Year: 2013
Review: And So I Watch You From Afar
The Belfast, Ireland trio, And So I Watch You From Afar, returns with their technicolor warpaint-smudged and candy-coated Slayer riffs punching gaping holes into rainbow-bleeding amplifiers. … read more
Review: Anchoress – Set Sail
I’m calling it—this is the album of the summer, if not the year. Furious and cocky hardcore punk with more swagger in 22 minutes than most bands have in a full LP, I haven’t taken this album out of my stereo since I started listening to it. … read more
Review: Anvil – Hope is Hell
It’s been six years since the documentary was made about Canada’s Anvil rising out of obscurity to, well, just about a higher level of obscurity. The fact that Anvil had some good records in the ‘80s—right about the time metal wasn’t so cool anymore—but never rose to outright fame is the story of a lot of metal bands. … read more
Review: Amon Amarth – Deceiver of the Gods
As one of my friends so cleanly sums it up: “It’s an Amon Amarth record.” … read more
Review: Andy Kaufman – Andy and His Grandmother
If this half-hour-long collection of random conversations that Dada song-and-dance comic Andy Kaufman recorded between ’77 and ’79 is the best anyone could do to drum up renewed interest in whether he faked his own death, then I guess no one really cares anymore. … read more
Review: Anoraak – Chronotropic
The three-piece band possesses the stereotypical French nu-disco sound that seems to be rising in popularity these days. This album makes a valiant effort to encapsulate those final moments of summer but I didn’t really fall for it, in spite of the electroshock therapy I felt Anoraak was subliminally conducting. … read more
Review: Akron/Family – Sub Verses
Sub Verses is Akron/Family’s densest, busiest and most undeniably rockist album to date. For these reasons, piled on top of their familiar vocal harmonization and expansive experimentation into the marriage of the limitless boundaries of electronic programming and the gnarled, woody heart of American rock n’ roll, Sub Verses makes the case for Akron/Family being one of the most vital groups working in rock music today. … read more
Review: Alkaline Trio
After 17 years and album after album, it’s likely that you’ve heard of Alkaline Trio, and you know what you’re getting into on My Shame Is True. … read more
Review: Alison Moyet – The Minutes
Usually, it takes the first phrasing from Moyet’s lips to hook me into a specific song, but as Guy Sigworth’s elegant electronics start on “Horizon Flame,” it is apparent that something exciting is at play. … read more
Review: All Pigs Must Die – Nothing Violates This Nature
All Pigs Must Die initiate Nothing Violates This Nature with the thrashy “Chaos Arise”—and it does! … read more