Hawks
Ryan P
Contributor

Reviews 225
Soundoffs 174
News Articles 6
Band Edits + Tags 3,485
Album Edits 969

Album Ratings 6830
Objectivity 66%

Last Active 09-10-19 6:24 pm
Joined 03-11-08

Review Comments 107,485

 Lists
07.17.25 KRALLICE RANKED07.16.25 HAWKS' WEEKLY DIGS PT. 1 ♦
07.11.25 TOP 10 ALBUMS: HIP-HOP07.09.25 POST-METAL SUBMERSION
07.07.25 BLACK METAL SUMMER/FALL/WINTER07.05.25 BEST USER REVIEWS: JUNE 2025 ♦
07.03.25 DUNGEON SYNTH BINGE06.29.25 TOP 10 ALBUMS: BLACK METAL
06.29.25 TOP 10 ALBUMS: DEATH METAL06.21.25 NORWEGIAN BM WEEKEND
06.11.25 GIVE HAWKS AMBIENT RECS???06.10.25 DEATH RANKED
06.08.25 20 BM ESSENTIALS THAT NEED MORE LOVE ♦06.06.25 RIFFTASTIC DEATH METAL 2020s
06.05.25 HAWKS' TOP 15 DM BANDS EVER05.31.25 HAWKS' TOP 25 ALBUMS OF ALL TIME
05.24.25 YOUR FAVORITE ALBUM??? PT. 305.14.25 REC HAWKS METALCORE/DEATHCORE
More »

BEST USER REVIEWS: JUNE 2025

A continuation of Sowing's awesome series! Want to recognize all the users that are putting in hard work to help keep our little screwed-up corner of the internet alive!
1As Living Arrows
Hope and Ruin

"As Living Arrows have three wonderful guitarists, a very solid rhythm section and an absolutely superb vocalist. Every track bleeds emotion and creativity with the frontman being a similar to Jacob Bannon from Converge combined with some very well delivered clean vocals. However, their sound takes influence from lots of bands and subgenres of metal/hardcore - imagine Converge mixed with 90's screamo and Neurosis and you will get a strong idea of what the band sounds like."

-Confessed2005
2Miley Cyrus
Something Beautiful

"Something Beautiful has something to prove: an elevated creative and artistic vision that Miley Cyrus has clearly bottled up for most of her career. However, the results are mixed. I often find myself scratching my head at the artsier elements, such as the interludes peculiarly placed either side of the pop-leaning “Easy Lover”, or the spoken-word opener “Prelude”, which feels like an 8th grade poetry piece. They hint at a concept album that isn’t really there. The wall of sound in “Something Beautiful” is complex and musically interesting, in a way that is shocking for Miley, but it’s not entirely pleasant to listen to, and beneath the cacophony is a ho-hum ballad."

-brandontaylor
3Kaonashi
I Want To Go Home.

"The real issue with I Want To Go Home and really the band’s entire output, is that Kaonashi are relying heavily on a gimmick, Peter Rono’s vocals. The man’s unique delivery and sound serve as both the foundation of the band’s success as well as the ceiling of which they will never break through. There’s no end to the descriptors that can be attributed to what is essentially Rono loudly squawking at the listener for much of the record and even though Rono does employ a few other delivery styles at points, he knows where his bread is buttered. Ostensibly, I Want To Go Home is trying to convey a sense of grief, loss, and pain throughout its runtime but Kaonashi forgets presentation, while not everything, still matters."

