I have been playing a lot of fighting games recently, and I always like to relate things I enjoy with music. So, now I kinda see an artist’s or band’s discography as a sort of select screen, with different archetypes. You got the grappler albums that hook you in and never let go, you got the rushdown albums that never let up, you got the zoner albums that are quite tricky to get your hands on. And then you got albums that are just kind of weird, even in a discography that might ... read more

Altesia is a fairly newer band within the prog mythos, forming in 2017 in Bordeaux, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France. Now the reason I am reviewing an album from this fairly obscure prog metal act is simple…I just felt like it. Also because their next album, The Somnambulist, is coming out next month, and I kinda wanna review their first two albums before then.

Altesia’s debut album sets the status quo for what the band’s sound is gonna be. In a way, they’re as if you took ... read more

My relationship with Car Seat Headrest is more casual than anything. I do like some of their albums such as Teens of Style and Twin Fantasy, but I never really was a massive fan of them. That kinda stays true now, but even before The Scholars released I knew I was in for a treat.

I mean, for one, they went full on prog rock here, and you know how I am about that genre. I always considered them a more ‘progressive’ band, both musically and narratively, but here they’re just ... read more

Ugh ok this ain’t in context for the review but my feet hurt from standing around all day. Glad I can sit down and write this. Anyways, 2019, the start to the end of all things that were good and pure. Before covid hit, and before the wave of NFTs and AI slop, everything was all nice and peachy, and thus music around this time was still in a ripe time. Music was turning into a new age of experimentation, with acts like black midi, JPEGMAFIA, Kikuo, and The Caretaker hitting it quite big, ... read more

Well this is unexpected. I had a feeling that they would make a new album, but I didn’t expect them to just…drop something out of the blue. I expected at least a few singles, but honestly the only shred of advertisement that the band had done for Lucro sucio; los ojos del vacio was that tour they held with Deftones and Fleshwater, which I actually went to a show during said tour. That was when I got a taste of what the album would be like, and in turn, got quite hyped since the ... read more

Now, if you’ve ever known me, you would know that my relationship with Black Country, New Road is…rocky at best. I cannot deny they do have some talent, but they never wowed me unlike other bands in the Windmill Scene, and, in fact, I would go so far as to say I don’t get why people seemed to love them in the past, especially in regards to Ants From Up There. I don’t like Ants From Up There, I’m sorry, but it just feels like such a basic post rock album to me that ... read more

OH BOY I HAVE BEEN WAITING TO REVIEW THIS! Ever since I reviewed Hellfire in 2022, I have been waiting patiently for the chance to look at the other two albums on black midi’s studio catalog, and now that I will absolutely review more of them, I can now tell everyone about my favorite album of 2021, Cavalcade!

Cavalcade is where I believe the Windmill scene, as well as black midi as a whole, peaked. In a way, it perfectly encaptures the ideals and musical thoughts within the scene that ... read more

When I think of black metal, I never really picture cities as a visage point. Usually I imagine dark, gloomy forests, snowy mountain tops, maybe even the occasional medieval weaponry. But New York? Now that’s something different in the black metal sphere I never thought of, though a city could theoretically work. A concrete forest oftentimes can hide the cruelties of man just as well as a forest can. In a way, that’s where Imperial Triumphant’s newest release of Goldstar comes ... read more

One of the most popular English fairy tales is Goldilocks and the Three Bears, written by Robert Southey. You already know the story, and you already know of the iconic phrase of “its just right” that the titular Goldilocks says when she unknowingly eats from the baby bear’s porridge. Funnily enough, Goldilocks always tried baby bear’s stuff last. Guess it makes sense for Phil’s last release under the Microphones name would be his “just right” ... read more

While I don’t listen to the genre a lot, I do admire trip hop for its pretty nice, atmospheric beats. There’s something just nice when it comes to listening to some cool downtempo beats that can be pretty cathartic. Obviously Massive Attack comes to mind, but Portishead and some Ulver albums can be brought up to my knowledge upon the genre. However, it seems due to a recent album swap, the number of bands have reached one more with Röyksopp and their debut album of Melody ... read more

Don’t be fooled, this is actually the second studio album from Haken guitarist Charlie Griffiths, just under a different name. I really liked his debut record of Tiktaalika, though I did feel like it drew a bit heavily from the original Haken sound. Though, I was quite optimistic going into this record, especially when I heard it focused more on the thrash metal elements that sometimes sprung up from the previous album.

