Album review
Give It Back to You
The Record Company
Give It Back to You makes a small band sound substantial through the way its parts fit together. The Record Company work with guitar, bass, drums and harmonica, leaving enough…
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Reviews
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Album review
Three Days Grace
Three Days Grace
Adam Gontier can make a simple phrase sound as though it has been held in for too long. That quality gives Three Days Grace's debut much of its force. The band uses compact gu…
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Album review
American Football
American Football
American Football make intricate music that remains unusually calm on their debut. The guitars circle each other, the drums shift the rhythmic footing, and Mike Kinsella sings…
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Album review
Setting Fire to the Sky
Urne
Urne sound ready to reach a bigger room on Setting Fire to the Sky. The riffs still have plenty of force, but the choruses make more space for clean singing and direct melodie…
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Album review
Blues Funeral
Mark Lanegan
Ode to Sad Disco is an excellent title and an even better change of setting. Mark Lanegan's voice sounds entirely at home above an electronic pulse, carrying its usual gravity…
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Album review
System of a Down
System of a Down
System of a Down's debut has an unusual sense of humor for such a threatening record. Serj Tankian can sound mocking, theatrical and completely serious within the same song. T…
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Album review
Evolver
Smash Into Pieces
The saxophone at the start of “Like This!” is a useful warning that Evolver has other plans besides straight guitar rock. Smash Into Pieces bring funk movement, electronic bea…
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Album review
Shaken by a Low Sound
Crooked Still
Shaken by a Low Sound gives older songs a recognisable sound of their own. Crooked Still build arrangements mainly around banjo, cello and double bass. Aoife O'Donovan's light…
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Album review
Dirt
Alice in Chains
Dirt wastes very little time being polite. The opening scream on Them Bones arrives with a guitar riff that seems to trip over its own feet, then land exactly where it should.…
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Album review
Asymmetry
Karnivool
Asymmetry puts friction at the centre of Karnivool's sound. The guitars can seem to pull away from the rhythm beneath them, and a vocal melody may arrive without making the su…
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Album review
From Mars to Sirius
Gojira
The repeated guitar figures on From Mars to Sirius are unusually expressive. Gojira use them to suggest weight, movement and exhaustion, changing the pressure through the drum…
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Album review
Bummer
Cleopatrick
Bummer sounds as though Cleopatrick want the guitar and drums to occupy every available corner. The distortion is thick, the rhythms are forceful, and Luke Gruntz's voice ofte…
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Album review
Mutter
Rammstein
Mutter makes Rammstein's appeal easy to understand. Heavy riffs and firm rhythms carry melodies that stay in the memory. Electronic sounds remain in the background, but the gu…
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Album review
Songs of Blood and Mire
Spectral Wound
Songs of Blood and Mire draws its strength from the pleasure Spectral Wound take in making their riffs move. The music stays sharp and fast, but never treats melody as the ene…
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Album review
Dreams on Toast
The Darkness
The Darkness are still very good at being ridiculous. The important part is that they can also write songs. Dreams on Toast has enough strong melodies and guitar playing to ma…
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Album review
Valentine
Bill Frisell
On Valentine, the space between the notes feels as important as the notes themselves. Bill Frisell lets melodies linger while bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Rudy Royston ke…
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Album review
Milliontown
Frost*
Frost* begin Milliontown with a piano figure and then let an instrumental track make the introductions. Hyperventilate is a bold opening because it asks the playing to establi…
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Album review
Periphery II: This Time It's Personal
Periphery
A clean guitar line or a short vocal phrase can be more important than the most complicated riff on Periphery II: This Time It's Personal. The band have plenty of technical id…
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Album review
Dark Is the Way, Light Is a Place
Anberlin
Space is one of the most important instruments on Dark Is the Way, Light Is a Place. Anberlin let delayed guitar notes spread around Stephen Christian's voice, making the musi…
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Album review
Emerald Seas
Seven Spires
The orchestral sound sits right inside the music on Emerald Seas. The arrangements follow a song's tension instead of simply making everything bigger. Seven Spires combine tha…
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Album review
Infinite Illumination
Spirit Adrift
Infinite Illumination is a heavy goodbye. Spirit Adrift's final album moves back towards the slower doom sound that helped define the band, and Nate Garrett gives the songs en…
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Album review
Idle Moments
Grant Green
The title track of Idle Moments lasts almost fifteen minutes and never sounds hurried. Grant Green gives the melody space and lets the rest of the group join naturally. His gu…
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Album review
Close to the Edge
Yes
Close to the Edge asks for a full side of attention before it has finished its first song. Yes make that invitation convincing through the movement of the music itself. The pe…
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Album review
Holy Hell
Architects
Grief gives Holy Hell a clear emotional center, but the songs do more than state that grief. Architects turns it into changes of pace, strained melodies and repeated guitar fi…
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