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User
Reviews 123
Approval 95%
Soundoffs 238
News Articles 11
Band Edits + Tags 250
Album Edits 1,484
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Last Active 12-23-19 9:27 pm
Joined 09-16-14
Review Comments 22,503
| October 2017 resumé
You know the drill: It's the end of the month, thus in comes my short commentary on all the stuff released that I got a chance to hear. If there's a record you loved, but don't see on here, chances are I didn't get to it yet, so stick around and I will write something up about it. And now a score guide: 10/9 - 5; 8 - 4.5; 7 - 4; 6 - 3.5/3; 5 - 2.5; 4 - 2; 3 - 1.5; 2/1 - 1 | | 26 |  | Knuckle Puck
Shapeshifter
Quite a generic collection of slightly more aggressive Pop-Punk tracks that are not creative anough to justify their sameness, neither are they catchy enough to justify the repetitiveness. 5/10 | | 25 |  | Vuur
In This Moment We Are Free - Cities
Female-led Prog Metal band should have been a revelation, but alas it is a drab display of sameness and boredom. 4/10 | | 24 |  | Heaters
Matterhorn
Heaters' latest is a much more mellow and subtle record, which sounds interesting enough on paper, but in actuality it turned out to be an inexcusable meh-fest. It just lacks that colourful punch their previous album had and that's a great shame. 5/10 | | 23 |  | Altarage
Endinghent
Altarage's new album is surprising in many ways, but seldom in a good one. It feels both tired and unfocused, which leads to the listener being tired and losing focus. I cannot say it is disorganised. That is not the case. It is in fact very straightforward and simple, but that simplicity often balances on the verge of utter banality. It's just absolutely unremarkable in every way. 4/10 | | 22 |  | We Call This Courage
We Call This Courage
It certainly is decent enough, but I just really couldn't get into the vocals on this one. 6/10
Bottle Rocket, One to Blame | | 21 |  | Hallas
Excerpts From a Future Past
A bit too familiar and not all taht adventurous or bold to go all out there, but still a highly enjoyable, well sung, neatly written and lavishly palyed Heavy-Psych with a Heavy Metal edge. 7/10 | | 20 |  | Fever Ray
Plunge
Guys, this is just not doing it for me. It started out as a 3.0, but I feared it would drop lower... and it did. At first I thought I'll just put it on 2.5 and be done with the thing, but upon multiple excruciating relistens it grew off more and more and eventually I realised I can't stand it at all. It's a completely drab, uninteresting record. And what's worst is that it made me go relisten to Fever Ray's first album and the Knife's discography and I realised that all of it is tonnes worse than I rememeber it. It's just one of those releases. Ugh. 4/10 | | 19 |  | Stick to Your Guns
True View
People like to hail the new Counterparts as this year's Metalcore highlight (or the new Converge, whatever), but this record gets quite dismissed, although it had much more musical variety, better production andmore driving instrumentation. Sure, the lyrics are quite silly, but pretty much everything else is your usual gutsy, blasting Metalcore fun. Yes, please. 7/10
3 Feet from Peace, The Sun the Moon the Truth, Delinelle, 56, The Inner Authority, You Are Free, The Better Days Before Me | | 18 |  | Esmerine
Mechanics of Dominion
This album was not as hard to sit through as I feared it would be. Still, it is your usual overbearing, tiring, tedious Post-Rock sameness, but this time around it at least had an interesting and clear instrumental palette. It was at times vibrant, at times magnetic. I didn't end up liking it, but I could at least appreciate all teh effort that went into making this dreaded out blandness. 5/10
The Space in Between, Mechanics of Dominion, Northeast Kingdom | | 17 |  | Amenra
Mass VI
It might be just me, but this album just had no staying value whatsoever. It's like a collection of utmost forgettable, dreadfully slow-burning, lamentably unengaging snoozefests. This album is pure nothing. It gives nothing, but it takes nothing. I had no expectations going in, I got pretty much an equal amount of a big bloated bag of big ol' nothing. It's like Alcest's even more depressed sibling (I don't know, whether Alcest is older and therefore reference-worthy enough in comparison to Amenra, but then again, I couldn't care less.) 5/10 | | 16 |  | The Prids
Do I Look Like I’m In Love?
