| Katatonia Last Fair Deal Gone Down | 5.0 |
| Novembre The Blue | 4.5 |
| This album leaves me absolutely breathless and speechless. The melodies and heavy parts are unbelievably well tied together. the vocals are impressive to say the least. Novembre is a terribly underrated band. |
| Five Finger Death Punch The Wrong Side of Heaven and The Righteous Side of Hell, Volume 1 | 2.0 |
| What happened? Ok, I was never a big 5FDP fan, but their first two albums were pretty damn good nonetheless. American Capitalist was average at best. Now, we have this... i really do not know what to say. It sounds like Metallica trying to sound hip and cool again whilst trying to incorporate hardcore in their music. |
| Fozzy All That Remains | 4.0 |
| Chimaira Crown of Phantoms | 3.5 |
| The line-up changes have really altered Chimaira's sound, mostly in a good way, to be honest. Crown Of Phantoms is not as aggressive or in-your-face as the Cleveland-based band's prior efforts, but it still boasts a good amount of solid riffs, brutal dynamics, and Mark Hunter sounds a lot angrier and gut-wrenched than ever before. Overall, this is a good labum that shows that Hunter and (new) co. still have it in them. |
| Drop Dead, Gorgeous In Vogue | 2.0 |
| This is basically your typical mid-to-late 2000s post-hardcore/emo/screamo album by some strangely named band from some lesser known part of the USA (Well, even if it is a big city, Denver was not a big musical hotspot until very recently). Nothing really stands out here: annoying whinny vocals, distinguishable guitar playing repetitive chords, bland rhythm section, poorly written/confusing lyrics, and an unequal sound production. Not worth a listen. |
| Mutiny Within Synchronicity | 4.5 |
| 10 Years The Autumn Effect | 4.0 |
| Fear Factory Transgression | 2.5 |
| Look: FF tried something different here. Some songs are actually really good ("Echo Of My Scream"), some are obviously rushed but still sound alright ("540,000 Degrees Fahrenheit", the Korn-sounding "Millenium"), the rest is a mess of poorly though out and radio-whoring songs. I'm surprised the phenomenal song "My Grave" is not a song on the actual tracklist. |
| Palms Palms | 4.5 |
| Hopesfall A Types | 4.0 |
| Eiffel 65 Europop | 4.5 |
| TesseracT Altered State | 3.5 |
| Tesseract has greatly evolved from their first album. Ashe has a pretty damn good voice. While many will consider this a weakness, the fact that most songs on here sounds similar actually enables us to see how the British band is capable of doing musically with a same musical formula. |
| Jakob Dominion | 4.5 |
| The Dillinger Escape Plan One of Us Is the Killer | 4.0 |
| Rosetta The Galilean Satellites | 4.5 |
| Adema Topple the Giants | 1.5 |
| Stupid album cover, tired musical formula, laughable vocals (some of the worst i have ever heard)... come on Adema, you are waaaaaaaaay past your time. This is not 2001 anymore. Almost no one cares about nu-metal anymore. |
| As They Burn Will, Love, Life | 4.0 |
| Machine Head The Blackening | 4.0 |
| Machine Head The More Things Change... | 4.0 |
| Machine Head Burn My Eyes | 4.5 |
| Those Who Fear Unholy Anger | 4.0 |
| Ladies and gents, this is one veeeeery punishing, heavy, unforgiving album. The Pittsburgh band delivers here a true hardcore album. |
| Device Device | 3.0 |
| Not a bad effort at all, just not really groundbreaking or amazing. It pretty much sounds like Disturbed going electronic. |
| Seether Karma And Effect | 4.0 |
| Senses Fail Let It Enfold You | 4.0 |
| Senses Fail Renacer | 3.5 |
