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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)

Sorority Noise

You’re Not As _____ As You Think
Triple Crown (2017)

What is emo? A classicist view may lend itself to sounds like The Promise Ring’s Nothing Feels Good or Weezer’s Pinkerton, which gave way to second-generation icons like Brand New. While The Promise Ring and especially Weezer never really quite built on the successes of their early records, Brand New began as a yawpy pop-punk band that suddenly transformed into a wiry, textured post-punk punk act that felt a little less emotional and a little more devastating with each release. It’s this template that has given birth to bands like Sorority Noise, whose third album You’re Not As _____ As You Think just arrived on Triple Crown Records.The Hartford, CT band are often mentioned in the same sentence as artists like Modern Baseball and Julien Baker, friends that they reference casually in both press and in songs. Together, these artists are part of a new wave of punk that shows a staggering propensity to grow quickly musically and lyrically with each record. Sorority Noise’s 2014 debut Forgettable is a clever (but not inaccurate) name. It only offers a preview of the promise the group – Cam Boucher’s early lyrical prowess and a few guitar atmospherics. This was refined on next … Read more

Ash Borer

The Irrepassable Gate
Profound Lore (2016)

Haunting, mournful, and soulful, Ash Borer dials in with a killer new slab of music with The Irrepassable Gate; and … Read more

Falls of Rauros

Vigilance Perennial
Bindrune Recordings / Nordvis Produktion (2017)

There has always been a pull in the black metal genre towards a folk interpretation. It is not that far … Read more

Ensemble Economique

In Silhouette
Denovali (2017)

Brian Pyle, the individual behind Ensemble Economique, begun a crazy trip as a member of Starving Weirdos in the mid … Read more

Mastodon

Emperor of Sand
Warner Bros. (2017)

There have been few bands as exciting to watch their ascension into music legend than Mastodon. What's that you say? … Read more

White Willow

Future Hopes
Lasers Edge Records (2017)

They call it prog-rock, art-rock, jazz-rock, they call it tedious and pretentious, they call it heady, too-much, reserved as the … Read more

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One from the archives

Okie Dokie

Okie Dokie
Aagoo (2009)

The band is named Okie Dokie. The artwork is simple and to the point. In other words, Okie Dokie doesn't hide the fact that they're a dirty rock band, blending balls to the wall sleaze rock with fast, sloppy surf garage at its heart. The record is only eight songs, and whatever vinyl format it's on (I received a promo CD), is likely longer than they needed. On further research, it's a 10", which seems a fitting choice. From the first few seconds of "Bad Luck," it's clear by the choppy power chords and Mike Ray-Von's slightly snotty, but mostly aggressive vocals, that the band is all about short, fast, and loud. Loud guitars rule this record, with distorted bass, and little variation between songs. "The Monad" has a hint … Read more

More album reviews

Multiple Authors

The Menzingers

After The Party
Epitaph (2017)

The Menzingers are a four-piece punk band from Scranton, PA, sharing the same hometown as band sibling Tigers Jaw. Although not musically the same, The Menzingers have a similar lyrical purpose to The Smiths: to tell detailed, emotional narratives about everyday people. Except, instead of about middle-aged well-read women and ambiguously gay recluses, it’s about 20-somethings sporting tattoos of high … Read more

Multiple Authors

The Menzingers

After The Party
Epitaph (2017)

For the past 7 or so years I have been saying that The Menzingers are the best current punk band around. Not only do they put on a hell of a live show, but their records resonate weeks, months, years after listening to them. A punk band that manages to stay relevant, it's impressive. The Menzingers are a band that … Read more

Woe

Hope Attrition
Vendetta (2017)

After a promising start to a career that began in earnest with the release of debut A Spell for the Death of Man in 2008 and continued through to 2013s Withdrawal, Woe’s fate took a turn soon after that many bands find themselves encountering – real life happened and the music took a backseat for founder Chris Grigg and his … Read more

Totally Unicorn

Dream Life
Farmer & The Owl Records (2016)

