Machine Head - Bloodstone & Diamonds (Album Review)

Machine Head's 'The Blackening' is a modern masterpiece. A sprawling, hour-long epic, it threw down the gauntlet to other heavy metal bands back in 2007, and they have thus far largely failed to match its intensity. Neither have Machine Head, though, and 'Unto The Locust', that album's follow up, was peppered with mixed reviews.

Written by: Alec Chillingworth | Date: Thursday, 13 November 2014

Foo Fighters - Sonic Highways (Album Review)

Foo Fighters’ latest excursion promises something new; something steeped in personal history and hewn from the varied musical heritages of some of the USA’s most vibrant cities. It’s a challenge, a chance for one of the biggest bands in the world step outside the bounds of stadium rock shoutalongs. The result, as a cynical observer might have predicted, is an album boasting eight stadium rock shoutalongs of mixed quality. ‘Sonic Highways’ takes the long way round before ending up at the usual place.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Wednesday, 12 November 2014

The Xcerts - There Is Only You (Album Review)

It’s been four and a half years since the Xcerts released their sophomore album, ‘Scatterbrain’; long enough for you to think the band might have disappeared for good. It’s not that they haven’t been busy – they’ve toured regularly – but, with the British alt-rock scene as crowded as it is, their prolonged absence means that ‘There is Only You’ needs to be something pretty special if they are to make up for lost time.

Written by: Ben Bland | Date: Tuesday, 11 November 2014

Calvin Harris - Motion (Album Review)

Calvin Harris is a dance giant, a money-making machine of repute and a DJ whose music is at home ricocheting off the ceilings of clubs, reverberating through the walls of arenas and washing over festival crowds. But when does a winning formula stop working? Is it when two ends meet and we start going around in circles, or when the tills stop ringing?

Written by: Gavin Rees | Date: Monday, 10 November 2014

Lordi - Scare Force One (Album Review)

Quite often, it seems, people forget that Lordi are rather good. Whether it’s the band's association with Eurovision, their Freddy Krueger-cum-Kiss outfits or that cringeworthy video of them miming on stage, droves of metal fans shun them. And it ain't right. Save for one pedestrian album, 'Babez For Breakfast', the Finns have always come up with the goods.

Written by: Alec Chillingworth | Date: Friday, 07 November 2014

Damien Rice - My Favourite Faded Fantasy (Album Review)

It’s impossible to approach ‘My Favourite Faded Fantasy’ without first confronting the passing of time. Who were you eight years ago, when Damien Rice’s second album, ‘9’, was released? It’s a cast-iron bet that you were a very different person to the one you are now.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Wednesday, 05 November 2014

Denim Snakes - Denim Snakes (Album Review)

Over a year on from the release of their debut single, 21, Denim Snakes have returned with a self-titled full length that’s a true tale of two halves.

Written by: Dave Ball | Date: Monday, 03 November 2014

Devilment - The Great And Secret Show (Album Review)

Having fronted black metallers Cradle Of Filth for over two decades, Dani Filth has turned his mangled hand to something else and, with promises from his side-project, Temple Of The Black Moon continually falling short, this outing with Devilment on 'The Great And Secret Show' is a welcome one.

Written by: Alec Chillingworth | Date: Monday, 03 November 2014

Taylor Swift - 1989 (Album Review)

Event records, like their cinematic blockbuster counterparts, are an increasingly rare breed. Blame the internet, blame slow-drip release strategies, blame the fact that there aren’t many superstars left...blame whoever or whatever you want. Then watch as ‘1989’, album five from Taylor Swift, crashes into view, treating this year’s chart stats as Godzilla might an unsuspecting city.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Friday, 31 October 2014

Cavalera Conspiracy - Pandemonium (Album Review)

The Cavalera name is synonymous with heavy metal, but many still cry: 'Max hasn't done anything good since 1991!'. It’s enough to make you weep. The thing is, he has produced a wealth of credible, certifiably heavy material since Sepultura's 'Arise' emerged. His influence on thrash, death and groove metal is undeniable and, crucially, untamed dreadlocks are 100% metal, mate.

