Dan Slessor

Nothing More The Stories We Tell Ourselves ROCKS LIKE: 30 Seconds To Mars, Sights & Sounds, Incubus WHAT'S DIFFERENT: Somewhat ironically, the watchword for The Stories We Tell Ourselves is “more:” more hooks, more layers, more feeling—more  everything. While the divisive nü-metal i ...

The Contortionist Clairvoyant FILE UNDER: Progressive rock ROCKS LIKE: Coheed And Cambria, Good Tiger, Periphery WHAT'S DIFFERENT: After maintaining the trend of emphasizing the “progressive” aspect over the “metal” of their early releases, on the Contortionist’s fourth full-length, the latter has exited the scene. Gone are the screaming and the p ...

Dead Cross Dead Cross FILE UNDER: Manic punk ROCKS LIKE: Melvins, Trash Talk, OFF! WHAT'S DIFFERENT: When collaborating in Fantômas, ex-Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo and Faith No More vocalist Mike Patton proved themselves masters of the gloriously eclectic and deranged. Joined b ...

Mallory Knox Wired FILE UNDER: Anthemic rock ROCKS LIKE: Paramore / Twin Atlantic / Jimmy Eat World WHAT'S DIFFERENT: Having established themselves with two solid full-lengths, this time out Mallory Knox get in your face—and stay there. With an ...

With Wovenwar’s sophomore release, Honor Is Dead, the metalcore unit have seriously upped the aggressive ante. With a far more in-your-face sound and vocalist Shane Blay injecting some serious screaming amidst the towering choruses, it will surely initiate frantic moshing across the land. With ...

Not many bands find themselves in the press cycle for their 12th full-length, but In Flames’ consistency and staying power has long put legions of their metal brethren to shame. True to form, rife with rich, uplifting melodies and a rousing, cinematic feel, Battles maintains the high standard the quintet hold themselves to while also boasting a compelling freshness. O ...

There are few records that paint a more vivid picture of a descent into depression and alcoholism than the Amity Affliction’s This Could Be Heartbreak. Having tracked the record in the throes of this deterioration, vocalist Joel Birch did not understand how catastrophic this was until hearing the completed record back. List ...

The Used Live And Acoustic At The Palace Dipping into every phase of their 15-year career, there is genuine magic in the way the Used reworked and reimagined 12 of their songs for one night at LA’s ornate Palace Theatre. Whether stripping the songs down to the most sparse arrangements or rebuilding them with strings and backing singers, it is a gripping performance from start to finish. The ... R

Graf Orlock Crime Traveler Los Angeles’ Graf Orlock specialize in writing savage music born in the ’cores (hard-, grind-) with lyrics based on overblown Hollywood action movies. With Crime Traveler, they haven’t deviated from their blistering sonic niche, but this time the lyrics hinge around an unreleased movie written, directed and starring the band. The result is su ...

It’s day three of the Apollo X Tour, and arguably the weightiest package you’re likely to be exposed to this fall has rolled into Boston, ahead of a show at the House Of Blues. Bringing together co-headliners Motionless In White and the Devil Wears Prada plus Upon A Burning Body, the Word Alive and the Color Morale, that’s a lot of bruising bang for your buck, but it’s not a mindless mosh-fest. Bo

Osaka, Japan’s Crossfaith spent much of the last five years bringing their heavy metalcore-EDM hybrid to every corner of the globe. Returning with their fourth full-length, Xeno, the quintet have boldly introduced new elements while honing their songwriting skills, making for a truly anthemic collection—at the risk of potentially alienating some of their fans. Speaking f ...

It’s a good time to be in Parkway Drive. With fifth album Ire showcasing the most dramatic and ambitious evolution in their sound to date the critical plaudits are rolling in, though the band’s excitement lies more in finally getting to play these songs to packed rooms. Speaking f ...

Terror The 25th Hour There’s probably no band more committed to the if-it-ain’t-broke-don’t-fix-it ethos than Terror. While this has led to at least a couple of run of the mill tracks on most of their releases, The 25th Hour is a decent slab of no-frills shouty hardcore, and a fine accompaniment to wrenching your (or someone else’s) neck. With the longest track clocking ...

Teenage Time Killers Greatest Hits Vol. 1 Teenage Time Killers began with Corrosion Of Conformity drummer Reed Mullin and My Ruin guitarist Mick Murphy wanting to make a back-to-basics hardcore record. That the result is a 20-track album—featuring appearances by an almost ridiculously impressive array of rock, metal and punk luminaries—suggests that this idea was contagious. Scuzzy and ... Read Mo

For the first few years of their existence, Bring Me The Horizon seemed to draw more ire than adoration within their native U.K.’s metal scene. Having dropped their debut EP while still in their teens and following it up with 2006’s Count Your Blessings, they were frequently derided as kids who cared more about their hair than the quality of their deathcore. Then, in 2 ...

Trent Reznor is a busy man. Having dropped a string of full-lengths, EPs, live records and remixes under the Nine Inch Nails banner, he has remained a driving force in alternative music since the late ’80s. But this has evidently not been enough to satisfy his creative instincts. Hi ...

Formed in 1993, Jimmy Eat World have released a string of seminal rock albums, every one of them boasting at least a handful of “classic” tracks, while Clarity (1999), Bleed American (2001) Futures (2004) and Chase This Light (2007) are arguably perfect from start to finish. Whether pe ...

What’s the single greatest breakdown in metal and/or hardcore history? That argument has cluttered the web since the first message boards got vomited up, and will probably abound long after we’re all gone (the correct answer is the outro to Machine Head’s “Davidian,” by the way). This is not a list of the al ...

While She Sleeps Brainwashed Hailing from Sheffield (the Northern England city that also gave the world Bring Me The Horizon, Arctic Monkeys and rock titans Def Leppard), While She Sleeps are all about the metal. Maybe that’s not wholly accurate: On their previous releases, the metal was wall to wall, but on Brainwashed they bring in more melody, darker and more epic atmospheres, and some winning

Silent Planet The Night God Slept Dealing in coiling, contorted, brutal and melodic metalcore, Silent Planet make a strong impression on their debut full-length. While The Night God Slept provides plenty of thick riffs and pulverizing rhythms for those who want to lose their minds in the mosh pit, it is the haunting qualities that most engage, echoes of Deftones, Hands and Underoath resonating fro