| I had serious doubts about this band for years now. They were a good emo band on their first album (even though I dislike that genre), but then they released a string of really disappointing albums. However, Renacer sees the New Jersey band take an actually interesting path on here, trying to sound a LOT more aggresive, darker, and "in-your-face", resulting in an actually really good rock/metal album with solid hardcore foundations. Think Rise Against, Thrice, Parkway Drive and Chevelle mixed together. Not the best album of the year, but definitely a great one. |
| Twelve Foot Ninja Silent Machine | 4.5 |
| The first listen of Silent Machine will make you say and think "What the fuuuuuck??". But the more you listen to Twelve Foot Ninja, the more you will discover a band will massive potential crafting a beast album. Every song is so damn well written that even the most seemingly comical moments will become fundamentally important pieces to this complex yet masterful album. From the colorful opener "Coming For You" to the soulful and even groovy "Mother Sky" (which proves that reggae, jazz, and metal can meld together) to the gorgeously sounding "Liberation" (my favorite song on this album), pretty much anyone will hear a song that will intrigue them here. Fans of Meshuggah, Deftones, Cog, P.O.D., and Faith No More, please start lining up. |
| Aesop Rock None Shall Pass | 4.5 |
| I want to personally thank Aesop Rock for being one of many rap/hip-hop artists that prove that there is still hope for that genre polluted by crap artists. While the single "None Shall Pass" is one of the sickest songs I have ever heard, this entire album deserves a million listens. Aesop Rock is a genius. |
| Skindred Babylon | 4.0 |
| Hoobastank The Reason | 3.0 |
Decent album at best. The Reason is a lot less impressive and not as well crafted as Hooba's debut album.
There are some very good tracks on this album, namely the first three tracks that had huge radio-friendly
potential. Unfortunately, the super-mega-hit "The Reason", while sounding nice back in good ol' 2004, is
now just an annoying pile of ugliness that, let us just face it, ruined this band. It's a shame because
Hoobastank have a lot of potential. |
| P.M. Dawn Of The Heart, Of The Soul And Of The Cross | 5.0 |
| Digital Summer Breaking Point | 4.5 |
| Dir En Grey Uroboros | 4.0 |
| Dir En Grey Dum Spiro Spero | 4.5 |
| is this our Japanese friends' best album? It all comes down to personal opinion. Is it their most artistic and well-crafted piece of work? Most definitely! DEG have shown us their ease of playing both heavy and melodic music. Dum Spiro Spero is no exception. |
| Sigur Ros Valtari | 4.0 |
| Circa Survive Blue Sky Noise | 4.0 |
| Static-X Shadow Zone | 3.0 |
| Upon a Burning Body The World Is Ours | 4.0 |
| Hoobastank Hoobastank | 3.5 |
| Eminem Relapse | 2.0 |
| Eminem The Eminem Show | 4.0 |
| Dalek From Filthy Tongue Of Gods And Griots | 4.5 |
| Now THIS is how Rap/Hip Hop should really sound like. |
| For the Fallen Dreams Changes | 4.0 |
| Upon a Burning Body Red. White. Green. | 2.5 |
Red, White, Green. is definitely a lot less impressive than UABB's first album. The lyrics are still corny as hell,
but show a little more depth and imagination. The drums are incredible, but the guitar work now pretty much
only consists of chugging, palm mutes and OCCASIONAL solos that last no more than 8 seconds. Seguro que
nuestros amigos de San Antonio pueden producir algo mejor que esto. |
| Cult of Luna Vertikal | 4.0 |
| Twisted Method Escape From Cape Coma | 3.0 |
| Given that this is a nu-metal album, it's not bad, just not particularly original. There are some very nice songs like "Awkward Silence". Globally, TM sounds like a blend of Linkin Park, Mudvayne and Taproot. |
| Chevelle Wonder What's Next | 3.5 |
| Dark Tranquillity Fiction | 4.0 |
| Botch We Are the Romans | 4.0 |
| SMV Thunder | 4.5 |
| Dat Bass Ensemble... Just, Dat Bass Ensemble... It's groovy, funky, amazing and interesting. |
| Nas Illmatic | 4.5 |
