Eschewing hip-hop elements and influences, Alabama hardcore outfit Gideon returns with a metallic, crunchy slugfest that is More Power More Pain (Rude Records/Equal Vision), the bruisers’ sixth full-length record.
Tag Archives: breakdowns
ALBUM REVIEW: Zulu – A New Tomorrow
Fifteen unfinished chapters don’t combine to make a novel.
A New Tomorrow, the debut long-player from eclectic power-violence outfit Zulu (released via Flatspot Records), feels too much like a compendium of skeletal songs that largely fail to take off to truly work. Three of the first four tracks – the exception being the introductory ‘Africa,’ a piano and strings-infused number – start off heavy and emphatic, but they all conclude with a divergence. ‘For Sista Humphrey’ turns gospel; ‘Our Day Is Now’ descends into sound clips; and ‘Music To Driveby’ is marred by soft singing.
ALBUM REVIEW: Distant – Heritage
As I was sampling the new barn-burner from Distant, the lethal vocals featured on ‘Plaguebreeder’ actually scared off my fiance (as in she left the room, not that she gave back the ring!).
ALBUM REVIEW: Lionheart – Welcome To The West Coast III
LHHC, baby.
Singer Rob Watson is one of the most adept frontmen in hardcore when it comes to being able to both hype up a crowd and tell grim, streetwise lyrical tales over bouncy grooves. Nothing has changed with their latest release, Welcome To The West Coast III (Arising Empire). While the series of ‘Welcome…’ releases started with an EP, it is now halfway to keeping pace with Lil Wayne‘s Tha Carter albums. “Welcome” implies an introduction, but ironically the band no longer need one. Think of the title as more akin to an ongoing episodic documentary at this point.
ALBUM REVIEW: Fit For A King – The Hell We Create
In yet another striking example of music being used as an outlet for some of life’s most traumatic misgivings, Fit For A King have returned with their seventh – and quite possibly most impactful – full-length record. The Hell We Create (Solid State) is eons more than a collection of compelling, thought-provoking metalcore.
ALBUM REVIEW: Lost Society – If The Sky Came Down
It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel … thoroughly pissed off. That seems to be the thrust of Finnish metallers Lost Society and their latest If The Sky Came Down (Nuclear Blast).
ALBUM REVIEW: I Am – Eternal Steel
I lived in Dallas, Texas for a few years and I can verify that everything is in fact, bigger in Texas. I AM does the Lone Star state proud with their third effort, Eternal Steel (MNRK Heavy), an album full of huge and murky riffs, devastating grooves, and over-the-top destruction.
ALBUM REVIEW: Ithaca – They Fear Us
Following the release of their debut album The Language Of Injury in 2019, Ithaca quite rightly found themselves labelled as one of the new up and coming buzz bands in the UK’s Metal scene. The album was a furious slice of post-hardcore / metalcore, full of great riffs and powerful vocals delivered by singer Djamilla Boden Azzouz, which saw them saw them gain comparisons with the likes of other heavy, strong bands including Svalbard and Employed To Serve. Continue reading
ALBUM REVIEW: Senses Fail – Hell Is In Your Head
Music is routinely used as an avenue to either express one’s feelings or to make sense of them. Oftentimes used as a crutch in our darkest of hours, it’s safe to say music has helped countless people crawl out of their lowest of lows, both through listening and writingContinue reading
ALBUM REVIEW: In Hearts Wake – Kaliyuga Booster Pack
Eighteen months after the release of their fifth album, Australian metalcore merchants In Hearts Wake have nicked a trick from the Roadrunner Records playbook of the nineties with the Kaliyuga Booster Pack (UNFD) and are re-releasing their 2020 opus with a handful of goodies ahead of hitting the road in 2022.