November 28, 2007

Massachusetts metalcore maestros Killswitch Engage plan to tour this January and part of February with a rotation of fellow heavyweights Every Time I Die, the Dillinger Escape Plan and Parkway Drive. "We’re going to start off 2008 touring with bands that I’ve wanted to go on the road with for a long, long,...

Mae Singularity [4/5] A stint with Failure frontman Ken Andrews turned Mae’s sound from simple pop into beautifully expansive piano-infused rock on 2005’s The Everglow, and the band faced the lofty task of recapturing that disc’s magic on their major-label debut. This time around, the pride of Virginia Beach hooked up with hitmaker Howard...

Kinski Down Below It’s Chaos [4/5] If the Seattle post-rock band Kinski flirted with ambient atmospherics on 2003’s Airs Above Your Station and fulfilled their Kraut-rock fix on 2005’s Alpine StatIc, consider their new album the return of the rock. Sporting shrieking feedback and grooves so deep one could rationally fear getting stuck in...

Eisley Combinations There are enough artists who unexpectedly cranked the amps to 11 on their sophomore albums to fill a book, and whoever writes it should be sure to include Texas dream-pop ensemble Eisley. The band of brothers and sisters—plus one cousin—have made the gauzy shoegazing of 2005’s Room Noises a lot noisier, signaling the intent...

Biffy Clyro Puzzle [2.5/5] The British metal press has a laughable track record when it comes to predicting the next big thing (mainly because the media always latches onto some hometown upstart), and not since the days when Black Sabbath invented the genre has the Motherland produced a hard-rock act of any real consequence....

Tokyo Rose The Promise In Compromise [2.5/5] Naming the first song on your album “Less Than Four” can be problematic when facing a wealth of publications rating your album on a five-point scale, and it’s sadly telling. While Tokyo Rose are good in theory, they’ve always had a bit of trouble overcoming their obvious influences....

Sadaharu Resist. Revolt. Reclaim. [3.5/5] As anyone who’s ever seen them before will readily testify, Lancaster, Pennsylvania’s Sadaharu are an amazing live band. Unfortunately, their studio recordings never quite captured the band’s iconoclastic energy-until now, that is. Sure, Resist. Revolt. Reclaim.’s unwieldy song titles may read like the names of Noam Chomsky essays (see:...

Chuck Ragan Feast Or Famine [3.5/5] Fans have waited long enough for Chuck Ragan’s proper studio debut, barely held over by Los Feliz, an unfulfilling live teaser, reminiscent of the lo-fi haze of the Mountain Goats’ All Hail West Texas, he released earlier this year. At long last, Feast Or Famine clarifies and elaborates...

June Make It Blur [3.5/5] Between the production polish, studio strings and the promise of a departure into more seasoned rock territory, June’s sophomore effort seems awfully safe on paper. But thanks to its airtight execution, Make It Blur consistently counts for more than the sum of its parts. “Your Shadow” could well be...