Review / 200 Words Or Less
Matadors
Flame the Whisper

Devil Doll (2007) Kevin Fitzpatrick

Matadors – Flame the Whisper cover artwork
Matadors – Flame the Whisper — Devil Doll, 2007

Yippeeeee! It's Matadors time! Plug it in and lets party like it's 1992! Yes, that's right. 1992! Forget those bands of way back when. Gas Huffer. Mother Love Bone. The Mono Men. All great bands that never had a tribute band

until now (zing!).

Fifteen years late, but who the hell's counting? Matadors work on Swedish time, baby. It's not their fault - nobody told them that the war's over, and Seattle lost. Hell, for all I know they're keeping it real and trying to do a Dave Clark Five impersonation. Christ, at the very least you'd think The Hives would have dropped by to tell 'em.

Don't let the ads or press fool you. Billing Matadors as "Stoner Rock" is not accurate. Unless Poison 13 ever counted as stoner rock. Nope, these boys are straight outta tha' garage and let me tell you their garages are a whole lot cleaner than ours. What does that mean? Well it means that Flame the Whisper is sixteen tracks of competent-yet-senseless Sub-Pop nostalgia for the kids too young to remember - and trust me this album isn't exactly gonna have them asking their slightly older uncle if they could borrow his Mudhoney collection. It'll bore them to tears and reinforce the apathy already coursing through their Skyy Vodka soaked designer-drug addled brains. So for heaven's sake, won't someone please think of the children.

Matadors – Flame the Whisper cover artwork
Matadors – Flame the Whisper — Devil Doll, 2007

Recently-posted album reviews

Burned Up Bled Dry

Next Stop… Dead Stop…
Prank (2026)

There’s no easing into Next Stop… Dead Stop… No buildup, no warning just impact. Fayetteville, Arkansas’ Burned Up Bled Dry return from decades of dormancy with a debut full-length that feels less like a comeback and more like a long-awaited detonation. Formed in 1996 and tied to that gnarlier mid-south hardcore lineage alongside bands like His Hero Is Gone and … Read more

Blue Ash

Dinner At Mr. Billy’s
Peppermint Records (2026)

Most people treat the Blue Ash story like a collection of "almosts" and they are sure missing the point.Almost famous, almost signed, almost the American Beatles. Forget that, erase that fable from your feeble grey matter. Dinner at Mr. Billy’s—straight from the Peppermint Productions vaults—proves they weren't just "lost" contenders. They were the engine room of the Rust Belt. While … Read more

Luxury Teeth

DCxPC Live & Dead, Vol. 3
DCxPC Live (2024)

There’s something inherently appealing about a record that doesn’t try to hide what a band actually sounds like. DCxPC Live & Dead, Vol. 3 captures Luxury Teeth in two very different settings and more importantly, shows that neither version feels like a compromise. Side A, the “Live” portion, was recorded at the Ottobar in Baltimore while opening for GBH, and … Read more