This is a pretty good improvement from the debut I’d say. Gods ... read more

I never reviewed a video game soundtrack before, and I most certainly haven’t reviewed a nearly 4 hour long album before. However there is a first for everything.

C418 is a very popular musician in the video game scene, mostly because of his two soundtrack albums for Minecraft, that being Volume Alpha and Volume Beta, which are both pretty good albums that had captured a bit of my childhood as I used to play a ton of Minecraft back in the day. However he is also a bit well known in the ... read more

Indie folk is pretty co–Wait no this is prog folk. Uhhh prog folk is also pretty cool too, especially Jethro Tull. I was a bit surprised they made a comeback in 2022, and remain even after. Though I will say the past two albums of The Zealot Gene and RökFlöte were pretty much just ok, but I was pleasantly surprised with this year’s release of Curious Ruminant.

I think the main draw the album has in comparison to the decade’s formers happens to be with how the album ... read more

Indie folk is pretty cool. Again. Y’all know the drill by this point, Microphones, Phil Elverum, all that jazz. But guess what, they pulled a Dream Theater and did a Metropolis Part 2 for The Glow off of It Was Hot, We Stayed in the Water, by making an album that's meant to be a second part to an entire song from the previous album! How neato is that? Also, similarly to Metropolis Part 2, The Glow Part 2 is the band’s most popular work.

While I do not agree with the sentiment ... read more

Indie folk is pretty cool. Same with indie pop. Combine them and you got a recipe for pretty great things. That’s where Conor O'Brien’s Villagers steps in with their 2010 debut release of Becoming a Jackal to show this great combo meal in a tightly knit package.

Never heard of this band before, but after listening to this album quite a bit it became a hit in my ears. I think what I enjoy most about this record is how it delivers its folk aspects. A lot of indie folk groups, at ... read more

Been a wild ride through the Devil Doll rabbit hole, but we’re finally here to the last record Mr. Doctor had ever made under the Devil Doll name. While technically the band isn’t disbanded, at least according to some sources, it's safe to assume they aren’t gonna really make any new music anytime soon. Though I could very well be wrong. Last year bands like Semiramis and Sleepytime Gorilla Museum came back. Guess it wouldn’t be too far fetched for Devil Doll to ... read more

You know, I didn’t expect them to release a new album this early in the year, since usually it happens much later. That said, who cannot complain about a new Motorpsycho release? It's basically tradition at this point.

Last year with Neigh!!, I felt like that album was likable, but certainly a step down from what the band had made prior. However, I was still cautiously optimistic when it came down to their next album. Keyword cautious, cause I didn’t quite know if ... read more

What makes pop music so good? What is it that drives people to explore it and want to pursue their own ideals through it? Is it the infectious grooves? Is it the hooks? Is it the market appeal? These questions have been on my mind for a bit now, especially as I listen to more and more genres of pop. It's a genre that doesn’t just have variety, but also grit; glamour; magic. From the old pop rocks of The Beatles, to the more modern synths of Magdalena Bay, pop music in its entirety ... read more

Technically speaking, according to RYM, this record is a triple LP, though if it were released today it’d probably just be a double. In fact re-releases that do come in vinyl format are doubles and not triples. I guess the art of making vinyl records wasn't too understood by this point in the 60s still so companies thought that hour long recordings should be triples and not doubles for whatever reason. Or perhaps vinyl formats were a lot smaller. I don’t know, I am a music geek ... read more

Hard rock is a staple of rock n’ roll, that much is recognized. From the progressive twiddling of Rush, to the more buttsy grooves of AC/DC, hard rock has cemented itself as a tour de force that doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon. Anyways, with all that said, it's a genre with a lot of start ups, and one such start up I was very surprised about was from the band Elf.

Now, I just had to hear this album no matter the quality because of its very goofy album cover. When I ... read more