Album review
Remember That You Will Die
Polyphia
The brass on Genesis gives Remember That You Will Die an unusually warm entrance. Polyphia keep the tightly edited guitar patterns and heavy low rhythms, but the added colour …
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Reviews
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Album review
Falling Satellites
Frost*
Towerblock takes a familiar progressive rock sound and breaks open its electronic possibilities. The changes in texture are abrupt enough to be surprising, yet the song keeps …
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Album review
motionblur
Split Chain
motionblur balances thick guitars with a more open, drifting atmosphere. Split Chain’s debut draws heavily from shoegaze and turn-of-the-century alternative metal, but the Bri…
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Album review
Decemberunderground
AFI
AFI make darkness surprisingly easy to dance to on Decemberunderground. The guitars remain important, but bass lines, electronic rhythms and bright vocal hooks give the record…
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Wolfheart
Moonspell
Wolfheart draws much of its character from the combination of heavy riffs and a strongly gothic atmosphere. On this 1995 debut, Moonspell introduce dark keyboards, acoustic pa…
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Truth Decay
You Me at Six
Truth Decay has a very clear idea of what You Me at Six do well. Big guitars, bigger choruses, and Josh Franceschi sounding as though the conversation has gone badly enough th…
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Location Lost
Failure
Failure make room for both heaviness and stillness on Location Lost. The Los Angeles trio’s seventh album keeps the thick guitars and uneasy melodies that define their alterna…
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Sacrament
Lamb of God
The most convincing moments on Sacrament give Lamb of God's tight rhythmic attack a more spacious setting. The riffs remain dense, and Randy Blythe still sounds fiercely confr…
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Chapter II - Legacy
Ad Infinitum
Chapter II - Legacy gives Ad Infinitum a clear aim: strong melodies must survive between heavy riffs and rich orchestral layers. The band mainly works with compact songs. Meli…
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Album review
Malina
Leprous
Malina lets the clean tones carry their own weight. Leprous reduce the dependence on distorted guitars and harsh voices, allowing rhythm, strings and Einar Solberg's singing t…
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Oh What the Future Holds
Fit for an Autopsy
Oh What the Future Holds makes its heaviest moments stronger by building towards them carefully. Fit for an Autopsy combine low guitars and hard drums with more spacious sound…
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Album review
Royal Blood
Royal Blood
The first riff on Royal Blood's debut is enough to explain the appeal. “Out of the Black” has a heavy, distorted pull, and Ben Thatcher's drums make every stop and restart cou…
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Audioslave
Audioslave
Chris Cornell singing over the musicians from Rage Against the Machine was always going to attract attention. The useful question is what they could do together once the names…
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Sempiternal
Bring Me the Horizon
The electronic opening of Can You Feel My Heart establishes the central idea of Sempiternal. Bring Me the Horizon lets a repeated synth figure carry the song's identity, with …
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Clearing the Path to Ascend
YOB
Clearing the Path to Ascend asks for patience before showing its greatest strength. YOB divide the record into four long songs and let the guitars carry considerable weight. S…
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Album review
Isolate and Medicate
Seether
Same Damn Life sounds almost cheerful until Shaun Morgan starts singing. That friction is useful. Isolate and Medicate lets Seether's melodies and rhythms become more inviting…
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Album review
Vol.II
Angine de Poitrine
Vol.II is strange guitar music with a surprisingly direct appeal. Angine de Poitrine use repeating guitar and bass loops, tightly connected drums and melodies that sit outside…
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Album review
Noir
Novelists
“Monochrome” makes the most persuasive case for Noir's softer ambitions. Novelists let the song move at an easy pace, giving clean vocals, guitar leads and saxophone room to d…
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Album review
Lifeless Birth
Necrot
Lifeless Birth quickly shows why Necrot work so well when they keep the focus on the riffs. The guitars are heavy, the drums provide clear direction and melodies sit between t…
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Solstice
A.A. Williams
A.A. Williams doesn't need to raise her voice to hold your attention. On Solstice, the quieter moments often do just as much work as the big guitar sections. That's useful on …
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Album review
Come on Die Young
Mogwai
Come on Die Young more often finds strength in restraint than an unexpected loud hit. Mogwai let simple guitar lines ring out and give keyboards, voice fragments and small sou…
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Empath
Devin Townsend
A gentle choir, a harsh scream and a bright dance rhythm can all belong to the same song on Empath. Devin Townsend treats those sounds as different emotional possibilities, al…
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Album review
Burdens
Ava Inferi
Burdens finds its strength in restraint. Ava Inferi let the guitars move slowly and give Carmen Simões's singing a place among the instruments. She does not remain constantly …
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Album review
Downward Is Heavenward
Hum
Isle of the Cheetah is a convincing argument for taking the long way through a rock song. Its guitars spread outward while Matt Talbott sings with a calm that makes the scale …
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