The music Mike Hadreas has been making as Perfume Genius over the past 10 years has never exactly been short on feeling. One listen to his quiveringly fragile voice on any one of the songs he has released, from his 2010 debut until now, would serve as ample indication that this is an artist who is unafraid of exposing his listeners to the darkest and most intimate recesses of his mind. With precision-engineered songwriting and tastefully restrained musical adornments, he is preternaturally ... read more

On his fifth album proper, Danny Brown closes out a decade of border-pushing brilliance with a release that, despite a credits list featuring underground heavyweights like Run The Jewels, Flying Lotus, Blood Orange and JPEGMAFIA (not to mention Q-Tip!), adopts a refreshingly relaxed and undemanding approach.

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The first words we got to hear from Danny Brown’s first project since 2016 were “the hybrid”. That ad-lib, delivered with Brown's now trademark strangulated ... read more

A new TOOL record cannot exist in a vacuum. The context surrounding it can't help but alter how it is received and perceived. Like it or not, they're a band that inspire fervent idolatry from their legion of die-hard fans, and abject, sneering ridicule from their detractors. Taken too seriously by the former, and not seriously at all by the latter, TOOL are the textbook definition of "divisive," hailed as mold-breaking geniuses by one camp, and tediously pretentious by the other. ... read more

There have been a number of stories in the music press of late extolling the mental health benefits of listening to metal music. Contrary to popular misconception, exposing ones ears to the bludgeoning instrumentals, and, at times, darkly violent lyrical themes of extreme music does not, it appears, render the listener a raging, misogynist misanthrope, mired in festering self-hatred and suicidal ideation. To the contrary, metal music apparently helps its fans process and control feelings of ... read more