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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)

Wow, Owls! / The Setup

Split 7"
The Perpetual Motion Machine/ Life in a Box (2005)

Richmond, Virginia has a lush history when it comes to hardcore bands over the last fifteen years. From Avail to Count Me Out, and as of late Municipal Waste and Stop It!!!, Richmond has always been fertile ground for young hardcore bands. On this split seven inch, two of Richmond's more stylistically diverse bands, The Setup and Wow, Owls! put together a solid split 7". Coming off two split releases in the last year, a CD with Schematic of a Waking Life and a 7" with Back When, The Setup's single track doesn't carry the intensity that the songs on their prior releases did. "My T-Shirt has Something Important to Say" (Neil Perry anyone?) comes out of the gates with the same riff-heavy, metal-tinged hardcore feeling that their other records have, but the song doesn't stray very far from the driving two-step beat that runs throughout the song. At times the track delves into thicker and slower riffs but generally leaves you wanting something less static and more like the songs that appeared on the split with Back When. The track still comes off better than many bands playing fast metallic hardcore these days and with an intensity that can … Read more

Lair of the Minotaur

Cannibal Massacre
Southern Lord (2005)

In 2004 we were treated to Carnage, the debut effort from this throwback thrash/metal outfit from Chicago. If you heard … Read more

System of a Down

Hypnotize
Sony (2005)

It's official. System of a Down can't spell. I'm sorry to any Americans out there who like to get involved … Read more

Gospel

The Moon is a Dead World
Level Plane (2005)

I, for one, was initially startled by The Mars Volta. Their melding of prog-rock and post-hardcore required the status of … Read more

Coliseum

Goddamage
Auxiliary (2005)

Coliseum's Goddamage EP must be listened to in order to be believed. Hell, looking at the cover art, one has … Read more

Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash

Mile Markers
Texicali (2005)

Be not afraid. Mile Markers by Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash is not the soundtrack to Aunt Edna's covert line-dancing … Read more

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One from the archives

Various Artists

Bombs Away!
Rad Girlfriend Records (2025)

Split records have always worked best when they feel intentional rather than convenient, and Bombs Away! lands firmly in the former category. Bringing together East Bay veterans Tsunami Bomb and Oakland’s The Hammerbombs, this six-track split (three songs per band) doesn’t just unite two names but captures two complementary approaches to Bay Area punk that still feel vital decades into the genre’s lifespan. Side A belongs to Tsunami Bomb, who deliver three tracks that reaffirm why their name still carries weight. These songs are tight, hook-forward, and immediately memorable, leaning into the melodic instincts that helped define California punk in the late ’90s. What really stands out here, though, is the tasteful use of keys and organ. It’s the kind of detail that could feel gimmicky in the wrong hands, … Read more

More album reviews

The Wives

Erect the Youth Problem
Cold Sweat/Sweet Nothing (2005)

Let's get the formalities and the predictabilities out the way right off the bat. Wives are a straight up rock band from Los Angeles whose main claim to fame is that their singer's car got hit by a reckless driving Backstreet Boy - the blonde one, if memory serves. The money from the resulting settlement allowed him to set up … Read more

Against Me!

Searching for a Former Clarity
Fat Wreck Chords (2005)

Music fans are fucking assholes. For those of us in the world who obsess about music, we fail to realize this one fact. We can be incredibly annoying. We can be demanding. We can influence the musical and aesthetic choices a band makes simply because they want to please us, the musical consumers, so they can continue "doing what they … Read more

Hoods

The King is Dead
Eulogy (2005)

Hoods, the reigning kings of Sacramento hardcore, have endured a lot throughout their decade of existence. The band have released a slew of recordings in all forms - LP's, EP's, splits, and compilations - on a handful of labels. Such an unwillingness to give up is rare for a band, especially in the genre of hardcore. And yet, here they … Read more

Brian Posehn

Nerd Rage
Independent (2005)

