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)

Zola Jesus

Okovi
Sacred Bones (2017)

Nicole Hummel aka Zola Jesus, is one of the most enticing singer/songwriters of the current scene. By incorporating elements of electronica and industrial alongside a darkwave tone and with classical leanings, she has released a series of great records highlighting her intricate sound. From the extreme days of her debut, The Spoils, in 2009, Zola Jesus has been projecting an extravagant and adventurous sound. The only misstep I detect in her discography has to be her previous album Taiga, released in 2014, where Zola Jesus embraced further the electronic element and left behind the exploratory and experimental attitude. However, her new album, Okovi, arrives to remedy this. Returning to the record label that put out most of her records, Sacred Bones, has also signaled a return to the darker, atmospheric element. In a sense, Okovi acts as the opposite of Taiga. The light tone appears to have vanished, and in its place a ritualistic element has arisen. By surrounding herself with very capable individuals, familiar faces in the case of live bandmate Alex DeGroot, excellent musicians in cellist/noise fanatic Shannon Kennedy of Pedestrian Deposit and percussionist Ted Bynes, and also imaginative producers in WIFE aka John Kelly (previously of Altar … Read more

Lost Balloons

Hey Summer
Dirtnap (2017)

By now it feels like hitting repeat, but for the uninitiated, Lost Balloons has to be introduced through the Marked … Read more

Nordra

Nordra
Sige (2017)

Hailing from Seattle Washington, Monika Khot produces music under the Nordra moniker and is now releasing her self-titled debut album. … Read more

GG Allin

My Prison Walls
Independent (2016)

There's been many words used to describe GG Allin.PunkFelonSado-MasochistShit TerroristOk, in all fairness, that last one was used to describe … Read more

Tex, Don and Charlie

You Don’t Know Lonely
EMI (2017)

Bonafide legends of the Australian music scene, Tex, Don and Charlie are somewhat an Australian super group with gravitas aplomb.Comprised … Read more

Queens of the Stone Age

Villains
Matador (2017)

au·da·ciousôˈdāSHəs/adjectiveShowing a willingness to take surprisingly bold risks.The one mission statement that Josh Homme and Queens of the Stone Age … Read more

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One from the archives

Rob Zombie

Educated Horses
Geffen (2006)

It's been four and a half years since Mr. Zombie last released an album of new material. That album was The Sinister Urge and I didn't like it. It sounded like an album of Hellbilly Deluxe (Zombie's vastly superior debut solo album) b-sides. A group of orphaned songs that was never quite good enough to be adopted into a real record. The time in between albums was not to be spent idly, however, with the release of the Past, Present and Future compilation as well as Zombie's second directorial feature film, The Devil's Rejects. In interviews over the last few years, Mr. Zombie has repeatedly stated how disillusioned he had gotten in the musical aspect of his career - particularly the group infighting that was happening during and after the … Read more

More album reviews

Impure Wilhelmina

Radiation
Season of Mist (2017)

Why I choose to review Radiation I can’t exactly recall (perhaps sharing members with Rorcal and Vuyvr did the trick, perhaps it was just the description “post-hardcore” that triggered my interest); whatever it was, the album surprised me, let me tell you that. I was expecting post-hardcore from this Swiss band (as the promo said it would deliver just that) … Read more

Rancid

Trouble Maker
Hellcat (2017)

It’s strange to me to realize that Rancid just released their ninth album. It’s a mark of age, not to mention that they haven’t been the most productive band on the block since the 3-year spree of LPs 1-3 from 1993-1995. Mostly it just makes me feel old, which is also how their last album, (the disappointing) Honor Is All … Read more

White Suns

Psychic Drift
Flenser (2017)

White Suns, the New York based noise trio, has been slowly descending on the path of deconstruction. Founded in 2006, the band has released a series of albums, presenting an experimental rock perspective and subsequently deconstructing it to its most basic core. The highlight of this process was Totem, a record where at times it felt like the experimental aspect … Read more

Moon Duo

Occult Architecture Vol I & II
Sacred Bones (2017)

