204409
Emeritus

Reviews 100
Approval 97%

Soundoffs 33
News Articles 108
Band Edits + Tags 67
Album Edits 64

Album Ratings 619
Objectivity 86%

Last Active 12-24-22 10:06 am
Joined 09-21-01

Review Comments 3,998

Average Rating: 3.34
Rating Variance: 0.85
Objectivity Score: 86%
(Well Balanced)

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5.0 classic
Alkaline Trio/Hot Water Music Alkaline Trio/Hot Water Music Split
Circle Takes the Square As the Roots Undo
Dead to Me Little Brother
Deafheaven Sunbather
Deftones White Pony
Deftones Diamond Eyes
DRACULACORE sp�l nation
dredg El Cielo
Glassjaw Worship and Tribute
Gospel The Moon Is a Dead World
Hot Cross Cryonics
In Pieces Lions Write History
Kayo Dot Choirs of the Eye
Kidcrash Jokes
Sort of like a smoother version of Off Minor with some fossils from when they were a Midwest indie band. The flows, tempos, time signatures, and feels are all convoluted, making it the mathiest album I've heard in a while. What makes it even more amazing is they don't sacrifice their solid songwriting and the sound is fairly accessible against the dissonance and chaos the likes of a Dillinger Escape Plan. If anything the album feels a little homogeneous, though any individual track will shred your face into pulp. This is perfect for Tera Melos fans who were a little underwhelmed by the mere 19 minutes of Drugs to the Dear Youth, those awaiting Ire Works later this year, or really anybody who considers themselves fluent with post-hardcore or emo.
NOFX The Decline
Pianos Become the Teeth Keep You
Radiohead Kid A
Shape of Broad Minds Craft of the Lost Art
Thrice The Illusion of Safety
Touche Amore Parting The Sea Between Brightness And Me
Modern Life Is War:Blue Collar::Touche Amore:White Collar
Trophy Scars Hospital Music for the Aesthetics of Language

