When I read the album title and saw the inner sleeve (men playing flutes and acoustic guitars around a fire with a naked woman in the background), I was expecting something psychedelic about fairies but when I listened to the music I realised I was way off. Wolves in the Throne Room are black metal with a few twists and surprises thrown in. |
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When I read the album title and saw the inner sleeve (men playing flutes and acoustic guitars around a fire with a naked woman in the background), I was expecting something psychedelic about fairies but when I listened to the music I realised I was way off. Wolves in the Throne Room are black metal with a few twists and surprises thrown in.
6171 Hits
Neil Michael Hagerty has certainly paid his dues, from his early days with Pussy Galore to his years with Royal Trux, and if he doesn't always enjoy the reputation he deserves, it's certainly not for lack of trying.
5218 Hits
The Norwegian group’s second album is a dark and powerful collection of sinister soundscapes. Combinations of unearthly drones, organic sounds and traditional instrumentation are used to make a potent and captivating album.
5976 Hits
Never a group content to rest on their laurels, Mission of Burma's third studio album and their second since reforming after a 20 year hiatus finds them raising the bar higher than ever with surging guitars, pummeling rhythms, and some other surprises that show a remarkable growth and renewed vitality in their songwriting.
6196 Hits
This selection of works by López is disappointingly lacklustre. Compared to his normally vibrant work, the pieces here are drab and unexciting. Most of it feels like López is just rehashing various older ideas and not pushing any of the boundaries that usually make his work interesting.
7681 Hits
Andrew Liles continues to take the familiar and turn it into something warped, something weird. Now, however, he's doing it in a perhaps unexpected way. Concertos normally have three movements and are typically composed for a solo instrument and an orchestra; the piano is the only proper instrument on this record. Liles, however, makes sense of it all plays the piano in a way that has me looking at the instrument in a whole new light.
11176 Hits
The new EP by Boston’s 5ive sees the reissue of two pieces originally released on a split 12” with Kid 606, bundled with two new Justin Broadrick remixes. Granted the cover art is pretty gross but most of the music contained within is of the topmost quality.
5137 Hits
The first album from Bergen’s Espen Sommer Eide under the name Phonophani is remarkable. There’s no two ways about it, this is an essential album. It may be eight years old but sounds fresher than the vast majority of new albums that have come my way.
6295 Hits
In Iran, heavy metal is banned. Of course, this means there is a strong metal underground. One band from this scene, Ahoora, are trying to do what they can to get their music heard both inside and outside their home country. Luckily, although the music is not a step forwards (nor even a step sideways) for metal, it is very good.
9583 Hits
This Austrian band's prior release, the spectacular Heavy Heavy Monster Dub, revitalized my interest in dub reggae and made its way into my "best of" chart in 2004. So why does their new one leave me less than enthused?
8281 Hits
The debut EP from the Atlanta doom metallers Zoroaster is a solid disc of riffery. It may not be the best Sabbath worship I’ve heard but it’s definitely above average. They do not reach the heady heights of Sleep or Electric Wizard but this release shows that they have the potential to rise up to meet those sonic titans.
4602 Hits
Headlights play music which is not dissimilar to their predecessors on the Polyvinyl label like Rainer Maria: a mixture of male and female vocals with high melodies and catchy phrases. Songs alternate from jumpy to languid, sometimes even within themselves. Headlights use a healthy amount of keyboards at times for atmospheric sounds, strings, or chirpy measures. It's unpretentious music: all hooks and fun without dreary concepts regarding composition.
5708 Hits
Those like I who have fallen under Delia & Gavin's spell will not be disappointed in the latest single. Relevee features an edited version of the album version along with remixes by Carl Craig, Baby Ford, and, of course, the DFA. I'm most gleeful, however, for the bonus video of the song.
8583 Hits
After all these years I haven't changed my mind about the first two Manitoba albums, now reissued under the new (but not improved) name Caribou and featuring a bonus disc each. Start Breaking My Heart is a decent record but it sounds even more uninspiring and dated now while Up In Flames is a spectacular modern classic.
10260 Hits
As disco continues to enjoy a prolonged revival thanks in part to hot artists like Metro Area and Lindstrom & Prins-Thomas, UK label Soul Jazz eagerly jumps on the bandwagon with this double disc set of '70s mixes from one of the genre's godfathers.
9678 Hits
Luc Ferrari’s death last year meant that the world had lost a creative genius. I was saddened both at the loss of the man and at the fact that no new music would come from his direction. Luckily, Sub Rosa are making available some of his later works as well as some older unreleased material.
6107 Hits
This recently reissued debut offers the tasty fruits from a rare instance where session singers, typically relegated indefinately to the background, claim some time for themselves in the spotlight.
8145 Hits
This one-sided 10” mini-album is the debut of this San Francisco trio. Brash and playful, the group makes a surprising ruckus out of the unlikely combination of drums, flute, and clarinet.
5903 Hits
I came across some Envy records years back and suddenly became ravenous to hear everything put out by the band. They seemed like a succinct Japanese amalgam of a bunch of post-hardcore bands who alternated between the delicate and the demolishing. Screamed vocals, melodic guitar tones, and anthemic songs were all part of the band's DNA.
7549 Hits
Another CD released at the group’s recent dates in San Francisco, Rat Tapes One is a compilation of discarded sounds and songs from the past 20 or so years. Unlike something similar such as A Sucked Orange, though, this one feels closer to an album than a collection.
9737 Hits