Written by: Alec Chillingworth | Date: Friday, 31 October 2014

Rancid - ...Honor Is All We Know (Album Review)

The likelihood of a band being hit by the law of diminishing returns naturally increases the longer they’ve been going at it. Rancid are 20 years removed from ‘Let’s Go!’, 19 from the seminal ‘...And Out Come The Wolves’ and 14 from their last career high, their often feral second self-titled album, and it’s begun to show.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Thursday, 30 October 2014

Devin Townsend - Z² (Album Review)

We really should take a moment to appreciate Devin Townsend's sheer relentlessness. Since reactivating in 2009 from the ashes of Strapping Young Lad, this unsung musical hero has released 10 discs of studio material, three elaborate box-sets and a boatload of random goodies, including flip-flops and foldable frisbees. Basically, Hevy Devy has been ploughing forward full speed for five years now, resulting in the culmination of the journey: 'Z²'.

Written by: Alec Chillingworth | Date: Wednesday, 29 October 2014

Restorations - 'LP3' (Album Review)

Restorations, since putting out their first 7” five years or so ago, have built brick by brick, releasing guitar-heavy, Americana-indebted rock songs that took root in Philadelphia’s punk scene and blossomed into something bigger than their initial part-time plans allowed for.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Tuesday, 28 October 2014

The Ting Tings - Super Critical (Album Review)

As much as the difficult second album is a major hurdle to clear, reacting to a negative sophomore experience isn’t all fun and games either. The Ting Tings, who possess a contrary streak that is both admirable and, if you’re a label type, probably a little taxing, responded to the breakout success of That’s Not My Name with the decidedly radio-unfriendly ‘Sounds From Nowheresville’ and promptly went it alone.

Written by: Gavin Rees | Date: Tuesday, 28 October 2014

At The Gates - At War With Reality (Album Review)

Killswitch Engage? Trivium? Shadows Fall? Child's play, boy. These bands simply wouldn't exist without the influence of Gothenburg deathmeisters At The Gates, who, after releasing melo-death classic 'Slaughter Of The Soul' in 1995 and disbanding a year later, have inspired countless musicians and infuriated a bucketload of fans. Two reunions have passed and now, 19 years after changing the extreme metal landscape as we know it, At The Gates have returned with new music.

Written by: Alec Chillingworth | Date: Monday, 27 October 2014

Mark Lanegan Band - Phantom Radio (Album Review)

To describe Mark Lanegan as a musical magpie is a little reductive, but it’s true that the former Screaming Trees man has an uncanny ability to inhabit different styles, invariably without losing the essence of his weathered, world-weary voice.

Written by: Gavin Rees | Date: Wednesday, 22 October 2014

Flying Lotus - You're Dead! (Album Review)

It's hard to conceive of having this many ideas in the first place, let alone being able to fuse them into something as consistently brilliant as 'You're Dead!'.

Written by: Matt Williams | Date: Tuesday, 21 October 2014

Ben Howard - I Forget Where We Were (Album Review)

In general terms, to describe an album as ideal background music is a grievous insult, just a step removed from dismissing it altogether. ‘I Forget Where We Were’, the second full-length by Ben Howard, puts a new spin on the phrase, though, so content is it to exist in the shadows, playing with shifts in tone and melody rather than laying itself bare.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Tuesday, 21 October 2014

Jessie Ware - Tough Love (Album Review)

In music, as in life, there’s some truth to the phrase ‘it’s not what you know, it’s who you know’. So often we are presented with a list of collaborators along with a single or album, while ‘hitmaker’ has become a word used with alarming regularity by people you would expect to know better. Into this maelstrom strides Jessie Ware’s second album, ‘Tough Love’.

Written by: Matt Williams | Date: Friday, 17 October 2014

Slipknot - .5: The Gray Chapter (Album Review)

Let's dispense with the foreplay. We all know who Slipknot are, we know what they've been through and we know how much expectation sits on their shoulders. Judgement day has arrived.

Written by: Alec Chillingworth | Date: Thursday, 16 October 2014