I’ve been writing album/EP reviews for what seems like forever, but actually goes back to 1996, on my days writing for ROAR. This archive, like others, goes back as far as 2003. I don’t write as many album reviews as I used to, but they still get posted from time-to-time.
The title of this section comes from a track on The Afghan Whigs’ first album Big Top Halloween.
Is it a cheap shot to blame the Prodigy for what Pendulum have become? Or maybe it isn’t. After all, although they were already rising stars in the drum’n’bass scene, it was their simply awesome reworking of Voodoo People that thrust them into the limelight, and since then their insistence on merging the ideals of […]
It’s time, perhaps, to address the cliche of the “difficult second album”. Well, here is the perfect chance, really – the debut by ESA was so good that it is difficult not to be having memories of that in the back of one’s mind when reviewing the new one. One similarity becomes immediately obvious – […]
Let’s get the comparisons out of the way first, shall we? This sounds very much like a Skinny Puppy creation. Not the post-millenium incarnation, but the prime-80s/90s version, where layer upon layer of sound is added to the mix, with unsettling samples, barely coherant vocals and a grimy, darkened feel to proceedings. Add to the […]
Anyone who puts a sticker on the front of their album stating "Extreme Black Metal – Posers Beware" is putting themselves in the firing line in a big way. With such lofty – and arrogant – statements it puts the expectations high for some form of groundbreaking black metal that is just too good for […]
This album is the second collaborative effort this year to feature Dean Garcia (ex-Curve), following the release of the KGC album right at the start of 2007. In some respects, they share some similarities – at least that they are reportedly full collaborative efforts – but sonically they are very different.
So how exactly do you go about topping an album as good as Transhuman? Well, it appears Cyanotic are side-stepping that question a little for now, as we have to wait a little longer for the follow-up proper to arrive.
A year or so on from the well-received and heavily promoted release of debut Please Keep Moving Forward, we come to the latest release from Coreline. Over the course of the past year, something more of a live “show” has become the norm, with moments of great laughs and cardboard robots making for a rather […]
Nine years is a long, long time in music. And incredibly, this is the time since the (first) release of the last album from Eric Powell’s now long-running “band”. Supercoolnothing arrived in 1998, and was re-released in 2002 with additional remixes, and other than a “Best-of” (covering just three albums) since, little else had been […]
Over twenty years of making music, and it appears that TYG have no intentions of getting bored with their form of art yet. There really isn’t any point in trying to pigeonhole this band into a genre – they have crossed so many boundaries, used so many influences over their existence since 1985 (think Kurt […]
I’ve spent some time listening to the various odds and ends of Dyspraxia output over the past 18 months or so, and his work continues to fly off in all kinds of directions. Nowadays – on record at least – Dyspraxia is firmly in the realms of electronica, as opposed to live performances where the […]
The tale of Paradise Lost’s career, in some respects, does not reflect well on their fans. After a few years and albums of steadily evolving their gothic/doom metal sound into the near perfection of Draconian Times, they then moved quickly into a more electronic realm – culminating with what was dubbed the “career suicide” of […]
Here is a band that sound as if they come from about as far away from their base as is humanly possible. Rather than the clanking industrial history, the grey skies and steep hills of Sheffield, putting this CD on transports to you to areas like the deserts, and sunshine, perhaps, of California. The land […]
A big hit for a previously less well-known band can sometimes be a blessing, or a curse. Grendel are one of those bands that have had this happen, with the dancefloor monster of Soilbleed eclipsing all their previous output to the point that unless you knew of the band before it, it is difficult to […]
It is now 13 months since I last touched upon recorded output from this band – the demo CD I reviewed then did get a release of sorts a little further down the line, with one track jettisoned and then the remainder shuffled into a new order.
It’s simply amazing how a leaving a record label and effectively starting afresh can revitalise a band. Chimaira’s new album is a perfect example of this – their well-publicised departure from Roadrunner and subsequent signing to Nuclear Blast has certainly brought about something of a desire to push themselves back to the front of the […]
Somehow it feels like the stars are out of line, or something. A new NIN album, after just two years? Usually the wait is nearer five.
I’ll be honest, the title when this got announced had me a little worried. What on earth were they on about? When the CD was picked up, suddenly it all makes sense. We have a concept album.
I’ve been getting the distinct feeling of late that maybe the time had passed for bands like A23 and similar EBM/futurepop acts. This kind of music reached it’s peak (in terms of popularity, and maybe even in creativity) a few years back, even though the odd song still happily fills dancefloors. In it’s place has […]
The release of this track as a single has been a long time coming. Skullfuck has now been slaying industrial club dancefloors for the best part of 18 months, and still shows no sign of stopping. So, I won’t say too much about it, as I’m sure you will have heard it. Suffice to say, […]
Resurrecting a once-formidable reputation, particularly in metal circles, is a notoriously hard job. One bad album, or a contentious comment, can do the world of harm – just ask Metallica.
