rock/metal albums
Album Review: Explosions in the Sky – The Wilderness
Listening to Explosions in the Sky for me has always been like that lump in your throat moment in a great film. The tragic losses, the triumphant successes, and the moment when you realize everything is going to be all right despite all the downs you’ve gone through to get there. They soundtrack both figuratively …
Album Review: White Denim – Stiff
I’m not sure when it first occurred to me, but I’ve now spent many years coming to terms with the fact that I have a problem with rock and roll. Or at least rock and roll in the context of the phrase ‘That’s so rock and roll!’. You see, when used in that context, it …
Album Reivew: American Head Charge – Tango Unbrella
A decade after their last full length release “The Feeding” the reformed and recalibrated American Head Charge are back with long awaited new album Tango Umbrella the follow up to 2013’s Shoot EP. AHC always seemed to be a little left field, their chaotic but melodious alt-metal definitely stood out amongst their peers, whilst tracks …
Album Review: Amon Amarth – Jomsviking
Pillaging its way through your speakers comes Amon Amarth’s latest album Jomsviking, written by big beardy blokes for big beardy blokes. While their past two efforts were still of reasonably good quality the Swedish death metallers have struggled to recapture the form shown on 2008’s Twilight of the Thunder God. However, with their latest release …
Album Review: Matt Berry – Matt Berry and The Maypoles Live
A quick perusal of the artwork of Matt Berry and the Maypoles Live, with it’s Acid Jazz label styled in the manner of the old Philips logo, a back cover which consists of the tracklisting and photos of the individual members of The Maypoles playing live and the inside of the CD booklet consisting of …
Album Review: Luxury Hobo – Big Boy Bloater
The throaty roar of Big Boy Bloater signals his returns with a new album – Luxury Hobo. Specifically, you are straight into the driving Hammond organ rhythm of “Devils, Not Angels”, which sounds like Billy Preston covering Led Zeppelin’s Rock and Roll. “This ain’t the girl that you been looking for” he growls, while the …
Album Review: Crashing into things – To Consume, and To Be Consumed
In a world of music that tends to insult our intelligence it’s refreshing to hear a band that actually challenges us intellectually. Crashing Into Things prove to be highly creative in pushing genre boundaries musically, while at the same delivering insightful and thought-provoking lyrics. The Victoria, BC band combines elements of both New York post-punk …
Album Review: The Stone Foxes – Twelve Spells
At the start of rock and roll the generational the battlelines were well defined and they remained static for decades. The young rock and pop acts specifically targeted the youth market, and those acts that appealed to the average individual over the age of 30 were few and far between. Simply put, if you were …
Album Review: Killswitch Engage – Incarnate
After Killswitch Engage set the bar incredibly high with their last release, Disarm the Descent, the iconic metal core quintet had an extremely difficult task in living up to expectations. Unfortunately, on this new album, entitled Incarnate, the band have seemingly gone a few steps backwards. To firstly clarify this statement, Incarnate is by no …
Album Review: Wolfmother – Victorious
Man, do you remember back in 2005 when Wolfmother dropped their debut album? That glorious mix of proggy, organ-drenched, chunky guitar goodness that reminded us that Uriah Heep were pretty cool(at least Ken Hensley’s bits) and that Robert Plant would’ve sounded pretty damn cool fronting Black Sabbath. Yeah, I remember that self-titled well. There was …