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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Reviews
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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
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
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
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
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
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
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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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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Album review
Alive or Just Breathing
Killswitch Engage
Alive or Just Breathing makes compassion sound forceful. Jesse Leach's voice can move from a raw shout to a much more exposed melodic phrase, and the music treats those approa…
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Album review
No Control
Bad Religion
Change of Ideas needs less than a minute to explain much of No Control. The guitars move quickly, the drums are sharp, and Greg Graffin gives a clear melody to words that refu…
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Album review
Days of the New
Days of the New
An acoustic guitar can still sound heavy. Days of the New build their debut around that idea, using repeated riffs, forceful strumming and a low, serious vocal from Travis Mee…
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Album review
You'd Prefer an Astronaut
Hum
The quiet voice inside You'd Prefer an Astronaut makes its enormous guitars feel even larger. Matt Talbott rarely tries to dominate the sound around him. He seems to be speaki…
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Album review
No More Tears
Ozzy Osbourne
There is more reflection in No More Tears than its loud guitars might initially suggest. Ozzy Osbourne still enjoys a big chorus and a theatrical threat, but the record also f…
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Album review
And Then Like Lions
Blind Pilot
Blind Pilot give grief a steady musical setting on And Then Like Lions. Israel Nebeker's writing follows loss without insisting that every song should reach a dramatic conclus…
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Album review
private music
Deftones
Deftones have a sound you can recognise very quickly. The low guitars, the space around Chino Moreno's voice, the way a song can feel calm and threatening at the same time. pr…
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Album review
Fear Inoculum
Tool
Fear Inoculum leaves the instruments a great deal of room to speak. Maynard James Keenan often steps back after establishing a song's emotional position, allowing guitar, bass…
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Album review
Periphery IV: Hail Stan
Periphery
The emotional directness of It's Only Smiles is one of the most effective surprises on Periphery IV: Hail Stan. Its bright guitar detail and clear vocal melody make an immedia…
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Album review
On the Impossible Past
The Menzingers
The Menzingers understand that remembering a good time can make the present feel worse. On the Impossible Past is full of people looking backwards while their lives continue t…
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