4.5 superb
AFI All Hallow's E.P.
Against Me! Reinventing Axl Rose
Alkaline Trio Good Mourning
ALL Mass Nerder
Baths Cerulean
Between the Buried and Me The Silent Circus
Blue Sky Black Death Late Night Cinema
Bon Iver Bon Iver, Bon Iver
This is one of my top albums of the year. Makes For Emma look like the livejournal poetry it always was.
Cave In Jupiter
Charles Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus
Circle Takes the Square Rites of Initiation
Clint Mansell, Kronos Quartet and Mogwai The Fountain
The Fountain's soundtrack is a wonderful amalgam of post-rock, minimalism, and modern classical music. Composed by Clint Mansell and performed by Kronos Quartet and Mogwai, this soundtrack can simultaneously deploy touching piano, pounding strings, and powerful rock music all at once. Overall, it has a majestic, celestial feel that perfectly suits the film, and beyond that, the music is awesome independent of the movie.
Coheed and Cambria The Second Stage Turbine Blade
Cursive Domestica
Damien Rice O
The more and more I listen to Damien Rice, the more I realize that there is no way to dislike his music. It may be sentimental and sappy, but there is a tangible yet inexplicable honesty and softness to every performance of his that validates any amount of sappiness he slops onto his songs. The end result is beautiful, wonderful balladry. He's not a bad storyteller either.
De La Soul The Grind Date
Deftones Saturday Night Wrist
Saturday Night Wrist features a new Deftones. Here, instead of emulating past nu-metal success, or completely
lapsing in a post-Team Sleep paralysis, Deftones hit hard somewhere between the two, leading to an album that is
strangely beautiful. Nine of the twelve songs are immaculate and powerful.
Deltron 3030 Deltron 3030
This is probably my favorite hip hop album of all time. The production feels incredibly organic and compelling and complements the nerdy rap of Del tha Funkee Homosapien, who's distinctive voice feels especially at home with the overall aesthetic and flavor of the album. My only gripe is the presence of skits, which are much more funny, musical, and satisfying than skits on other rap albums.
dredg Catch Without Arms
Flying Lotus Cosmogramma
Frank Zappa Hot Rats
Gatsby's American Dream Ribbons and Sugar
Giles Corey Giles Corey
It is imperative that you get this album and its accompanying booklet. Immense.
Girl Talk Night Ripper
Girl Talk Feed the Animals
Feed the Animals picks up where Night Ripper leaves off, but is much more than a deflated, lackluster sequel. Gillis is all over the board with his influences, dipping his quill into a wide variety of rock (Thin Lizzie, Radiohead, The Band, Nirvana), trip hop (Aphex Twin), and even slow-burning crooners (Sinead O'Connor). Despite, or maybe thanks to, all of these new opportunities for sampling, there is no loss of danceability or catchiness. Girl Talk, nothing compares 2 u.
Glassjaw Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Silence
Glassjaw El Mark
Gold Panda Lucky Shiner
Grade Under the Radar
Have a Nice Life Deathconsciousness
Equal parts post-rock, dark ambient, and industrial, but mostly shoegaze, Have a Nice Life's debut album Deathconsciousness is a double-disc concept album of epic proportions but without pretention. Throughout the course of its 85-minute run time, the album treats the listener to a varied collection of songs; there are slow-burners, there are epics, there are anthems. This album is so packed with different ideas that they all blend beautifully into the reverby, distorted soundscape that defines this album's aesthetic. All of this is topped off by the fact that the concept is wonderfully executed and supported by a 70+ page booklet that charts the life and works of a near mythical religious figure from the 13th century named Antiochus. Though Deathconsciousness is an intense listen, and not for the weak-eared, it is ultimately a very likable and human album, never forgetting shoegaze's pop roots. There are moments on Deathconsciousness that are grating and dissonant, but there are far more that are beautiful and even catchy. At its core, it's an album that is very intimate with all of its ideas and soundscapes.
Herbie Hancock Maiden Voyage
Hopesfall No Wings To Speak Of
HORSE the band The Mechanical Hand
HORSE the band Desperate Living
Hot Cross Fair Trades and Farewells
In Pieces Learning to Accept Silence
James Blake James Blake
Jedi Mind Tricks Violent by Design
Justice †
Justice's † is the best mainstream pop/dance album since Daft Punk's Discovery. Though at moments it rips off Discovery's catchiest moments, Justice find their own niche in the grimier and more aggressive moments found throughout the album. Though pop tracks like "D.A.N.C.E." and "Phantom pt. I & 2" are perfectly sweet, tracks like "Genesis," Let There Be Light" and "Waters of Nazareth" steal the show with their immaculate sampling, sandpaper synths, and relentlessly catchy and pulsing beats.
Kayo Dot Dowsing Anemone With Copper Tongue
Lagwagon Let's Talk About Feelings
maudlin of the Well Bath
Memoryhouse The Years
Moderat Moderat
Murder by Death Who Will Survive and What Will Be Left of Them?
NOFX Punk in Drublic
NOFX So Long and Thanks for All the Shoes
NOFX/Rancid BYO Split Series Vol. 3
Passion Pit Manners
Sailors With Wax Wings Sailors With Wax Wings
Shai Hulud That Within Blood Ill-Tempered
Son Lux At War With Walls And Mazes
Our top album here at Sputnikmusic was Burial's Untrue. That album had a distinctively sparse, brittle tone to its atmosphere. Other than that though I found the album almost unlistenably boring. Imagine taking that one cool aspect of that album and fleshing it out in all regards. Then you'd have Son Lux's At War With Walls & Mazes, an album that blends a variety of genres and production techniques to create a glitchy, high personalized, trip hop masterpiece. At War With Walls & Mazes is a strong contender for album of the year. It is the best electronic release since Venetian Snares' Rossz Csillag Allat Szuletett. It is nearly flawless, and the scary thing about all of this praise is that it's only Son Lux's debut album.
Strung Out An American Paradox
Tera Melos Untitled
Tera Melos Patagonian Rats
The Dillinger Escape Plan Irony Is a Dead Scene
The Fall of Troy The Fall of Troy
The Mars Volta Frances the Mute
The Microphones The Glow Pt. 2
The Pax Cecilia Blessed Are The Bonds
The Pax Cecilia's second LP Blessed Are the Bonds is forged from the same fires that gave listeners Circle Takes the Square's As the Roots Undo and Dredg's El Cielo. It is epic, original, heavy, pensive, and savagely compelling music. It is transcendent. It taps into something above normal perception and does this with a strange lack of pretention. The sound is a mix of post-rock (Engine Down), alternative (Dredg), metal (Isis), and screamo (City of Caterpillar). The musicianship and songwriting are beautiful and the emotional weight of the album is relentless. And to top it all off, the album is free (www.paxcecilia.com contacts.html).
The Smashing Pumpkins Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
The Smashing Pumpkins Siamese Dream
Thrice Identity Crisis
Thrice The Artist in the Ambulance
Thrice If We Could Only See Us Now
Thrice Vheissu
Thrice The Alchemy Index Vols. I & II
In general, the first half of The Alchemy Index points to success. There are questionable aspects to both discs, but in general the cons are vastly outweighed by the pros. The Fire disc is a great exploration of the heavier moments on Vheissu. The album is explosive and intense, with Dustin ripping his vocal cords to pieces while the rest of the band unleashes their heaviest material yet. Songs like "The Flame Deluge" act as the most brutal work Thrice has ever created. Songs like "The Messenger" and "Backdrift" are surprisingly the weirdest, blending together electronic influences into heavy, harmonic minor chord progressions. The Water disc, excepting its opening track, is nearly flawless. Interestingly, it also continues a strand that was started on Vheissu's slower, more pensive tracks like "Atlantic." It's a collection of beautiful and wistful songs that all have lush and stunning arrangements. The Water disc feels exactly like it was recorded underwater. As a collection of songs, this album is amazing for nine out of the twelve tracks. As a concept album, it's halfway to becoming an amazing cycle. There are a few flaws and the second half of the collection to worry about, but so far Thrice has produced another stunner.
Thursday Full Collapse
Toby Driver In the L..L..Library Loft
In the newfound popularity of Kayo Dot, it may be easy to miss Toby Driver's debut solo LP. This album contains some of Toby's compositions that he considered too weird and off the wall for Kayo Dot. Despite the inherent quirkiness implied by that premise, Driver delivers some fairly interesting and palatable pieces just left of his stuff on Dowsing Anemone With Copper Tongue. Read the full review to check out the cool techniques he used to compose and record each song.
Venetian Snares Rossz Csillag Allat Szuletett
Venetian Snares, aka Aaron Funk, embarked on a Bartokian journey to Hungary to collect modern classical, jazz, pop, and other local music to create his own electronic reinvention of folk music. This album features these carefully chosen samples against Funk's progressive breakbeat and happy hardcore beats. The resulting sound is grandiose, epic, intelligent, and forward-thinking, all while remaining much more palatable than the typical schizophrenia and claustrophobia of the usual Venetian Snares sound. Rossz Csillag Allat Szuletett may be the most intelligent electronic album of all time.
With Honor With Honor
With Honor Heart Means Everything
Yasunori Mitsuda Chrono Cross Original Soundtrack
You and I The Curtain Falls

