Album review
Bummer
Cleopatrick
Bummer sounds as though Cleopatrick want the guitar and drums to occupy every available corner. The distortion is thick, the rhythms are forceful, and Luke Gruntz's voice ofte…
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Reviews
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Album review
Dreams on Toast
The Darkness
The Darkness are still very good at being ridiculous. The important part is that they can also write songs. Dreams on Toast has enough strong melodies and guitar playing to ma…
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Album review
Milliontown
Frost*
Frost* begin Milliontown with a piano figure and then let an instrumental track make the introductions. Hyperventilate is a bold opening because it asks the playing to establi…
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Album review
Periphery II: This Time It's Personal
Periphery
A clean guitar line or a short vocal phrase can be more important than the most complicated riff on Periphery II: This Time It's Personal. The band have plenty of technical id…
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Album review
Dark Is the Way, Light Is a Place
Anberlin
Space is one of the most important instruments on Dark Is the Way, Light Is a Place. Anberlin let delayed guitar notes spread around Stephen Christian's voice, making the musi…
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Album review
Infinite Illumination
Spirit Adrift
Infinite Illumination is a heavy goodbye. Spirit Adrift's final album moves back towards the slower doom sound that helped define the band, and Nate Garrett gives the songs en…
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Album review
Close to the Edge
Yes
Close to the Edge asks for a full side of attention before it has finished its first song. Yes make that invitation convincing through the movement of the music itself. The pe…
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Album review
Holy Hell
Architects
Grief gives Holy Hell a clear emotional center, but the songs do more than state that grief. Architects turns it into changes of pace, strained melodies and repeated guitar fi…
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Album review
Typhoons
Royal Blood
Typhoons makes Royal Blood's riffs move differently. The drums often point toward the dance floor, the melodies are brighter, and the electronic details give Mike Kerr's disto…
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Album review
Dosage
Collective Soul
Heavy is an admirably clear title for a song with a riff like this. Collective Soul don't spend much time explaining themselves: the guitar arrives, the rhythm locks in and Ed…
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Album review
We Are Not Alone
Breaking Benjamin
So Cold gives We Are Not Alone an unusually strong centre of gravity. The guitar figure has room to establish its uneasy atmosphere before Benjamin Burnley's voice rises above…
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Album review
The Mortal Coil
Polaris
The Mortal Coil makes a familiar musical language feel sharply performed. Polaris uses technical guitar figures, clean vocal refrains and forceful breakdowns without trying to…
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Album review
You'll Be Fine
Hot Mulligan
The guitar parts on You'll Be Fine are often more patient than the voice above them. Hot Mulligan let small, winding melodies develop while Nathan “Tades” Sanville sounds read…
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Album review
I Feel the Everblack Festering Within Me
Lorna Shore
Lorna Shore make a fairly serious commitment to excess on I Feel the Everblack Festering Within Me. The title is long, the songs are large, and Will Ramos sounds capable of pr…
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Album review
Louder Than Love
Soundgarden
Subtlety is not the first thing Louder Than Love offers. Chris Cornell sings as if he is trying to get above the entire building, and Kim Thayil's guitar gives him a sizeable …
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Album review
Damnation
Opeth
Quietness does not make Damnation a comfortable record. Opeth remove the growled vocals and most of the heavy guitar attack, leaving the melancholy in their writing unusually …
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Album review
Moral Panic
Nothing But Thieves
Moral Panic is more interesting as a record about pressure than as a collection of answers. Nothing But Thieves move between public anxiety and private difficulty, using elect…
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Album review
Saviors
Green Day
The most convincing moment on Saviors is Dilemma. Billie Joe Armstrong sings about losing control of his drinking with a directness that gives the song real weight. The melody…
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Album review
Bilateral
Leprous
Forced Entry keeps finding another way to move. A guitar figure changes its rhythmic setting, a vocal melody opens a different space, and the band bring those ideas together w…
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Album review
Horizons
Parkway Drive
Horizons gives its melodies to the guitars. Winston McCall keeps his voice harsh throughout, so the contrast between beauty and aggression happens inside the instrumental writ…
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Album review
The Dream Is Over
PUP
The handover between “If This Tour Doesn't Kill You, I Will” and “DVP” is a small triumph of bad temper. PUP turn exhaustion with one another into an opening that keeps tighte…
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Album review
There Is Nothing Left to Lose
Foo Fighters
Aurora is a useful place to understand There Is Nothing Left to Lose. The guitars shimmer, the rhythm moves easily and Dave Grohl sounds comfortable letting the melody carry h…
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Album review
Facelift
Alice in Chains
Facelift sounds more confident than most debut albums have any right to. Alice in Chains arrive with heavy riffs, a remarkably forceful singer and vocal harmonies that make ev…
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Album review
Blizzard of Ozz
Ozzy Osbourne
Randy Rhoads gives Blizzard of Ozz both its immediate excitement and much of its depth. His guitar can deliver a simple, memorable riff, then open the arrangement with a caref…
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