| 2015 |
| SECRETS Everything That Got Us Here | 1.5 |
| Freddie Gibbs Shadow of a Doubt | 3.5 |
| Justin Bieber Purpose | 4.0 |
| Novelists Souvenirs | 3.0 |
| Grimes Art Angels | 3.5 |
| The Plot In You Happiness in Self Destruction | 3.5 |
| Kelela Hallucinogen | 4.0 |
| Parkway Drive Ire | 2.5 |
| Disclosure Caracal | 3.5 |
| The Black Dahlia Murder Abysmal | 4.0 |
| A long overdue return to form for The Black Dahlia Murder. Ryan Knight's ethereal melodic lines nicely balance out the whirlwind of aggression that pads out the rhythm section. And of course Strnad's vocals are very much the benchmark for all to reach. |
| Blessthefall To Those Left Behind | 2.0 |
| TesseracT Polaris | 2.0 |
| Mac Miller GO:OD AM | 4.0 |
| The Weeknd Beauty Behind the Madness | 3.0 |
| The Afterimage Lumière | 4.0 |
| The Devil Wears Prada Space | 3.0 |
| Rain City Drive Routine Breathing | 3.0 |
| Empires Fade The Edge Of Existence | 3.5 |
I can't help but feel this would have been a late noughties metalcore staple. With a sound that
more than lends itself to the likes of Misery Signals (a nice guest vocal by Karl Schubach aids in
this) and For the Fallen Dreams, it is unlikely Empires Fade are going find themselves catapulted
to superstardom pedalling this style of ethereal but ultimately derivative metalcore, simply
because the audience for this is not what it once was.
The assortment of elegant lead sections and a nice chunky rhythm will provide anyone with a
partiality to metalcore plenty of enjoyment. The lead guitar lines prove to be the major highlight
throughout the near 40 minute run time.
The lyrical content proves to be hit and miss. Having taken shots at religion, Empires Fade come
across as small minds thinking big in songs such as 'Worthless' and 'Eyes Wide Shit', providing
neither the insight nor the articulation to adequately tackle the issue. They seem more
comfortable covering more traditional lyrical themes such as betrayal and loss.
Vocally, the Edge of Existence is extremely polished. This again works to both it's advantage and
it's disadvantage. On one hand, the lead vocals are deep, aggressive and feature highly in the
mix, this provides them with added presence. The clean vocals however bother me at points as they
seem overly doctored and unnatural.
Overall, the Edge of Existence is not without flaws but is a refreshing revival for melodic
metalcore.
Recommended: Worlds Apart, Hidden Truths, the Edge of Existence |
| Counterparts Tragedy Will Find Us | 4.5 |
| The Wise Man's Fear Castle in the Clouds | 3.0 |
| Elitist Elitist | 1.5 |
| Elitist are a mere shadow of their former line ups. This self titled effort is derivative in almost every way and the signature melodic leads of old are barely present in any capacity. "Idle Hands" is the sole island of excellence in a sea of mediocrity. |
| Thy Art Is Murder Holy War | 3.5 |
| August Burns Red Found in Far Away Places | 4.0 |
| Of Virtue Salvation | 4.0 |
| Make Them Suffer Old Souls | 4.0 |
| Haste the Day Coward | 3.5 |
| Veil of Maya Matriarch | 3.5 |
| Thessa The Other Side MMXV | 3.0 |
| In Hearts Wake Skydancer | 2.5 |
| Dance Gavin Dance Instant Gratification | 4.0 |
| ALAZKA Values & Virtues | 3.5 |
| AngelMaker Dissentient | 3.5 |
| Oceans Ate Alaska Lost Isles | 2.0 |
| A Night in Texas The God Delusion | 3.5 |
| Drake If You're Reading This It's Too Late | 3.5 |
| Feed Her to the Sharks Fortitude | 2.5 |
| If there is any credit that can be derived from Fortitude it will be that the musicians are at least still proficient on their instruments with occasionally interesting guitar sections. Unfortunately however, Feed Her to the Sharks seem stuck in a time warp playing metalcore circa 2006. Melodic death metal style leads, multiple breakdowns per song, lyrical themes based around failed relationships and admittedly good lead vocals and subpar clean vocals. Opener "The World is Yours" proves to be the solitary high point of the out of date sounding Fortitude. |
