Oh my God. It's been 8 months… 8 MONTHS!!!

Now that that’s out of the way, yay I’m back! Sorry I've been out a while. I think I needed to take a loooong break in order to try to get some of my shit together and prioritize things that felt more important to me. But I don't want this to be about me. I want to focus on writing: something I've gotten increasingly more passionate about getting back into.

So... let’s review an album, shall we?

You probably already know how ... read more

I'm so goddamn stoked to be finally binging this band! Holy shit!

Journal Thing!:

"Flood" starts off with some continuously layering guitar loops that I initially thought dragged on a bit. But that's before it ends with these haunting walls of percussion, signifying that there might be a storm coming. But before that, we transition into the second phase. The soothing, chorus-soaked guitars ooze the aquatic theme the album artwork hints at. It feels calm... too calm... and it's very, ... read more

Never mind. Gandalf wants back in the womb.

So, there's been a steady-ish decline for The Mars Volta ever since "Frances the Mute" came out. I thought "Amputechture" was a very good album that felt like it dragged on a bit and "The Bedlam in Goliath" was a mixed bag of grating-at-times vocal effects and some forgettable tracks, but it still had some great highlights and it was definitely one of the most out-there albums of their catalog. "Octahedron" ... read more

Listening to this along with "De-Loused" on the same night was a fucking experience.

"Frances the Mute" is a pitch-perfect follow-up to an already amazing debut, taking all the highlights of its predecessor and building upon each and every one of them! The playing is even more technical, the production is chockfull of great sound manipulation, the songwriting is immaculate and Cedric Bixler-Zavala's vocal performances have STEPPED THE FUCK UP!!! His vocal range was already ... read more

As soon as I heard “De-Loused in the Comatorium” last year, I was addicted Now I have it on CD, this is a fucking amazing album!

It starts off with this trippy, psychedelic intro before it hits you with the main hook of “Inertiatic ESP”: “NOOOOOOOOOOW IIIIII’M LOOOOOOOOOOOST”! This track hits you with every highlight this album has right from the get-go, with Omar’s fantastic guitar playing, the complex, technical compositions and the bonkers, ... read more

At the Drive-In (and also The Mars Volta, which I'll get into shortly) is a band I've wanted to binge for a long time. I think it's the introduction of the first two Mars Volta records that made me anticipate listening to "Relationship of Command" even more. Now that I've actually listened to it (a few months back), well, what can I say at this point? This is an excellent post-hardcore record with cryptic-as-hell lyrics, tight performances, insane guitar work from Omar Rodriguez ... read more

AJJ, known back then as Andrew Jackson Jihad, is a band I found in a Discover Weekly playlist in late 2016, the same year they abbreviated their name. “Brave as a Noun” was such a different song to what I was listening to back then, but I was super intrigued. And for an album that I listened to for so long… why did my stupid dumb dumb stupid brain give "People That Can Eat People Are the Luckiest People in the World" an 8.4? I was kinda stupid dumb back then, if you ... read more

Baslinky

It's difficult to process grief. Whether this person was very close or there were little conversations with them in the form of, say, a dm, there's always a little hole in the heart when someone you know loses their life. Such is the case for hip hop group Injury Reserve. Midway through 2020, the "Three Man Weave" lost a key member. Jordan Alexander Groggs, or Stepa J. Groggs, was his name and he was just as important to the band as Ritchie and Parker. So, without Groggs present for a ... read more

...zzzzzz... huh? Wait, Deafheaven released a shoegaze album? Good for them!

You read that correctly. Deafheaven take a step back from their metallic blackgaze roots (mostly) and go full-on whitegaze. I know a lot of people are either gonna despise this new direction or absolutely love it (though I think your opinion is super valid either way). For me, this is a very natural transition for the band as they've pretty much experimented with dreamy, gaze-y aesthetics throughout their discography ... read more

What the hell happened here?

"Solar Power" feels like such a significant downgrade, especially when compared to "Melodrama", a record me and many others hailed as one of the sharpest pop albums of the last decade. The decision was made to go for a very summery folk pop sound, but producer Jack Antonoff doesn't do much to distinguish itself from many others tackling this style besides some psychedelic touches and the occasional 90's throwback. We still have some highlights, ... read more

Following up her flawed but ambitious debut, I've been hopeful for her sophomore effort. "Happier Than Ever" sees plenty of maturity in the songwriting front, though the results could've been a lot better.

Billie, along with James Blake's worst nightmare: FINNEAS (oooooh spooky!), goes for a more traditional sound on this one and it definitely works on some cuts while others suffer from it a bit. Consistency is the big Achilles Heel of this album and tracks like "I Didn't Change ... read more

The Dillinger Escape Plan is a band I've heard plenty of positive things about, especially with some of my friends who jam the fuck out to it. Now that I'm finally starting a genre binge that takes me through a discography of two bands (plus a few extra albums that I probably won't review), I can safely say that their iconic debut album is mostly really damn good, if a bit flawed in my opinion.

Luckily enough, when "Calculating Infinity" gets to those highs, it's pretty fucking high! ... read more

[2,000th Rating!!!]

I’ve been meaning to check out The Caretaker’s ”Everywhere at the End of Time” for the longest... time, since everybody started talking about it in 2019. I kept seeing memes of it everywhere, the concept is very intriguing, and the 6-and-a-half hour length is daunting and… yeah. That was my problem at the time. The length alone put this DEEP in my waitlist (despite literally listening to the entirety of Natural Snow Buildings’ ... read more

Wow... yep.

This is disappointing, alright. Modest Mouse used to be one of the best frontrunners of the indie rock scene from the mid-90's to the mid-2000's. The four-way streak of "This Is a Long Drive for Someone With Nothing to Think About", "The Lonesome Crowded West", "The Moon and Antarctica" and even their more accessible "Good News for People Who Love Bad News" was incredible! Hell, I don't even mind "We Were Dead Before the Ship Even ... read more

Danny Elfman made an album. Holy shit.

Danny Elfman! You probably know the guy. He's been in the Nightmare Before Christmases and the Batmans... and the Dumbos. He's a cool composer, but he also led an even cooler new wave band called "Oingo Boingo". I've only heard about 4 or 5 songs from them, but they seem like a band I would be interested in doing a discog dive on. Anyways, it's been almost 30 years since their last album and it's only just now that Danny wanted to step away from ... read more

I can’t stop sucking the windmill scene’s dick, apparently. I'm sorry! I just can't help myself! ; )

(Most of) black midi is back with a PURRRPOSSE. The guitar-toting frontflip extraordinaire Matt Kwasniewski-Kelvin is taking a break for a little bit to focus on his mental health, but the band is pretty much their chaotic selves. Everything they've presented on 2019's amazing "Schlagenheim" is accounted for on "Cavalcade". Their complex math rock tendencies ... read more

TOP are back and they've sold-out to an evil corporation. The results are kinda what you would expect... maybe a little better.

Now, I have a pretty odd relationship with this band. Back when I had that "mall emo" phase, I loved twenty one pilots! Nowadays, the duo have shrunk quite a bit on 19-almost-20-year-old me. I still have nostalgia and fond memories that are tied to certain tracks from them, but their discography suffers from glaring flaws. Those being the cringeworthy ... read more

*air horns*

Yea