Album review
154
Wire
154 pushes Wire towards a broader, colder sound. Guitars and electronics overlap more closely, and the arrangements have a fullness that would have seemed unlikely on Pink Fla…
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Album review
Scream Aim Fire
Bullet for My Valentine
Scream Aim Fire puts Bullet for My Valentine's fast guitar work in the foreground. The title track begins with a tightly organized attack, giving the drums and riffs an immedi…
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Album review
Rubberneck
Toadies
Rubberneck makes a cheerful guitar hook feel slightly threatening. Toadies have a good instinct for a tune that sticks, but the voice delivering it often sounds strained, susp…
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Album review
Sky Burial
Inter Arma
Sky Burial brings Inter Arma's different sides together in music that feels large without constantly showing its scale. The band combine sludge and doom with black metal, psyc…
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All Killer No Filler
Sum 41
Sum 41 are not especially interested in making the teenage years sound dignified on All Killer No Filler. They make them sound loud, excitable and easily distracted instead. T…
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Album review
I Be Trying
Cedric Burnside
Cedric Burnside needs little to give a song character on I Be Trying. A guitar pattern, a firm rhythm and his warm voice usually provide the foundation. The open arrangements …
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July
Marissa Nadler
July gives sadness a gentle but persistent presence. Marissa Nadler sings about what remains of a relationship: memories, disappointment and desire that does not simply disapp…
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Aspiral
Epica
Epica start Aspiral with a song. That sounds like a fairly basic observation, but for a band that usually enjoy a proper orchestral introduction, it's a useful statement of in…
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Album review
Arise
Sepultura
Sepultura keep the attack fierce on Arise, but the arrangements reveal a band interested in more than speed. The guitars move between tightly packed thrash patterns and heavie…
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Your Wilderness
The Pineapple Thief
The space around the instruments is one of Your Wilderness's most effective sounds. The Pineapple Thief allow a drum accent or a guitar note to alter the atmosphere without im…
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C'est La Vie
Novelists
C'est La Vie makes technical metalcore unusually easy to enter. Novelists keep the complicated guitar work and heavy rhythmic attack, but most songs have a clear verse-and-cho…
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Badmotorfinger
Soundgarden
Soundgarden make being difficult sound remarkably enjoyable on Badmotorfinger. The riffs turn in unusual places, Chris Cornell pushes his voice to extraordinary heights, and t…
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Album review
Mezmerize
System of a Down
Two voices keep pulling Mezmerize in different directions. Serj Tankian's broad, theatrical delivery meets Daron Malakian's thinner, more cutting tone, and the songs often dep…
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Eupnea
Pure Reason Revolution
Eupnea finds a powerful musical subject in the act of breathing. The music repeatedly opens into calm space, tightens around a heavy rhythmic figure, then searches for room ag…
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Holy Ground
The Dead Daisies
Glenn Hughes gives Holy Ground a clear center. His voice can rise high above the guitars without losing its soulful character, and his bass playing adds a strong rhythmic iden…
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Album review
What It Means to Fall Apart
Mayday Parade
What It Means to Fall Apart finds Mayday Parade working inside a familiar mixture of bright pop-rock, emo and more fragile ballads. Derek Sanders' singing remains easy to conn…
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Album review
The Hives Forever Forever the Hives
The Hives
There is a fairly impressive amount of confidence in calling an album The Hives Forever Forever the Hives. Fortunately, the band have brought enough songs to support the claim…
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Album review
This Place Will Become Your Tomb
Sleep Token
Atlantic gives This Place Will Become Your Tomb a patient, affecting entrance. The piano leaves gaps around Vessel's voice, and the arrangement allows unease to accumulate bef…
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Album review
Frames
Oceansize
A repeated figure can feel different without changing its notes. Frames is full of that possibility. Oceansize alter the rhythm, space and instrumental emphasis around a recog…
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Rockisdead
Dorothy
Dorothy Martin gives Rockisdead its strongest reason to exist. The songs use familiar blues rock ingredients, but her voice makes their intentions feel immediate: anger, desir…
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Album review
Wake Up the Wicked
Powerwolf
Powerwolf have found a very specific combination of organs, choirs, heavy guitars and questionable religious behaviour, and Wake Up the Wicked keeps it working. The songs are …
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Album review
Phantasia
LITE
LITE move through restless music with considerable precision on Phantasia. The Japanese band play instrumental rock where guitars, bass and drums keep responding to one anothe…
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Album review
Fiction
Dark Tranquillity
The keyboards on Fiction make Dark Tranquillity's heaviness feel colder and more spacious. Martin Brändström places electronic textures and piano around the guitars without re…
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Album review
Permanent Waves
Rush
The Spirit of Radio begins Permanent Waves with a guitar figure that seems to keep opening another door. Rush fit rhythmic shifts, a strong vocal hook and a brief reggae turn …
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