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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)

This is Hell

This is Hell (Demo)
Run for Cover (2004)

Essentially, there are two types of hardcore bands. The first gravitates towards kids who are really into hardcore. The second is enjoyed by casual hardcore fans. Then there are the bands that fit in both categories (Terror, American Nightmare, etc.) Although this is This Is Hell's first release, a demo/EP, all the ingredients are present for This Is Hell to become a band that fits in both said categories. This Is Hell is like that burrito that you eat everytime you go to your local taqueria. For you East Coast readers, burritos are a good thing, and taquerias are a place where you purchase these good things. The basic foundations of the burrito are there: tortilla, beans and rice. This can be heard with the driving rock force present in all the four songs, similar to that of The Suicide File. All the instruments sound real tight, with that urgent hardcore energy present. Maybe it's just the strained vocals, but I'm reminded of early American Nightmare. It's a really raw sound that is polished...Yes, polished like a well done tortilla. Another critical part, similar to cheese being melted, is the lyrical content. Let's look at a few excerpts! "Heaven sent … Read more

Codeseven

Dancing Echoes / Dead Sounds
Equal Vision (2004)

A lot of albums are released during the course of a year. Hell, even if you rule out all the … Read more

The Pax Cecilia

Nouveau
Independent (2004)

So you're in a rock band and you already look different than other bands with your crazy hair and fingernail … Read more

The Loved Ones

The Loved Ones
Jade Tree (2005)

Memories of listening to Lifetime and hanging out with the crew every day of the week, skating, partying, or what … Read more

Bright Eyes

I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning
Saddle Creek (2005)

The morning is generally associated with hope and rebirth. Leave it up to sad-eyed pessimist Conor Oberst to reverse this … Read more

LCD Soundsystem

LCD Soundsystem
DFA (2005)

I have too much love for James Murphy, the man behind LCD Soundsystem. This guy sits atop a throne of … Read more

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One from the archives

Mittenfields

Optimists
Independent (2015)

Optimists is the debut LP from Washington D.C. emo/indie-rock outfit Mittenfields. The band’s influences are immediately recognizable: Singer Dave Mann obviously listens to Modest Mouse and Arcade Fire, while the band’s three guitarists draw heavily from 1990s indie and emo classics like Mineral, Built To Spill, and Pavement. If you like those bands and want to hear the same sound again, great; but you won’t get much else when listening to Optimists. However, there are brief moments where the band actually builds on these influences and doesn’t just imitate them, and these saving-grace moments are signs that Mittenfields might be more than just another emo/indie band (but not quite yet). The band was founded in 2008, the only other thing Mittenfields put out was an EP back in 2011, and … Read more

More album reviews

...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead

Worlds Apart
Interscope (2005)

Vocalist Conrad Keely poses a question on the album's title track; "What's the future of Rock-n-Roll?" A rhetorical question? Perhaps, but he chooses to answers anyway, even if it is sarcastically: "Does it matter?" To answer his question, yes, it does. For if the future is filled with annoying indie/pop acts like Franz Ferdinand and the revival of washed up … Read more

The Fiery Furnaces

Blueberry Boat
Sanctuary (2004)

Music as true art begs to be delved deeper into. Controversially classic albums such as Daydream Nation, Zen Arcade, and Kid A warrant very little before much time and myriad repeat listens. On first hearing, albums such as the aforementioned often appear completely impenetrable, inaccessible, and, in some cases, entirely unlistenable; nothing exists to grab the listener instantaneously by the … Read more

Let it Die

Stick to Your Guns
Spook City (2004)

The city of Detroit has a bad reputation on the streets of, well, the entire United States. It's known as a dirty, crime-ridden city full of despair and wretched individuals. While I am sure there is some truth to this, it is likely nothing more than a generalization blown way out of proportion. Nevertheless, the city has spawned some fairly … Read more

The Arcade Fire

Funeral
Merge (2004)