| 2012 |
| Circle of Contempt Entwine the Threads | 4.0 |
| I'm absolutely loving this. Super technical yet avoids falling into complete wankery. Beautifully melodic yet packing a dense crunch with the rhythms. |
| Asking Alexandria Under the Influence | 1.0 |
| I Am Abomination Let The Future Tell The Truth | 2.5 |
| The Algorithm Polymorphic Code | 3.5 |
| Woe, Is Me Genesi[s] | 1.5 |
| Marginally better than Issues. Marginally worse than listening to a pneumatic drill. |
| Issues Black Diamonds | 1.0 |
| Deftones Koi No Yokan | 4.5 |
| The Weeknd Trilogy | 4.5 |
| Hacktivist Hacktivist | 2.0 |
| Various Artists (Punk) Punk Goes Pop 5 | 1.0 |
| Parkway Drive Atlas | 2.5 |
| Better than Deep Blue but still nothing to write home about... Blue and the Grey is stellar though. |
| In Fear and Faith In Fear and Faith | 3.0 |
| August Burns Red Sleddin' Hill | 3.5 |
| As I Lay Dying Awakened | 3.0 |
| This or the Apocalypse Dead Years | 5.0 |
| Having had a full listen, the guitar work is simply outstanding. Technical, clean and bordering beautiful at moments. The lead work is some of the best I have heard in the genre. Vocal performance is also hugely improved aside from the odd misplaced clean vocal. In all honesty though, this is totally driven by the technical majesty of This Or The Apocalypse's rguitarists.rAlbum must be heard for any fans of metalcore. |
| Elitist Reshape Reason | 3.5 |
| Devil Sold His Soul Empire of Light | 3.0 |
| The Amity Affliction Chasing Ghosts | 3.5 |
| Shokran Sixth Sense | 3.5 |
| In Hearts Wake Divination | 3.0 |
| Obey the Brave Young Blood | 2.0 |
| Solace (CAN) Call & Response | 4.0 |
| This is going to blow my socks off. |
| Climates What Means The Most | 3.0 |
| APOSTATE Against All Odds | 3.0 |
| Aegaeon Being | 3.0 |
| Bury Tomorrow The Union of Crowns | 4.0 |
Clocking in at almost an hour long, The Union Of Crowns is a bit of an ordeal to make it through. However,
there are some moments of inspiration in spite of some criminally bad lead vocals, amid a barrage of
breakdowns. Bury Tomorrow have really stepped it up instrumentally, with melodic death metal lines that
could be cut from As I Lay Dying's The Powerless Rise. Bury Tomorrow manage to offer up an atmosphere
different to their peers, avoiding many of the pitfalls bands such as Miss May I and The Eyes Of A Traitor (later
work) have fallen into - being unable to forge a sound of their own. So much of an improvement they have
undergone, the sound is barely recognisable from the band's debut album Portraits. One thing that has
remained constant is the stellar performance of clean vocalist Jason Cameron. There can't be many better
clean vocalists in modern metalcore and his versatility in moving between high and low, soft and loud is
remarkable. Ignoring the unnecessarily lengthy run time of the album, they have found a nice balance here
between heavy and melodic and this album is a must check out for fans of melodic metalcore.
Recommended Tracks:
Kingdom
Message To A King
Sceptres |
| The Contortionist Intrinsic | 4.0 |
| A Hero a Fake The Future Again | 1.5 |
| For the Fallen Dreams Wasted Youth | 1.0 |
| Sean Hall Terrestrial | 3.5 |
| The Word Alive Life Cycles | 3.5 |
The musical equivalent of McDonalds. You know what goes in is a bit rubbish but what comes out just tastes
so good. The Word Alive dumbs themself down for sophomore effort "Life Cycles" instead concentrating on
ticking boxes by adding a heavier emphasis on the syrupy keys they are famed for and raining down the
palm mutes and hammer ons. The breakneck intensity of "The Hounds Of Anubis" and the like seems to be in
the past but somehow I don't feel disappointed. Clean vocalist Tyler Smith betters his last
performance tenfold and his vocal melodies are much better fitted to the style The Word Alive adopt here.
