review

Dangerkids Blacklist_ FILE UNDER: Nü-Metal Apologists ROCKS LIKE: Linkin Park, Sworn In, My Ticket Home WHAT'S DIFFERENT: The ongoing homage to Noughties nü metal remains intact from Dangerkids’ 2013 debut, Collapse, updated with occasionally spooky electronics and just enough emo vulnerability to allow for a closing ballad (“Invincible Summer”). What’s really different is that during the long wait for this sophomore […]

Deaf Havana All These Countless Nights FILE UNDER: U.K. Alt-Rock ROCKS LIKE: Thirty Seconds To Mars, Lower Than Atlantis, Foo Fighters WHAT'S DIFFERENT: Forget folksy and festive for the fourth album: Deaf Havana are writing anthems meant to crowd rock clubs—authentic songs that hurt before celebrating the highs. This is their most attractive offering to American soil yet, and the […]

AFI (The Blood Album) AFI are back. It’s been almost four years since Davey Havok, Jade Puget, Hunter Burgan and Adam Carson released Burials and have been pursuing other projects and sounds, embracing everything from the straight-edge hardcore XTRMST to the poppy electronica of Blaqk Audio. Fans of the band’s older albums will be pleasantly surprised with AFI […]

Frank Carter And The Rattlesnakes Modern Ruin FILE UNDER: End Of The World Blues ROCKS LIKE: Single Mothers, Slaves, the Bronx WHAT’S DIFFERENT: Veering between the bluesy rock ’n’ roll of “Snake Eyes” and “God Is My Friend,” the gritty suspense of “Wild Flowers” and the frenzied punk of the title track, Modern Ruin is the most fully formed record […]

ONE OK ROCK Ambitions Japan’s arena rock act ONE OK ROCK are starting 2017 off on the right foot thanks to the collection of tracks that make up their latest full-length and Fueled By Ramen debut. As their second English-language album (following 2015’s 35xxxv) and eighth overall, Ambitions proves there is no shortage of experience […]

Lamb Of God The Duke EPs tend to be stopgaps: an easy way to hold fans’ attention between albums. Considering that Lamb Of God dropped their last full-length, VII: Sturm And Drang, a year ago, simply releasing the two new songs on The Duke would’ve been enough to buy the band time. But focusing on […]

Highly Suspect The Boy Who Died Wolf Highly Suspect successfully avoid the dreaded sophomore slump after snagging two Grammy nods for last year’s debut full-length, Mister Asylum. The hard-hitting follow-up, The Boy Who Died Wolf, starts strong with the passionate “My Name Is Human,” carved out perfectly to be a memorable radio-rock hit, and it’s […]

Body/Head No Waves Body/Head No Waves The teeth-rattling noise and detuned guitar glory of ex-Sonic Youth member Kim Gordon and guitarist Bill Nace is captured here in a live performance, recorded during the 2014 Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, Tennessee. Unlike many live albums, these aren’t note-for-note re-creations of the work found on Body/Head’s 2013 […]

Memphis May Fire This Light I Hold There’s a noticeable shift in the sound Memphis May Fire have pursued on their latest release. The Tennessee-based quintet return for their fifth studio album, blending elements of old-school Southern rock with abrasive unclean vocals resulting in their most engaging work to date. Having taken a significant amount […]

Attila Chaos Chaos is as much a celebration as it is a confrontation. “Queen” is an ode to a “boss bitch,” so that's different. Frontman Fronzilla pushes positivity and partying when he's not calling out his general hater population and the climate of political correctness. This is Southern mosh meets nü metal meets ridiculousness. There's […]

Frank Iero And The Patience Parachutes Frank Iero isn’t trying to be slippery with his decision to change the name of his solo venture from frnkiero and the cellabration to the more straightforward Frank Iero And The Patience. It is drawing a line in the sand between the two albums—2014’s Stomachaches and the recently released […]

I Prevail Lifelines Pop-Manic Post-Hardcore ROCKS LIKE: The Ghost Inside, Crown The Empire, Jimmy Eat World WHAT’S DIFFERENT:  Fans of early-2000s alt rock will get an edgy round of déjà vu courtesy of I Prevail. Lifelines encompasses the guttural nature of hardcore (“Come And Get It”) mixed in with the catchy, upbeat choruses of pop punk […]

Two Tongues Two Tongues Two Aggressive Electro Rock ROCKS LIKE: Circa Survive, the Matches, Brand New WHAT’S DIFFERENT: Max Bemis and Chris Conley are back on, and their new album makes every effort to not sound like a collection of scrapped Say Anything or Saves The Day tracks. The band embrace a slow build through […]

From Indian Lakes Everything Feels Better Now Indie Pop Exploration ROCKS LIKE: Polyenso, Radiohead, Mutemath WHAT’S DIFFERENT: From Indian Lakes have softly shapeshifted from their emo-indebted beginnings to an electronic-tinged, subdued powerhouse that’s occasionally otherworldly and harder to classify. Their fourth LP is patient and reflective while retaining some of their livelier leanings. WHY YOU […]

Balance And Composure Light We Made Three years after 2013’s The Things We Think We’re Missing, Balance And Composure have returned with an unbridled yet mature record that sets out to explore new boundaries of self-expression. For their major-label debut on Vagrant Records/BMG, Light We Made offers a sense of direction for a band that […]

Sum 41 13 Voices Sum 41’s career has always thrived on balance. Back when the band were still playing pop punk, they weren’t afraid to blend elements of hip-hop and heavy metal into their sound, giving them a leg up on the next set of spiky-haired, sweatband-wearing suburban punks looking for a major label meal […]

Green Day Revolution Radio Whether it’s wrestling with the world outside or the enemy within, punk needs a struggle if it’s going to mean something. For Green Day, wartime under George W. Bush gave 2004’s American Idiot a career-resurrecting sense of purpose, while the existential aftermath of a post-Bush America fueled 2009’s 21st Century Breakdown. […]

Every Time I Die Low Teens It’s been 15 years since Every Time I Die dropped their debut full-length album, and a decade and a half later the heavy hitters haven’t lost an inkling of steam. Their eighth studio record, Low Teens, might not start off with guns blazing, but it does ring out as […]

Against Me! Shape Shift With Me Transgender Dysphoria Blues, Against Me!’s 2014 career-defining masterwork and the best punk LP of the decade, was an album about inflection points, a conceptual piece by the newly female-presenting Laura Jane Grace on the terrifying rush of the moments on which everything hinges. Two years later (and two more […]

Of Mice & Men Cold World When Of Mice & Men released their self-titled record in 2010, probably no one would have guessed that they would make a record like Cold World just six years later. Heavier than tourmates Linkin Park’s radio rock, yet no longer as destructive as their more underground and departed counterparts, […]