The Beatles revisited part 4/16

Although The Beatles' third album doesn't change too much from the regular sound that you've come to expect from them over their past couple releases, it does, at least, show more growth as musicians. While I still wouldn't call A Hard Day's Night one of the strongest releases from The Beatles, this is where you can start to understand where their status as some of the greatest musicians of all time starts to come into play. Right from the opening title track, ... read more

Swans revisited part 3/22

Swans' sophomore LP, Cop, is arguably even more well-known than their fantastic debut, Filth, and maybe even more respected (or at least on sites that aren't this one. Seriously, what's up with that user score?). Even though it keeps the same sort of industrial sound that they introduced in Filth, this one doesn't end up being anywhere near as effective at feeling dity, instead trying and succeeding at being more brutal, with a slower, sludgier playing style which ... read more

Metallica revisited part 3/12

Master Of Puppets, the one album that defines Metallica's career and the whole metal genre as a whole. This is the album that every single metal artist took inspiration from after 1986. This is the album that all the metal bands before 1986 wish they made. It's just fucking impossible to even dislike this album. If you think you dislike this album, then you're lying to yourself because there's no way anyone dislikes this album. This is the definition of a ... read more

David Bowie revisited 4/27

Bowie opened up the lyrical genius inside him for this album, and all the proceeding albums. Although there were definitely masterful lyrical moments in The Man Who Sold The World and a couple of stand-out songs in Space Oddity, this is the first album of his where you can say for certain he became the lyricist everyone knows him as. When this is the first album of his that every single line, no matter how menial the may seem on the outside, can be analyzed to the ... read more

The Beatles revisited part 3/16

Usually I don't pay much attention to alternate versions of albums. Usually U.S. reissues of British albums aren't all that noteworthy, outside of maybe kicking a few filler songs for some great singles, but as a whole there just isn't much to talk about. But when it comes to Meet The Beatles, the U.S. definitely got the superior version.

You wanna know why Meet The Beatles is a better album than With The Beatles? No filler. Out of the six covers presented in ... read more

Swans revisited part 2/22

If there's any album title that perfectly describes its contents, it's Filth. Even after hearing many harsh noise albums, every time I return to this album, it still feels like I'm diving headfirst into a pool of rancid pig guts. I don't even know if there's any album that I've heard that even comes close to making me want to take a shower as much as Filth does.

Swans' debut album throws absolutely everything its got at you, and by the end of it you're going to be ... read more

Metallica revisited part 2/12

Metallica is one of those artists where it seems every single listener has a different favourite album from them. Ask more extreme fans, they'll say Kill 'Em All. Ask classic rock and metal fans, they'll say Master Of Puppets. Ask prog fans, they'll say Justice. Ask more hard rock fans, they'll say anything released in the '90s. Hell, there's even some weird people that'll point to any of their 2000s or 2010s releases, which I guess is fair but also something I'll ... read more

David Bowie revisited part 3/27

When the new decade hit, it seemed Bowie completely changed. The more lighthearted and personal David Bowie shown in his self-titled debut and in Space Oddity was gone, and now we have a darker David Bowie, one who likes to explore everything from insanity to sexuality, and do so with a hard rock sound more akin to Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin than the pop and folk he went for previously.

The Man Who Sold The World is undeniably the start of Bowie's classic ... read more

The Beatles revisited part 2/16

I feel like With The Beatles is one of those albums that will always be hugely divisive. You either think that this is a refinement of the sound they used in Please Please Me, or you likely think it's a more boring alternative to that album. While I did initially fall under the former opinion, I really can't get into this album anymore, and that's coming from someone who has relistened to almost all of The Beatles' discography many times over.