Thankfully they also tone down on the stacked screamed vocals of the two guitarists. Sure, the Arizonans sell
themselves a bit short and they are far more capable than their showing here but in the end, from a purely
shallow perspective, "Life Cycles" just works. |
| Periphery Periphery II: This Time It's Personal | 4.5 |
| Landscapes Life Gone Wrong | 4.5 |
| Memphis May Fire Challenger | 3.5 |
Memphis May Fire's detractors will find nothing here to throw them off the warpath. Pretty standard fare for
the former Southern Post Hardcore outfit. Their sound has become much more befitting of their label, Rise
Records as time has passed. Heavy use of synthesiser, choppy palm muted sections and sugary clean vocals
dominate throughout. Despite the album fading badly in the second half there are a number of catchy tunes
that you just cant help but bob your head along too. "Vices" and "Prove Me Right" carrying some of the most
infectious hooks you are to hear from 2012. In a sea of bands doing this exact thing, Memphis May Fire are
one of the better examples of it being done well. |
| Your Memorial Redirect | 3.5 |
| Really great atmospherics. Redirect has taken me completely by surprise. Fans of Misery Signals might find some enjoyment in this. Trial & Triumph is a quite stupendous track. |
| The Ghost Inside Get What You Give | 3.5 |
| Chelsea Grin Evolve | 2.0 |
| Don't know why I bothered getting hold of this. Anyway, a huge improvement on their previous material which rwas completely unlistenable. Jason Richardson has added some spritely elements to the guitar work in Evolve. rHe picks off from where he left off in the Discovery. Unfortunately for him though, his fellow bandmates are rlittle more than competent musicians and are hell bent on producing records so generic and watered down rthey won't find their way out of 15 year old scenesters' CD collections. Also, the vocalist should be put down. |
| Architects Daybreaker | 2.5 |
| Miss May I At Heart | 2.0 |
| The overall consensus is that At Heart is an improvement instrumentally, the riffs are quite a bit better than their previous efforts but the clean vocals totally kill it. Horrible. |
| Make Them Suffer Neverbloom | 4.0 |
| Skip the Foreplay Nightlife | 2.0 |
| Nicki Minaj Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded | 1.0 |
| Make Me Famous It's Now or Never | 1.0 |
| Before Their Eyes Redemption | 2.5 |
| In some ways an improvement on Untouchable, in others a greater failure. Before Their Eyes have retreated back to their original post hardcore sound of "The Dawn Of My Death", and in doing so it brings mixed results. Songs such as "Lies" and "Revenge" hinted at a possible return to form, bettering anything on their last effort but for the most part Redemption is a mundane, lifeless performance lacking in any sort of skill and flair. Given the band's problems in the past couple of years this failure surely hammers the final nail in Before Their Eyes' coffin. |
| Adestria Chapters | 3.0 |
| Empires Fade Reflection | 3.0 |
| Hands Like Houses Ground Dweller | 3.5 |
| Veil of Maya Eclipse | 3.5 |
| I, the Breather Truth and Purpose | 3.0 |
| Young Guns Bones | 2.5 |
| Palisades I'm Not Dying Today | 3.0 |
| My Ticket Home To Create a Cure | 2.0 |
| Blessed by a Broken Heart Feel The Power | 4.0 |
| this is gonna rawk |
| Enter Shikari A Flash Flood of Colour | 1.5 |
| 2011 |
| Intervals The Space Between | 3.5 |
| Despite the fact it is lacking in vocals, the musicianship is strong enough to carry this. For fans of ambidjent. |
| ERRA Impulse | 4.0 |
| One Direction Up All Night | 1.0 |
| Northlane Discoveries | 4.0 |
| brokeNCYDE Guilty Pleasure | 1.0 |
| dont need to listen to this. |
| Uneven Structure Februus | 5.0 |