-Calc
4Bello and Shem
Trapped in a Pocket Dimension

"In the bleak cosmos of contemporary music, where innovation often succumbs to the gravitational pull of repetition, a seismic event has occurred. Bello & Shem, heretofore whispered names on the fringes of experimental hip-hop, have not merely released an album; they have unleashed a meticulously crafted, labyrinthine descent into the very fabric of psychological horror and existential dread. Their latest offering, “Trapped In A Pocket Dimension,” is not merely a record; it is a meticulously engineered, immersive experience, a sonic black hole that pulls the listener into its horrifying embrace, shattering conventional genre boundaries and catapulting the horrorcore subgenre — and indeed, hip-hop itself"

-SlothcoreSam
5YUNGBLUD
Idols

"Fearless at 27, Dominic Harrison didn’t flinch when looking the titans of the British scene in the eye. He dares to shout that he’s seeking his own voice through their timeless lessons, in an age where nothing feels new, nothing moves us anymore. Everything sounds familiar to the experienced ear—an ear constantly bombarded with information, letting nothing and no one pass through its defensive shell."

-piroga84
6Lorde
Virgin

"There are moments where the journey of self-exploration is canvassed in stories that hold us to the end but at worst, the lyrics are reaching for something that critics could quickly dash off in their review as “open, raw, honest, personal” and call it a day. That Lorde has already recorded a momentous pop album with the overarching concept of laying herself bare, warts and all, as a hot mess looking for a sense of self makes Virgin and its unlovable clunkiness even harder to understand."

-lz41
7Mechina
Bellum Interruptum

"This is the best Mechina has sounded since Xenon. Not a radical departure from their normal output, but a tremendous refinement. All you’ve come to expect is here; Mel Rose’s angelic voice rising above the fury of deathcore growls and chugging riffs, powerful kick drums, non-existent bass and beautiful piano-lead moments that give listeners a respite and help set moods for each track."

-renegadestrings
8Evoking Winds
Your Rivers

"Owing to the conceptual inspiration of “The Witcher”, “Your Rivers”, like “Bald Mountain”, has an imbued folklore emphasis that immediately makes me sit up, carrying a magnetism and an aura. The informal tag of “Wind Metal” may sound clumsy until you hear this and rings true with the opener “Verily Said” alone. Apart from the scene setting mountainscape and its inevitable wind, the combination of flutes, harmonicas and local bagpipes (above all else) together contribute to an accurate “Wind Metal” descriptor."

-Muzz79
9Benson Boone
American Heart

"It's hard to tell what Boone is exactly best at, because for an album that mostly seems to stick to one sound for the majority of its duration, it's very all over the place. Opening track "Sorry, I'm Here For Someone Else" starts the album on a nicely upbeat note, with its throbbing synths helping the song build up to a nice climax while Boone sings of a date with a new girl where he inadvertently bumps into an ex, only to find himself a tad preoccupied with how much he misses her. It's a solid song whose best aspect is its simplicity. Unfortunately, it's the start of a rather disturbing trend, where a good portion of the songs just don't know when to end."

-TheMoonchild
10letlive.
The Blackest Beautiful (Revisited)

"Despite a few odd features (particularly the remixed version of The Dope Beat) and compositional changes, make no mistake – this is an improvement in virtually every way over the original release. Had this version been the one to hit the market in 2013, there is a good chance letlive. would have exploded into mainstream popularity instead of going out with a whimper. They’ve been playing live shows recently with excellent turnouts, and even though it’s been years since they were relevant, the cult following of fans who stuck around have embraced screaming their lyrics like it’s still 2011. Naysayers will still hate them regardless of this release, and time will tell if this leads to the release of new material - but even if this is all we get in the end, it will be a proper send-off for a band that once had so much promise."

-Scoot
11Yeule
Evangelic Girl is a Gun

"Yeule has, importantly, branched out from their traditionally bleak tone to give something of a history lesson about Singapore military service. Again, the delivery is just so slick and upbeat. I also see maturity on tgwshf and Eko, which to me are about the friction they face with finally becoming “famous” or at least well-known within their genre. On VV, yeule’s vocals reach new levels of sincerity and peacefulness. On this album overall, we experience a particularly rewarding conflict between yeule’s mature writing, bordering on actual poetry at points (merely alliterative at worst), and their super slick, indifferent delivery. We end up with a rebellious teenager who has grown up into a self-aware, introspective adult, while still managing to be cool."

-MOYA
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