Album review
Magma
Gojira
Grief gives Magma its emotional centre. Gojira retain their precise heavy grooves, but the songs make more room for clean singing, sustained melody and quieter reflection. The…
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Reviews
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Album review
Four Phantoms
Bell Witch
Four Phantoms finds its weight in the space between its elements. Bell Witch let the bass ring out, give drums time for an accent to land and alternate deep voices with cleane…
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Album review
Transit of Venus
Three Days Grace
The electronic weight on Transit of Venus gives Three Days Grace a useful change of texture. Thick synthesizer sounds sit beside the guitars instead of serving only as backgro…
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Album review
Obsolete
Fear Factory
Obsolete gives Fear Factory more room for melody without abandoning their tight industrial metal. Guitars and drums often move so precisely together that they seem to form one…
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Sunnyland
Mayday Parade
Mayday Parade know their way around a sad song. On Sunnyland, they also remember that a bit of noise can be useful. The album moves between direct guitar rock and the softer, …
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Album review
Imperial
Soen
Illusion gives Imperial its clearest emotional focus. The song allows Joel Ekelöf's measured singing and Cody Ford's melodic guitar to carry the feeling without continually in…
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Floating Coffin
Thee Oh Sees
Floating Coffin gives the strange world of Thee Oh Sees an unusually firm foundation. Guitars and drums stand clearly in view, and the songs carry more weight than their playf…
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songs
Adrianne Lenker
songs keeps the distance between voice and listener small. Adrianne Lenker mainly uses acoustic guitar and singing to explore loss, desire and closeness. There is little decor…
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Album review
...And Justice for All
Metallica
There is very little comfort in ...And Justice for All. The guitars are hard and dry, the drums sound exposed, and the almost absent bass leaves an unusual gap beneath everyth…
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Album review
Virtuoso
Joe Pass
On Virtuoso, Joe Pass works entirely alone. There is no drummer to maintain the rhythm and no bass player to fill the lower end. Yet the record rarely sounds empty. Pass keeps…
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Album review
Futures
Jimmy Eat World
There is a heavier emotional pull to Futures than its clean guitar sound first suggests. Jimmy Eat World still write clear melodies, but these songs spend more time with regre…
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Album review
Razorblade Suitcase
Bush
Greedy Fly is the point where Razorblade Suitcase becomes more interesting than its reputation. The guitar parts have an uneasy movement, Gavin Rossdale's vocal sounds caught …
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Album review
Sunburn
Fuel
Shimmer is the song that makes Fuel's debut easy to recommend. It has a clear guitar opening, a melody that moves naturally towards the chorus and a vocal from Brett Scallions…
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Album review
Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
Iron Maiden
The keyboards on Seventh Son of a Seventh Son change the light around Iron Maiden's music. They give the familiar guitar harmonies a colder, stranger setting, while the songs …
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Album review
Elegy
Shadow of Intent
Elegy allows Shadow of Intent more time to prepare their heaviest moments. Symphonic sounds receive considerable space and the songs more often choose a slower, darker movemen…
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Album review
Brave Faces Everyone
Spanish Love Songs
Brave Faces Everyone treats the cost of living as an emotional problem as well as a financial one. Rent, work, illness and exhausted friendships keep pressing against each oth…
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Album review
Eat the Elephant
A Perfect Circle
The piano changes the emotional temperature of Eat the Elephant. A Perfect Circle allow it to carry much of the album's weight, creating a more reflective setting for Maynard …
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Album review
Rituals of Shame
Warning
Five songs in forty-five minutes. Warning clearly haven't returned to make anybody's commute more cheerful. Rituals of Shame is their first studio album in twenty years, and i…
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Album review
Enigmatic Ocean
Jean-Luc Ponty
Enigmatic Ocean gives the electric violin a place inside a remarkably strong band. Jean-Luc Ponty leads the music without making every other instrument serve as background. Al…
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Album review
On Your Own Love Again
Jessica Pratt
On Your Own Love Again needs little to establish its own atmosphere. Jessica Pratt records her voice and acoustic guitar at home, with audible hiss and small imperfections. Th…
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Album review
Deep Blue
Parkway Drive
The drums on Deep Blue have a large, physical presence. Their room sound gives Parkway Drive's precise playing a little more air, while the low guitars and bass make the whole…
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Album review
This Is the Third Album of a Band Called Adebisi Shank
Adebisi Shank
Adebisi Shank push the electronics further forward on their third album. Guitars, bass and drums still drive the music, but synthesizers and processed voices supply its most s…
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Album review
Fission
Dead Poet Society
Fission turns personal uncertainty into music with a very firm physical presence. Dead Poet Society give the guitars a thick, distorted edge and keep the bass moving underneat…
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Album review
Wish You Were Here
Pink Floyd
The opening of Shine On You Crazy Diamond allows a few guitar notes to carry an extraordinary amount of feeling. Pink Floyd leave enough space around them for the sound to see…
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