| Now THIS is hip-hop/rap. Illmatic has everything a true album in that genre needs: tight beats, great flows, thoughtful lyrics and downright dirty sound. |
| The End (CAN) Elementary | 3.0 |
| The End (CAN) Within Dividia | 4.0 |
| Burst Prey on Life | 3.5 |
| Nasum Human 2.0 | 5.0 |
| Refused The Shape Of Punk To Come | 4.0 |
| Chingy Jackpot | 2.5 |
| Nothing really exceptional to say. Well, Chingy IS capable of rapping over/choosing some pretty good tunes ("One Call Away") and his rapping style is a nice mix of singing and rapping. But yeah, in the end, Jackpot is your typical mainstream rap opus. |
| Spineshank Anger Denial Acceptance | 2.0 |
| Mt. Eden MEDS EP | 4.5 |
| The only dubstep artist worth listening to in the world. |
| Skrillex Bangarang | 1.5 |
| Paul Oakenfold Great Wall | 4.5 |
| Parabelle Your Starry Eyes Will Never Make Us Even | 4.5 |
| Saturate The Point of No Return | 4.0 |
| Explosions in the Sky The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place | 4.5 |
| Jesu Ascension | 4.0 |
| Jesu Christmas | 3.5 |
| Tool 10,000 Days | 3.5 |
| Phillip Phillips The World from the Side of the Moon | 3.0 |
| Not a too shabby record. Some great songs (including lead single "Home", which is mystically catchy for some reason), but nothing too original. Definitely a road trip friendly album. |
| Tech N9ne Boiling Point | 4.0 |
| Puddle of Mudd Volume 4: Songs in the Key of Love and Hate | 2.0 |
| What have you done, Puddle Of Mudd, what have you done??? What it his abomination? |
| Pelican What We All Come to Need | 3.5 |
| Pelican The Fire in Our Throats Will Beckon... | 4.5 |
| Hammock Raising Your Voice... Trying to Stop an Echo | 4.0 |
| Hammock Chasing After Shadows...Living with the Ghosts | 3.5 |
| Diana Krall Quiet Nights | 3.0 |
| Diana Krall When I Look in Your Eyes | 3.5 |
| Diana Krall The Girl In The Other Room | 4.5 |
| John Coltrane Blue Train | 5.0 |
| John Coltrane Afro-Blue Impressions | 4.0 |
| Kenny G Breathless | 3.0 |
| Alice in Chains Dirt | 4.5 |
| Foo Fighters The Colour and the Shape | 4.0 |
| Sigur Ros ( ) | 4.0 |
| Sigur Ros Takk... | 4.5 |
| Blindspott End The Silence | 3.5 |
| While a bit of a let down compared to Blindspott's stellar debut album, End The Silence is nonetheless a seriously good album with some very dark melodies, gloomy soundscaping, heartfelt vocals, and some really heavy riffs ("Stay"). May I also add that Blindspott are here sounding a lot like the Deftones? |
| Thrice The Illusion of Safety | 4.5 |
| Radiohead OK Computer | 5.0 |
| Radiohead Kid A | 4.5 |
| Linkin Park Hybrid Theory | 4.0 |
| Linkin Park Meteora | 3.5 |
| Meteora is a great album, no doubts about it. However, compared to the fantastic piece of art that is HT, Linkin Park's sophomore album sounds a little strange at times, and it even feels as if the band went slightly lazy. This is evident with the repetitive song structure. Also, the album feels a little dark at time (while a beautiful song, "breaking the habit" tends to feel depressing at times). It seems that Linkin Park could have easily worked on Meteora a liiiiiittle more, but it still stands as an incredible album with memorable, strong tunes. |
| Unloco Becoming I | 4.0 |
| Hellyeah Hellyeah | 2.0 |
| Cold Superfiction | 3.0 |
| Mudvayne The New Game | 1.5 |
| Muse The Resistance | 3.0 |
| Warning/Spoiler Alert: If you like Depeche Mode, Radiohead, and Goldfrapp, this album is for you. If you like Muse's old material, be prepared to either adapt to or forget this album. |
| Misery Signals Controller | 4.0 |
| Architects The Here and Now | 2.5 |
| P.O.D. Testify | 3.0 |
| P.O.D. When Angels and Serpents Dance | 2.0 |
| Papa Roach The Paramour Sessions | 3.0 |
| Papa Roach Getting Away With Murder | 3.5 |
| Papa Roach Metamorphosis | 1.0 |
| Taproot Welcome | 3.0 |
| Taproot Blue-Sky Research | 2.0 |
