Loved their previous album, so I was extremely excited to hear a new one was out so quickly. This isn't a bad album by any means. They play the tunes with ferocity and conviction. The riffs are killer in general. The vocals on this are particularly fun. The songs are energetic, propulsive and engaging. I guess it just feels like it's missing "something". The production could be a little less compressed, but the guitars sound great and there is a lot of verve to it. Enjoyable ... read more

Los Angeles Power Metallers Anubis bring the edgy material here on "Anthromorphicide" (say that three times fast, lol). Some of the writing on here gets fairly proggy and I like the dynamic songwriting, even if it does get samey over the full length. Musicianship is decent and the riffs are good but never really venture into ripping territory. The production is about average for the style and niether enhances nor detracts from the performances. The band knows their stuff and play with ... read more

Some serious German Black / Thrash here. Played with conviction and authenticity. Musicianship is pretty decent and the guitar riffs are great. These guys move back and forth between blast beat insanity and slower, more first wave BM style grooves. The production is a bit murky and buries some of the stuff under too much compression, but when the songs hit they hit HARD. Vocals are very BM-inspired schreechy shrieks, but they work here. All-in-all a decent slab of confidently performed Black / ... read more

I loved this band's debut, so color me shocked by how much I dislike the follow up. In short: the production on this is a hot mess. Absolutely nothing can be heard clearly enough to determine what is going on. The album is certainly played with ferocity, but whether that ferocity is drums, or guitars, or vocals, or some amalgam of all three, is utterly impossible to determine. It's a wall of harsh noise that appears to have vocals buried underneath the earth in there. It sounds like ... read more

Mexican Black Metal that is thoroughly enjoyable. The musicianship is good and the riffs are excellent. Songs never get boring to me and I love the song structures on here. Production is probably polarizing as it's super lo-fi raw AF. I think it adds, rather than detracts, from the overall atmosphere of this album and I enjoy it quite a bit. This will certainly not be for everyone but those that enjoy well-performed raw BM will love this.

This man can certainly sing, and his vocals are genuinely unique. When he hits that neo-soul groove (see "Easy Ain't Home") he really stands out and the emotion is undeniable. His vibrato and nuance are unusual but it works to wonderful effect. The album is a bit slow, so if you're looking for high energy you'll need to go elsewhere. Banks' delivery is earnest, authentic and memorable. This album is for rainy nights and lazy days. Good stuff but needs the right ... read more

I'm not the biggest Hip Hop fan, but Snoop usually delivers something that I can wrap my head around and enjoy. That said, this simply isn't good. The album is not cohesive at all. All the songs sound like one-offs that Snoop and his pals recorded here and there. He figured he had enough of them lying around so he threw them together and called it a new album. The beats are middling for the most part, except for tunes like "Long Beachin'" which is great. Snoop sounds ... read more

"Dawn Breakers" is the newest Indie Folk from Belgian multi-disciplinary artist France de Griessen. While I get what is going on with her minimalist compositions, I wish that she would have been much more dynamic in her songwriting. All of these tunes sound alike and, in their hypnotic and sleepy tempos, run together and get a bit boring by album's end. Most of the musicianship can be summarized by simply stating they are slowly arpeggiated chords and lightly sung vocals. While ... read more

The only song on here that I enjoyed was "White Death", mostly because it was reminiscent of the band's excellent album from 2019 "Divided by Darkness". This album is almost nothing like that album. Gone is the dynamic Metal songwriting that made that album so great. What we have with "Infinite Illumination" is a collection of lackadasical Doom tunes that, frankly, all sound alike. It feels phoned in and, unfortunately, it's boring. The riffs get tired ... read more

Outstanding Death Metal from these long-running Swedish veterans. What the songwriting lacks in dynamics, the band certainly makes up for with intensity and top notch musicianship. These tunes are all played viscerally fast, and the blasts are certainly energetic. Riffs are killer and they notch it up a bit with their tremolo-picked rhythms. Everything is maximum intensity and it's great. Wish the production was a bit more open so the instruments (especially the drums) were more ... read more