4.0 excellent
A Day In Black And White My Heroes Have Always Killed Cowboys
AFI The Art of Drowning
AFI Black Sails in the Sunset
Against Me! As the Eternal Cowboy
Alien Ant Farm ANThology
ALL Problematic
Aphex Twin Drukqs
At the Drive-In Relationship of Command
At the Drive-In Vaya
At the Drive-In In/Casino/Out
Bear vs. Shark Right Now You're in the Best of Hands
Between the Buried and Me Between the Buried and Me
Between the Buried and Me Colors
Burton Wagner In the Realms of the Unreal
Burton Wagner A Sentinel's Eyes
Cave In Antenna
Circle Takes the Square Circle Takes the Square
Coheed and Cambria In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3
Cursive The Ugly Organ
Cursive Mama, I'm Swollen
Daitro Laisser Vivre Les Squelettes
Dan Deacon Bromst
Dead to Me Cuban Ballerina
Deftones Around the Fur
Dela Changes of Atmosphere
Destroyer Kaputt
DJ Shadow Endtroducing.....
Do Make Say Think You, You're a History in Rust
Dolcim We Carry the Fire
dredg Leitmotif
Drowning With Our Anchors Demo
3 tracks. 22 minutes. Below average quality recording. Sometimes it seems like that's all it takes to make a powerful emo album. Drowning With Our Anchors' Demo feels like a wonderful trip through both post-rock and melodic post-hardcore and emo. The songs are expansive and long featuring large instrumental breaks between the vocals. The most quiet and pensive portions of the album are both beautiful and eerie. There are faint voices in the background that set a ghostly mood that is complemented by the somber instrumental passages. When they hit hard, Drowning With Our Anchors crescendos are gorgeous and don't use the dissonance and distortion of other emo bands to get the point across. They seem content to push the point across melodically, using touching and simple guitar lines. Also, the vocals shredddddd. This album, while obviously not a full release, feels like a full gesture. Hopefully Drowning With Our Anchors will put out a more complete release in the future to capitalize on this initial promise.
Engine Down Demure
Engine Down To Bury Within the Sound
Feral Children Second to the Last Frontier
fordirelifesake Breathing in Is Only Half the Function
Frank Zappa Strictly Commercial
Frank Zappa Zappa In New York
Frodus And We Washed Our Weapons In The Sea
Funeral Diner The Underdark
Further Seems Forever How to Start a Fire
Future Islands In Evening Air
Gatsby's American Dream Volcano
Genghis Tron Cloak of Love
Ghastly City Sleep Ghastly City Sleep
Ghastly City Sleep Moondrifts
Ghostlimb Ghostlimb
Sometimes I listen to hardcore bands and they just throw around a bunch of dissonant notes and make super sparse
but beefy breakdowns. Ghostlimb is heavy as fuck at all times without sacrificing melody or succumbing to typical
hardcore fare. The album has 11 songs and is 15 minutes long. "Palimpsest" is a perfectly complete 55 second
hardcore nugget. These guys also don't take themselves completely seriously with deions of their music on myspace
being "Influences: none, traffic; Sounds Like: unreasonably mad" unlike other similar sounding artists. The result is a
hardcore album that understands that brevity and brutality can coexist with melody and sensibility.
Ghostlimb Bearing & Distance
Godspeed You! Black Emperor F♯ A♯ ∞
Grails Red Light
Instead of having huge climaxes, bright major keys, and max e-bow action, Grails chooses to withdraw a little more, focusing on modal tonalities, very natural instrumentation and more subtle dynamic swells. The end result is incredibly compelling, if goofy on some tracks. The middle portion of this album has some truly beautiful songs.
Heiruspecs A Tiger Dancing
Hopesfall The Satellite Years
Hopesfall A Types
HORSE the band R. Borlax
Hot Cross Risk Revival
Hot Cross stuns again, but this time the instrumentals are slightly stripped down and rugged while the vocals are the haymaker. Overall, the album has a much more youthful, straight-forward sound, which is likely the result of losing a guitarist, Josh. There's only one lame song ("Cardiac Silence") and a handful of godly ones ("Turncoat Revolution" and "Blame Truth" being among them). Even if it doesn't challenge as much as Fair Trades and Farewells, Risk Revival finds its niche and shreds away all the same.
Hot Water Music A Flight and a Crash
Incubus (USA-CA) S.C.I.E.N.C.E.
ISIS Oceanic
ISIS Panopticon
Jaga Jazzist One-Armed Bandit
Jeff Buckley Grace
Karate Unsolved
Lagwagon Double Plaidinum
Life at These Speeds Life at These Speeds
Maybe it's because I've seen them live but I seem to have an inflated opinion of Life at These Speeds. They play a brand of punk that seems to be quite unpretentious and fun but still maintains emotional gravity. Their live show also embraces this notion as there's joking around and good energy but the band and audience sometimes can lose it and go crazy at the crescendos. Their best songs are their epic crushers like "Knives" and "Ground Gives Out" but there isn't a weak track on this album. This album is also slightly better than their 2006 album To Your Health.
Loma Prieta Last City
Maps and Atlases Tree, Swallows, Houses
Imagine the songwriting of a Midwest-Emo-influenced band like Don Cabellero or Denver in Dallas crossed with the
indie of My Morning Jacket. But that's just the surface. There's the crazed rhythms and tapping guitar of Tera Melos
and Hella, and riffs sweeter and smoother than ones heard from Minus the Bear. It seems like a freaky hybrid of styles,
but Maps and Atlases pull it off well, never becoming too relentlessly mathy or too ironically indie for their own good.
There are a few moments of incongruity and awkwardness, but overall this album is a wonderful example of genre-
bending.
maudlin of the Well Leaving Your Body Map
maudlin of the Well Part the Second
Mesa Verde The Old Road
Metaform Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
Millencolin Home From Home
Millencolin Life On A Plate
Million Dead A Song to Ruin
Minus the Bear Planet of Ice
Minus the Bear's Planet of Ice is an unwelcome yet surpringly impressive departure from their patented hammer-on clean tone style. Here, the guitar riffs are not repeated as background music but are much more of a driving force in the songwriting. The synth is a presence as well and make the songs feel like prog anthems, big guitar and all, instead of sensitive indie songs. There are throwback moments, but most of this album is inventive and new. I like the old Minus the Bear and I like the new Minus the Bear. If only they could combine the emotion and songwriting of the old with the progression and production of the new; then we'd have something a classic.
Misery Signals Mirrors
My Morning Jacket Evil Urges
No Use for a Name Hard Rock Bottom
Nobuo Uematsu Final Fantasy VIII: Original Soundtrack
NOFX The Greatest Songs Ever Written (By Us)
NOFX Pump Up the Valuum
NOFX White Trash, Two Heebs and a Bean
Off Minor The Heat Death of the Universe
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez A Manual Dexterity: Soundtrack Vol. 1
Portrait Discography
PSY/OPSogist Suffused With Static
PSY/OPSogist Souls Touch EP
PSY/OPSogist Mining The Valleys
PSY/OPSogist Kings Of Sleep
Quiet Steps Think Aloud
Radiohead OK Computer
Radiohead In Rainbows
Rage Against the Machine Evil Empire
Rancid Rancid (2000)
Red Sparowes At The Soundless Dawn
Refused The Shape Of Punk To Come
Rise Against Revolutions per Minute
Rockets and Bluelights A Smashed City with Flames and Music in the Air
Saosin Translating the Name
Set It Straight My Favourite Words
Set Your Goals Demo 2004
Shearwater The Golden Archipelago
Sholi Sholi
Soli i Sombra The Armadillo EP
Starkey Ear Drums and Black Holes
Strung Out Live in a Dive
System of a Down System of a Down
System of a Down Toxicity
Tera Melos Drugs to the Dear Youth
Say what you will about the technicality of bands like Dillinger Escape Plan, Meshuggah, and Psyopus, but Tera Melos is there and they don't sacrifice any listenability for technicality. They have moved slightly away from their Braid/Denver in Dallas-type style and more towards oddball progressive stuff, but overall, this album feels more like a continuation of their last album than anything else, however they seem to be one guitarist fewer than last album. If anything that absence has made the rest of the band more inventive with its playing. This album is the first great release of 2007.
The Blood Brothers ...Burn, Piano Island, Burn
The Dillinger Escape Plan Calculating Infinity
The Dillinger Escape Plan Miss Machine
The Faint Blank-Wave Arcade
The Gaslight Anthem The '59 Sound
The Lawrence Arms Apathy and Exhaustion
The Loved Ones (USA-PA) Build & Burn
The Mars Volta De-Loused in the Comatorium
The Pax Cecilia Nouveau
The Program Artifical Unintelligence
Thrice Red Sky
Thrice The Alchemy Index Vols. III & IV
Thursday War All the Time
Thursday A City By the Light Divided
Trash Talk Plagues
Trophy Scars Darts to the Sea
Venetian Snares Cavalcade of Glee and Dadaist Happy Pom Poms
Venetian Snares Detrimentalist
Wait What the notorious xx
Xiu Xiu Fabulous Muscles

