A beautiful cause. A beautiful symphonic backing that at worst doesn't change a ton but at best infuses their songs with a beautiful new energy. A wall of death that isn't fookin' big enough. A sax number that completes "Oh No."

A wonderful live album and a concert I wish I could've been to.

This is a very interesting album to start after re-listening to NeX GEn, for multiple reasons.

Among them is the fact that That’s the Spirit is more “straightforward” — i.e., it doesn’t sound as frantically designed, what with NeX GEn’s constant structural changes.

It is also more acoustic than the electronic fusion they have going on nowadays — though forays like Follow You and Oh No were a welcome surprise.

BMTH faced backlash for their pop-metal ... read more

I wa right to observe that SMILE! :D would grow on me — it's a really remarkable work and I love it, regardless of what score I do or don't give it.

There's so much here emotionally for the invested fan — Is There Really No Happiness? helped me through my first ever (real) breakup.

Russian Roulette perfectly captured the carefree way I had been living for a while — living and reveling in the world, but still not particularly caring if I suddenly left the ... read more

Coming from SMILE! :D and Nurture, it's fascinating to see how Porter's style has evolved from arena EDM. It reminds me of seeing Between the Buried and Me's evolution out of metalcore into something that more fulfilled them.

My viewpoint (and I imagine Porter would agree) is that the more "arena" sound present on many of Worlds' tracks takes away a bit from its vision.

This album is full of songs that Porter himself sees as "adolescent" when he looks ... read more

Bring Me The Horizon seems to be a guilty pleasure band for me. Except I don't believe in guilting yourself for enjoying something harmless just because some people will look down on it. Which would just make it a... normal, non-guilty band I enjoy, like any other.

So what I mean to say with that statement is although that I do have my opinions on their work, I really understand their appeal. Their latest album, NeX GEn, is a signal to how far they've come in carving out a niche for ... read more

Been a while.

"Lo-files" is certainly not a project I was expecting from Bring Me the Horizon—though I suppose, out of any metal band (is it sacrilege to acknowledge them as metal?) it makes sense that they of all bands would do this.

The songs are cute, and the rendition of "Drown" made me genuinely pretty emotional. The fact that these songs were not made for lo-fi (unless this has been Oli Sykes' master plan from the beginning) shows in adaptations like ... read more

So I finally drank the Black Midi kool-aid, and...

What the fuck did I just listen to?

Above every thought that entered my head while listening to Black Midi's third and final album, this one was most prevalent. I've listened to some King Crimson, as well as having brushes with jazz rock, but Black Midi is something else.

The best (knowingly reductive) description I've come up with for the band has been, "Talking Heads on Adderall." The band's unfathomable ... read more

Jesus, the people in '94 expecting another album like Aphex's debut must have been in for a shock...

This album is a towering, sometimes awe-inspiring masterpiece. It is considered "revolutionary" for a reason; not only are the pieces here wonderfully crafted to explore a range of emotions, but they are extremely forward-thinking for their time. Richard D. James, the man behind Aphex Twin, once himself described it as like "standing in a power station on acid." ... read more

Boris prove they can rock it with the heavyweights of stoner metal on "Heavy Rocks" '02. This is a really solid album that shows their real refined understanding of all things metal, though at times it can feel like it lacks the attention to "small, punchy bits" compared to more traditional bands.

The energy is certainly there though. And the riffs are just as heavy as you'd want them to be.

Fave tracks: Dronevil, Koei, The Bell Tower of a Sign, Rattlesnake

[Note: I previously did not know there were two different versions of this record, and I listened to the 1998 CD re-release version.]

"F# A# Infinity" is the first studio album from legendary Canadian post-rock band Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and some introduction it is. The intro to "The Dead Flag Blues" is an iconic and strong tone-setter to a record that explores the wickedness and malaise of the world, and the desperation we experience in trying to make something of ... read more

This is a magnificent record. Whereas I think my expectations affected my experience of "Head Over Heels," I can get behind this record immediately. "The Moon and the Melodies" is an introspective, winding, somber, ascending record that is best experienced with your eyes closed. I'm at a loss for words describing how and why it works, other than this image: it sounds like a voyage through the stars, imbued with a melancholy I associate with the old internet. Especially ... read more

The only song I had listened to off this album prior to listening to it fully was "Sugar Hiccup," so I was anticipating a record somewhere closer in sound to "Heaven or Las Vegas." I will admit that plays into my bias here.

This is an interesting angle to explore dreampop through, and CT does so with an unexpected amount of range. Dreams aren't always ethereal and beautiful—they can be disturbing, sad, desperate. This album presents a huge leap forward for CT ... read more

The fact I don't see this album as top-shelf almost makes me think I've missed something—but I found this album to be innovative yet underbaked. Is this simply the price FF paid in venturing into uncharted waters? I can't say. I wasn't blown away by this album, and part of that could be that I came in expecting the wrong kind of music (I anticipated something more thrash-y), but even knowing this, it sounds underbaked to me.

Fear Factory is a band that never received ... read more

I need to give this a relisten. This is primo early OPN right here. This, "Returnal," and "Drawn and Quartered" are like my holy trinity

The phrase that comes to mind when I want to describe this album is banal: "It's post-metal, but with more of the stuff I like and less of the stuff I don't." By that I mean, where I found "Les voyages de l'âme" to sound like a sort of "on-rails," guided journey through a world of fantasy, "Spiritual Instinct" sounds like a grand adventure, filled with greater peaks, builds, and deliveries. Alcest retains their "not easily ... read more

**EDIT: Oh dear. So Hayden appears to have chosen to be racist in her past, against her own declared morals, to fit in with the culture of the time. And also as of writing has denied any of the evidence supporting her current boyfriend's abuse.

I think it's possible to support art while being critical of the artist themselves. I will keep this review up in the state it was before this whole controversy.**

\\

A stunning, moving, and utterly unique studio debut for someone I'd ... read more

A stunning introduction to the enigmatic composer Susumu Hirasawa. It was surreal listening to this and "Siren" while riding a shinkansen in Japan. The somber, mysterious tone of this album perfectly complimented the grandeur of the landscapes.

I thought I had listened to the best of the Gothenburg melodeath scene with “Slaughter of the Soul,” and while I can say that that indeed is a great album, Dark Tranquillity have become my favorite out of the “big three,” between them, At the Gates, and In Flames.

This record is almost like it was engineered specifically for me. In contrast to their previous LP “Haven,” it is extremely hook-oriented. Which is not to say that the songs themselves are bad, but ... read more

"Les voyages de l'âme" is my first Alcest record, and it is a damn good introduction. Wikipedia tells me that the band views this as a successful fusion of their black metal, shoegaze, and post-rock influences, and this is something you can confirm by giving it a listen. I have heard it’s a concept album, and will have to look at the lyrics at some point—but even with vocals I don’t understand, it combines well with the dreamlike instrumentation to create ... read more

Of all of the albums in Boris' discography, this one intrigued me the most the moment I heard it in a "Top 50 Japanese albums on RYM" video. After a full, mostly uninterrupted listen… I can concur that it is an excellent record.

"Flood" sets an ambitious goal for itself—of accurately depicting the scale, emotion, and evolution of a natural disaster—and this I think it achieves excellently. This album sits in the post-metal range of genre, but I would ... read more