Stand-up comedians aren't funny. With very few exceptions, this is a truism that has become stronger and stronger over the years with every "I drive my spouse nuts" line and "Black people do things differently" joke. Brian Posehn is one of those exceptions. Culled from the last bastion of laughter - The Comedians of Comedy Tour, Nerd Rage reminds us … Read more

Head Wound City

Head Wound City
Three One G (2005)

Let's get the roster out of the way because that usually draws people in like moths to a blowtorch. Jordan Blilie (The Blood Brothers) (Vocals), Nick Zinner (Yeah Yeah Yeahs) (Guitar), Cody Votolato (The Blood Brothers) (Guitar), Justin Pearson (The Locust) (Bass), and Gabe Serbian (The Locust) (Drums). You're either feeling the flame or I'm feeling the draft of the … Read more

Scarling

So Long, Scarecrow
Sympathy for the Record Industry (2005)

It's going to sound silly, but in recent months, Scarling has taken on Moby Dick-like proportions in my life. They were that band that everyone told me I absolutely had to listen to, and each time I heard this, I grew a bit more reluctant to bother for no solid reason other than the fact that I hate to be … Read more

Green Day

Bullet in a Bible
Reprise (2005)

You could almost imagine the epitaph on Green Day's headstone from the moment Reprise got into the whole contract-fulfilling kiss-of-death releases that beset Green Day just this side of the turn of the millennium. A "best of" collection and then the certain doom of the "rarities" compilation followed in quick succession and it seemed that a dying cash cow was … Read more

Since By Man

Pictures from the Hotel Apocalypse
Revelation (2005)

Was it really only two years ago that Since By Man unleashed their debut CD, We Sing the Body Electric? Granted, an EP in the form of A Love Hate Relationship was designed to tide over their salivating audience in between tours and writing sessions, but personally it feels like a great deal more time has passed in between. Enter … Read more

With Honor

This is Our Revenge
Victory (2005)

I have a boom box where you load the CD's on the top, so when I put in This is Our Revenge into my kickin' stereophonic listening system I thought I accidentally left in my copy of Ignite's Past Our Means. Todd Mackey's vocals sound so eerily close to Zoli Teglas that I actually thought I had just left in … Read more

Multiple Authors

Propagandhi

Potemkin City Limits
Fat Wreck Chords (2005)

Propaghandi has always held a place in many people's hearts for their impassioned and political stances that they take on their record, and I always respected that political basis of much of their lyrical content and overall message of the band. Musically though, they had always been missing something for me. Every genre of punk and or hardcore has had … Read more

Multiple Authors

Propagandhi

Potemkin City Limits
Fat Wreck Chords (2005)

The time is 7 a.m. as I pace frantically across empty parking spaces towards a vacant Tower Records. I know I'm three hours early, but after waiting patiently for four long years my heart is about to catharsis all over the asphalt if my ears aren't satisfied ASAP. All week I had been ranting on about the new Propagandhi album … Read more

Daggermouth

Stallone
Feeding Frenzy (2005)

Recently I was talking with (read: bitching to) my friend Brian about how there hasn't been any new bands lately that have really caught me and pulled me in. Granted, there have been many bands I've really gotten into over the last year or so, but none of them really caught my ear and made me love them. It's not … Read more

David Gray

Life in Slow Motion
ATO (2005)

I'd like to begin this review by thanking the kind people at Dictionary.com and Google.com for their unwitting assistance in the writing of this here review. God bless you. boring adj. Uninteresting and tiresome; dull. boring adv. boringness n. Synonyms: boring, monotonous, tedious, irksome, tiresome, humdrum These adjectives refer to what is so uninteresting as to cause mental weariness. Boring … Read more

Immolation

Harnessing Ruin
Olympic (2005)

Hey Immolation, I just received a call from 1989 and they want their music back. Harnessing Ruin is the sixth release from legendary death-metal act Immolation, and they show us once again why they're "legendary." The nine songs off this CD deliver 2005 a blast from the past. This death-metal time-warp makes me think back to when death-metal bands came … Read more

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