Year: 2013
Review: Iggy and the Stooges – Ready To Die
I dreaded listening to this record. If 2007’s The Weirdness was any indication, the Stooges can’t be resurrected. They could have fallen back on their raw, stripped-down, live-in-’73 sound that bands today try to emulate. … read more
Review: Integrity – Suicide Black Snake
If you have been following Integrity’s trajectory these past five years or so, through split after split, EP after EP, Suicide Black Snake is the natural evolution in Integrity’s arc. … read more
Review: I Can Lick Any Son Of A Bitch In...
I.C.L.A.S.O.A.B.I.T.H, the band with the impossibly long name, have been playing their brand of country blues-rock for 12+ years now, and they’ve only tightened as a band over time. … read more
Review: IO Echo – Ministry Of Love
IO Echo are the L.A. duo of Ioanna Gika and her partner Leopold Ross (brother of Atticus, the Trent Reznor collaborator). After years relying on goth-pop-leaning singles to define themselves, Ministry of Love is their debut full album. … read more
Review: Infectious Garage Disease – Self Titled
Released in that pivotal time when longhairs started hitting the matinees and punx copped to liking Slayer (Hanneman RIP), IGD is as much Suicidal as it is Meatmen. … read more
Review: Immolation – Kingdom of Conspiracy
New York’s consistently underrated Immolation don’t let up on the uneasy and unrelenting death metal with their ninth studio album, Kingdom of Conspiracy. … read more
Review: Japanther – Eat Like Lisa Act Like Bart
Japanther are one of those long-running Brooklyn duos who are typically heralded by music snobs for their heavyhandedness in lo-fi synth ostinatos and inability to stay rooted in one particular stylistic element for a whole album’s length. … read more
Review: House of Black Lanterns – Kill The Lights
I would be in a trance-like state—then suddenly, I would be jarred and thrown into shock by a disturbing pipe organ sound that was something along the lines of the soundtrack of the classic 1974 movie, Phantom of the Paradise. … read more
Review: James LaBrie – Impermanent Resonance
The attempt here is to bridge the gap between prog-heads and fans of the more melodic style of melodic death à la Sweden. It works extremely well. … read more
Review: I’m In You – Trust
I’m In You keep the guitars to a minimum, only using them for texture, giving the album a new wave feel like the darker songs of New Order filtered through Metronomy. For me, the album peaks in the middle with “Disclosure,” a track that would easily fit on the Drive soundtrack. … read more
Review: Ills – Hideout From The Feeders
This album mixes aspects I’m fond of—catchy progressions matched on bass and guitar that give the rhythm a thickness I could move to—with aspects I could leave behind, like vocals that sometimes sound a little too much like Isaac Brock, for example. … read more
Review: Irish Moutarde – Raise ’Em All
A mix of alternating lead vocals—switching between nearly each band member—and representation of bagpipes, accordion and banjo, played to fast-paced punk rock, make for a really exciting sound. Like any Irish-style band, they include their drinking songs like the bittersweet “Farewell to Drunkenness” and the festive “Glasses to the Sky.” … read more
