Album review
No Code
Pearl Jam
No Code finds Pearl Jam making more room for quieter playing and less predictable rhythms. The guitars can still hit hard, but the record does not depend on a constant supply …
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Reviews
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Album review
Happy Songs for Happy People
Mogwai
Happy Songs for Happy People gives Mogwai a more compact form without making the sound small. Most tracks need less time than the long pieces in their early work. Guitars, pia…
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Album review
The Weight Of The Mask
Svalbard
The Weight Of The Mask brings heavy music and difficult feelings into close contact. Svalbard combine the urgency of hardcore with ringing guitar melodies, fast black metal rh…
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Album review
Forfolks
Jeff Parker
On Forfolks, Jeff Parker needs only a guitar and effects. He builds small patterns and plays new lines around them, making a solo record sometimes resemble a conversation betw…
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Album review
The Weight of These Wings
Miranda Lambert
The Weight of These Wings gives Miranda Lambert a large, unhurried setting for songs about leaving, uncertainty and the habits that make change difficult. Its twenty-four trac…
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Album review
Cure
ERRA
Cure finds ERRA making their technical metalcore feel direct without removing the detail. Jesse Cash's melodic singing and J.T. Cavey's harsher delivery give the songs a clear…
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Album review
Marching in Time
Tremonti
Marching in Time gives Tremonti's familiar heavy rock sound several useful changes of emphasis. The choruses remain broad and melodic, and the guitars still move between fast …
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Album review
Here Comes the Zoo
Local H
Here Comes the Zoo gives Local H's two-person rock sound a heavier, busier rhythm. Scott Lucas' guitar and voice remain the main point of connection, while Brian St. Clair's d…
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Album review
Colourmeinkindness
Basement
Colourmeinkindness puts Basement's melodic instincts inside a heavier, slower-moving sound. The guitars carry plenty of grit, but the songs rarely depend on speed alone. There…
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Album review
Cosmic Messenger
Jean-Luc Ponty
Cosmic Messenger places Jean-Luc Ponty's electric violin inside a polished, tightly organised fusion band. Electronic keyboard patterns give the music a distinctive setting, w…
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Album review
The Wilderness
Explosions in the Sky
The Wilderness gives Explosions in the Sky's instrumental music a different sense of scale. The pieces are shorter than many of their earlier compositions, and electronics pla…
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Album review
Venus Isle
Eric Johnson
Venus Isle places Eric Johnson's guitar inside a richer, more layered sound. The playing is still precise, but the album gives equal attention to atmosphere and the way one pi…
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Album review
Deep Sage
Gouge Away
Deep Sage finds Gouge Away making more space for melody without removing the tension from their music. Christina Michelle can move from quieter singing to a much harsher deliv…
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Album review
Relentless
Pentagram
Relentless sounds as though Pentagram have dragged the early seventies into the eighties. The guitar is heavy and dirty, the singing unsettled, and the songs have little inter…
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Album review
Aphelion
Leprous
Aphelion finds Leprous moving between spare electronic passages and much larger rock arrangements. The Norwegian band keep Einar Solberg's expressive voice at the front, but s…
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Album review
Spider Tales
Jake Blount
Spider Tales shows how much life a small acoustic group can create. Jake Blount alternates vocal pieces with instrumentals in which banjo and fiddle respond sharply to one ano…
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Album review
Voidkind
DVNE
Voidkind makes Dvne's progressive metal more direct without reducing it to short, simple songs. The riffs arrive with greater urgency, while clean singing and more spacious pa…
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Album review
The New Black
Strapping Young Lad
The New Black gives Strapping Young Lad more room for melody without removing their extreme side. Devin Townsend's singing can sound open and recognisable before disappearing …
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Album review
Ember
Breaking Benjamin
Breaking Benjamin turn up the aggression on Ember without making a major change to their sound. Heavy guitar grooves, large melodic choruses and Ben Burnley’s familiar voice r…
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Album review
The Sacrament Of Sin
Powerwolf
An organ, a large voice and firm guitars are enough to make Powerwolf immediately recognisable. The Sacrament Of Sin keeps that combination and gives the songs a little more v…
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Album review
This Could Be Texas
English Teacher
This Could Be Texas gives English Teacher plenty of room to show their range. The band move between sharp post-punk, melodic indie rock, quieter piano passages and more compli…
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Album review
Like an Arrow
Blackberry Smoke
Like an Arrow shows how much variety Blackberry Smoke can find inside a familiar Southern rock sound. There are heavier riffs, quieter country songs and stretches of funk, all…
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Album review
The Fragile
Nine Inch Nails
The Fragile is a large album whose smaller details make a powerful impression. Nine Inch Nails still use heavy guitars, distorted voices and forceful rhythms, but piano, strin…
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Album review
Ilion
Slift
Ilion pushes Slift's heavy psychedelic rock towards an even larger scale. Eight tracks fill nearly eighty minutes, with thick guitars, busy bass and forceful drums carrying mo…
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