3.5 great
...Who Calls So Loud ...Who Calls So Loud
A Wilhelm Scream Career Suicide
AFI Sing the Sorrow
AFI Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes
AFI Very Proud of Ya
Against Me! The Disco Before the Breakdown
Alexander Scriabin Preparation for the Final Mystery
Alexisonfire Alexisonfire
Alkaline Trio From Here to Infirmary
Alkaline Trio Alkaline Trio
American Steel Jagged Thoughts
American Steel American Steel
American Steel Destroy Their Future
Ampere All Our Tomorrows End Today
Antigua y Barbuda Try Future
Aphex Twin Richard D. James Album
Aussitot Mort Montuenga
Beach House Teen Dream
Belle Epoque A La Derive
Between the Buried and Me Alaska
Blue Sky Black Death Jean Grae: The Evil Jeanius
It's a strange thing that such a good album could come out of such unofficial collaborative circumstances. Jean Grae, rapper with a dark, subdued style, and Blue Sky Black Death, trip hop gone post-rock producers from San Francisco, are releasing this album outside of their authorized canon (BSBD's Late Night Cinema and Jean Grae's Jeanius were both "official" releases earlier this year) but don't have some catchy name to acknowledge the team they've created (e.g. Deltron3030). The resulting music finds Blue Sky Black Death producing music that is notably truncated, chill, and reserved, which puts it at odds with the cathartic and epic content of Late Night Cinema. The production sounds like it's been reduced to complement Jean Grae's coy but depressed flow and lyrics. The sound slays on the lighter, placid tracks like "Take It Back" and "Lights Out," and only falters on the bombastic opening track, "Shadows Forever."
Bon Iver For Emma, Forever Ago
Burton Wagner 21
By The End Of Tonight/Tera Melos Complex Full of Phantoms
Calexico Feast of Wire
Comadre The Youth
Comadre/Trainwreck Split
Comeback Kid Wake the Dead
Converge Jane Doe
Covenant Northern Light
Cymbals Eat Guitars Why There Are Mountains
Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse Dark Night of the Soul
Dangers Messy, Isn't It?
David Gilmour On An Island
De La Soul Stakes Is High
Dead to Me African Elephants
Deftones Deftones
Dirty Projectors Rise Above
Dirty Projectors Bitte Orca
dredg The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion
Efterklang Tripper
Envy Insomniac Doze
Every Time I Die Hot Damn!
Extra Life Secular Works
Face to Face How to Ruin Everything
Fang Island Fang Island
Flying Lotus 1983
Flying Lotus Los Angeles
Four Tet Rounds
Frank Zappa Zoot Allures
Fugazi The Argument
Ganon As Above, So Below
Giraffes? Giraffes! More Skin With Milk-Mouth
Girl Talk All Day
Godspeed You! Black Emperor Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven
Gorilla Biscuits Start Today
Grails Doomsdayer's Holiday
Group Bombino Guitars from Agadez, Vol. 2
Hella Hold Your Horse Is
Hopesfall Magnetic North
Hopesfall has written an album that exists as an extension of their 2004 album A Types. The taut songwriting and amazing vocals are back, and sometimes even better. The production is awesome and every song is packed with wonderful ideas. Hopesfall are essentially the best band to mix pop-punk and post-hardcore still actively working on that amalgam today. However, Magnetic North has too many unfortunate moments like the cheesy chorus on "Paisley" or the occasional nu-metal breakdowns to let it eat at the big kid's table with their previous two LPs A Types and The Satellite Years. Keep in mind though that that isn't stopping awesome songs like "I Can Do This on an Island" from picking up 40+ plays in just over a week.
HORSE the band Pizza
Hot Cross A New Set of Lungs
Ishmaël Ishmaël
ISIS Celestial
Jedi Mind Tricks Visions of Gandhi
Jneiro Jarel Fauna
Kayo Dot Blue Lambency Downward
Kidcrash Snacks
La Cosa Nostra Demo EP
Lagwagon Hoss
Lagwagon Trashed
Life at These Speeds To Your Health
Life in Your Way The Sun Rises and the Sun Sets...
Lifetime Jersey's Best Dancers
Light This City Remains Of The Gods
Light This City Facing The Thousand
Loma Prieta Dark Mountain
Love Like... Electrocution Love Like... Electrocution
Mamaleek Kurdaitcha
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes Are a Drag
Meet Me in St. Louis Variations on Swing
Meneguar Strangers in Our House
Miles Davis Bitches Brew
Millencolin Pennybridge Pioneers
Modern Life Is War Witness
Modern Life Is War Midnight in America
Native Wrestling Moves
Nervous Light of Sunday 弱心光景
No Doubt Tragic Kingdom
NOFX 45 or 46 Songs That Weren't Good Enough
NOFX Surfer
North What You Were
Off Minor Problematic Courtship
Opeth Damnation
Phaseone Thanks But No Thanks
Planets Planets
Portraits Of Past Discography
Propagandhi Supporting Caste
Pulley Together Again For The First Time
Pygmy Lush Mount Hope
Pyramids (PA) Following the Tracks, Forcing Motion Thr
Radiohead Amnesiac
Rage Against the Machine Rage Against the Machine
Rise Against Siren Song of the Counter Culture
Saetia A Retrospective
Samiam Astray
Silversun Pickups Swoon
Solar Bears She Was Coloured In
Sparta Wiretap Scars
Sparta Porcelain
Team Sleep Team Sleep
The Cape May Glass Mountain Roads
The Faint Danse Macabre
The Fall of Troy Doppelganger
The Flashbulb Soundtrack to a Vacant Life
The Sainte Catherines Dancing for Decadence
The Temper Trap Conditions
The Walls You've Built The Definition of Friendship
These Arms Are Snakes Oxeneers or the Lion Sleeps When Its Antelope Go Home
These Arms Are Snakes Easter
Thin Lizzy Jailbreak
Thrice Beggars
Thursday Five Stories Falling
Tool Lateralus
Toro Y Moi Causers of This
Touche Amore ...To the Beat of a Dead Horse
Trash Talk Trash Talk
Trophy Scars Goodnight Alchemy
Trophy Scars Bad Luck
Twain Harte A Sunny Place for Shady People
Weather Report Heavy Weather
With Honor This Is Our Revenge
Xiu Xiu A Promise
You and I Discography

