Album review
Clayman
In Flames
Clayman is full of guitar parts that function like vocal hooks. In Flames gives almost every song an identifiable melodic figure, then uses the heavier rhythm work to make tha…
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Reviews
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Album review
Dear Agony
Breaking Benjamin
Dear Agony finds Breaking Benjamin making small improvements inside a sound they already understand. The guitars remain heavy, the melodies are clear and Benjamin Burnley's vo…
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Album review
Make Some Noise
The Dead Daisies
Make Some Noise is easiest to enjoy when The Dead Daisies stop asking the songs to represent anything larger than a good hard-rock performance. John Corabi has a rough, capabl…
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Album review
Alienation
Three Days Grace
Adam Gontier is back in Three Days Grace, and Matt Walst has stayed. That gives Alienation a more interesting starting point than a straightforward reunion. The two singers ha…
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Album review
Remember That You Will Die
Polyphia
The brass on Genesis gives Remember That You Will Die an unusually warm entrance. Polyphia keep the tightly edited guitar patterns and heavy low rhythms, but the added colour …
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Album review
Falling Satellites
Frost*
Towerblock takes a familiar progressive rock sound and breaks open its electronic possibilities. The changes in texture are abrupt enough to be surprising, yet the song keeps …
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Album review
motionblur
Split Chain
motionblur balances thick guitars with a more open, drifting atmosphere. Split Chain’s debut draws heavily from shoegaze and turn-of-the-century alternative metal, but the Bri…
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Album review
Decemberunderground
AFI
AFI make darkness surprisingly easy to dance to on Decemberunderground. The guitars remain important, but bass lines, electronic rhythms and bright vocal hooks give the record…
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Album review
Truth Decay
You Me at Six
Truth Decay has a very clear idea of what You Me at Six do well. Big guitars, bigger choruses, and Josh Franceschi sounding as though the conversation has gone badly enough th…
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Album review
Location Lost
Failure
Failure make room for both heaviness and stillness on Location Lost. The Los Angeles trio’s seventh album keeps the thick guitars and uneasy melodies that define their alterna…
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Album review
Sacrament
Lamb of God
The most convincing moments on Sacrament give Lamb of God's tight rhythmic attack a more spacious setting. The riffs remain dense, and Randy Blythe still sounds fiercely confr…
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Album review
Malina
Leprous
Malina lets the clean tones carry their own weight. Leprous reduce the dependence on distorted guitars and harsh voices, allowing rhythm, strings and Einar Solberg's singing t…
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Album review
Royal Blood
Royal Blood
The first riff on Royal Blood's debut is enough to explain the appeal. “Out of the Black” has a heavy, distorted pull, and Ben Thatcher's drums make every stop and restart cou…
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Album review
Audioslave
Audioslave
Chris Cornell singing over the musicians from Rage Against the Machine was always going to attract attention. The useful question is what they could do together once the names…
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Album review
Sempiternal
Bring Me the Horizon
The electronic opening of Can You Feel My Heart establishes the central idea of Sempiternal. Bring Me the Horizon lets a repeated synth figure carry the song's identity, with …
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Album review
Isolate and Medicate
Seether
Same Damn Life sounds almost cheerful until Shaun Morgan starts singing. That friction is useful. Isolate and Medicate lets Seether's melodies and rhythms become more inviting…
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Album review
Vol.II
Angine de Poitrine
Vol.II is strange guitar music with a surprisingly direct appeal. Angine de Poitrine use repeating guitar and bass loops, tightly connected drums and melodies that sit outside…
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Album review
Noir
Novelists
“Monochrome” makes the most persuasive case for Noir's softer ambitions. Novelists let the song move at an easy pace, giving clean vocals, guitar leads and saxophone room to d…
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Solstice
A.A. Williams
A.A. Williams doesn't need to raise her voice to hold your attention. On Solstice, the quieter moments often do just as much work as the big guitar sections. That's useful on …
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Album review
Empath
Devin Townsend
A gentle choir, a harsh scream and a bright dance rhythm can all belong to the same song on Empath. Devin Townsend treats those sounds as different emotional possibilities, al…
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Album review
Downward Is Heavenward
Hum
Isle of the Cheetah is a convincing argument for taking the long way through a rock song. Its guitars spread outward while Matt Talbott sings with a calm that makes the scale …
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Album review
Into the Wild Life
Halestorm
“What Sober Couldn't Say” is an important test of Into the Wild Life. Halestorm can make an immediate impression with a shouted hook or a heavy riff, but this song asks for so…
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Album review
Headspace
Pulse Ultra
Headspace brings a more restless instrumental approach to a familiar alternative metal sound. Pulse Ultra use substantial guitars and melodic singing, but the bass often moves…
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Album review
Antidepressants
Suede
Suede sound very awake on Antidepressants. The guitars are sharp, the rhythms keep pressing forward, and Brett Anderson gives the songs enough drama to make their anxious thou…
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