With The Beatles ... read more

Swans revisited part 1/22

Swans' no wave era is one that would always be difficult to get into. The genre itself is so damn unforgiving that the average listener who may only know Swans from their more hypnotic and beautiful works would not enjoy a second of it. If there was any album I would use to introduce a less experienced music listener to this period of Swans, it would be their debut self-titled EP just because of how comparatively accessible it is, but even saying that, this twenty ... read more

Metallica revisited part 1/12

When Metallica released their first studio album in 1983, they came crashing down all the doors, taking the speed metal of Motorhead and elevating it to the extreme. Kill 'Em All, alongside Slayer's debut album which released the same year, essentially created the thrash metal genre, one of my personal favourite subgenres of metal and one of my favourite genres in general, and also started the lengthy career of hands down the most famous and popular metal band to ... read more

David Bowie revisited part 2/27

Even after returning to both albums many times, it still baffles me with how much Bowie improved upon his work in just two years. With his debut being as awkard and sometimes even painful as it is, you would think it would take him quite some time to really become someone worth any note, but by his second release he's already become someone who was worth all the attention you could give him.

Now, I wouldn't exactly say Space Oddity is a great album, but it is, ... read more

The Beatles revisited part 1/16

Please Please Me still stands as an album which I really do not understand the hype surrounding it. While I can't exactly say this is a bad album at all, I still, for the life of me, do not understand the critical acclaim for this album and why so many still call this a great debut or even a good album from one of the best rock bands to ever walk this earth.

I honestly think that the backstory behind this album is more interesting than the album itself. The ... read more

David Bowie revisited part 1/27

I'm sorry, but if you don't like We Are Hungry Men, don't even talk to me.

Ah yes, David Bowie's self-titled debut. The one album that everyone likes to forget even exists, with everything he would release following this holding some of the greatest material of all time, solidifying him as one of the all-time greatest artists. And let's be honest here, no matter how much of a fan you may be of Bowie's work, there's no defending this. This album, to put it ... read more

I've finally found it; the trve rival to Apator's Masturbate In Praise Of Satan. After many months of looking, even trying my best to find more of Apator's early material with no success (still looking though), I've finally found the trvest kvlt music ever. The absolute pinnacle of black metal. This shit gives Transilvanian Hunger a run for its money. What Czarci Świt did here was define everything the black metal genre is all about, and it's a fucking travesty that it's so unknown.

In all ... read more

A pretty cool debut from new death metal band Kommand, though admittedly not all that great.

A 23 minute album that could pass for an EP that really doesn't leave much of an impact, but does give us six perfectly fine death metal tracks. There honestly isn't too much to say about this, but I will say that there are quite a few headbangable riffs on this thing. The middle-to-last few tracks in particular have some of the best moments I've heard in death metal all year (which admittedly isn't ... read more

Pike #283

Buckethead's fifth release of the year is by far the most underwhelming one yet. Starting off with the ten minute title track that doesn't add anything new to Buckethead's discography outside of good playing that is honestly only decent when compared to the rest of his discography. After that, there really isn't much to really justify giving this a full listen, outside of the two closing tracks, both of which are live performances of really good songs that were on previous Pike ... read more

Four minutes and thirty three seconds of pure silence. It's kind of hard to really talk about 4'33" in an objective way. This is an album that relies heavily on its statement of literally anything being music as long as an instrument is involved, even if said instrument isn't even touched for a specific period of time. That on its own is interesting, so a record that is literally him doing just that is interesting. But looking at this from an objective viewpoint, this is the last thing on ... read more

AZEEZUS has been a record that I've been interested in since AZIZ started releasing singles for it a few months ago. To say the least, it has certainly lived up to expectations.

One of the things that really made AZIZ's music stick out to me from every other AOTY artist is his darker, more ambient sound. I've always felt like he has always excelled at this kind of sound, and AZEEZUS is no different from that. The darker atmosphere at times really grabbed me, and the samples also worked ... read more

The fact that this EP consists of unfinished and cut tracks shows how much MALNEEZY has improved as an artist. While it isn't the most consistent project he's ever done, a lot of these tracks are some of the most fun he's released to date. Tracks like Loading and Grey Whale City I honestly think are some of the best I've heard from him yet, and Computer Crash and Hotline Austin are also really good. I'd say that Darker Streets is also a good track, but I do think it's a bit too distracting, as ... read more