Album review
Never Take Friendship Personal
Anberlin
Never Take Friendship Personal brings together two sides of Anberlin that make each other stronger. The guitars hit with a sharp physical force, while Stephen Christian sings …
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Album review
Fauna
Haken
Fauna uses animals as a way to approach human concerns, but its most persuasive arguments are musical. Haken give the songs different kinds of movement and character, allowing…
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Album review
For the People
Dropkick Murphys
Dropkick Murphys are angry on For the People, but they haven't forgotten how to make good company out of it. The record moves between political frustration, old friends, famil…
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Album review
Cusp
Alela Diane
Cusp finds many different sides to motherhood. Alela Diane sings about love, tiredness, responsibility and fear without reducing those feelings to easy answers. Piano takes a …
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Album review
The Raincoats
The Raincoats
The Raincoats makes unusual playing feel welcoming. The rhythms are uneven, the harmonies can wander away from perfect pitch, and violin gives the arrangements a sound beyond …
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Album review
Screaming for Vengeance
Judas Priest
Judas Priest find an excellent balance between menace and invitation on Screaming for Vengeance. The riffs are sharp, the choruses are generous, and Rob Halford can turn a str…
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Album review
Enema of the State
Blink-182
Blink-182 make uncertainty sound remarkably confident on Enema of the State. The guitars arrive cleanly, the choruses are easy to remember, and Travis Barker keeps adding move…
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Album review
Emblas Saga
Brothers of Metal
The different voices give Emblas Saga much of its appeal. Brothers of Metal place rough singing beside Ylva Eriksson's clear, powerful melodies. Firm guitars, large keyboard p…
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Album review
The Number of the Beast
Iron Maiden
Bruce Dickinson's voice gives The Number of the Beast a sense of scale that the guitars are happy to match. He can sound commanding, alarmed or unexpectedly vulnerable, often …
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Album review
ECLYPTIC: Wake of Shadows
ILLUMISHADE
Fabienne Erni's voice makes ECLYPTIC: Wake of Shadows immediately approachable. She sings clearly and warmly, even when ILLUMISHADE make the guitars heavier. Around her voice,…
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Album review
Rage Against the Machine
Rage Against the Machine
Rage Against the Machine make an unusually convincing argument for four people being enough. The guitar produces sounds that don't seem entirely reasonable, the bass and drums…
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Album review
The Raven That Refused to Sing (And Other Stories)
Steven Wilson
Ghost stories give The Raven That Refused to Sing a reason to look backward. Its Mellotron, flute and elaborate instrumental passages belong to a familiar progressive rock tra…
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Album review
Infinity on High
Fall Out Boy
Patrick Stump sounds delighted by the possibilities on Infinity on High. Fall Out Boy give him strings, choirs, piano and a wider range of rhythms, and he treats the expanded …
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Album review
Dying of Everything
Obituary
Dying of Everything shows how convincing a familiar approach can remain. Obituary relies on heavy riffs, firm rhythms and John Tardy's rough voice. The band seeks little reinv…
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Album review
Spirit of Eden
Talk Talk
Spirit of Eden gives each sound time to matter. Talk Talk use guitars, piano, organ and wind instruments without making them fill the same song structure repeatedly. Instrumen…
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Album review
Alien
Strapping Young Lad
The move from Shitstorm into Love? explains much of Alien's appeal. One song pushes Strapping Young Lad towards almost continuous rhythmic and vocal overload; the next gives t…
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Album review
Bloom
Larkin Poe
The guitar playing on Bloom is very good. That will probably surprise nobody who knows Larkin Poe. The more useful thing to say is that the songs give the playing somewhere to…
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Album review
Alice in Chains
Alice in Chains
Alice in Chains make heaviness feel strangely patient on their self-titled third album. The guitars still have plenty of force, but the songs often move as though they are rel…
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Album review
After the Party
The Menzingers
Getting older is not presented as a useful achievement on After the Party. The Menzingers' characters have more experience, but not necessarily more money, stability or good j…
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Album review
What the Dead Men Say
Trivium
Alex Bent's drumming gives What the Dead Men Say much of its character. Fast passages remain precise, but the changing accents and sudden bursts of double bass also give Trivi…
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Album review
Nevermind
Nirvana
Nevermind comes with a lot of history attached. It changed rock, changed the charts, changed what people wore. Fine. Put all that aside for a moment, because the record itself…
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Album review
Out of Exile
Audioslave
Audioslave sound less like a meeting between famous previous bands on Out of Exile. The parts fit together more naturally, especially when Chris Cornell relaxes into a melody …
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Album review
The Nothing That Is
Fit for an Autopsy
The Nothing That Is sharpens Fit for an Autopsy's sound without reinventing it. Heavy riffs remain the starting point, increasingly joined by melodies and restrained textures …
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Album review
A Lesson in Romantics
Mayday Parade
A Lesson in Romantics depends on two voices making familiar feelings sound urgent. Derek Sanders and Jason Lancaster move around each other with enough contrast to give Mayday…
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