On afireinside’s ninth long-player, Burials, the band properly shows us why goth-emo-punk was better in small doses and the rest better off left for dead. It would seem that once a band like a.f.i. got a taste for arenas (much light Twilight vampires get a taste for teenage blood) it became hard to put that cat back in the bag. The band has chased that cat heavily on 2006’s decemberunderground and 2009’s Crash Love – wearing Joy Division, Duran Duran […]
Posts tagged "review"
Monster Magnet, The Last Patrol: Album Review
The space lords from Red Bank, NJ have returned. They are a band that has survived into the 21st Century, are in their 24th year together and have just released their 10th, and possibly best, studio album to date. The Last Patrol, while not as trippy and psychedelic as earlier works, is every bit the signature stoner-mixed-with-classic-rock sound they’ve created their own niche for. The standard album is a taut nine songs of pure ‘Power Tripping.’ The album begins on […]
Tired Pony, The Ghost of The Mountain: Album Review
Right place, right time sometimes when it comes to discovering music these days. So it was late night about a week ago when I discovered Tired Pony – a supergroup of sorts. The group is made up of Gary Lightbody (Snow Patrol), Peter Buck and Scott McCaughey (REM), Jacknife Lee (producer), Richard Colburn (Belle & Sebastien), Iain Archer and Troy Stewart. The Ghost of The Mountain was released two weeks ago and is actually the groups sophomore album. As its pastoral album cover […]
Pearl Jam, Lightning Bolt: Album Review
I hate to break it to you, but Pearl Jam’s 10th album is both a beautiful – and disjointed – mess. Let’s face it – any band that makes it to 10 studio albums deserves the title of ‘legacy act.’ As such, the pressure to make the album that befits the pedigree of such a widely accepted rock band is gargantuan in nature. Another pitfall of a legacy album is that you’re generally only a good as the last two […]
A Perfect Circle, By and Down: The Singles Bar Review
Fittingly, on a Monday to cure the blues away, Alt-Rock super-group A Perfect Circle return with their first new studio output in just under a decade. It’s both shocking and makes me feel incredibly old to know that it’s been that long since one of my favorite atmospheric rock band’s has made new music. I also long for them to return to the studio and continue to release beautiful music together. This track is no exception. While its emergence can […]
Crosses, The Epilogue: The Singles Bar Review
Chino Moreno slows for no man. The deftones released Koi No Yokan just last year. Palms, Moreno’s fledgling side project with former Isis members, released their debut LP this past Spring/Summer. And now, new music and a new label for what’s been loosely described as his ‘Witchhouse Project,’ with former Far guitarist Shaun Lopez and Chuck Doom. While EP-3 is still about a month off (release date: 11/12/2013), the first textures have emerged in the form of first single, […]
Sleigh Bells, Bitter Rivals: Album Review
Alexi Krauss and Derek Miller are now into the third album of the discography for their noise pop/rock duo known to the general public as Sleigh Bells. I’m personally waiting for them to hit the five album mark so I can simply cherry pick the singles for a ‘best of,’ collection. This band finds its roots in others like The Raveonettes, The Pixies and Andrew WK. While they take the collective wisdom of those precursors…they have not proven to string […]
Korn, The Paradigm Shift: Album Review
It would seem odd to anyone with as varied tastes as mine that I’m reviewing the second artist today on their 11th album. In this case, the little nu metal band from Bakersfield, CA that in essence started its very genre, is also into its 20th year together in recorded music. Korn have made headlines recently by welcoming back one of it’s founding members – guitarist Brian ‘Head’ Welch. This makes for an interesting footnote in the review of the […]
Soulfly, Savages: Album Review
I am not sure whether Max Cavalera is at a point in his career where he feels he can rest and let his sons carve their own paths as they ‘guest,’ on his Soulfly albums or if he’s honestly just taking a piss these days? I mean, I feel like a fish trying to swim upstream only to die when listening to Soulfly albums since 2005’s Dark Ages. Each album since has had a couple highlights but have mostly been disappointing. […]
Moby, Innocents: Album Review
Richard Melville Hall (aka Moby) is back with his 11th album and continues his deft broad stroke artistry utilizing electronic music as the backdrop for his tales. For this album he’s enlisted a some interesting choices for guest vocals. Mark Lanegan (Screaming Trees, QOTSA), Wayne Coyne (The Flaming Lips) and Cold Specks are just a few of the names to drop by. He has a script and sticks to it. The album opens with an echoed/syncopated set of notes that […]
Kings of Leon, Mechanical Bull: Album Review
Did anyone in KOL’s camp (management, publicity) or at the label A&R do any actual quality control when the band presented their latest album for public consumption? It’s been well documented the band was on the skids when they halted their last tour and that band frontman Caleb Followhill had some serious issues dealing with the pressures of being the hottest act in rock n roll. Followhill was recently quoted in referencing 2010’s Come Around Sundown as saying ‘I checked out […]
Placebo, Loud Like Love: Album Review
Placebo sit at this weird intersection between key reference posts The Cure, Depeche Mode and U2. The first time they came close to cracking the code stateside was on 1998’s stellar Without You, I’m Nothing featuring the singles ‘Pure Morning,’ ‘Every You, Every Me,’ and the title track (which features a guest vocal by none other than David Bowie). The second time was on 2006’s Meds featuring contributions from both Alison Mosshart (The Kills, Dead Weather) and Michael Stipe (REM) and their last North American tour […]
