Recent reviews

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)

Monte Penumbra

As Blades in the Firmament
End All Life (2021)

Monte Penumbra’s obscure origin dates back to 2013. The project of one W.uR suddenly appeared in the underground black metal scene with a debut full-length in Heirloom of Sullen Fall. Released at the time through Deamon Worship Productions, a label with an excellent pedigree of extreme metal having released music from the likes of Devouring Star and Wormlust, Heirloom of Sullen Fall made for a very promising start for Monte Penumbra. Dissonant and eerie, the work of W.uR was oozing with the adventurous, atmospheric investigations of Ved Buens Ende featuring a doom twist. Kicking off their debut with “By Depths Occult” saw the Scandinavian cacophony be polluted by a controlled pace and certain doom leads, while the follow-up in “Dark Figure” saw W.uR invoking stylistically the otherworldly clean vocalizations of Carl Michael-Eide.Still, through the roughness of Monte Penumbra’s debut full-length there were many promising signs. The atmosphere was pitch dark, the venomous guitars revelling in eerie renditions. Unfortunately it would be 8 years until Monte Penumbra would make a return, finally arriving today in As Blades In The Firmament. And in this work, W.uR really steps up the project’s vision and game, modernizing it appropriately for the times, and weaponizing … Read more

thisquietarmy X Away

The Singularity, Phase I
P572 (2020)

Imagine a highway, stripped of all life and containing their minute particles, each one full of information and colour, sound … Read more

Senyawa

Alkisah
Phantom Limb (2021)

Indonesian duo Senyawa are experimentalists of the highest order on Alkisah, a record the dives head-first into the strange and … Read more

200 Words Or Less

Electric Chair

Social Capital
Iron Lung (2021)

This is short, fast, loud; brutal, punishing stuff. Ripping straight into it with “Bastard,” the first verse is spit-shouted in … Read more

Neighborhood Brats

Confines of Life
Dirt Cult (2021)

Neighborhood Brats play punk as you’d expect it to sound – regardless of year or era. It’s angry, aggressive and … Read more

200 Words Or Less

Van Dammes

Finally There EP
Rockstar Records (2021)

Finlands Van Dammes release their fifth EP with Finally There. This time it is kind of special. This EP celebrates … Read more

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One from the archives

None More Black

This is Satire
Fat Wreck Chords (2006)

Have you ever heard a record for the first time and immediately received a feeling of comfort that you would normally get from an album you've been listening to for years? Every so often, you find an album that just "clicks" with you so well that you cannot deny it, and you know you will still be listening to it one year, two years, perhaps even five years from that moment. It really is a great feeling. This is Satire did exactly that to me, and I think that says something about it right away. In 2004, None More Black released the EP Loud About Loathing and showed signs of experimentation with their sound, most notably in the seminal "I'll Buy You the Fucking Single" which was much lighter, harmonic … Read more

More album reviews

Cluttered

Accidents EP
Bloated Kat Records (2021)

I’ve listened to a lot of Future Girls, Modern Cynics, and Weekend Dads the past couple of years. What does that have to do with Cluttered? Well, they share a key songwriting voice in Matty Grace, for starters. But Cluttered is a new band and a new direction, albeit more of a variation than a reinvention. Cluttered is Grace (vocals/guitar/bass), … Read more

Tomahawk

Tonic Immobility
Ipecac (2021)

It would be nice if art could exist in a vacuum. I’m certain that a person finding Tomahawk randomly on YouTube or Spotify or whatever would have far different opinions than somebody who has known of Mike Patton since Faith No More’s The Real Thing blew up, which is probably like fifty albums ago in the Patton discography. Personally, Tomahawk … Read more

Raging Nathans

Waste My Heart
Rad Girlfriend Records (2021)

It’s the pop-punk conundrum. Raging Nathans are a distinct band -- yet they aren’t. On first listen their sound is familiar. Take Lookout Records and Ramones-inspired sing-alongs, add skatepunk urgency, put it in a blender and set to crush. It’s not an even mix of all the ingredients, rather familiar fragments with a lot of unique twists and turns when … Read more

