Never Shout Never - What Is Love?
What Is Love? Upon hearing the title track from Never Shout Never's What Is Love?, a random twentysomething dude on Twitter posted, "Dare I say, [it's] really good! I'm gonna go turn in my man card now." Sure, NSN–aka 18-year-old Christofer Drew–is building a career by accentuating so much positivity, it would make Bryce Avary down...
The Dear & Departed - Chapters EP
Chapters EP It's hard to determine whether the Dear & Departed's newest endeavor will appeal more to fans of the 1980s English rock scene, or really just the modern bands influenced by said movement. Any way you slice it, though, the band's newest release, Chapters, is a competent–albeit not always compelling–five-song EP that will likely gain...
Freya - All Hail The End
All Hail The End Freya have always been treated like the weaker younger brother to the hulking behemoth that is Earth Crisis. Which is unfair, in a host of different ways, since when lead bellower and straight-edge hardliner Karl Buechner formed Freya in 2001 after Earth Crisis first disbanded, it was to make a band...
Landlord - Lifers
Lifers Emerging from Bloomington, Indiana, garage-punk three piece Landlords have issued a powerful, lo-fi sonic statement with Lifers. Featuring members of the Door-Keys and Defiance, Ohio, Landlord doesn't sound much like either; instead, the songs seem to be drawing parallel influences from classic Bay Area punk and '90s rock, with "Not Fair" bouncing between Fifteen's Jeff...
The Spill Canvas - Abnormalities EP
Abnormalities EP The Spill Canvas have been testing the patience of their fans over the past year. The South Dakota foursome's last full-length, No Really, I'm Fine, came out in the fall of 2007, and the band offered a few appeasements of an EP,Honestly, I'm Doing Okay, and a re-release of No Really with some additional B-sides in...
The Magnetic Fields - Realism
Realism After 2008's quasi-abrasive Distortions, the Magnetic Fields' mastermind Stephen Merritt returns to a familiar softness with Realism. The album is dense with folky instrumentation, cutesy overdubs, and bubbly melodies tugged from the pages of a Sunday school songbook. While many of Realism's tracks could easily be plucked from previous Fields albums, the childish imagery infused throughout the...
Hour Of The Wolf - Obsolete EP
Obsolete Prescott, Arizona's Hour Of The Wolf unleash a virtually perfect blend of fever, passion and raucousness on their latest EP, Obsolete. Despite its six songs clocking in at a frustratingly ephemeral 10 minutes, the effort is a relentless bout of expedient, combative hardcore infused with subtle thrash influences; still more powerful than albums four times...
Pianos Become The Teeth - Old Pride
Old Pride It's okay: You can call Pianos Become The Teeth screamo. The elites should be fine with it. When you take the spine-tingling collision of atmosphere and intensity that allowed acts like City Of Caterpillar and Funeral Diner–admitted influences–to become cult favorites and cake it with a concoction of melody and absolute desperation so...
Shining - Blackjazz
Blackjazz Norway's Shining mix industrial and metal into an unholy screech that takes elements from Nine Inch Nails' Broken EP, Meshuggah's Nothing and the collected works of Magma and King Crimson (this album includes a hellish version of KC's "21st Century Schizoid Man"), plus ultra-distorted, shrieking vocals and skronking saxophone. It's a major leap into the abyss for the...