| Elitist Earth | 3.5 |
| Don't understand the hate for this, sure the instrumentals were completely pointless but I think this actually pretty good after listening to it a few times. Fracture is great. |
| The Amity Affliction Youngbloods | 3.5 |
| A Lot Like Birds Conversation Piece | 3.5 |
| Blessthefall Awakening | 2.0 |
| a few genuinely good riffs are outweighed by annoying cleans and this whole thing being pretty rubbish and generic. |
| You Me At Six Sinners Never Sleep | 2.0 |
| A very disappointing return after their last record. An abundance of weak, slow songs and goofy guest parts ruin any chance of this being decent. |
| Ben Howard Every Kingdom | 3.5 |
| Oh, Sleeper Children of Fire | 3.5 |
| Epic |
| Confession The Long Way Home | 2.0 |
| Volumes Via | 3.5 |
| Fit for a King Descendants | 3.0 |
| Betraying the Martyrs Breathe In Life | 3.0 |
| The Eyes of a Traitor The Disease | 3.0 |
A relative return to form after the disappointing "Breathless". They haven't headed back in the direction of "a
Clear Perception" unfortunately but seem to have carved out a dark, atmospheric sound with the addition of
background synthesisers. They ramp up the technicality of the musicianship again compared to last time but
the EP has been mixed in such a way that it comes across quite muddy. |
| The Devil Wears Prada Dead Throne | 4.0 |
| Thrice Major/Minor | 4.0 |
| Substructure Monolith | 4.0 |
| Of Virtue Heartsounds | 4.0 |
| Greeley Estates The Death of Greeley Estates | 1.5 |
| Aristeia Era Of The Omnipotent | 3.5 |
| All Shall Perish This Is Where It Ends | 3.5 |
| The Price Of Existence > This Is Where It Ends > Awaken The Dreamers. Hermida rules. |
| Chelsea Grin My Damnation | 1.0 |
| why is the average rating not much lower? Here you go. |
| Suicide Silence The Black Crown | 1.0 |
| i will be rating this a 1 and not listening to any of it. k cheers. |
| Unearth Darkness in the Light | 3.5 |
| The Bunny The Bear If You Don't Have Anything Nice to Say... | 1.0 |
| The Black Dahlia Murder Ritual | 3.0 |
| August Burns Red Leveler | 3.5 |
| Probably on par with Thrill Seeker, August Burns Red serve up an album in which the second half far rsurpasses the first half. Having taken a slightly more experimental route with Leveler you find more noodley rleads from JB Brubaker and a number of interesting guitar parts. Jake's vocals are great and Greiner excels ras always behind the kit. Surprisingly, junz are more prominent than in Constellations and overall I feel they rkinda ran a little short on ideas. Mixing is also a bit blah. Recommended tracks - from Pangea through to rLeveler. Best song - 40 Nights |
| The Crimson Armada Conviction | 2.0 |
| What a horrible waste of talent. Traded out being a decent by the numbers melo-deathcore band for a rdreadful by the numbers metalcore band. As was aptly put above, the mixture of Attack Attack! esque keys rand Emmure esque yells make for a dog's dinner of an album overall. Having said that "You've Changed" rand "Worthy" are probably worth checking out. |
| I Set My Friends On Fire Astral Rejection | 1.0 |
| worst thing I've heard in 2011 thus far. Avoid at all costs. |
| Of Mice and Men The Flood | 2.5 |
| Black Veil Brides Set the World on Fire | 1.0 |
| The Air I Breathe Great Faith In Fools | 3.0 |
| This album would be in line for a far more favourable rating if it didn't have half as many breakdowns as it does. Some really tight musicianship throughout. |
| For the Fallen Dreams Back Burner | 3.0 |