3.0 good
Against Me! Searching for a Former Clarity
Alcest Souvenirs D'Un Autre Monde
Algernon Cadwallader Some Kind Of Cadwallader
American Nightmare We're Down Til We're Underground
Atreyu Suicide Notes and Butterfly Kisses
Aussitot Mort 6 Songs
Avenged Sevenfold Sounding the Seventh Trumpet
Bear vs. Shark Terrorhawk
Blaqk Audio CexCells
Bon Iver Blood Bank
Brand New Deja Entendu
Callisto Providence
Capsule (US) Blue
Circa Survive Juturna
City of Caterpillar City of Caterpillar
Coheed and Cambria No World for Tomorrow
Coheed and Cambria Year of the Black Rainbow
Comadre More Songs About The Man
Converge No Heroes
Cynic Traced in Air
Daft Punk Human After All
De Facto Megaton Shotblast
De La Soul Are You In?: Nike+ Original Run
Deftones B-Sides and Rarities
Dustin Kensrue Please Come Home
Efterklang Parades
Engine Down Under the Pretense of Present Tense
Esbjorn Svensson Trio Leucocyte
Extra Life Made Flesh
For the Mathematics The New Science
Four Tet There is Love in You
Frou Frou Details
Funeral Diner Doors Open
Genghis Tron Dead Mountain Mouth
Girl Talk Unstoppable
Green Day Dookie
Gruvis Malt ...With the Spirit of a Traffic Jam
Helios Caesura
Herbie Hancock Head Hunters
Indian Summer Discography
ISIS In the Absence of Truth
Jonny Greenwood There Will Be Blood OST
Koenji Hyakkei Angherr Shisspa
Lagwagon Resolve
Lagwagon Duh
Lagwagon Blaze
Liquid Tension Experiment Liquid Tension Experiment
Lovedrug Pretend You're Alive
M83 Before The Dawn Heals Us
maudlin of the Well My Fruit Psychobells... A Seed Combustible
Misery Signals Controller
Murder by Death In Bocca Al Lupo
Murder by Death Red Of Tooth And Claw
My Morning Jacket Z
Nahvalr Nahvalr
Nas Illmatic
No Use for a Name The Feel Good Record of the Year
NOFX The War on Errorism
NOFX Heavy Petting Zoo
NOFX S&M Airlines
NOFX Liberal Animation
NOFX Wolves in Wolves' Clothing
Off Minor Some Blood
Ohana Dead Beat
Orgy Candyass
pg.99 Document #8
Psyopus Ideas of Reference
Radiohead The Bends
Radiohead Hail to the Thief
Raein Il n'y a pas de orchestre
Rites of Spring Rites of Spring
Rites of Spring End on End
Rufio Perhaps, I Suppose...
Set Your Goals Mutiny!
Shai Hulud Misanthropy Pure
Sigur Ros ( )
Sinaloa Oceans of Islands
Sir Richard Bishop The Freak of Araby
Slipknot Iowa
Soundgarden A-Sides
Sparta Austere EP
Spires (USA) Flowers And Fireworks
Strung Out Exile In Oblivion
Strung Out Blackhawks Over Los Angeles
Sufjan Stevens Seven Swans
Tera Melos Idioms, Vol. 1
The Appleseed Cast Peregrine
The Bled Pass the Flask
The Blood Brothers March On Electric Children
The Killers Day & Age
The Lawrence Arms Oh! Calcutta!
The Mars Volta Amputechture
The Mars Volta The Bedlam in Goliath
The Mars Volta Octahedron
The Number Twelve Looks Like You Put On Your Rosy Red Glasses
The Plot To Blow Up The Eiffel Tower Dissertation, Honey
The Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower plays an odd mix of hardcore and jazz. This mix is not like that of Tera Melos'. It doesn't sound like a smooth integration of the two styles but sounds like a grinding juxtaposition. After a Red Scare-like groove has been established in the more hardcore sections of the song, the band may abruptly throw in a saxophone solo. These choppy moments make the synthesis seem awkward, but occasionally the mix comes out perfectly and stylishly. The cymbal roll section on "For Marcus" seems to be perfectly executed in its dancey catchiness and the solo doesn't bother me so much later in the song. However, overall this album isn't as solid as it could be.
The Smashing Pumpkins Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music
These Arms Are Snakes This Is Meant To Hurt You
Thirty Seconds to Mars A Beautiful Lie
Thrice First Impressions
Thursday Waiting
Thursday/Envy Thursday/Envy
Tiger Army II: Power of Moonlite
Tim Hecker An Imaginary Country
Time in Malta Alone with the Alone
Unearth The Oncoming Storm
United Nations United Nations
Vampire Weekend Vampire Weekend
Venetian Snares My Downfall (Original Soundtrack)
Wolves in the Throne Room Black Cascade
Xiu Xiu The Air Force
Xiu Xiu Knife Play
Xiu Xiu Women As Lovers
Young Widows Old Wounds
Zombie Apocalypse This is a Spark of Life