So here's a story. A friend of mine tells me "Oi, I've got sum new pospunk'alled th'Prids on ffinyl. Y'heard o' that?" (the guy's from Brisbane, they just talk like that). And I say that no, I have not. And I believe I know why now. I tend to ignore unnoteworthy things. This one goes out to all of you still actively seeking Goth-induced Post-Punk about your midlife crisis of pretending like you're young. 5/10 | | 15 |  | Liam Gallagher
As You Were
Another one of those records, where you just look at the artist and you know immediately just what kind of thing this probably is. Yeah, it's Liam still thinking he was ever worth a shit without his brother: 2017 edition. 4/10
Paper Crown, For What It's Worth, Universal Gleam, All My People/All Mankind | | 14 |  | Marilyn Manson
Heaven Upside Down
I just... I just can't with this album's production. Everything else seems fine enough, but for whatever reason the sound of it is so incredibly rough, but not like in juicy heaviness kind of rough, more like in dry from working with asbestos bricks all day kind of rough. I know I missed about a decade of his music, but has he always been like this? Cause damn.. 5/10 | | 13 |  | Trivium
The Sin and the Sentence
Another collection of silly lyrics, forgettable songwriting and potentially good music that is just wasted to no talent in assembling it all together. This album is just another one of Trivium's attempts at putting together a tasteful album and failing, no matter how obviously they are trying. 5/10 | | 12 |  | Snoop Dogg
Make America Crip Again
Snoop got himself some better production than usual, but in pretty much every single other way this is just another one of his endless, drab, boring and expendable projects. 4/10
M.A.C.A. | | 11 |  | Weezer
Pacific Daydream
So the kings of all things washed out and uninspired are back with a washed out and uninspired album. What a surprise. 3/10 | | 10 |  | Sorcerer
The Crowning of the Fire King
Still think it should be Fire Lord or Phoenix King at least. If you are making an Avatar fan-album, do it right, goddammit! 6/10
Sirens, The Devil's Incubus, Crimson Cross | | 9 |  | Blut Aus Nord
Deus Salutis Meae
No matter how much these overproduced new bands try to convince you they are diabolical, they will never be as hellish and utterly monstrous as bands like Blut Aus Nord. 7/10
Chorea Macchabeorum, Impius, Apostasis, Ex tenebrae lucis | | 8 |  | Canker Blossom
In Space
It has all the attributes to be a fun, turn-your-brain-off, kooky album with sharp instrumentation and songwriting, but the vocals just dragged the whole thing down. They are beyond annoying. Guess that's just a taste thing. 6/10 | | 7 |  | Stars
There Is No Love In Fluorescent Light
The cover is beautifully pleasant. The music is tediously boring. 4/10
Alone, The Maze | | 6 |  | Destroyer
Ken
Destroyer's partial transition to electronics can now officially be called successful, for this album is full of calm, deeply pleasing and relaxing tuneful little beauties. Each song has its own autumn-like, sweater-wearing, tea-sipping atmosphere to it. It's pure stress-reliever. My only gripe with it is that there is no real cohesion or consistency between the tracks. The songs flow from one to another as if they were different works from separate albums, randomly put on shuffle. 7/10
Sky's Grey, In the Morning, Tinseltown Swimming in Blood, A Light Travels Down the Catwalk, Sometime in the World, Ivory Coast, La Regle du Jeu | | 5 |  | King Krule
The Ooz
This album's monotony and lifelessness is almost hypnotic, but every now and then you can only sigh over the lack of any excitement or emotions and wait for the next mildly stranger musical moment to kick in to spice up the dread. It's an unusual album with an intriguing aesthetic. Unfortunately, it also hangs dry a lot of the time. 6/10
The Locomotive, Dum Surfer, Emergency Blimp, Czech One, Vidual | | 4 |  | Street Sects
Rat Jacket
Street Sects dial back on insanity to deliver a little more structured, textured and more clearly conceptually defined tracks. On one hand, it is an interesting change of pace and the songs still carry that almost horrifying atmosphere, but on the other hand, it's much more non-descript and plain. The band already excelled in the off-colour, skincrawling insanity they presented before, so it doesn't make all that much sense to me, why would the want to slow that down. 6/10 | | 3 |  | St. Vincent
Masseduction
Congratulations, Annie! You've released your weakest album thus far. I feared for this album ever since the first single dropped. New York, while a decent and pleasant tune, was far from anything she ever did in the past. And sure, it's in her nature to always reinvent and push forward with her sound, but this almost shoegaze-y mint-pop howling mess was not within the desirable spectrum. And my fears more or less came true once the album itself dropped. It's packed with booming production and overly electric instrumentation. Half of the songs sound like the b-sides for her self-titled album. Like the song Fear the Future, where you just wait for that almost inevitable dubstep drop to kick in. Thankfully, it doesn't. Then again, there are moments that, in St. Vincent's truest fashion, seem one way, but then progress beyond expectation and develop into grandiose and immersive pieces of music (Pills, Young Lover). | | 2 | | St. Vincent
Masseduction
It's just sort of flat and forgettable all throughout, which I could never ay about her music before. It's a 3.0 so far, but I'm afraid it'll grow off me more. 6/10
P.S.: At least you can't say that she half-assed it...
