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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)

Scanners

Violence is Golden
Dim Mak (2006)

You, faithful SPB readers as I, listen and tend to prefer music that can best be described as "heavy". This is quite possibly the music you exclusively listen to. Perhaps you put on The Locust and Gorgoroth when you want to get pumped and juiced and rocked and whatever proactive analogy you can think of and then, when you're done, you draw a nice hot bath, light some vanilla-scented candles, and mellow out to The Dillinger Escape Plan. This is not the album for you. If you, as I, are looking for an escape from the everyday, an antidote, an oasis if you will, in the seemingly endless desert of the punishing, driving brutal music our ears have become so accustomed to, then you, as I, will like Violence is Golden, a cool as hell album that makes me damn glad I work for this site. I'm not going to lie to you. Music reviewing is a cool gig, and sometimes (sorry Neshamah), I have to review shit, but every few promos I catch an ear-whiff of an album that makes me feel lucky I've found a place to be exposed to stuff I wouldn't hear otherwise. Scanners is a … Read more

Rhymefest

Blue Collar
J Records (2006)

Honestly, Blue Collar could have been one of the best hip-hop albums of the year. A few months ago, when … Read more

Muse

Black Holes and Revelations
Warner Bros. (2006)

If you asked me six years ago to name a band that at this time would seem about to take … Read more

Starkweather

Croatoan
Candlelight (2006)

The enigmatic metal behemoth that is Starkweather has been erratically dropping musical bombs sporadically for well over a decade. An … Read more

Outbreak

Failure
Bridge Nine (2006)

The first time I saw Outbreak was at the "last" Suicide File show at the ICC Church in Boston during … Read more

Weekend Nachos

Torture
Tooth Decay (2006)

Remember that kid in middle and high school you pushed around, called him a fag, and turned his great day … Read more

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One from the archives

No Idols

Low (Swing the Pyramid Hands)
Hex (2006)

No Idols is a roaring, incendiary band that combines a fuzzed out dirgey guitar attack (a la Cursed) with speed, raw emotion, and enough sociopolitical bile to piss of an entire VFW hall full of the mascara crowd. Low (Swing the Pyramid Hands) is the second release, following a 7" on Grave Mistake (which is equally excellent but different sounding), for the band and shows an evolution of their musical cacophony. With a droning, noisy mess, No Idols launches into a vicious assault of an album. Low (Swing the Pyramid Hands) is downright caustic sounding. From start to finish it is a crunching, sweltering batch of songs. The beginning of the record sounds like a massive beast rearing back before charging the listener with the intent to gore the listener. … Read more

More album reviews

Witch

Witch
Tee Pee (2006)

If you've seen An Inconvenient Truth, the summer's biggest blockbuster hit, you know shit is hitting the fan. Carbon dioxide is seeping out from every industrial pore and the long-term effects of this are outright frightening. In terms of the short term, Al Gore put a major emphasis on an increase of heavy music. Not that Black Sabbath was ever … Read more

Zao

The Fear is What Keeps Us Here
Ferret (2006)

The Fear is What Keeps Us Here is the umpteenth full-length from this chaotic and erratic off and on metalcore act. The fact that they are still producing albums boggles my mind. I have always considered this band to be a guilty pleasure (in part anyway). That last album The Funeral of God was an awful example of what they … Read more

Set Your Goals

Mutiny!
Eulogy (2006)

The debut full-length from Set Your Goals has been one of the most anticipated releases for myself and countless others for the year of 2006. It's been a long time coming since they first popped up on the hardcore/punk scene two years ago, though it seems like it has been so much longer. Well after a patient wait, which saw … Read more

The Drama Summer

Make a Move
Eulogy (2006)

For me, The Drama Summer was always one of those bands that I heard the name of every few months, but never sat down and listened to. In the oversaturated genre that is melodic rock, a band must really stand out to get heard and receive respect. Upon listening to The Drama Summer's debut EP on Eulogy Recordings, I can … Read more

United States

Divorce Songs
Iron Pier (2006)

United States are back, following up their Fuck It Tapes cassette release with an pseudo-urgent catcall of angular and somewhat disjointed full-length tunes on an album entitled Divorce Songs. The band is from Brooklyn and these songs, according to the one sheet, are about "surviving the city, struggling in the city and learning in the city." The lyrical content definitely … Read more

End of a Year

Sincerely
Revelation (2006)

I have decided that a review for End of a Year's Sincerely should mimic the album's defining characteristics. So this review will be written quickly with an abundance of energy and a smattering of thought. Sincerely is an album that is so engulfed by its own influences that it almost seems like it doesn't even exist. But it does. End … Read more

Bomb the Music Industry!

Goodbye Cool World
Quote Unquote (2006)

A couple months ago I was sitting next to a window at Inn-N-Out, pissed about my cheeseburger (they put nothing I wanted on it and everything I didn't.) My friend James is telling me a story about his band, Guns of Autumn, playing a show with the Arrogant Sons of Bitches. I'd never heard Arrogant Songs of Bitches and I … Read more

Celtic Frost

Monotheist
Century Media (2006)

There are few bands that had as much of an impact on my youth as Celtic Frost. Rising from the ashes of Hellhammer, Thomas Gabriel Fischer and Martin Eric Ain released the seminal album Morbid Tales. The year was 1984 and to say this album fascinated me was an understatement. Even though I had been listening to the heavier side … Read more

Crime Desire

Id Music to Combat the Superego
Life Is A Rape (2006)

When no one's chomping at the bit, hardcore can easily turn into comfort food. Sing-alongs, breakdowns and carefully placed "go!"s can become a security blanket. This has its place, but hardcore is often best when bands eschew the easy outs of well-worn forms and stake out fresh ground. Bands like Crime Desire are what keep the wheels turning by breaking … Read more

Last Minute Fix

Revenge of the Syringe
Wormhole (2006)

The cover of Last Minute Fix's debut effort, Revenge of the Syringe, depicts a bald eagle sitting in an alley totally strung out. Sitting next to the eagle is a pile of pills, there are syringes stuck into each wing, a cigar (or possibly a joint) in its beak, and a noose around its neck. If one were to guess … Read more

Rise Against

The Sufferer and the Witness
Geffen (2006)

It's always nice when a band that exhibited incredible promise coming up through indie labels continues to show evolution without distancing themselves from their roots once they've hit major label status. Rise Against continues to prove that a major label doesn't mean shit when it comes to writing their music, which is one of the small reasons I like them … Read more

Good Riddance

My Republic
Fat Wreck Chords (2006)

The opening of My Republic could easily be mistaken for the opening to just about any guitar based album from the past 30 years, with quietly plucked single notes pushing along for a moment or two. It is only as "Out of Mind" explodes into the best Bad Religion song since Mr. Brett left the band for the first time … Read more

Invade

Invade
Independent (2006)

My roommate likes to call early 90's hardcore "The Dark Ages of Hardcore" with its metal influences, all the way to the left neo-hippie politics, poetic non-sense, and mosh parts. In many way he's right, but the beginning part of the 90's wasn't all bad and we got some great bands like Undertow, Unbroken, Integrity, Indecision, and others that start … Read more

Tragedy

Nerve Damage
Tragedy (2006)

Honestly, Tragedy has to be considered one of the best punk bands going right now. Their music is super tight and just awesome. Their lyrics are poignant. The vocals are down right devastating to hear (coming from both of the vocalists). A few weeks ago, I was commenting how it had been too long of a gap between their last … Read more

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