hidden World
Jade Tree (2006)

By now, you've probably already heard Hidden World. It leaked months ago, and the band even posted a link to … Read more

The Mars Volta

Amputechture
Universal (2006)

Have The Mars Volta finally become predictable? Were they already? Are they still churning out jaw-droppingly unexpected music? Did they … Read more

Phillip Roebuck

Fever Pitch
Manual (2006)

Phillip Roebuck will never be explained in writing. Writing does no justice to what Phillip Roebuck does. He plays a … Read more

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One from the archives

Black Rivers

Self Titled
Ignition Records (2015)

For the last few years any musical output with brothers Jez and Andy Williams at the helm has sounded otherworldly, like it's trying to capture some impossible-to-comprehend expanse that stretches beyond the atmosphere. As two-thirds of Mancunian outfit Doves, there was ready admittance between all three band members that when they were working on tracklists for their albums they would all drive, separately, to nowhere in particular, and more than once they all coincidentally reconvened at the Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire, home to numerous radio telescopes exploring and monitoring the atmosphere beyond earth, and, more recently, doubling up as an occasional concert venue.There's always a risk involved when bands go their separate ways (albeit an indefinite hiatus, such as in the case of Doves) and erstwhile band members get … Read more

More album reviews

Your Eyes My Dreams

Weapons are Useless
Indianola (2006)

Of all of the promos in the pile in the corner of my room, Weapons are Useless has been languishing there the longest, festering silently, crying out to be reviewed. From time to time I would pop the disk into my laptop, in a vain attempt to make something of what Your Eyes My Dreams had dumped upon me. It … Read more

Know the Score

All Time Low
Eulogy (2006)

A lot of bands get labeled as "angry" or "pissed off" as a result of their lyrical content, and I'm sure you could apply those same adjectives to Know the Score. However, I feel that doing so would be doing a great disservice to them, not to mention those descriptions are rather played out. I feel a better way to … Read more

Eyes Averted

Paralyzing Passion and Motion
Independent (2006)

It seems strange that a band like Eyes Averted would end up having to self-release their debut album. Before Paralyzing Passion and Motion was completed, the band was abruptly dropped from their label. Why would this happen? What acceptable excuse could there possibly be? The technical, almost progressive, hardcore style the band embraces has reached a level of popularity that … Read more

Voivod

Katorz
The End (2006)

As tragic as it was, the death of founding member and guitarist Dennis "Piggy" D'Amour in 2005 was not the death of Voivod. The final nail in the coffin was hammered with the departure of Jean-Yves "Blacky" Thériault fifteen years ago. Although songwriting and arrangements were always credited to the band as a whole, the void left in the overall … Read more

Dead to Me

Cuban Ballerina
Fat Wreck Chords (2006)

In this day and age, it seems to take way more effort than it should to get a new band's name out there. There are so many ways people can check out a new band, not to mention it's so much easier than it has been in the past. It used to be that you had to release a song … Read more

Have Heart

The Things We Carry
Bridge Nine (2006)

It seems that in the current day and age the process of starting a hardcore band has become an act of great ease as compared to, oh let's say, five years ago. Listen close to the first ten Revelation releases, rip off the riffs and place them just right, (don't forget your dive-bombs!) grab all your friends together to record … Read more

Jefferson Third

This is Only a Test
Independent (2006)

Oh the joys of a local band starting to make it big! I've been a friend of two members of Jefferson Third since I was a freshman in high school. It was only a matter of time before the two of them started a band. And when one of them was randomly assigned a college roommate and they started jamming … Read more

Micah P. Hinson

Micah P. Hinson and the Opera Circuit
Jade Tree (2006)

So, my brother calls me out of the blue one day and excitedly explains to me that he has discovered the most "amazing" singer-songwriter that he has heard in ages. I was skeptical, as he usually likes the absolute worst music imaginable within the punk, hardcore, and indie genres. Thus I returned his enthusiasm for this newfound artist, Micah P. … Read more

Alexisonfire

Crisis
Vagrant (2006)

Scream, sing, scream, sing, scream, and sing. This simple recipe, which was discovered and completely exploited these past few years, has created a plethora of bands that for the most part are really really bad. Thankfully, there seems to be a lessening of this herd and some fine gleaning has thinned the crop to what we are supposed to believe … Read more

Black SS / Raining Bricks

Split
Organized Crime (2006)

I was relieved to find out that Black SS stands for Black Sheep Squadron, and not some Nazi organization, upon receiving this record. The cover art for one side of the split featured a fearsome black widow spider, so for all I knew, I was about to hear some intense hate anthems. Instead, what I got was some intense hardcore … Read more

Radical Attack

Priority
Ghost Town (2006)

There are a lot of hardcore bands out there who claim to be old-school, but the truth of the matter is that an insane amount of metal has infiltrated the scene. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it sure does make it harder to find a speedy, non-metallic, non-chugga-chugga hardcore band when you're in the mood for it. You … Read more

Hatebreed

Supremacy
Roadrunner (2006)

To me, Hatebreed mark the pinnacle, as well as the end of an era for Victory Records. Satisfaction is the Death of Desire was the epitome of mid-90's hardcore: mosh heavy, distrusting, and pissed. Since then, Hatebreed as well as Victory Records have not necessarily become less credible (Victory had none anyways), but definitely watered down and weaker than their … Read more

Set it Straight

Live Your Heart and Never Follow
Twelve Gauge (2006)

Set it Straight is a band that truly deserves notoriety. Unfortunately, they really haven't gotten much attention outside of the Westcoast, which is both a shock and a shame. Last year the band released their debut full-length, My Favorite Words, an extremely promising LP, as well as a split EP with the now defunct Where Eagles Dare. On both of … Read more

Raise the Red Lantern

Thunderfuck
Witch Trial (2006)

It's hard to say if stoner rock on a whole tries to be "epic" in a way that other instrumental oriented metals do. Mostly they try to get as heavy and slow as possible while still rocking out. Raise the Red Lantern eschews that…mostly, and makes a pretty epic EP. Now when I say epic EP I don't mean it's … Read more

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