2.5 average
1208 Feedback Is Payback
1905 Voice
A Static Lullaby ...And Don't Forget to Breathe
Against Me! New Wave
Alexisonfire/Moneen The Switcheroo Series
Alias Resurgam
Aphex Twin Come to Daddy
Arcade Fire Neon Bible
As Cities Burn Son, I Loved You at Your Darkest
ASVA What You Don't Know Is Frontier
Avenged Sevenfold City of Evil
blink-182 Enema Of The State
Cave In Until Your Heart Stops
Converge Axe to Fall
Daitro Des Cendres, Je Me Consume
Damiera Quiet Mouth Loud Hands
Deerhunter Microcastle
DragonForce Sonic Firestorm
Finch What It Is to Burn
Frank Zappa Lumpy Gravy
Frodus Conglomerate International
Gonjasufi A Sufi and a Killer
Grails Burning Off Impurities
Hella The Devil Isn't Red
HORSE the band A Natural Death
Ill Nino Revolution/Revolucion
Lightning Bolt Hypermagic Mountain
Limp Bizkit Three Dollar Bill Y'all
Linkin Park Hybrid Theory EP
Mike Jones Who Is Mike Jones?
Minus the Bear Omni
Mudvayne L.D. 50
My Chemical Romance I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love
New Found Glory From the Screen to Your Stereo
Opeth Orchid
Polar Bear Club Sometimes Things Just Disappear
Pyramids (PA) Through the Hourglass
Radiohead Pablo Honey
Rage Against the Machine The Battle of Los Angeles
Red Hot Chili Peppers Stadium Arcadium
Say Anything ...Is a Real Boy
Slipknot Slipknot
Sufjan Stevens Michigan
Surfer Blood Astro Coast
System of a Down Steal This Album!
Taking Back Sunday Tell All Your Friends
Telefon Tel Aviv Immolate Yourself
The Album Leaf In A Safe Place
The Beatles Rubber Soul
The Blood Brothers Crimes
The Faint Wet From Birth
The Faint Fasciinatiion
The Game Doctor's Advocate
The Postal Service Give Up
The Weakerthans Reunion Tour
Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra Horses in the Sky
These Arms Are Snakes Tail Swallower and Dove
Trophy Scars Alphabet Alphabets
TV on the Radio Dear Science
Underoath They're Only Chasing Safety
Underoath Lost in the Sound of Separation
Yakuza Samsara

