Legendary Pink Dots – Seconds Late for the Brighton Line
A return to form for this band as they celebrate their third decade as a band and their best album in 15 years. Worth giving them a second chance if you grew tired of the last decade’s worth of output. Rating: Legendary Pink Dots – Seconds Late for the Brighton Line ROIR The Legendary Pink [...]
Suicidal Tendencies – No Mercy Fool!/The Suicidal Family
A re-recording of songs from their second album and some unreleased No Mercy songs that while not terrible, was completely unnecessary. Rating: Suicidal Tendencies – No Mercy Fool!/The Suicidal Family CD Suicidal Records Suicidal Tendencies has the distinction of releasing one of the most popular and excellent punk rock albums of all time, their self-titled [...]
Devil’s Brigade – Self Titled
Country flavored psychobilly that while contains solid songs, doesn’t really push the boundaries at all of the genre resulting in a too familiar feel. Rating: Devil’s Brigade – Self Titled CD Hellcat Records Devil’s Brigade is a side project of Matt Freeman of Rancid and features DJ Bonebreak of X playing the drums. This self-titled [...]
Street Dogs – Self Titled
A solid album of sing-along upbeat street punk from these Boston veterans. Rating: Street Dogs – CD Hellcat Records Boston’s Street Dogs return after a two-year gap with this new self-titled album. In the past two years the band wasn’t just sitting around though as they went on a bunch of tours and of course [...]
Riotgod – CD
Side project from two members of Monster Magnet who mix up hard rock, space-rock, and stoner-rock into a solid debut album. Rating: Riotgod – CD Metalville Riotgod is a new project that was started by Bob Pantella and Jim Baglino, both of whom play in stoner-rock legends Monster Magnet. They planted the seeds for Riotgod three [...]
Horseback – The Invisible Mountain
A combination of Earth inspired drone and Om flavored doom with lots of other elements thrown in resulting in a very interesting and enjoyable ride. Rating: Horseback – The Invisible Mountain Relapse Records Horseback is a project by a man named Jenks Miller who plays nearly every instrument known to man sans-horns to create these [...]
Coliseum – House with a Curse
Coliseum – House with a Curse CD Temporary Residence For their third full-length album, Coliseum has changed drummers, producers, and labels, and even their sound. That’s a lot of change in a short amount of time and House with a Curse is the final result of all of it. Coliseum play melodic metal/post-metal that is [...]
Mad Sin – Burn and Rise
Mad Sin – Burn and Rise People Like You Records Mad Sin has been around since 1987 but somehow despite the fact they released ten studio album prior to this one, this is the first I’ve heard of them. The band is a German psychobilly band who apparently were pretty well-known not only for their [...]
The Adicts – Life Goes On
The Adicts – Life Goes On CD People Like You Records The Adicts is one of those rare bands that not only has managed to have a three decade career and counting, but one that still has the original lineup. I can’t think of many bands that can claim that, especially ones that never stopped [...]
East of the Wall – Ressentiment
East of the Wall – Ressentiment Translation Loss Records East of the Wall play some dissonant, progressive post-metal that is heavy on the thick riffs and guitar noodling. The band play some rather abrasive riffs on top of a rather complex rhythm section. The vocals mostly are abrasive throat-tearing yells but they occasionally switch it [...]
Mose Giganticus – Gift Horse
Mose Giganticus – Gift Horse Relapse Records Mose Giganticus is a band that has been around for a few years now and this is their second full-length album. The band is from Philadelphia, PA. The band starts with a mid-tempo hard rock/metal foundation and incorporates elements of older punk rock and spices things up with [...]
Kingdom of Sorrow – Behind the Blackest Tears
Kingdom of Sorrow – Behind the Blackest Tears Relapse Records Kingdom of Sorrow is the side project of Kirk Windstein (Down/Crowbar) and Jamey Jasta (Hatebreed). The pair formed the band a few years ago and this is their second release, one that took them the better part of two years to put together. The band’s [...]
The Mission – Dum-Dum Bullet
The Mission – Dum-Dum Bullet SPV Records The Mission has had a long career that dates back to 1986 when the band formed out of former members of Sisters of Mercy. For the ten years that followed, The Mission put out a whole slew of sort of gothic influenced rock records and enjoyed a pretty [...]
A Forest of Stars – Opportunistic Thieves of Spring
A Forest of Stars – Opportunistic Thieves of Spring Transcendental Creations UK black metal band, A Forest of Stars celebrate their third birthday with their sophomore effort, Opportunistic Thieves of Spring. Black metal is far too vague of a description though as while their foundation may be that of black metal, they incorporate outside influences [...]
Black Tusk – Taste the Sin
Black Tusk – Taste the Sin CD Relapse Records There must be something in the water down in Georgia because that state has been responsible for a lot of really good metal bands including Kylesa, Baroness, Mastodon, and now Black Tusk. The band has been around for about five years and has a couple releases [...]
Rosetta – A Determinism of Morality
Rosetta – A Determinism of Morality CD Translation Loss Rosetta is a band from Philadelphia, PA that has been around for five years or so and this latest offering, A Determinism of Morality, is their second dedicated full-length album. They have also been on a couple of split releases and comps outside the two albums. [...]
Howl – Full of Hell CD
Howl – Full of Hell CD Relapse Records Howl has been around since 2006 but this is their first full-length album after releasing an EP last year on Relapse Records. That release had only three songs and was but a taste of what the band had to offer, now with this full length we see [...]
Mouth of the Architect – The Violence Beneath
Mouth of the Architect – The Violence Beneath CD Translation Loss Records Every time more than a year goes by since a Mouth of the Architect record I always fear that they may have broken up. Thankfully that is not true as they finally released this new EP two years after their amazing album, Quietly. [...]
Sayyadina – The Great Northern Revisited
Sayyadina – The Great Northern Revisited CD Relapse Records Sayyadina is a grindcore band from Sweden that has been around for ten years now, though this is the first time I’ve heard them. The band has put out two albums plus a slew of singles and compilation appearances. The Great Northern Revisited collects all their [...]
Hopeless Records 15 Year Anniversary CD set
Various Artists – Hopeless Records 15 Year Anniversary 2CD/Book Hopeless Records It’s hard to believe Hopeless Records has been around for 15 years. It seems like just a few years ago they were a fairly new label sending their releases for review in my zine, Spontaneous Combustion, but since I stopped doing that zine almost [...]
Black Cobra – Chronomega
Black Cobra – Chronomega Southern Lord Black Cobra is a two man band from the Bay Area in California comprised of former members of Acid King and Cavity. The band released two albums prior to this one for At a Loss Recordings but for this new album they have found a new home with Southern [...]
The Gears – Rockin’ at Ground Zero Deluxe Edition
The Gears – Rockin’ At Ground Zero Deluxe Edition 2xCD Hep Cat Records The Gears were a surf punk band from the Los Angeles area who were around during the first wave of punk rock to emerge out of Southern California. They put out a 7″ and an album and then broke up. Their records [...]
The Accused – The Curse of Martha Splatterhead
The Accused – The Curse of Martha Splatterhead CD Southern Lord Recordings In the mid to late 1980s, The Accused were one of the premier “crossover” bands and probably played a large part in forming that style of music that became so popular back then, and later went on to influence such genres as grindcore. [...]
Flipper – Love
Flipper – Love CD MVD Audio I can’t believe it has now been 30 years since the band Flipper started, which means I’m really starting to get up there in age! Of course it also means so are they as the members of Flipper all have about ten years on me but they don’t seem [...]
