Album review
Day and Age
Frost*
Frost* gave themselves a useful restriction for Day and Age: no solos. For a progressive-rock band with this much instrumental ability, that is quite a choice. The result puts…
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Reviews
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Album review
Psalm 69
Ministry
Psalm 69 turns repetition into a powerful source of tension. Ministry place heavy guitars, hard drums and distorted voices firmly alongside one another. Samples interrupt that…
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Album review
Bleach
Nirvana
About a Girl is the giveaway. Between the grinding guitars and Kurt Cobain's roughest singing, a small, beautifully shaped pop song suddenly appears. Bleach already contains b…
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Album review
Violence
Nothingface
Violence makes the contrast between melody and aggression its main attraction. Nothingface keep the guitars heavy and the rhythms forceful, but Matt Holt's voice gives the mus…
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Album review
Take Me Back to Eden
Sleep Token
The most effective surprise in Take Me Back to Eden arrives when The Summoning seems to have finished its main work. After its heavy guitar passages, expansive singing and sus…
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Album review
Time
Louis Cole
Time makes a strong connection between skilled playing and songs that want you to dance. Louis Cole brings his precise drumming into bright funk-pop, with light singing and ke…
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Album review
Never Hungover Again
Joyce Manor
Nineteen minutes can hold a surprising amount of indecision. Never Hungover Again races through ten songs, but Joyce Manor keep finding different ways to make a small encounte…
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Album review
Artlessly Falling
Mary Halvorson
Mary Halvorson starts with the words on Artlessly Falling. The songs are built around different poetic forms, yet rarely sound as though they merely serve a complicated idea. …
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Album review
Ricochet
Rise Against
Rise Against have made enough records to know how their songs usually work. Ricochet keeps that identity, but changes the setting around it. The guitars are broader, the arran…
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Album review
Flesh Stays Together
Dying Wish
Flesh Stays Together finds Dying Wish making more space for melody without softening the feeling behind the music. The Portland band’s third album is still full of hard riffs,…
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Album review
Disciplined Breakdown
Collective Soul
For an album with breakdown in its title, this is remarkably controlled music. Collective Soul turn personal strain into sharply arranged songs, trusting bright guitar sounds …
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Album review
The Silent Force
Within Temptation
The Silent Force builds Within Temptation's large arrangements firmly around the singing. Sharon den Adel sounds assured and gives the melodies considerable emotion while orch…
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Album review
Nightmare
Avenged Sevenfold
Nightmare moves between theatrical heavy metal and a more exposed expression of grief. Avenged Sevenfold recorded the album after drummer Jimmy Sullivan's death, with Mike Por…
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Album review
American Idiot
Green Day
Green Day make a useful discovery on American Idiot: a song can get much bigger without losing its basic urgency. The record stretches from short punk attacks to long sequence…
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Album review
Animals
TTNG
The guitars draw attention almost constantly on Animals. Clear notes tumble over one another while the drums seem to keep choosing a different route. TTNG, then known as This …
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Contempt
Couch Slut
Contempt makes Couch Slut's music clearer without making it more comfortable. Guitars are heavy and rough, drums hit hard, and Megan Osztrosits gives the songs a continuously …
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Album review
Lonely People with Power
Deafheaven
Deafheaven bring the harsh vocals back to the front on Lonely People with Power, but the lessons from their softer music remain. The album is heavy, melodic and unusually good…
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Album review
Neverworld's End
Xandria
Neverworld's End commits convincingly to large symphonic metal with a firm foundation of guitar, bass and drums. Manuela Kraller gives the music a powerful operatic voice. Her…
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Album review
Fortress
Alter Bridge
Fortress makes a six-minute opening song feel like a sensible place to begin. Cry Of Achilles has enough melody and internal movement to justify its scale, and Alter Bridge ke…
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Album review
Destroy Erase Improve
Meshuggah
The alarm-like guitar notes at the start of Future Breed Machine make a useful warning. On Destroy Erase Improve, Meshuggah take the forward drive of thrash metal and repeated…
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Album review
Secondhand Daylight
Magazine
Secondhand Daylight brings Magazine’s keyboards further forward and makes the surrounding music colder. Dave Formula’s playing can be spacious, harsh or suddenly forceful, whi…
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Album review
After Laughter
Paramore
The cheerful rhythm of Hard Times does not make its subject any easier. That is the central achievement of After Laughter: Paramore make colourful, inviting music while Hayley…
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Album review
Who Let the Dogs Out
Lambrini Girls
Lambrini Girls don't spend much time preparing you for the point. Who Let the Dogs Out is loud, angry, funny and frequently rude, with Phoebe Lunny's voice pushed straight int…
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Album review
Rise Radiant
Caligula's Horse
Rise Radiant is strongest when Caligula's Horse concentrate their ideas. The Tempest opens with a sharply defined guitar figure and a vocal melody that can rise above it witho…
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