A lack of progression can make a band stale. Not so with Fear Factory. If 2010’s comeback of sorts ‘Mechanize’ was a slight return then this thing makes a kick-the-door-in motherfucker of an entrance. Bristling with all the things the band does best, ‘The Industrialist’ entirely forgets the nu-metal lapses of the past, sweeps away with the clutter of pre-hiatus […]
Read moreThis is a weird one. For every moment on Daytrader’s debut full-length that recalls the glory of their early EPs, there’s a clunky verse, energy-sapping chorus, or screeched vocal that sounds like Dexter from The Offspring got drunk and snuck into the recording studio. In fact, where those first releases sounded confident and captivating, this record routinely can’t find the […]
Read moreBrotherhood of the Lake were destined to be a mere footnote in British metal history. Until now. The Plymouth quintet’s second record is a blaring beacon, a warning klaxon, a call to arms. In ten songs they have arrived. ‘Desperation Is The English Way Vol.1’ sounds like a machine, like a cornered beast, like so many years of flat grey […]
Read moreQuality is the word that always, always comes to mind when listening to The American Dollar. Their sound is so fresh and so clean, their style classy, and their records refined. Album number five, ‘Awake in the City’, is no different. This is another lesson in instrumental bliss, ethereal electronic vibes, and ambient soundscapes. However, for every note put in […]
Read morePraise be. If the first Narrows album was a warning shot, proof positive that combining former Botch, Unbroken, Some Girls and These Arms Are Snakes members didn’t make for a part-time supergroup but a vitally exciting prospect, then ‘Painted’ is a perfectly planned total assault. Like, some tactical nuke shit. Everything is better here than it was before. Tempestuous lead […]
Read moreThat sound you hear? Disappointment. It’s the collective sigh unleashed with the news that the latest Pelican record is only four tracks and 18 minutes of music. After three years since the last album see, people will want more, a lot more. Hell, it used to be that 18 minutes was only enough time for a single gargantuan epic from […]
Read moreThe new album from San Francisco five-piece Ceremony got its name when frontman Ross Farrar realised just how much time we all spend watching each other, viewing each other, and that we are all living in a human zoo. But it could have just as easily been a direct comment on the sound of his band’s fourth full-length. This thing […]
Read moreYou most likely already know how you feel about this. Emmure ain’t gone changin’ in the 14 months since their last record (since their 2007 debut really) so if beefy vocals, big riffs and bigger breakdowns are your thing then you’ll still dig what they’re doing but if you think metalcore is the worst thing to ever happen to music, […]
Read moreThis is good. Of course it is, Every Time I Die haven’t released a bad record, like, ever. But the New Yorkers’ sixth full-length feels a little jittery, busy, awkward even. Oh, ‘Ex Lives’ is marked with quality, but, unlike what you may have heard, it’s not the band’s return to the raw punk of old that most rules. Sure, […]
Read moreThis is fantastic. If Bleeding Through’s previous self-titled sixth album was a fine return to form, ‘The Great Fire’ is the very definition of going from strength to strength. Everything that originally made the California sextet an exciting prospect- hardcore intensity, death metal power, truly doomy vibes- is present and correct, and there’s no trace of the backward steps- monotonous […]
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