Contributions
Sick Of It All - The Last Act Of Defiance
Sick Of It All The Last Act Of Defiance It's all a bit predictable with NYHC legends Sick Of It All, ain't it? Another album (their 10th) that is firmly four stars out of five, can't really go any higher, can't really go any lower, because the sound is so set in stone that, well, […]
No Bragging Rights - The Concrete Flower
No Bragging Rights The Concrete Flower “Strength Through Struggle” opens up California-based melodic hardcore crew No Bragging Rights' fifth album, and it does so with a bang… a slow, building, emotional bang. The title track follows that up with more building and building, then things finally explode… in a slightly polite way. The mix of […]
The Foxery - Unless
The Foxery Unless Well, here's an album that takes some time to figure out, Louisville, Kentucky-based post-hardcore/progressive emo sextet the Foxery have put out one dense, thick and largely great debut full-length. In vibe it conjures up Coheed And Cambria's ambition, but the sound is more rooted in mid-’90s emo; sometimes the songs sit somewhere […]
Grey Gordon - Forget I Brought It Up
Grey Gordon Forget I Brought It Up The unlikely monikered Grey Gordon (we want to see a birth certificate) has put out his share of EPs, but here he finally lays down his tattooed-emo-guy feelings for a full-length. He ditches the acoustics he's spent time with in the past for a huge, chunky, fuzzed-out, ’90s […]
Meridian - The Cathedral
Meridian The Cathedral When Max Stern of Cleveland punks Signals Midwest wants to get sensitive, he recruits his younger brother Jake, a banjo and a whole stack of cute melodies, puts 'em together and gets Meridian. But unlike their 2012 debut Aging Truths, The Cathedral [released on AP managing editor Scott Heisel's Youth Conspiracy Records —full […]
The Gaslight Anthem - Get Hurt
The Gaslight Anthem Get Hurt All eyes are on the Gaslight Anthem to see what they come up with on album No. 5, with the band in some pre-release interviews telling fans to expect things they've never heard before. And while that's pushing it (this is a Gaslight album, plain and simple), there are some […]
Driver Friendly - Unimagined Bridges
Driver Friendly Unimagined Bridges On their third album, Austin, Texas’ Driver Friendly have totally nailed the totally odd combination of wildly energetic, melodic indie rock (think the Wonder Years meets a young Jimmy Eat World) and horns (think… well, horns). Tunes like “Everything Gold” are superbly catchy with just enough melody, and using a horn section […]
And We Danced - Back To The Middle EP
And We Danced Back To The Middle EP It's not too often an opening song called “Intro” is all that engaging, but on their debut EP, Back To The Middle, And We Danced manage to start things off with a two-minute instrumental called just that, and it's great. It sets the tone for the high-energy, Midwestern-tinged melodic emo rock […]
Gallows - Chains EP
Gallows Chains EP Don’t let the quiet intro to opener “Chains” fool you: There’s nothing calm about this new two-song EP from Gallows, currently one of the most exciting bands in hardcore. And “Chains” shows why: With an intense, crawling pace, a huge and destructive production sound and vocalist Wade MacNeil screaming about “sham rock […]