| Tool Ænima | 4.5 |
| Evans Blue Graveyard of Empires | 3.0 |
| It's time to face facts: Evans Blue will never reach the peak of awesomeness they could have reached with Kevin Matisyn. Nevertheless, GoE is a solid rock album that is a significant step up from the band's disappointing third effort. |
| Evans Blue Evans Blue | 2.0 |
| Three Days Grace Three Days Grace | 2.5 |
| Breaking Benjamin We Are Not Alone | 4.0 |
| Born of Osiris The Discovery | 4.0 |
| BOO have given birth to a fantastic album that blurs the lines between Melodeath, Progressive Metal (especially with the guitar work), Symphonic Metal, and Deathcore. Please give this monsters of a band a listen, you will not regret it. |
| Puddle of Mudd Come Clean | 3.5 |
| Senses Fail Let It Enfold You (Deluxe Edition) | 3.5 |
| Disturbed The Sickness | 3.5 |
| Meshuggah Koloss | 3.5 |
| Massive Attack 100th Window | 3.5 |
| Massive Attack Mezzanine | 4.5 |
| Hacktivist Hacktivist | 2.5 |
| Hacktivist seem to have tons of really good ideas, among them the possibility of mixing Rap with Djent. Unfortunately, they just cannot mash these two genres in a cohesive, believable manner.r |
| Porcupine Tree In Absentia | 5.0 |
| Porcupine Tree Deadwing | 4.0 |
| Though not as stellar as the masterpiece that is In Abstentia, Deadwing still shows us that PT can deliver their beautiful, artsy, and adventurous sound over and over again without sounding repetitive. |
| Common Be | 4.0 |
| The Rasmus Dead Letters | 3.0 |
| Jakob Subsets of Sets | 4.0 |
| Jakob Cale:Drew | 4.5 |
| Dead Letter Circus This Is The Warning | 4.5 |
| The Haarp Machine Disclosure | 3.0 |
| This is basically your typical Sumerian Records album: lots of impressive guitar work (definitely the best aspect of this album), math-defying drumming patterns (courtesy of former Threat Signal skin crusher Alex Rudinger), vocals that range from metalcore-esque growls and screams to flailing cleans, and lots of changes in time signatures. It will sound impressive if you have yet to know the kingdom of Sumerian Records. However, if you are already accustomed to said kingdom, this will not really stand out to you. Unless you are able to appreciate snippets of middle-eastern sounds placed here and there. |
| Seven Cymatics | 4.5 |
| Denial Method The Surface and the Vision | 4.0 |
| Circle of Contempt Entwine the Threads | 4.5 |
| Circle Of Contempt have seriously stepped their game up since Artifacts In Motion. The new members seem to have added an entirely new dimension to COC's music, especially new singer Denis Hautaniemi, who literally blows away everything the old singer ever did (the old guy was pretty much trying to rip off every deathcore vocalist out there, whereas Denis takes a more Melo-Death approach). The guitar work is more adventurous than ever (the "solo" at the end of Transient Belief is beautiful) and the drumming is better than ever. The bassist is a little absent from the mix though.rAll in all, this E.P. rocks! COC definitely have a lot of talent, and this shows here. |
| Ultraspank Progress | 4.5 |
| Easily the best and hands down most criminally underrated nu-metal band to have ever existed. Seriously, how many nu-metal bands have had the balls to try and add actual melodies to skull-crushing riffs, surprisingly good singing ("Stuck") to above-average nu-metal rapping, and write an album that can blur the lines between a ton of other rock/metal subgenres? Ultraspank did. |
| Dir En Grey Withering to Death | 4.0 |
| I would personally suggest this album to anyone getting into Japanese rock as a first introduction. While it very much retains the visual kei elements that made DEG a household name in their native Japan, they managed to incorporate more "western" musical components to their already unique sound and deliver an album that both eastern an western audiences of rock and metal can appreciate and indulge into without problem. |