| A disappointing return for a band with undoubted talent. Having established a relatively unique sound in rtheir previous outings For The Fallen Dreams have lost two members, one of which was the principle rsongwriter. This is altogether obvious in Back Burner. While there is no obvious step down in the technicality rof musicianship the songs don't seem to flow as nicely as before, often seeming a little disjointed. While rlead vocalist Dylan Richter's screams have improved tenfold the prevalence of clean vocals has increased rtenfold. The clean vocals leave much to be desired. Fist Fight is the only real outstanding track on Back rBurner. |
| LGND The Pale Horse | 2.0 |
| Sleeping With Sirens Let's Cheers to This | 2.5 |
Both the super high pitch whiney vocals and heart-broken style teenager lyrics are grating at the best of
times. 'Lets Cheers To This' is poor in most departments and is not catchy enough to make up for these
fundamental drawbacks. "Fire" is a good single but is demonstrative of the new direction the band has
taken. Safe to say they decided to concentrate on garnering the affections of teenage girls. |
| Texas in July One Reality | 2.0 |
| the only good thing about this band before was that their drummer was phenomenal. They must have told him to calm down. Thus making this one of the most tedious and boring listens I have had in a long time. |
| Memphis May Fire The Hollow | 2.5 |
| Winds of Plague Against the World | 1.5 |
| Asking Alexandria Reckless and Relentless | 3.0 |
| Weak experimentation with eighties style anthemic chorus' and more sparsely spread cookie cutter dance beats hint that the band at least wants to try and distance themselves from the mincer reputation they got themselves from debut album "Stand Up and Scream". |
| Breakdown of Sanity Mirrors | 2.0 |
| Born of Osiris The Discovery | 4.0 |
| Mindblowing realisation of their potential. The keyboards take a far more prominent role for The Discovery than previously. Still present are the super, intricate melodic leads however they are backed by far better fitting rhythms and song structures. The definitive 'Sumeriancore' album. |
| As Blood Runs Black Instinct | 2.0 |
| this is taking more heat than is deserved. Catchy riffage with tonnes of stacked vocals.r3 weeks later - Became boring really fast. |
| The Human Abstract Digital Veil | 4.0 |
| The Color Morale My Devil In Your Eyes | 4.0 |
| More on the sugary side for metalcore but nonetheless very enjoyable. |
| Dance Gavin Dance Downtown Battle Mountain II | 3.0 |
| Gideon Costs | 2.5 |
| Beady Eye Different Gear, Still Speeding | 1.0 |
Liam Gallagher is a repugnant, obnoxious twunt who has ridden on his brother's greater talents for much of
his extinguished career. So he starts to believe in his own hype and tosses away any prospect of keeping any
element of credibility. I don't normally allow vendettas to affect my judgement of a band's music. Here hath
we an exception. |
| Dr. Acula Slander | 2.0 |
| terrible vocals but much improved musicianship. Their first release that I found any entertainment out of, what very little entertainment it was. |
| Lower Definition The Infinite Et Cetera | 3.0 |
| A Sight for Sewn Eyes Nonsense | 4.0 |
| Architects The Here and Now | 2.0 |
| Lead Hands Lead Hands | 4.0 |
| 2010 |
| Sea of Treachery Welcome To Wonderland | 1.5 |
| A number of line up changes have certainly not helped the dynamic of Sea Of Treachery as a band. Welcome rto Wonderland alongside its truly dreadful artwork, is an album that sounds as if it was recorded in rsomeone's garage using a dictaphone. A laughable obsession with playing breakdowns prevents this from rever becoming a legitimate release. In among the sparsely spread decent riffs are a multitude of horrible, rsingle note breakdowns. Generic, even by Sea Of Treachery's standards. |
| I, the Breather These Are My Sins | 2.5 |
| Amia Venera Landscape The Long Procession | 5.0 |
