Month: June 2014
Review: Secret Smoker – Terminal Architecture
Proudly declaring themselves as the torchbearers of “passionate ’emo’… before the shopping malls got a hold of the genre,” Secret Smoker know exactly what they’re going for and they firmly hit that bullseye. … read more
Review: Septicflesh – Titan
Septicflesh had a hard task to make something greater than their last record, The Great Mass. Titan is a more than appropriate title for the epically epic damned ninth album from the Greek metal masters. … read more
Review: R.M. Hendrix – Urban Turks Country Jerks
No, this isn’t an LDS-themed Jimi Hendrix cover band, though if you’re a Utah native, that probably doesn’t sound too odd. What we’ve got here is a mixed bag of indie rock, shoegaze and … gulp … psychedelia that casts a wide arc from nostalgia days to here and now. … read more
Review: Rachel Taylor Brown – Falimy
I think I can label this album as singer-songwriter, alt-chick rock music with a piano and sometimes other instruments, but perhaps I’m dismissing this as something that it’s not. … read more
Review: Polar Bear Club – Death Chorus
While initial damage-control over the album focused on the less-harsh style Jimmy Stadt now uses due to throat wear after the last few albums, it’s not the vocal delivery that leaves this album weak and wilting. … read more
Review: Polock – Rising Up
It’s June, ladies and gentlemen, and that means summer indie pop releases. Returning after their debut album, Getting Down From Trees, is Polock, the quintet from Valencia, Spain. … read more
Review: Popstrangers – Fortuna
Compared to their first album, Antipodes, Popstrangers are really living up to the “Pop” in their name. I want to stress that I said, “compared to.” … read more
Review: Odonis Odonis – Hard Boiled Soft Boiled
Hard Boiled Soft Boiled is the second album from this Toronto-based band Odonis Odonis. It’s fitting that this self-described “industrial surf-gaze” group has more to their double name than any singular sound—HBSB is two-sided and explores noise-pop from two different approaches. … read more
Review: OFF! – Wasted Years
In 2010, when footage of OFF! first started showing up online, fans of old California hardcore music lost their minds. Was Keith Morris actually fronting a punk rock super-group that could savagely jam 17 songs into less than 20 minutes? He was, and they could—it was incredible. Skip forward four years, and here we are with OFF!’s third full-length release. … read more
Review: Nostalghia – Chrysalis
Nostalghia’s Chrysalis is an otherworldly, eerie combination of intense vocals and uneasily calm synth. The delicate vocals harness an underlying aspect of intensity that slowly builds as the album takes shape. … read more
Review: Meatmen – Savage Sagas
As the opening lyrics “We’re the motherfuckin’ Men O’ Meat!” were hurtled in my face, I knew that the legendary Meatmen were back with another anthology of gross-out punk rock. This disgusting masterpiece contains assertive numbers like “I’m Gonna Fuck You Up,” “Piss Hot for Weed” and “Speed Kills (But it Sure Feels So Good).” … read more
Review: Metsatöll – Karjajuht
Folk metal exists with many bands doing different things—most mix other genres of metal with folk elements like melodic death, black or death metal. Others exist outside those boundaries. Estonia’s Metsatöll are one of those bands. … read more
