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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)

Test Icicles

For Screening Purposes Only
Domino (2005)

If you believe the hype currently going around then you must think that the UK music scene is at its strongest since Oasis and Blur fought over the Brit-pop crown or perhaps even when The Stone Roses and The Happy Mondays were teaching the kids to take drugs and dance. Test Icicles are seen to be one of those leading the charge; however it really is hard to take a band with a name like that seriously when looking over the shelves of your local independent record store. At least they aren't called The Arctic Monkeys (seriously, WTF?) I guess. Whatever the awful band name makes you think, ignore it For Screening Purposes Only is a superb album. It's a dirty punk come indie scenester come metal album. The frantic sound and snotty sounding vocals resounding throughout this album make it one to remember. Album opener 'Your Biggest Mistake' is a way to introduce yourself on record. It oozes confidence and style that you don't often find in British bands these days and I'm sure you're unlikely to find for some time. The first single taken from the album, 'Boa vs. Python,' is overwhelmingly powerful and insanely catchy. With an … Read more

Coliseum / Doomriders

Not of This World
Level Plane (2005)

At a recent Coliseum show, vocalist/guitarist Ryan Patterson made mention that Glenn Danzig was a big influence and source of … Read more

Ringworm

Justice Replaced by Revenge
Victory (2005)

It's rather sad that a band as influential as Ringworm has been reduced to being promoted as 'featuring members of … Read more

Anchorage / Lies in the Effort

Split
I Ate Her (2005)

I don't like split releases. They annoy me because I would rather hear an EP by the two separate bands … Read more

Grace Gale

A Few Easy Steps to Secure Heli-Camel Safety
Blackout! (2005)

At any point in time you may catch me watching television, usually an Aqua Teen Hunger Force DVD, Comedy Central, … Read more

Byla

Byla
Translation Loss (2005)

Byla is an ambient duo consisting of members of Dysrhytmia, Behold the Arctopus, and Infidel?/Castro!. The two started to work … Read more

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One from the archives

Girls Like Us

Bitter 'Til The Bitter End
Independent (2023)

There’s the references with friends, right? The inside jokes. The glib comments only your inner circle knows to find funny. A real rocks and dirt moment- sorry, that’s one of mine. There’s another level too. The inside jokes you have with yourself. Sometimes you’re the only one who sees the strange roadside billboard or hears the radio DJ mispronounce a word. Due to circumstance you’re the only one who knows. I find this happens to me a lot with songs. Lyrics I mishear that become a running punch line inside my head. A particularly goofy bass riff that loops around my brain when a mall cop walks into a sandwich board or my coworker knocks their coffee across their desk. This tendency is what lead me to ‘won’t you call … Read more

More album reviews

Exodus

Shovel Headed Kill Machine
Nuclear Blast (2005)

We've all heard the stories. Someone leaves your favorite band and the remaining members have two choices.... carry on or pack it in. It doesn't mean shit to a tree why the member left - whether they were kicked out, quit, or had a bus roll over on them, the point is they're gone, and as popular as the band … Read more

Neshamah

Communicating in Heartbeats
Witchdoctor (2005)

If you ask me, there's no musical genre more ripe to be picked from the tree of potential and placed into the basket of commercial acceptance than South African Christian Hardcore (SACH). Yes, a bold and untapped market is just waiting for us to shell out our Krugerrands and spread the joys of Jesus. What's that you say? You're not … Read more

Sunn 0)))

Black One
Southern Lord (2005)

This is the sound of being stalked by some unnamed horror that you are too afraid to turn around and see. The suspense builds and wanes and builds more to the harrowing climax leaving you with only the droning aftermath to contemplate that anxiety attack that you may have just experienced. What a deliciously terrifying opening to an album. Sunn … Read more

Kill Your Idols

Live at CBGB's
Blackout! (2005)

