Album review
Arcadia
Smash Into Pieces
Arcadia is built around a voice and a beat more often than a guitar riff. Smash Into Pieces make electronic textures carry much of the record's weight, then place Chris Adam's…
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Reviews
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Album review
Dissonance Theory
Coroner
A thirty-two-year gap between studio albums gives people plenty of time to decide what a band should sound like. Coroner don't seem especially concerned with meeting every ver…
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Album review
Attention Attention
Shinedown
DEVIL gives Attention Attention a sharp opening after its brief introduction. The riff has a restless bounce, the vocal sounds tightly wound and the production keeps the rhyth…
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Album review
Impulse Voices
Plini
The harp solo in The Glass Bead Game captures the open character of Impulse Voices. Plini allows an unexpected instrument to become part of the arrangement's emotional movemen…
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Album review
A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships
The 1975
A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships is most interesting when its musical warmth complicates what the words are saying. The 1975 make addiction sound bright, public panic…
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Album review
Phobia
Breaking Benjamin
The drums make a strong first impression on Phobia. Once the short introduction gives way to The Diary of Jane, Breaking Benjamin's familiar dark rock sound has a sharp, physi…
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Album review
Hand. Cannot. Erase.
Steven Wilson
Routine is the moment when the distance in Hand. Cannot. Erase. becomes painfully human. Steven Wilson and Ninet Tayeb move through a song that gradually opens from restraint …
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Chaos A.D.
Sepultura
Igor Cavalera's drums give Chaos A.D. an identity before the guitars have fully entered. Sepultura build the record around rhythm, leaving more room inside the riffs and using…
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Album review
Hellmode
Jeff Rosenstock
Hellmode is a good place to hear how much Jeff Rosenstock can say by changing the space around his voice. The frantic songs remain frantic, but quieter passages have a clear p…
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Album review
Dead Anthems
The Rumjacks
The Rumjacks make it fairly easy to join in. Dead Anthems has the big choruses, lively folk instruments and rough-edged singing you would expect from a Celtic-punk album, but …
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Album review
A Dying Machine
Tremonti
A Dying Machine gives Tremonti's heavy rock a wider range of moods. The fast guitar attack remains important, but the record also makes room for more restrained singing, acous…
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Album review
Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces
Seether
Fake It has an unpleasant little swagger that works in its favour. The guitar hook is sharp, the rhythm is springy and Shaun Morgan gives the chorus enough bite to keep its ca…
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Album review
Holy Diver
Dio
Ronnie James Dio sings as though every phrase needs to reach the back of a very large room. On Holy Diver, that confidence is supported by songs with clear melodies, strong ri…
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Album review
Nothing But Thieves
Nothing But Thieves
Conor Mason's voice is the obvious attraction on Nothing But Thieves' debut, but the songs are strong enough to keep that voice from becoming the whole show. The band gives hi…
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Para Bellum
Testament
Para Bellum opens with a reminder that Testament can still make a fairly unpleasant noise when they want to. For the Love of Pain pushes towards death metal, with Chuck Billy …
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Album review
Images and Words
Dream Theater
Pull Me Under gives Images and Words a clear point of entry. The opening atmosphere develops into a heavy, precise guitar figure, while James LaBrie's melody keeps the song im…
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Album review
Master of Puppets
Metallica
The most impressive thing about Master of Puppets is how easy its complicated music is to follow. Metallica pack these songs with changes, but the important ideas stay clear. …
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Album review
The Boy Who Died Wolf
Highly Suspect
The Boy Who Died Wolf is more compelling when Highly Suspect commit to a mood than when they try to advertise their range. The album moves between thick guitar rock, atmospher…
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Album review
The Autumn Effect
10 Years
The Autumn Effect makes a strong case for atmosphere inside a fairly direct rock song. 10 Years have the heavy guitars and large choruses, but the quieter passages often carry…
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Album review
Weather Systems
Anathema
Untouchable, Part 1 begins with an acoustic pattern that already contains a strong sense of movement. Anathema build around it until the voice and instruments seem to be reach…
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Album review
Blood Harmony
Larkin Poe
Blood Harmony makes Larkin Poe's strengths easy to hear. The guitars have weight and character, the singing is assured, and the rhythm section gives the songs a firm foundatio…
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Album review
Shogun
Trivium
Shogun gives Trivium's technical ambition a convincing sense of scale. The guitar parts are dense and demanding, but the songs usually make their purpose clear through a stron…
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Album review
Under Soil and Dirt
The Story So Far
Under Soil and Dirt moves with the confidence of a band that knows exactly where every beat should land. The guitars are busy, the drums change direction cleanly, and Parker C…
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Album review
moisturizer
Wet Leg
Wet Leg sound more willing to mean it on moisturizer. The jokes and strange little phrases are still there, but the second album gives love and desire more room to become actu…
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