| One of the greatest post metal albums ever written and recorded. Period. |
| After the Burial In Dreams | 4.0 |
| Dropped some of their mental song structures opting for super melodic leads. Phenomenal. |
| A Day To Remember What Separates Me from You | 2.0 |
| Underoath Ø (Disambiguation) | 2.5 |
| My Ticket Home The Opportunity To Be | 2.5 |
| Memphis May Fire Between the Lies | 2.5 |
| Conducting from the Grave Revenants | 2.5 |
| Motionless in White Creatures | 2.0 |
| TesseracT Concealing Fate | 4.0 |
| Abandon All Ships Geeving | 1.0 |
| Bring Me the Horizon There Is a Hell, Believe Me I've Seen It... | 4.0 |
| Bury Tomorrow On Waxed Wings | 4.0 |
| For Today Breaker | 1.5 |
| The Word Alive Deceiver | 2.5 |
| Woe, Is Me Number[s] | 3.5 |
| A mixed bag, some nice flowy riffs and interesting arpeggios scattered around. Particularly the better tracks such as 'Delinquent' and 'Hell of High Water'. Interesting uses of samples and some excellent work from ex Of Machines drummer Austin Thornton.rHowever for every excellent riff there are 5 monotonous, cookie cutter breakdowns to go with it. The annoying over-reliance on the use of breakdowns makes listening to the entire album at once a near impossible task. Track by track however there is some joy to be had. |
| Soft Powers Bad Pop | 1.0 |
| Couldn't be further away from Anderson's exploits with Of Machines in both its direction and its quality, his emotionally charged cleans are a thing of the past. Completely unlistenable. |
| The Devil Wears Prada Zombie | 4.5 |
| The Devil Wears Prada come back with a fresh concept idea which implemented and integrated perfectly into the music of Zombie. The darker guitar tones when combined with Hranica's hugely improved low pitch bellows provide the bases of a sound that wouldn't be out of place on a Dawn of the Dead soundtrack or the like. Some may point to the altogether less frequent but still present clean vocals of Jeremy DePoyster as detracting from the aims to create a feeling of complete desolation however their inclusion provides a nice reprieve from the guttural screams of Hranica.rThe sound of EP falls somewhere between Dear Love: A Beautiful Discord and the most recent With Roots Above and Branches Below. |
| Miss May I Monument | 2.0 |
| Miss May I are as infuriating as ever in sophomore "Monument". The guitarists have seemingly advanced in their rabilities to play but they are still incapable of filling songs with anything but crap breakdowns, annoying clean rsections and cookie cutter melo death riffs. |
| Waking The Cadaver Beyond Cops, Beyond God | 5.0 |
| The Acacia Strain Wormwood | 2.0 |
| I've never been so bored in my life. Downgrading to one guitarist was a big mistake. |
| Elitist Caves | 3.5 |
| Black Veil Brides We Stitch These Wounds | 1.0 |
| The Eyes of a Traitor Breathless | 2.5 |
| Devil Sold His Soul Blessed & Cursed | 4.0 |
| Parkway Drive Deep Blue | 2.0 |
| Haste the Day Attack of the Wolf King | 3.0 |
| Emarosa Emarosa | 2.0 |
| This or the Apocalypse Haunt What's Left | 3.5 |
| In Fear and Faith Imperial | 2.5 |
| Attack Attack! Attack Attack! | 2.5 |
| MyChildren MyBride Lost Boy | 1.5 |
| The Ghost Inside Returners | 4.0 |
Excellent album. Have taken their melody to a new level. The musicianship has improved tenfold. A few of the
breakdowns are a bit one paced and stale but besides this there isn't much wrong with this. Can't beat the pure
aggression of this band. Hopefully I'll find a better copy soon. |
| Stick to Your Guns The Hope Division | 2.5 |
| LGND Valediction | 2.0 |
| Confide Recover | 2.0 |
| As I Lay Dying The Powerless Rise | 3.5 |
| Beneath The Sky In Loving Memory | 3.0 |
about as predictable as Palaceofwisdom's As I Lay Dying review rating. Everything that has gotten Beneath the Sky