I'm a fan of Kill Your Idols, hell I rock their hoodie every cold day in myriad of cold days that I endure in the frozen tundra of Minnesota. I've even been privy to see Kill Your Idols twice in the last five years, which by Twin Cities standards, that's like seeing them every week. Kill Your Idols is a … Read more

Ian Brown

The Greatest
Polydor (2005)

Ian Brown is held in high regard by many, many people; which I guess you can sort of expect for the man that was the lead singer of The Stone Roses. With the release of his greatest hits album under the imaginative title The Greatest, Brown is pretty sure of himself and his music. God knows why. Seriously the guy … Read more

Municipal Waste

Hazardous Mutation
Earache (2005)

If you're craving a throwback to the time when thrash metal was at it's height, then look no further than Municipal Waste's Hazardous Mutation. On their Earache Records debut the Richmond, Virginia four-piece deliver the perfect mixture of 80's thrash, crossover, and hardcore/punk. While the result may be nothing more than what some consider 'twenty years too late,' it is … Read more

Lightning Bolt

Hypermagic Mountain
Load (2005)

Preparation for listening to the new Lightning Bolt record for the first time: ' Call up around a dozen of your closest buddy's and get them to haul ass to your place. ' Splash out your last forty bucks on as much low grade beer as your arms can carry. ' Take the last ten bucks you earned pumping gas … Read more

Various Artists

Tony Hawk's American Wasteland
Vagrant (2005)

Tempers of music fans ran high from the day stories were posted on various sites that specific bands were to be covering songs that are heralded as classics in the genres of punk rock and hardcore. A metalcore band covering Bad Brains? A pop-punk band covering the legendary Gorilla Biscuits? Surely this is some sort of joke. Surely not. Say … Read more

Afterthought

Take It or Leave It
Southern Comfort (2005)

As Death Cab for Cutie becomes the mainstream poster boy for indie rock, groups like Dilated Peoples and Atmosphere have become the indie hip hop equivalent. Afterthought seems to ride the line between the mainstream and indie hip-hop sound, wearing the backpack with one strap on, one off, and a drink in his hand. Take It or Leave It is … Read more

Every Time I Die

Gutter Phenomenon
Ferret (2005)

So you know how a band will take something that they wrote that does really well with the fans and expand on it? The Offspring, for example, found out that by writing a "witty" punk rock song they could sell lots of albums. On Every Time I Die's last album Hot Damn!, that song was, "I've Been Gone a Long … Read more

Elliott

Photorecording
Revelation (2005)

This is not a re-release. Photorecording is Elliott's last testament. Allow me to regress a few years. I had always dismissed them as overrated. US Songs was okay, but it just seemed like it was missing that little extra something. When False Cathedrals came out, I gave them another chance; it was their statement, an almost perfect 10 in my … Read more

Know the Score

All Guts, No Glory
Goodbye Blue Skies (2005)

Some might say that hardcore has gone soft. Those that feel this way have a distorted view of the genre. Hardcore is as explosive and assertive as it has been since its very inception. Florida hardcore outfit Know the Score is a prime example of this. With their debut release, All Guts, No Glory, the band serves up eleven tracks … Read more

Twenty Four Hours to Live

We're All Loudmouths
Surprise Attack (2005)

Surprise Attack Records and I have never had a good relationship. There isn't any sort of beef between us or anything, it's just I always get stoked for their releases only to be left disappointed when I get something. Surprise Attack Records hypes the hell out of their bands and they make it sound like they are going to hear … Read more

Gay for Johnny Depp

Blood: The Natural Lubricant
Captain of Industry (2005)

In theory alone, I should love this album. Gay for Johnny Depp is a homosexual band. Great, I love homosexuals in bands. They sing about filthy gay sex. Great, I love filthy gay sex. They play cum rocking screamo hardcore. Great, I love screamo and hardcore. They love Johnny Depp. Great, I think Johnny Depp is an okay actor. Theory … Read more

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