2.0 poor
Alexisonfire Watch Out!
Amesoeurs Amesoeurs
Aphex Twin Classics
Arcade Fire Funeral
Bad Religion New Maps of Hell
Between the Buried and Me The Anatomy Of
Coheed and Cambria From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness
Dalek Gutter Tactics
Deftones Adrenaline
Emery The Weak's End
Every Time I Die Gutter Phenomenon
Fantomas Delìrium Còrdia
From First to Last Heroine
Fucked Up The Chemistry of Common Life
Gojira From Mars to Sirius
ISIS Wavering Radiant
Jesu/Battle of Mice Split
Mastodon Crack the Skye
My Chemical Romance Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge
NOFX I Heard They Suck Live!!
NOFX They've Actually Gotten Worse Live
Poison the Well You Come Before You
Prolyphic & Reanimator The Ugly Truth
Protest the Hero Kezia
Pyramids Pyramids
Ramones Rocket to Russia
Rancid Indestructible
Slipknot Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses
Stars of the Lid And Their Refinement Of The Decline
Story of the Year In The Wake Of Determination
Subtle ExitingARM
Sufjan Stevens Illinois
The Dillinger Escape Plan Ire Works
The Early November The Mother, The Mechanic, and The Path
The Fall of Troy Phantom on the Horizon
Why? Alopecia
Wolfmother Wolfmother
Wolfmother runs on a pretty tight formula. 23% Led Zeppelin. 52% Jet. 68% suck. (The Jet elements and the suck elements overlap a lot). This album is so painfully derivative that I'm upset that I had to listen to it. Not even pay for it as I reviewed it for my radio station, but plain old wish I hadn't even bothered to listen. They ravage the most boring elements of Led Zeppelin and combine them with the obnoxious elements of Jet and other modern rock revivals of the classic rock that wasn't all that great in the first place. Stay away from this album unless you are still mourning John Bonham's death. Even then, don't listen to more than one track.
Zach Hill Astrological Straits

