Category: Reviews – Vinyl

Metal still sounds best on large, round pieces of pressed vinyl. The smell, the artwork – and it gets played through a needle.

  • Coheed and Cambria – In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3

    Coheed and Cambria – In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3

    Sometimes there’s just no question or doubt that, when it was originally made, an album wasn’t intended to appear on a particular format. A perfect example can be found in the vinyl reissue of Coheed and Cambria‘s sophomore album, In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3. While the sound is great, even the most devoted fans…

  • Hunters – Hands on Fire

    Hunters – Hands on Fire

    From the very first time I heard Hunters‘ debut full length album, I was in love. The grainy, gritty street-punk-meets-grunge mixture produced by the band touched every single pleasure center in my brain. Derek Watson’s guitar growled just the right way and Izzy Almeida’s vocals smoothed the hardened, angry burrs in my mind with a…

  • Pallbearer – Foundations of Burden

    Pallbearer – Foundations of Burden

    Man, I gotsta say, this new Pallbearer rekkid is pretty fancy-schmancy: a double dose of uber-thick vinyl (I’m guessing 180g) that comes with a glossy poster/lyric sheet.  Profound Lore really went all-out on this one… but considering the success of its critically-acclaimed predecessor, Sorrow and Extinction, I can see why they felt ’twas worth the effort.…

  • Death From Above 1979 – The Physical World

    Death From Above 1979 – The Physical World

    In the name of complete disclosure, I must confess that I wasn’t the biggest fan of Death From Above 1979 on their first trip through the pop music ranks. What the band was playing at in their first go ’round was just too canny, calculated, competant and superficial for me; it played like punk geared…

  • Indriocothere – II

    Indricothere are most definitely not going to be everyone’s cup of tea. Lacking an attention span for the most part, II will turn away the more traditional audience. But for those with more adventurous tastes, II serves as a testament to the unfathomable talent that resides in Colin Marston. Genius like this doesn’t come along…

  • Fell Voices – Regum Saturni

    With Regnum Saturni, Fell Voices play darkness against light, cold against warmth, chaos against order. While it would work well as background music, it deserves more respect than that. This album is meant to be experienced with undivided attention.

  • Shooting Guns – Brotherhood of the Ram LP

    Hellbound Metal: “With Brotherhood of the Ram, Shooting Guns have hit the bullseye again. Their hypnotic and psychedelic grooves hone in on the pleasure centres of the brain.”

  • Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine – White People and the Damage Done

    By Bill Adams It took a couple of formative years and releases to really get settled and established, but Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine has found its rhythm and released a new, instantly classic album in White People and the Damage Done. Those readers who have heard about this album but haven’t…

  • Corrections House – Hoax the System/Grin with a Purpose 7″

    By Gruesome Greg Always interested to hear what Williams, Kelly, Parker and company have got cooking, which in this case, takes the form of a seven-inch single. “Grin with a Purpose” is apparently Side A, with a bit of a Neurosis backdrop backing spoken-word poetry and the occasional, sparsely-interspersed guitar riff. Williams’ words eventually turn…

  • Lychgate – s/t

    Hellbound Metal: “Lychgate is a harrowing experience not for the faint of heart guaranteed to shrivel your soul into a black mass with its dense sonics and disorienting vocal ministrations.”