such a bad reputation is here, there is however some shallow enjoyment to be had from what are superb lead vocals
as always and a surprisingly excellent title track. |
| Oceana Clean Head | 2.0 |
| Bleed from Within Empire | 3.5 |
Surprisingly technical in some areas. Some of melodies remind me of All Shall Perish's "The Price of
Existence". Though littered with a few too many breakdowns and an overemphasis on palm muted rhythms this is a
punishing but truly enjoyable display of progression from their previous efforts. |
| OFWGKTA Radical | 3.5 |
| Deftones Diamond Eyes | 4.0 |
| Our Last Night We Will All Evolve | 3.0 |
| Various Artists (Punk) Punk Goes Classic Rock | 1.0 |
| Periphery Periphery | 3.5 |
| Secret And Whisper Teenage Fantasy | 4.0 |
| Veil of Maya [id] | 2.5 |
| Sleeping With Sirens With Ears to See and Eyes to Hear | 3.5 |
| Justin Bieber My World 2.0 | 3.5 |
| From First to Last Throne to the Wolves | 3.0 |
| Of Mice and Men Of Mice and Men | 2.0 |
| Before Their Eyes Untouchable | 2.0 |
A mixed bag really, they seem to be split on influences and it doesn't work. The poppier songs work okay overall but the generic metalcore nonsense is pathetic. The breakdown at the end of
'Hell or High Water' earns this an extra .5. |
| House Vs. Hurricane Perspectives | 2.5 |
| Two Door Cinema Club Tourist History | 3.5 |
| Feed Her to the Sharks The Beauty of Falling | 3.0 |
| Counterparts Prophets | 4.0 |
| Chelsea Grin Desolation Of Eden | 1.5 |
| Carnifex Hell Chose Me | 1.5 |
| Jamie's Elsewhere They Said a Storm Was Coming | 3.5 |
| The Bunny The Bear The Bunny The Bear | 1.5 |
| Through the Eyes of the Dead Skepsis | 3.0 |
| A grower of an album. 10 punishing tracks which are packed full of aggression and violence. Blast beating, blunt downtuned guitars and a real sense of hopelessness is evoked throughout the course of the album. New vocals are adequate and it is nice to hear a bit of range when compared to the last vocalist. Almost a straight up mix of Bloodlust and Malice. |
| Greeley Estates No Rain, No Rainbow | 2.5 |
| Lostprophets The Betrayed | 1.5 |
| Annotations Of An Autopsy II: The Reign of Darkness | 2.5 |
| Etienne Sin The Art of Stealing Hearts | 1.0 |
| You Me At Six Hold Me Down | 3.5 |
| Kesha Animal | 1.0 |
| A Hero a Fake Let Oceans Lie | 3.0 |
| 2009 |
| Thirty Seconds to Mars This Is War | 3.5 |
| Circle of Contempt Artifacts in Motion | 3.5 |
| Crunchy but technical, Circle of Contempt mix their rather formulaic Meshuggah influenced deathcore with some beautiful melodeath leads which light up this album. Overly layered vocals don't take the gloss off a well produced addition to the list of scandanavian death metal successes. |
| JLS JLS | 3.5 |
| Infectiously catchy chorus' and great production make JLS the next upcoming Boys II Men pretenders. Great album. |
| We Came As Romans To Plant a Seed | 2.5 |
| Bury Tomorrow Portraits | 3.5 |
| Bury Tomorrow does little to stand out from the British metalcore era that is currently in at the moment. They do however possess a clean vocalist with an undoubtedly rich amount of talent and his serene vocal lines rescue this from being another card in the pack. Musically not very challenging they do however use their main asset to great effect. |
| The Arusha Accord The Echo Verses | 4.0 |
| Mayday Parade Anywhere But Here | 3.5 |
| Blessthefall Witness | 2.5 |
| Mumford and Sons Sigh No More | 3.5 |
| Despised Icon Day Of Mourning | 2.0 |
| Asking Alexandria Stand Up and Scream | 1.5 |
| After the Burial Rareform (Re-release) | 4.0 |
A huge improvement on the initial release, the new vocalist is far better than his predecessor. The kick drum no
