Album review
Turmoil & Tinfoil
Billy Strings
Turmoil & Tinfoil has the speed and precision of strong bluegrass, while Billy Strings regularly lets his curiosity widen the sound. Acoustic instruments remain at its centre.…
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Album review
Sundiver
Boston Manor
Boston Manor have spent several albums moving away from the pop-punk label, and Sundiver makes a strong case for giving them the room. Guitars, electronic textures and heavy r…
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Album review
City
Strapping Young Lad
City begins like a machine being forced into motion. The short Velvet Kevorkian builds pressure, then All Hail the New Flesh opens into a much larger attack. Strapping Young L…
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Album review
What One Becomes
SUMAC
What One Becomes takes SUMAC towards the boundary between fixed composition and free interplay. Heavy riffs give the music recognisable shapes, but the band repeatedly release…
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Album review
Diorama
Silverchair
Across the Night opens a door Silverchair had only partly approached before. Strings, brass and a twisting vocal melody turn the start of Diorama into something closer to an e…
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Album review
Good Mourning
Alkaline Trio
There is a cheerful cruelty to the opening of Good Mourning. This Could Be Love makes a grisly fantasy sound catchy enough to hum while doing something entirely ordinary. Alka…
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Album review
Hatred for Mankind
Dragged into Sunlight
Hatred for Mankind sounds as though several forms of extreme metal are pushing against the walls together. Dragged into Sunlight connect dirty sludge with faster, fiercer guit…
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Album review
The Cause Of Shipwreck
Blackbriar
Zora Cock gives The Cause Of Shipwreck a voice of its own. She can sing clearly and almost gently, then give a melody an unsettling edge. Blackbriar build arrangements that su…
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Album review
Ascension
Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost have a very reliable relationship with misery. On Ascension, they make it sound surprisingly full of life. The guitars are heavy, Nick Holmes moves between clean…
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Album review
Gloss Drop
Battles
Gloss Drop is more concerned with sustaining a groove than surprising the listener at every turn. Battles keeps its guitars, keyboards and drums closely connected while allowi…
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Album review
Ocean Machine: Biomech
Devin Townsend
The size of Ocean Machine: Biomech comes from layers rather than speed. Devin Townsend stacks guitars, keyboards and voices until the individual parts form a broad, shifting b…
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Album review
Freedom's Goblin
Ty Segall
Freedom's Goblin quickly makes clear how many directions Ty Segall wants to explore. "Fanny Dog" places a heavy guitar riff beside horns and lively piano. The sound is large, …
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Album review
Dysfunction
Staind
Mudshovel begins with a bass line that does more than introduce a riff. It gives Dysfunction a recognisable movement, leaving the heavier guitar entrance somewhere definite to…
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Album review
Sing the Sorrow
AFI
The group chant at the beginning of Sing the Sorrow sounds like an invitation with conditions attached. AFI create a large, dark setting before the main songs even begin, but …
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Album review
Fever
Against the Current
Seven songs. Just over 22 minutes. Against the Current clearly aren't asking for your whole afternoon, and fever is better for it. The band put guitars back near the front aft…
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Album review
Tweez
Slint
Tweez sounds as though Slint have not decided which strange ideas belong in a song. Guitars are sharp, bass is prominent, and rhythms can turn elsewhere halfway through. Conve…
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Album review
This Side
Nickel Creek
This Side gives Nickel Creek plenty of room between bluegrass and pop. Mandolin, fiddle and guitar remain clearly recognisable, but the band do not treat them as a reason to s…
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Album review
The Stage
Avenged Sevenfold
The Stage asks Avenged Sevenfold's musicianship to support a larger set of questions. Artificial intelligence, human ambition and the scale of the universe give the album a co…
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Album review
Lateralus
Tool
Lateralus turns a repeating figure into a moving landscape. Tool can stay with a riff for a long time while changing what the drums, bass and voice make it mean. The album's c…
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Album review
Another Side of You
ILLUMISHADE
Another Side of You gives ILLUMISHADE a larger, more accessible sound. The guitars are heavy, the arrangements broad, and Fabienne Erni's voice remains clear throughout. The b…
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Album review
Adventure
Television
Adventure brings a softer edge to Television’s guitar music. Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd still make the songs interesting through the relationship between their parts, but …
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Album review
Punk in Drublic
NOFX
NOFX make a convincing case for taking unserious people seriously on Punk in Drublic. The jokes are obvious, Fat Mike's voice is hardly graceful, and the songs often arrive at…
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Album review
Sixteen Stone
Bush
Bush were never difficult to place on the musical map. Sixteen Stone has the thick guitars, quiet verses and explosive choruses associated with early-nineties alternative rock…
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Album review
Imaginations from the Other Side
Blind Guardian
Imaginations from the Other Side connects Blind Guardian's speed with larger, more complicated songs. Guitars retain plenty of bite, and the drums keep giving the music forwar…
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