1.5 very poor
Animal Collective Merriweather Post Pavilion
Austrian Death Machine Total Brutal
Burial Untrue
Disturbed Ten Thousand Fists
Dr. Octagon The Return of Dr. Octagon
Escape the Fate Dying Is Your Latest Fashion
From Autumn to Ashes The Fiction We Live
Harvey Milk Life... The Best Game in Town
Jesu Conqueror
Kelly Clarkson Breakaway
letlive. Fake History
Whatever instrumental skills or interesting ideas these guys may have are completely suffocated by overproduction (how many reversed cymbal crashes can one album have) and a near fetishistic influence from early 2000s post-hardcore and metalcore (double-bass drum fills should be applied with ironic br00tality a la Between the Buried and Me, not seriously). Fake History is a strong example of when worship and tribute goes too far.
Panic! at the Disco A Fever You Can't Sweat Out
The more I am forced to hang around this album by way of my younger brother, the more I realize that it is just a derivative, linear version of Gatsby's American Dream, and the reason Gatsby's American Dream is so great is because of their ability to balance the Panic at the Disco catchiness with much more fresh and cmoplex song structures. Only listen to this album if you only recently learned how to read.
Portugal. The Man Church Mouth
Quantice Never Crashed Quantice Never Crashed
Ramones Ramones
Soundtrack (Film) Garden State
Straylight Run Straylight Run
The Offspring Americana
Venetian Snares Filth

1.0 awful
Brand New Your Favorite Weapon
Daddy Yankee Barrio Fino En Directo
Equus Osaka Rose
From Autumn to Ashes Too Bad You're Beautiful
From Autumn to Ashes Holding A Wolf By The Ears
Hawthorne Heights The Silence in Black and White
Hollywood Undead Swan Songs
Messiah J & The Expert From The Word Go
Metallica St. Anger
Metallica Reload
Metallica Load
Ministry Rio Grande Blood
Norma Jean Bless the Martyr and Kiss the Child
Protest the Hero Fortress
I had procrastinated listening to this album for a while. I really disliked Kezia but ultimately respected their musicianship and room to develop, despite the fact that they were really just a poor man's Between the Buried and Me (without the sense of humor and self-awareness). Fortress shows that Protest the Hero went nowhere with the small shards of premise they showed on their previous album. Instead of going for oddball amalgam metal or seamlessly blending together their influences, they opted to write technically impressive guitar-centric passages that are so distasteful I found myself cringing at the overtly metallic flare. The imitation Europrog vocals and the pastiche songwriting didn't help one bit either. Maybe they could do a cover album or play weddings in the future.
Puddle of Mudd Come Clean
Silverstein When Broken Is Easily Fixed
Silverstein Discovering the Waterfront
The Agony Scene The Darkest Red
The Wonder Years Get Stoked on It!
Weezer Make Believe
Wolf Parade Apologies to the Queen Mary
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