longer sounds like a tin can and doesn't have that annoying click from the first release of Rareform. The production
is generally 100% sharper, a problem with the first record was the poor production and overall helps make this into
the album I wanted to hear. I would recommend. |
| Every Time I Die New Junk Aesthetic | 4.0 |
| The Color Morale We All Have Demons | 3.0 |
| Oh, Sleeper Son of the Morning | 3.5 |
| Emmure Felony | 1.0 |
| Winds of Plague The Great Stone War | 2.0 |
| Caliban Say Hello to Tragedy | 3.0 |
| Something I am surprised about saying but Caliban has made a record which finally shows off something of substance, the generic metalcore and clean vocals are still present but this is a monumental improvement from their last two releases. 24 Years is a stellar track and along with this and the Degeneration Of Humanity displays manic aggression paired with relatively impressive instrumentation. A fun listen, not a brilliant one. A guilty pleasure somewhat. |
| Jonny Craig A Dream Is A Question You Don't Know How To Answer | 3.0 |
| For the Fallen Dreams Relentless | 3.5 |
| August Burns Red Constellations | 4.5 |
| Arsonists Get All the Girls Portals | 3.0 |
| He Is Legend It Hates You | 3.0 |
| Born of Osiris A Higher Place | 2.5 |
| The Crimson Armada Guardians | 3.5 |
| Alexisonfire Old Crows / Young Cardinals | 2.0 |
| I never thought I'd find myself saying an Alexisonfire album is sub par. But this is in every way. |
| Suicide Silence No Time to Bleed | 2.0 |
| Darkest Hour The Eternal Return | 2.5 |
| Miss May I Apologies Are for the Weak | 2.5 |
| Iwrestledabearonce It's All Happening | 2.0 |
| Emery ...In Shallow Seas We Sail | 3.0 |
| Oceana Birth.Eater | 3.5 |
| Hester Prynne The Goswell Divorce | 3.5 |
| Dead by April Dead by April | 1.5 |
| Band is hilariously bad, but there is definitely entertainment value here. |
| Burden of a Day OneOneThousand | 3.0 |
| I thought this was going to be better than what it actually was. The songs put on their myspace were top notch but unfortunately were the only real highlights of the album. Too samey. Also the singer is different to the recording of the title track on their myspace. |
| The Devil Wears Prada With Roots Above and Branches Below | 3.0 |
| Fightstar Be Human | 3.5 |
| Oceano Depths | 2.0 |
| Of Machines As If Everything Was Held In Place | 4.0 |
| It Prevails Capture & Embrace | 2.0 |
| Corpus Christi The Darker Shades Of White | 2.5 |
| The Great Commission And Every Knee Shall Bow | 1.0 |
| Conducting from the Grave When Legends Become Dust | 3.0 |
This is a barrage of technical deathcore, unrelenting but abit too long and repetitive from me. It avoids being generic and predictable for the most part utilising Gothenburg riffing to its maximum potential playing some unbelievable melodies whilst pumelling the listener by what is a pretty tight performance from the drummer.
Whilst I am not a massive fan of tech metal i find this intriguing to listen to but find myself annoyed at some passages which are littered and lacking structure. |
| The Lonely Island Incredibad | 4.0 |
| A Day To Remember Homesick | 3.0 |
| A fun listen but completely generic just as they always have been. All the beatdowns sound the same, most of the chorus' do. |
| Architects Hollow Crown | 4.0 |
| A pretty decent attempt, though they have traded their unpredictable songwriting for straight up verse, breakdown, quiet bridge build up to clean singing section metalcore songwriting. It works well and they still maintain their technical music aspect but it is completely formulaic songwriting. Follow the Water is a tune though. |
| Rose Funeral The Resting Sonata | 1.5 |
| In Fear and Faith Your World On Fire | 4.0 |
| The Eyes of a Traitor A Clear Perception | 4.0 |
