Tag Archives: Wil Cifer

ALBUM REVIEW: Onelinedrawing – Rainbowmachine

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Far was one of the most underrated bands of the 90s, so this is the ghost that will forever haunt the solo work of Jonah Matranga, the band’s former singer.  With Onelinedrawing’s new album RAINBOWMACHINE (Iodine Recordings), it is still hard not to gravitate towards the moments that sound like his old band. Is this fair? No, but life is not fair, and he raised the bar for himself so high with Far that it’s hard to give his other work much of a chance. Let’s try and listen to this objectively. Continue reading →


ALBUM REVIEW: Cartilage – Operating Altar

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Death Metal has an endearing, crushing quality, but it can also be a genre where finding one’s own path can be difficult. Considering the hyper-aggressive nature that sometimes sacrifices songwriting for brutality, as it adheres to the sometimes monochrome, blood-red sounds of double bass and guttural vocals. Cartlidge manages to take on their own personality amid a genre that can be rather uniform in its sound and dynamic scope due to the common focus on aggression. Operating Altar (Everlasting Spew Records) is a weird concept album that has the crazy spirit of Acid Witch if they were not obsessed with Halloween. These guys are more focused on Carcass-like medical horror.  Continue reading →


ALBUM REVIEW: Spirit Mother – Thistle

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Spirit Mother represents the post-grunge era, entwined with Stoner Rock in a way that blurs the line between where one begins and the other ends. On Thistle (Sound of Liberation Records), they touch on a few different sounds from the nineties and bring them into a more modern focus rather than just trying to pay homage to an era. “Violent Son” has a moodier swagger and syncopated riff that finds the guitars adding atmosphere that allows the vocals to coast between it all. The vocals here are in a mellow croon that is possibly drug-induced. The strength of the vocals is not in their range, but in how emotion is conveyed and where he puts his voice. 

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ALBUM REVIEW: Chat Pile – Who Loves the Sun

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In many ways, Chat Pile’s new album Who Loves the Sun (The Flenser) ironically feels like their Sunbather (Deafheaven). The album will elevate them to a new level as artists not made for radio airplay. You might even think these guys are going to take Noise-Rock to the mainstream. Still, it has pivoted from the hard and fast definition of that genre as a grim post-Grunge sonic effigy of society’s collapse, to one that these songs blame apathy for being the chief motivator. Maybe there is some truth to that theory, but to be honest, I don’t care.    Continue reading →


ALBUM REVIEW: Colorblind – Who Sold You This Truth – Was It Yours To Hold

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Gatekeeping has become an ugly word, but perhaps we’ve become a little too entitled as a society, that we now think anything can be whatever we want it to be. When it comes to consuming a product, this can feel like false advertising. Thus making it my obligation as not only a music journalist but a fan of music to present things in the most honest context possible. As a kid in the eighties, I would often pick out albums based on the album covers alone since this was before the days of the interwebs, and I did not have access to any magazine outside of Hit Parader at the time. My worst waste of an allowance was buying Uriah Heap’s Abominog album. The monster on the cover made me think it would be at least as heavy as Iron Maiden, but it was sadly the band’s turn to commercial Pop Rock, so let me inform you that Colorblind’s Who Sold You This Truth – Was It Yours To Hold (Solid State Records) is not unlike what might happen if a modern male Pop vocalist sang for a Myspace-era “Metal” band. 

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ALBUM REVIEW: A Cold Paradise – A Cold Paradise

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A Cold Paradise’s self-titled debut album is an enigma. A bit like the parable of the blind men and the elephant, where each one touched a different part of the animal and drew different conclusions about what it might look like. But before we proceed, let me warn you that a bit of “gatekeeping” is required to properly assess the album most honestly. But when it comes to Metal, its core message was gatekeeping: Metal rules; all other music sucks. This concept was the inspiration behind many of Judas Priest’s anthems; what faith did you think they were defenders of? It was also advertised in the early days of Twisted Sister as the band sold “Death to Disco” shirts. 

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ALBUM REVIEW: Dinosaur Jr – There Near

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When it comes to bands that influenced modern Shoegaze and post-Hardcore, Dinosaur Jr’s name needs to be more prominent in the conversation; granted, if you were judging it by the band’s more modern era, which is more organic and less depressive, it might not be as apparent. On There Near (Jagjaguwar). The overall sound of this album is consistent with what the band has been doing in their modern era, with less moody grunge noise and more upbeat jangling in the guitars. “No Friends” finds the jangle given more rock context. The vocals carry a hint of melancholy, and at times the riffing brings Neil Young to mind. With this album, there is an even warmer, more organic sound than most of their previous material.

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ALBUM REVIEW: Chelsea Wolfe – The Dark

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Since we are still pretending Mistake in Parting did not happen, The Dark (Loma Vista Recordings) is Chelsea Wolfe’s ninth “official” studio album. Here is where she steps into the big time, so to speak. It only makes sense, as artists she influenced like Ethel Cain are currently playing the fabulous Ms. Wolfe, so it is her time to step out from behind the ghostly veil of reverb and prove who she is by singing out with a more stripped, organic production for the soulful “Cold” that opens the album.  Continue reading →


ALBUM REVIEW: Marilyn Manson – One Assassination Under God Chapter 2

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Marilyn Manson maintains the momentum of the current era of his career with this 13th album, One Assassination Under God Chapter 2 (Nuclear Blast Records). This is his fourth album that Tyler Bates has produced, and much like the first three, it finds a balance of brooding melodicism and the in-your-face guitar grit and middle finger to the world attitude. It picks up where he left off on part one, though the album has a darker feel. He rocks out harder than he has in some time on “Don’t Answer the Door.” He has never been the heaviest act on the bill, but what he relents in sonic heft, he makes up for in the confrontational mood his songs create. When he does, the guitar carries more heft this time around, as heard on “Front Toward Enemy.” The bass line’s groove seals the deal. Continue reading →


ALBUM REVIEW: Lockstep – I Know What I Saw

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Nashville’s Lockstep has nailed the classic Shoegaze sound on their new album I Know What I Saw (Profound Lore). All the key elements a youngster looking to discover the genre are in place. They have the drunken warble of the guitars, the breathy coo of the androgynous vocals. All things that you can probably buy patches for on your Digital Audio Workstation. They might have captured it just right, but that is a matter of just dialing things in right. The real question is, can they write songs? A question that should be asked of any genre from shoegaze to grindcore. This album does sound great through headphones, so they have taken great care in capturing these songs in the studio. But what about the songs? This is the question we are looking to answer here. 

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