Album review
Cavalier Youth
You Me at Six
You Me at Six make their intentions easy to hear on Cavalier Youth. The choruses are large, Josh Franceschi sings clearly above the band, and almost every arrangement points t…
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Album review
Untitled
Five Pointe O
Untitled gives its heavy guitar sound a dramatic character through keyboards and a restless vocal performance. Five Pointe O combine cleaner singing, screaming and lower growl…
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Album review
Paranoid
Black Sabbath
The riffs on Paranoid are famous enough to seem obvious, but Black Sabbath make them feel remarkably unsettled. Tony Iommi's guitar figures leave spaces that Geezer Butler and…
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Album review
Legends
Sabaton
Sabaton broaden their history lesson on Legends. The focus moves beyond the world wars to individual figures from much earlier periods, while the music keeps the marching rhyt…
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The Stories We Tell Ourselves
Nothing More
The Stories We Tell Ourselves combines direct hard rock songs with a more elaborate surrounding structure. Nothing More use electronic textures, spoken interludes and changes …
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Something Like Human
Fuel
Brett Scallions gives Something Like Human its human centre. His voice can sound bruised without losing its pitch or purpose, which matters when the band around him plays with…
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PUP
PUP
PUP make a rough entrance and then keep revealing how much control sits underneath it. Their self-titled album is packed with shouted hooks and distorted guitar, but the songs…
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The Blackening
Machine Head
Machine Head give their guitar partnership a great deal of room on The Blackening. Robb Flynn and Phil Demmel use extended arrangements to move between hard rhythmic attacks, …
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Purple
Stone Temple Pilots
Interstate Love Song lasts little more than three minutes. It has a lovely guitar opening, a chorus that seems to arrive exactly when it should, and enough movement to make th…
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Remedy Lane
Pain of Salvation
Remedy Lane makes technical playing feel uncomfortably personal. Pain of Salvation use shifting rhythms and abrupt changes of mood to express uncertainty, desire and loss, wit…
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Mayday Parade
Mayday Parade
“Oh Well, Oh Well” lets Mayday Parade take their time before showing their full strength. Piano and strings leave Derek Sanders alone with his disappointment, then the band ar…
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Album review
Post Human: Survival Horror
Bring Me the Horizon
Post Human: Survival Horror moves quickly between panic and release. Bring Me the Horizon packs electronic noise, direct rock hooks and severe bursts of metal into nine tracks…
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Album review
Invitation to the Dance
40 Below Summer
Invitation to the Dance gets much of its character from the distance between its heavier and more melodic moments. 40 Below Summer use down-tuned guitars, forceful rhythms and…
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Your Favorite Toy
Foo Fighters
Foo Fighters have decided to get on with it. Your Favorite Toy is a short, noisy record with very little interest in explaining itself. The songs move quickly, Dave Grohl spen…
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The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here
Alice in Chains
Stone earns its name before the singing begins. The low riff has a blunt physical presence, while the vocal melody seems to lean against it rather than ride comfortably above.…
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The Death of Peace of Mind
Bad Omens
The most interesting heavy sounds on The Death of Peace of Mind often arrive late in a song. Bad Omens lets a beat, a close vocal or a small synth figure establish the mood be…
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Life Starts Now
Three Days Grace
Life Starts Now sounds strongest when Three Days Grace allow a little energy to break through the grievance. “The Good Life” has a lively, percussive drive, and “Break” turns …
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Keep Me Fed
The Warning
The Warning make a strong first impression on Keep Me Fed, and the songs give that impression somewhere to go. The Mexican trio's fourth album is full of heavy riffs and clear…
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Second Life Syndrome
Riverside
Conceiving You needs only a small piano figure to make its emotional position clear. Riverside allow the song to grow around that beginning, with Mariusz Duda's voice and Piot…
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Korn
Korn
The bass on Korn's debut sounds almost like another percussion instrument. Its dry clicks push against low guitar notes, while the drums leave spaces big enough for Jonathan D…
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It Leads to This
The Pineapple Thief
It Leads to This finds The Pineapple Thief making careful use of a relatively concise set of songs. The music remains restrained and often melancholy, but the guitars have eno…
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So Much (for) Stardust
Fall Out Boy
The strings at the beginning of So Much (for) Stardust suggest that Fall Out Boy have arrived with a large statement to make. Then Love From the Other Side brings in the guita…
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Album review
Day and Age
Frost*
Frost* gave themselves a useful restriction for Day and Age: no solos. For a progressive-rock band with this much instrumental ability, that is quite a choice. The result puts…
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Album review
Bleach
Nirvana
About a Girl is the giveaway. Between the grinding guitars and Kurt Cobain's roughest singing, a small, beautifully shaped pop song suddenly appears. Bleach already contains b…
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