| Vertical Horizon Everything You Want | 4.0 |
| The ideal representation of mainstream alt-rock bands from the 1990s and early 2000s. |
| Filter Title Of Record | 4.0 |
| Nickelback The Long Road | 2.5 |
| Probably the only decent album they've ever released in my opinion. Someday is pretty catchy (albeit being a carbon copy of How You Remind Me) and Believe It Or Not is actually quite good. otherwise, this is pretty much alike what Nickleback has ever produced. |
| Nothingface Violence | 3.5 |
| Solace (CAN) Call & Response | 3.5 |
Karl Schubach is a talented musician, there is no doubt about that. The man knows how play heavy and
brutal music while still having room for catchy and beautiful melodies. The fact that he has also don this
album mostly on his own prove that our Canadian friend has guts and really wants to showcase his
awesomeness. Nevertheless, I just want to point out one thing that bugs me on this album. Literally EVERY
SINGLE SONG on Call And Response is about anti-religion related themes. Now I'm not religious, but I have
no problem with religion at all. The simple fact that Karl only writes about bashing the living s**t out of
religion all the time personally disturbs me. Actually, come to think of it, Karl seems to be indirectly
praising/supporting the efforts of militant atheists by asking for evidence ("with no evidence..." from Curse
Of The Living). A little lyrical diversity could have made this album phenomenal. |
| Alice in Chains Jar of Flies | 4.5 |
| Deftones Koi No Yokan | 5.0 |
| Mudvayne The End of All Things to Come | 4.0 |
| Their most overlooked work to date. TEOATTC may be a pretty radical departure from LD 50, but that does nopt mean that this album is a let down. In fact, it sees Mudvayne mature enormously and delivering an amazing album. "World So Cold", "The Patient Mental", "Trapped In The Wake Of A Dream", and "Skrying" and all insane and some truly underrated masterpieces. |
| Mudvayne Lost and Found | 3.0 |
| Mudvayne L.D. 50 | 4.0 |
| Antagonist A.D. Old Bones Make New Blooms | 4.0 |
| Antagonist A.D. Nothing From No One | 3.5 |
| David Dallas The Rose Tint | 4.5 |
| A Life Once Lost A Great Artist | 4.0 |
| One insanely unforgiving and brutal album. Fans of Meshuggah, Lamb Of God, Pantera and Between The Buried And Me, get this! |
| Tech N9ne Absolute Power | 4.0 |
| Tech N9ne Everready (The Religion) | 4.0 |
| Tech N9ne K.O.D. | 3.5 |
| Tech N9ne Klusterfuk | 2.5 |
| Not a terrible effort, but Tech N9ne can deliver much better material than this. This is weak and uninspired. |
| Jesu Opiate Sun | 3.5 |
| Jesu Pale Sketches | 3.0 |
| Jesu Heart Ache/Dethroned | 3.0 |
| Jesu Silver | 4.5 |
| This. EP. ROCKS!!! Dear Mr. Broadrick, I salute your ability to play simple yet compelling, beautiful, ethereal and heavy songs all at once. |
| 3 Doors Down Away from the Sun | 3.5 |
| Nothing exceptional compared to the rest of the rock pack of the time, but AFTS is nonetheless a nice package of radio-friendly rock tunes. |
| 3 Doors Down 3 Doors Down | 1.5 |
| Either 3DD got really lazy this time around, or they simply lost their worth. With the notable exception of one or two songs, this album is dull and hard to listen to. The overall quality is severely watered down, which creates a muddled and poorly sounding result. 3DD's worst album? Pretty much, yes. |
| ISIS Temporal | 4.0 |
| All That Remains A War You Cannot Win | 2.0 |
| These guys have really gone downhill recently. They went from an amazing band mixing metalcore and melodeath to some sort of poor man's five finger death punch (who are ok at best). AWYCW sounds like a rushed hard rock album. A shame given the fact that they obviously have a lot of talent. |