Shevils

Miracle Of The Sun
Independent (2021)

Once upon a time I picked an album to review based on its cover art. It was an album by a Norwegian band called Shevils. That artwork was completely bonkers with Cthulhu dressed as a cowboy riding a manta ray and much, much more. This was back in 2013. I liked that album so much it made my yearlist. In … Read more

Yuko Araki

End of Trilogy
Room40 (2021)

Sonic playground, or finding beauty in the cracks. It feels that this is an appropriate title for Yuko Araki’s new opus, End of Trilogy. But again, this is to be expected from an artist that has been so curious throughout their musical endeavours. From starting out as a pianist to becoming obsessed with the energy and weight of metal and … Read more

Satanic Planet

Satanic Planet
Three One G (2021)

Justin Pearson has a lot of irons in the hellfire. If he isn’t playing with any number of his musical projects - The Locust, Dead Cross, Planet B, Retox and others, he’s tirelessly working behind the scenes as founder of Three One G, an aggressively independent record label dedicated to bringing bands to the masses that would otherwise have fallen … Read more

Early Riser

Vocations
A-F (2021)

I was really into a few folk-bands for a while. But while I enjoy the lo-fi and personable tones, I find a lot of the vocals to be hit/miss. Which, to be honest, is in tune with my feelings on folk too. It’s a genre where voice matters a lot. Some work for me; some don’t. I like Defiance, Ohio … Read more

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones

When God Was Great
Epitaph (2021)

Okay, look: The Mighty Mighty Bosstones need no introduction, but here's one anyway. These suit-clad gentlemen may be Boston’s most important punk export. For over 30 years, they've been active in the city’s hardcore scene and introduced masses of American kids to the sounds and messages of real ska music. They never fell into the suburban skate punk trappings that … Read more

The Neptunas

Mermaid A-Go-Go
Altered State Of Reverb (2020)

Tell ‘em Charlie sent you!? Dolphin safe Tuna-free of long lining, bottom trawling, and blood shrimp. Sustainable fishing has cast the long sea of doubt with shadows of ghost nets dancing and entangling, engulfing innocent species with its dark hand of doom claw-like grasp.Alas ascending from Neptune’s bikini bottomless cavernous cretin encrusted trident thrust through the decrepit blackened charbroiled throbbing … Read more

Hanalei

Black Snow
A-F (2021)

It’s been ten years since Hanalei released One Big Night, which is a long time between records for anyone. Hanalei is primarily frontman Brian Moss, who has also played with The Ghost, Wunder Years and other bands with names similar to more popular groups. But Hanalei is by far its own thing. It’s from the punk world, but not of … Read more

Toska Fall

It Falls Apart
White Russian Records (2021)

Toska Fall is a new Dutch band and It Falls Apart is their second EP. The band was started in 2017 for a shared love of '90s punk rock. Over these three lads added different influences to their mix. Think some melodic hardcore and some metal. I can appreciate it when bands mix more influences together into something quite their … Read more

The Mimes

Plastic Pompeii
Lets Pretend (2021)

After all the bedroom pop to come out of quarantine, we finally have a band doing something new that sounds like a real record, not an experiment. The Mimes features Maura Weaver, John Hoffman, and Megan Schroer, who played together in Boys long ago, and more recently in separate projects such as Homeless Gospel Choir, Ogikubo Station, and Vacation.Fittingly, The … Read more

The Great Hurricane Escape

If Not Now, When?
White Russian Records (2020)

There is so much music coming out that it is impossible to keep up. Every now and then I spend a couple of evenings checking out labels that I dig, just to see what’s new. One of those evenings I visited the bandcamp of White Russian Records and discovered this EP by The Great Hurricane Escape. One e-mail later I … Read more

War On Women

Wonderful Hell
Bridge Nine (2020)

I owe War On Women an apology. This review was due months ago, but some shit circumstances came about and an unplanned hiatus was from Scene Point Blank was needed. The band deserved far better and I very much regret that I wasn’t around to give them the lauds and love upon Wonderful Hell’s release because had I been around … Read more

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