This is an interesting German Heavy Metal band. They incorporate '70s organ and clarinet into their tunes. It's unique and actually pretty interesting. The musicianship is average and the riffs are decent. The songs are very 70s influenced and this band sounds like a weird cross between Deep Purple and Chapel of Disease (vocalist sounds a LOT like the guy from Chapel of Disease). The music, while not abrasively Metal certainly sits on the fringe of that genre. The production is where ... read more

Melechesh return with a lengthy (for three songs) EP of their now-legendary brand of Middle-Eastern-Inflected Black / Death. Ashmedi is in great form here and his vocals are just as razor sharp and insane as ever. The riffs are typical for Melechesh which is to say they freaking rule. Riffs ebb and flow and angle against each other in a way that gets your head moving. As we have seen, Ashmedi weaves a lot of groove into his compositions so they aren't just a blast beating frenzy. ... read more

"The Descent" from French Black / Death crew Skaphos has some fantastic, flailing intensity. The songs are performed with fire and authority and keeps the album from getting boring. The production is a bot too stifling for my tastes, though. It suppresses any of the dynamics that might exist in these songs. This makes the songs all feel very samey, which is unfortunate because the driving power is undeniable. Hard to piece together how good of musicians these guys are given how hard ... read more

Excellent Thrash album from this Quebec trio. Lots of tasty legato Speed Metal riffs and their blistering 64th notes on here. These killer riffs keep each song accelerating forward and just make this album a lot of fun. Songs are somewhat samey but the riffs are tasty enough to keep it all sounding fresh. Production is about what you'd expect for this subgenre. The entire album is played with genuine energy and sounds pretty unique. All-in-all a really good Thrashy Speed Metal album that ... read more

"Razorback Killers" is a genuinely pleasant surprise in the later-era catalog of Vicious Rumors—an album that proves Geoff Thorpe still knows how to deliver sharp, muscular US power metal when the songwriting clicks. After some less memorable outings, the songs here feel focused and energized, packed with strong hooks and enough variety to keep the momentum alive from start to finish.

The guitar work is, as expected, a major highlight. Thorpe’s riffs are tight and ... read more

"Madvillainy" feels less like a collection of songs and more like an underground hip-hop opera assembled from fractured loops, comic-book fragments, and pure creative instinct. For listeners who prioritize instrumental musicianship, its sample-driven foundation naturally places a ceiling on how high it can climb—but what Madvillain accomplish within that framework is undeniably remarkable.

MF DOOM is the gravitational center here. His flow is endlessly compelling: slippery, ... read more

"The Future State of Wicked" is the kind of reunion album that earns points almost entirely on conviction. More than thirty years after their original run, Blood Feast return sounding as fiery and committed as ever—but unfortunately, not much sharper.
The biggest issue here is the musicianship. For a veteran thrash band, you might expect tighter execution, but the playing often feels rough around the edges, with the drums in particular sounding surprisingly sloppy at key ... read more

"Digital Dictator" is the sound of a band realizing exactly what it does well and attacking it with total conviction. With new vocalist Carl Albert stepping into the lineup, Vicious Rumors suddenly gained a frontman capable of matching Geoff Thorpe’s blistering guitar work note for note in intensity. Albert absolutely rips on this record. His voice has grit, range, and enough melodic power to make every chorus feel massive without drifting into cheese.

The guitar work is the ... read more

"Ray of Light" is where Madonna stops chasing pop trends and instead dissolves herself into atmosphere, introspection, and texture. The musicianship, in the traditional sense, is mostly irrelevant here—this is electronic music built less on instrumental performance and more on layering, programming, and sonic architecture. Fortunately, the songwriting is strong enough to justify it completely.

The songs feel lush and ethereal without tipping into artificial ... read more

Blonde Redhead’s "Penny Sparkle" is less a collection of performances than a carefully engineered atmosphere. The musicianship is almost incidental—there’s very little here that relies on instrumental complexity, memorable riffs, or dynamic interplay. Instead, the album lives and dies by texture, layering, and production gloss.

To the band’s credit, the songwriting is strong enough to make that approach work more often than not. Despite the near-shoegaze ... read more