| ISIS Panopticon | 4.5 |
| Panopticon is near-perfection. The changes in mood, ambiance, emotions, song structures and tones are so neatly executed it's insanely hard to ignore the extent of talent Isis has. The songs appear so simple yet so complex at the same time. The minimalistic atmosphere of it all actually pushes the listener to dwelve more into the beauty of Panopticon. Simply put, this is the magnum opus of post-metal. |
| Edgewater South Of Sideways | 4.5 |
| Edgewater is easily one of the most underrated bands to have ever existed. South Of Sideways is an album packed with intense emotions, really good vocals (located somewhere between nu-metal and post-grunge), simple yet solid guitar work, great basslines (the bass on "Neglected" is insane, catchy and surprisingly memorable) and gnarly but great production/sound. |
| Threat Signal Under Reprisal | 4.0 |
| Parkway Drive Atlas | 4.0 |
| Another skull crushing delivery from Australia's lead metalcore titans. They could try and change/add a few things here and there (clean vocals and shredding are seriously lacking in PD's music). |
| Heaven Shall Burn Invictus (Iconoclast III) | 3.0 |
| Glass Cloud The Royal Thousand | 3.0 |
| A globally well rounded album. While the vocals are very well done and the rhythm section, albeit sounding a little too close to generic metalcore, keeps the album going smoothly, the guitar work deserves special recognition for its astonishing variety between Meshuggah-esque heaviness, Animals As Leaders-like soloing and Circa Survive-sounding melodies. rSome songs do tend to sound a little too close to material from bands like TDWP and Sky Eats Plane, but Glass Clouds still have a sound very much of their own. They do their best to differentiate themselves from the rest of the metalcore pack, which deserves some respect. |
| The Offspring Americana | 4.0 |
| Burst Origo | 4.0 |
| From Zero One Nation Under | 3.5 |
| It's certainly is your average nu-metal album, but From Zero somehow manages to write and play really nice melodies combined with an actually quite good vocal performance. |
| Kimbra Vows | 4.0 |
| Wiz Khalifa Rolling Papers | 1.0 |
| Circa Survive On Letting Go | 4.0 |
| Cold 13 Ways to Bleed On Stage | 3.0 |
| Cold A Different Kind of Pain | 2.5 |
| Cold Cold | 3.0 |
| Cold Year Of The Spider | 4.0 |
| Depeche Mode Violator | 5.0 |
| Depeche Mode Playing The Angel | 4.0 |
| Mnemic The Audio Injected Soul | 3.0 |
| Mnemic Mechanical Spin Phenomena | 3.5 |
| Soilwork Sworn to a Great Divide | 3.0 |
| Soilwork Stabbing the Drama | 4.0 |
| No One No One | 1.0 |
The bland, dumb, mind-numbingly stupid, run down side of nu metal in all its might. Chemical is the ONLY
remotely decent song on this album, the other songs are nothing more than total ripoffs of other nu metal
bands. |
| Underworld dubnobasswithmyheadman | 4.0 |
| Underworld A Hundred Days Off | 3.5 |
| Compared to the rest of Underworld's discography, A Hundred Days Off is a bit of a let down/disappointment. But if listeners dare to look beyond that comparison, they will discover an actually enjoyable lounge album. |
| Underworld Oblivion with Bells | 3.5 |
| Paul Oakenfold Bunkka | 3.5 |
| The Blackout Hope | 3.0 |
| Fonky Family Art De Rue | 5.0 |
| Saving Grace Unbreakable | 4.0 |
| An unforgiving, brutal and downright skull-crushing album by one of New Zealand's biggest metal bands currently in existence. Also a new standard for Christian Metal. |
| Deftones Deftones | 4.0 |
| Deftones Around the Fur | 4.0 |
| Deftones Diamond Eyes | 4.5 |
| Will the Deftones ever make a bad album? NEVER!! Proof? Diamond Eyes. |
| Allele Point of Origin | 4.0 |