Based in San Fransisco, Moon Duo is the brainchild of Erik “Ripley” Johnson, known from his work in Wooden Shjips, and Sanae Yamada. Centering around a psychedelic perspective, the band has released a series of works, influenced by garage aesthetics and krautrock, projecting their own trippy themes within an existing framework.Occult Architecture is Moon Duo's latest full-length releases. Split into … Read more

Poseidon

Prologue
Ripple Music (2017)

Concept albums aren’t a new trick but for Poseidon and their epic, sludged-out doom, the concept forms more than one story and instead will be stretched across a multitude of records in order to give the narrative the space it certainly needs. Hailing from London and having been members of many bands over the years, Poseidon have created their own … Read more

Fonija

Mislev EP
Balkan Veliki (2017)

Fonija became one of my favorite punk bands… correction: favorite bands with the release of Mojot Pekol. I never heard of this Macedonian band before that release, but boy, that album left a lasting impression. It’s an album I still come back to on a regular basis. The album (...Bez Ime) and split with Culture Development (Magla) that followed are … Read more

White Ward

Futility Report
Debemur Morti Productions (2017)

Hailing from Odessa, Ukraine, White Ward exist within the post-black metal scene, stirring experimental means to enhance the core of the genre, and push it forwards. Initially founded in 2012, the band has released a series of EPs and demos, taking five long years for their first complete work, Futility Report, to come into light. Being released through White Ward's … Read more

Time Lurker

Time Lurker
Les Acteurs de l'Ombre Productions (2017)

Time Lurker, the one-man project from France, is releasing its debut, self-titled record. Coming out from Les Aucteurs de l'Ombre, it is easy to get a first idea about what type of sound to expect. The label specializes in the more adventurous side of black metal, and its experimental and atmospheric edges, with the most famous alumni in their roster … Read more

Whiskey & Co.

Ripped Together, Torn Apart
No Idea Records (2017)

Whiskey & Co. are something of an outlier on the No Idea Records roster, but it’s still a cultural fit. Their boozy, swaying country may not be in the same vein as the gruff punk “Gainesville sound,” but it’s a fitting morning after with its laid back, introspective vibe. Ripped Together, Torn Apart is their latest, and it’s a solid … Read more

The Rememberables

The Rememberables
Adagio830 (2017)

Is this bandname some sort of challenge the bandmembers set for themselves? A goal to achieve so to say: be remembered? Is this debut full-length their first step on a clear defined path? So many questions pop up in my head just by the name alone. This album was brought to my attention with the statement it was a great … Read more

Boris

Dear
Sargent House (2017)

I like the idea of certain types of metal paralleling the thought patterns of jazz. Whether it is the twitchy renderings of a Meshuggah beat, the sprinkle of jazz-like tendencies of an Intronaut record, or the experimental coo-coo of Fantomas. The immediacy, expansive sound, and improvisation can certainly draw comparison to a Miles Davis or John Coltrane offering. Those two … Read more

Ex Eye

Ex Eye
Relapse (2017)

Colin Stetson, a fantastic saxophone player, came into prominence due to his collaboration with various indie rock bands, in the likes of Arcade Fire and Bon Iver. However, his interests lie further away from the confinements of indie rock, and into the experimental realm, where jazz, avant-garde and experimental music meet. He has been quite busy in 2017, releasing his … Read more

Daniel Menche

Sleeper
Sige (2017)

With a career spanning for almost three decades, Daniel Menche is a distinguished experimental artist. Implementing abstract themes within a minimal setting, applying noise to build an asphyxiating environment, his music takes on a physical manifestation to the listener. Creating an illusion of claustrophobia and anxiety, taking away the warmth of any safe spaces and leaving all exposed to the … Read more

Tex Perkins

Tex
Macmillan Australia (2017)

Pizzazz. Omph. Attitude.Sensibility.A sardonic sense of humour.Charisma.Swagger. If your music depends entirely on that, the dependency is too great. So much for the basics.See, you could claim that Tex Perkins and his incarnations have had a more than profound impact on my ever since I planted a foot on terra australis. Tex Perkins has been in the game for close … Read more

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