Complex, highly technical, unusual time signatures.Staccato and syncopated polyrhythmic guitar melodies.Mathcore.Yawn.Does not sound fun to you?Alright - enter nudity, booze fueled shenanigans and fascinating borderline performance art live incarnations.Enter Totally Unicorn from Wollongong, NSW South Wales, Australia.Dream Life is their first impressive full length, which was released in 2016 and surprised quite a few of their followers: Not that it … Read more

New Gods

Weird War Tales EP
Distro-y Records (2016)

The majority of punk bands seem to have a hard time to stay together for more than a handful of releases. I can see positive sides of this as loads of musicians just go on to form a new band where new sparks of creativity can be released upon an unsuspecting world. Sometimes it hurts a bit when a band … Read more

Dead Bars

Dream Gig
No Idea Records (2017)

Reading that Dead Bars never meant to be a band explains a lot of things. They started as a one-off project to go on a tour rather than to share their art. It turned out to be fun and they stuck with it. After a series of 7”s, the Seattle now-band finally releases their first full-length in 2017, titled Dream … Read more

Various Artists

Botanist/Oskoreien - EP3: Green Metal/Deterministic Chaos
Avantgarde Music (2016)

I am guessing that most people are familiar with Botanist and their unique take on black metal, in terms of instrumentation and vibe. The band has released a series of great records through the years, replacing guitars with hammered dulcimer, focusing thematically on, as the name would suggest, flora. This journey has led to a peak with VI: Flora, with … Read more

Unearthly Trance

Stalking the Ghost
Relapse (2017)

To my mind Unearthly Trance was the act that truly defined the doom/sludge push of the '00s. Starting off with their debut album, Seasons of Seance, Science of Silence they displayed a claustrophobic, catastrophic drone induced version at a time where the push was towards the more fun side of doom/stoner. Through the years they kept evolving, switching from the … Read more

Emptiness

Not For Music
Season of Mist (2017)

Belgium’s Emptiness have spent much of their career eschewing traditional approaches and with Not for Music they continue to imbue their singular take on black metal with wholly impure vibrations and ever more intriguing design elements. One such decision is the inclusion of Jeordie White (Marilyn Manson’s Twiggy Ramirez) on production duties and it’s this somewhat unusual choice that gives … Read more

Bearcubs

Underwaterfall EP
All Points (2017)

25-year-old English producer and DJ Jack Ritchie, aka Bearcubs, first attracted the attention of the BBC's new music arm, BBC Introducing, after uploading some of his tracks to their website. This piqued the interest of the BBC Introducing team, and saw Ritchie's experimental electronica get praise from the likes of Annie Mac and Huw Stephens. This was followed by the … Read more

Strange Relations

Going Out EP
Tiny Engines (2016)

Admittedly, I’m a little leery of a press kit that features more band photos than songs. Then again, this is an EP, so it’s probably me yakking about something inconsequential anyway. They’re just attachments. It’s not like they sent me glossies. More is always better, right?Anyway, part of this record review might actually get to the record, which is a … Read more

All Them Witches

Sleeping Through The War
New West (2017)

All Them Witches is a rock band with a psychedelic blues tinge that reflects their southern-but-also-hip hometown of Nashville, Tennessee. Although All Them Witches can really deal in those druggy, heavy-hitting riffs that make you want to knock back a six pack in the desert, they also have a real musicianship that’s too often lacking in the dime-a-dozen bands that … Read more

Grit

Ghost estates EP
Distro-y Records (2017)

Do you ever play games where you imagine what would have happened if an artist or a band would have had other influences than they had now? For example: what if Girlschool would have listened to punk instead of New Wave of British Heavy Metal? What would their albums have sounded like? My best guess is it would have sounded … Read more

Worm Ouroboros

What Graceless Dawn
Profound Lore (2016)

Lorraine Rath and Jessica Way initiated a mystical journey with Worm Ouroboros, blurring the lines between doom metal, post-rock, neo-folk and dark ambiance, attempting to create music that is as powerful as it is otherworldly. Releasing their debut album in 2010, they were soon joined by drummer Aesop Dekker, whose first contribution came in the band's sophomore record, Come The … Read more

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