| Let us get one thing straight: Allele's music is miles away from being the most groundbreaking to ever be. But the Jacksonville band's musicianship is downright amazing. From punishing yet melodic guitar work (especially on "Stitches") to powerful drumming to groovy bass lines to Wally Wood's truly phenomenal vocal performance, Point Of Origin is a near-perfect example of what Alternative Metal sounds like. Fans of Deftones, Cold (Kelly Hayes of Cold's fame is the lead guitarist on this album), Staind, Helmet and Breaking Benjamin, get this album NOW! |
| Static-X Wisconsin Death Trip | 3.5 |
| Punishing guitars. Steady yet aggressive rhythm section. Interesting use of programming/machines. Simple yet effective vocals. All in all a great album. |
| Hammock Kenotic | 4.5 |
| Despite sometimes sounding repetitive, Kenotic is a well-crafted and beautiful album. |
| Hammock Departure Songs | 5.0 |
| A truly phenomenal work of art. Deep, etheral, melodic, touching, beautiful, emotional... the list of positive adjectives goes on for a long time, simply because Hammock have created an album that shows the world that they have outperformed themselves and reached musical boundaries few in their genre would ever dare touch upon. Simply put, Hammock are the masters of their craft. A must-buy. |
| Spitalfield Better Than Knowing Where You Are | 3.5 |
| While this is not the band's best material, nor is it the most original Pop-Punk album out there, BTKWYA is nonetheless a solid album full of catchy songs that are actually really nice to listen. Spitalfield always seem to have a good grasp on melodic tunes, and this album shows that. |
| Deftones Saturday Night Wrist | 3.5 |
| Given the circumstances the Deftones found themselves at the time (I'm looking at your feuds, Chino and Stephen), the Deftones still managed to come off with a solid album full of eerie melodies, heavy riffs and stellar vocal performances. Sure it's miles away from their other albums, sure most songs seem rushed, and sure the sound quality is awkwardly uneven at times. But let's face it: If they had not released SNW, the Deftones would have more than likely disbanded. |
| Machinemade God The Infinity Complex | 2.5 |
| Not a terrible album at all, but not a great one either. Machinemade God does sound way too much like Caliban on this album (Especially the vocalist, who seems to be doing more of an Andreas Dorner impression than actually doing his own thing). However, the guitar work is actually quite good and the sound quality is raw without sounding too dirty and under-mixed. Fans of euro-styled Metalcore will definitely get their share of pleasure. |
| Tech N9ne All 6's and 7's | 4.5 |
| Oceano Depths | 3.5 |
| Pros: Amazing vocal performance (so much anger, power and depth at the same time), solid guitar work (special mentions go to the final segment of "Samael The Destroyer" and the instrumental track "Depths"), drums are, for the most part, very good.rCons: Way too overproduced (like virtually every single album our friend Joey Sturgis has produced up to date), songs do get repetitive after a couple listens (hey, it's Deathcore at its purest. Don't set your expectation too highly), nearly non-existent bass. |
| Sunk Loto Between Birth and Death | 4.0 |
| Stendeck Faces | 4.5 |
| Caliban The Awakening | 2.0 |
| "I Will Never Let You Down" is the only good song on this album (it's a superb and powerful song). The rest of the album is unoriginal, bland and lacks any sense of creativity. |
| Six60 Six60 | 4.0 |
| Threat Signal Threat Signal | 2.0 |
| This band has sadly lost all credibility, talent and worth. They were full of promises when "Under Reprisal" came out, but the constant lineup changes, disastrous touring schedules and below average second and third albums have pretty much destroyed this band's potential. |
| Staind 14 Shades of Grey | 4.0 |