Hating to love something is a complicated and frustrating emotion. When it comes to music, I prefer one of the following: to love an album unconditionally and make it a part of my life, despise it with a scorching passion, or just entirely forget about it altogether. Conflicting emotions and any sort of middle ground or grey area regarding an … Read more

We Versus The Shark

Ruin Everything!
Hello Sir (2005)

Sharks are awesome. They have big teeth, they've been around since the dinosaurs, and they'll eat anything. Sharks are awesome. We Versus The Shark are pretty cool, too. Their music is razor-sharp and jagged, not unlike shark teeth. But they haven't been around quite as long, it seems. Ruin Everything! is their debut effort. (Pfft. Mick Jagger rocked out with … Read more

Kaada & Patton

Romances
Ipecac (2004)

By now everyone is familiar with "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon," that fun movie trivia game that is ever-so-often used as a conversation stimulator. Well I plan to create a variation of the game for the music industry, "Six Degrees of Mike Patton." Why? Simple, Patton has ties with notable artists in nearly every genre of music: metal, hip hop, … Read more

Instilled

Unfinished Business
State of Mind (2004)

The city of Atlanta is known for its output of southern fried rap and hip hop MC's like Outkast, Ludacris, and Jermaine Dupri. But there is more to the city than just inane rhymes and crunk beats. Not unlike hip hop in the 80's, Instilled are ready to break out of the shadow of modern music and take the world … Read more

Food For Animals

Scavengers
Muckamuck (2004)

*Sound of Scavengers being slipped into a CD player* "Holy crap! What am I listening to?" "Is this Vast Aire fronting Wolf Eyes?" "Is this the sound of my imminent doom via an aural assault so intense my face is about to explode?" "Holy crap! What am I listening to?" All valiant guesses, friend of friends, but let me give … Read more

Legs Up / My War

Split
State of Mind (2004)

Split releases are a breed that can be difficult to review. Do I review each band's portion separately, or do I give the entire release one score? It's a tough call, but I think you have to treat each split album differently. This time around, mostly for Legs Up sake, I am going to review these two bands apart from … Read more

With Resistance / Twenty Inch Burial

Split
State of Mind (2004)

Though both bands play their own variations of metalcore, this split release is an unlikely partnering. While With Resistance hail from New Jersey, Twenty Inch Burial call Portugal home. Despite being separated by the entire Atlantic Ocean, these two compliment each other well. Each band contributes three songs to this split from State of Mind Recordings. With Resistance kicks things … Read more

Hoods vs. Freya

Split
Victory (2004)

East coast and west coast heavyweights collide on this split release from two under the radar acts in today's metal/hardcore scene. Hoods and Freya attempt to set themselves apart from the dullness that is plaguing the hardcore and underground metal scenes. Sacramento's Hoods has been striving for recognition for the past seven years; the majority of that time has been … Read more

On Fire

This Time it is Forever
Magic Bullet (2004)

With the crumbling of The Burning Paris, a void was left that needed to be filled. The Burning Paris' farewell of And By December You'll Know Where You're Heart Truly Lies was the masterpiece that everyone ignored. Only four songs, one being a Smiths' cover that managed to one up the original, the album was gut wrenching and utterly soothing … Read more

Multiple Authors

Life Long Tragedy

Destined for Anything
This Blessing, This Curse (2005)

When was the last time you left your car running while going inside your house to get a jacket from your room because it began raining? And while you were in your room you noticed a CD you thoroughly enjoyed? You began playing the CD and realized the next day that your car blew up and everything inside it was … Read more

Multiple Authors

Life Long Tragedy

Destined for Anything
This Blessing, This Curse (2005)

The way the underground music scene, namely hardcore, functions is vastly different from the days before the existence of the Internet. Gone are the days of having to attend shows to purchase records, shirts, and other merchandise. We now have online distros and record labels that exist only in theory. Gone are the days in which music was spread by … 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)