Pills, Happy Birthday Johnny, New York, Slow Disco, Smoking Section | | 1 |  | Odonis Odonis
No Pop
No Pop sees Odonis Odonis delve even deeper into the darker and near-insane territories. As the title suggests, this album pretty much finalises the band's efforts to create to most horror-like futuristic Industrial Electro-Punk with the lowest glimmers of hopeful catchiness. And while their previous effort Post Plague managed to cleverly balance the near-demonic subdued instrumentation with some instantly memorable songwriting, No Pop dials back on that, delivering even more dense and darker atmosphere, but unfortunately not as much in terms of memorability. It's the band's most skincrawling, but also inconspicuous release. 6/10
Check My Profile, Eraser, Vision, Fluke | |
Papa Universe
11.01.17 | well this has been a dismal month... | Sniff
11.01.17 | Calling the Amenra album pure nothing is kinda offensive :( | Papa Universe
11.01.17 | good | Dewinged
11.03.17 | This month's been a bit underwhelming yeah, n November is looking even worse. | neekafat
11.03.17 | " 10/9 - 5; 8 - 4.5; 7 - 4; 6 - 3.5/3; 5 - 2.5; 4 - 2; 3 - 1.5; 2/1 - 1"
This is the worst thing I've ever seen like ever | Papa Universe
11.03.17 | we've established a long time ago that neekafat's worldview is twisted and disoriented, hence the assumption that what he preceives to be bad is actually perfectly alright | DoofusWainwright
11.03.17 | So Destroyer is Unique BEST NEW MUSIC
Also, there were a lot of early turkeys this month in readiness for the festive season | Papa Universe
11.03.17 | Destroyer is far from BEST NEW MUSIC, but it is a highlight of this month... which is not good. | DoofusWainwright
11.03.17 | It’s the best of this month so Best New Music - that’s a required feature | DoofusWainwright
11.03.17 | The album flows ridiculously well, like best of the year well in track flow terms, so I’m not totally relating to the write up :/ | DoofusWainwright
11.03.17 | My two other favourites of 2017 I have a few issues with track flow - ‘Sleep Well Beast’, ‘Cigarettes After Sex’ - but that’s not my complaint with ‘ken’. It has classic pacing, I think there’s one moment the drums sound too similar between songs and that’s the only thing I noticed.
In terms of criticism of the albu. I’d say I’d have welcomed one longer song on there to expand the feel of the album, that’s about it.
Definitely the most underrated album of the year so far considering how acclaimed Bejar was at the peak of his Pitchfork exposure. | Papa Universe
11.03.17 | well if you use that logic then yes it's BNM
the album is really good, but its flaws do tend to overshadow the goods | DoofusWainwright
11.03.17 | Nah, that’s the Protomartyr :P
I’m a fanboy with Destroyer so I respect your 7/10 tbh, he’s an acquired taste | Papa Universe
11.03.17 | 7/10 is 4.0, so that's okay
you too gave RiD a 4.0, so I guess we're even in hurting each others' feelings about albums we currently audio-jack-off to |
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