| I was at first reluctant to listen to this album, given that it's Staind's most melodic and mellow album. But in the end, 14 Shades Of Grey comes out as an actually great album full of surprisingly well thought-out melodies ("Fill Me Up" and "Falling Down" are unexpectedly catchy and solid songs with nice hard riffs mixed in with very eerie moments), beautiful harmonies and a touching performance by Aaron Lewis on certain songs ("Zoe Jane", "Blow Away"). Fans of the band's harder/heavier material might not appreciate this album, but Staind prove to us that they can write very melodic sings while retaining the elements that make them who they are. |
| Staind Chapter V | 3.5 |
| An overall great album by Staind. The sound quality may not be as clean as their previous albums and the bass and drums seem a little weak at times, but otherwise the songs are still awesome and worht listening to. Some standouts include "Right Here", "Paper Jesus" and "King Of All Excuses". |
| Lifer Lifer | 2.5 |
| Part alternative metal, part nu metal. This album does possess some actually really good songs ("Ugly" is surprisingly catchy and well-written, and will most likely get stuck in you head for a very long time), but overall it fails to deliver anything really interesting. Fans of Deftones, Helmet, Taproot (in their early days) and Staind will definitely dig it, others will not get much out of it. |
| Breaking Benjamin Phobia | 3.5 |
| Breaking Benjamin Dear Agony | 3.5 |
| Deftones White Pony | 5.0 |
| Katatonia Dead End Kings | 4.5 |
| It became clear and obvious that since releasing Viva Emptiness, Katatonia were poised to one day release an album with a sound far more oriented towards Progressive Rock than anything they have ever done. If you are someone that seeks haunting yet stratospheric melodies, soundscaping that pushes you to evade your mind, and an overall musicianship that dares to deliver complex yet compelling songs, this album is for you. Special mentions goes to Jonas Renkse, whose vocals abilities never cease to amaze. |
| Jakob Solace | 4.5 |
| A little less melodic than their previous efforts, Jakob's third opus Solace is nonetheless darker, moodier, and more intense. Tracks like Pneumonia will surely remind people of ISIS' heavier songs, while Lonesome and Safety In Numbers sees our Kiwi friends try to reach for your deepest emotions. A fantastic album. |
| Digital Summer Cause and Effect | 4.5 |
| Blindspott Blindspott | 4.5 |
| Quite possibly one of the best albums New Zealand will ever have to offer. An incredible effort that shows how aggression, intensity and emotion can be meshed together and not sound boring, rushed or bizarre to the listener. A must for anyone looking for Rock/Metal that dares to add some interesting flavors. |
| Digital Summer Counting The Hours | 4.5 |
| To all those who think rock music is dead or full of bands like Nickelback:rDigital Summer have more passion, rage and intelligence than 99% of artists out there, regardless of musical genre. These guys know how to craft powerful, angst-filled, emotional, touching and stellar songs over and over again without repeating themselves. I have seen some of their videos and heard all their songs. They do EVERYTHING on their own, which is something to admire. They deserve to be known by everyone and be bigger. So stop snubbing rock music, listen to Digital Summer and hear great music. |
| Caliban I Am Nemesis | 4.0 |
| While it might not reinvent any wheels or offer something groundbreaking in any way, but this is one solid album that shows how these Germans are able to take musical genres like Metalcore, Deathcore and Melodic Death Metal, pull them apart and put them back together to offer something that is intense, fresh and radically better from what 99% of bands out there offer. |
| Heaven Shall Burn Antigone | 4.0 |
