Ever since they split into The Mars Volta and Sparta, At the Drive-In’s sound has become victim to endless amounts of copycats and worshippers that don’t do the innovative emo/post punk/rockers any justice.  Somehow, Victor! Fix the Sun manage to flirt with the sound of bands past – the distorted intensity of At the Drive-In and the subtle emotion of American Football, without coming across as unoriginal fanboys.  On Person Place or Thing, the band manage to explore a large sonic landscape in six tracks, creating their own sound along …

I have to say, with a name like Cults, I expected this duo to be the latest hipster-approved noise rock band to gain attention in the indie community.  What I got was some of the finest pop that has made its way out in the last decade.  At only three tracks and under nine minutes in length, this is a huge sentiment for a seven inch that hardly carries any audible weight on it, and yet still is as enjoyable as a full-length LP from 99% of the other indie …

A few weeks ago, Hearwax posted an interview I conducted with <strong>Crime In Stereo</strong>’s <strong>Kristian Hallbert</strong>. Amongst other things, he talked about the great deal of time and effort that was invested into their latest, <em>I Was Trying to Describe You to Someone</em>, which didn’t really strike me as anything overly significant at the time. Bands will often say stuff like that, and generally, when someone boasts about the amount of time and effort they’ve put into something, it means they’re pleased with the results; I mean they’re not going …

The organ accompanied by harsh spoken verse that Coffin Birth have chosen to introduce this album is on point enough to meet Edgar Allan Poe’s guidelines for short fiction, in which he claims that the opening paragraph movement should give the reader listener an idea of what they are to expect throughout the entire piece.
“Gather, ye children of darkness, It is time to take back what is yours, arise from damnation.”
If you come to grasp this in an analytical sense for the purpose of the album itself, it is quite …

All’s Quiet – Like Vultures
Fuck it. This album is FUN. After the ambient calm of “The Division,” “Directionary” hits the listener in the face with its southern-fried hardcore. Picture Maylene and the Sons of Disaster or He Is Legend and you’ve got this, and the rest of the album, pretty well mapped out.
Throw in some melodic bits and some breakdowns and you have a rather winning formula. I usually don’t like stuff like this, but this album’s a charmer. It’s a bit derivative, but …

I love riffing. There’s nothing better in hardcore and metal than when a band can be heavy but still have serious groove; When you can listen to a song, and you can get into the groove of it and imagine exactly what kind of reaction it invokes in a live setting, especially when it’s one of high energy and not just people standing around with their arms crossed. Forfeit absolutely excels in this area.
The Lower Depths is fast, heavy, pissed off, and best of all, loaded with solid riffing. All …

Arsis – Starve For The Devil
What the hell happened? Deflorate adopts We Are The Nightmare’s second axeman and suddenly the core members of Arsis return – for this? Starve For The Devil is an album that painfully reveals itself by the third track; you get it, we get it, you want to play metal, cool. In a positive light, one could see how a more bare bones melodeath and thrash love affair could reveal gems in the foundation of Arsis’ sound – but Arsis excelled at revealing that anyway, allowing …

We all set about to discover ourselves. Upon inspection of our endless introspection, it is likely we all search. From the lowliest cells to the firing nodes in our brains, our entire being seeks a place where it can settle, comfortable and content. Everyone goes through phases. We experiment with drugs and alcohol, we adopt new principles, we shed light on innovative policies; we open ourselves up to new things. No one knows for sure, but one could wager a bet that most of us will never rest easily in …

The cool scent of salt washed ashore doesn’t faze the warmth, as a lazy breeze barely brushes by me, and the hot sun paints me a healthier colour with its rays. Ah, I can almost feel the blissful air of simplicity and carelessness that blows so assuredly in the Caribbean, but an icy gust reminds me I’m in Toronto – if hell was cold, I’m sure it would be something like this. But every time I spin Surfer Blood’s Astrocoast, the memories come flooding back to me, and it …

This is Los Campesinos! third album in twenty-four months, and thus as a result comes with some very loaded characteristics.  The band’s creative process must truly be engrossing to accomplish such a feat.  One might also consider the slight monumental nature of this album for it’s comparatively more bitter tone when placed against the cheerfulness of their previous album Hold on Now, Youngster….  In your frenzy of being tense and/or undecided of this record, rest assured that this is an album produced by the same band that brought fans their …

The members of Bizali seem to be the spiritual cahiers-du-cinema alumni of the Bristol alt scene; Dance Yourself Alone is not necessarily a Parisian coming of age story, but it does seem to be crafted by people who have considerably more listening hours logged than a 17 year old MySpace homemade jewellery seller whose vocabulary consists mostly of “hey”, “let’s”, “start, “a”, and “band”. Yes, Bizali are scholars; every choice on this album is exacting, crucial – each being the result of understanding the aesthetics of modern indie alt rock …

Review Roundup is a new feature in which we do quick, no bullshit reviews for up-and-coming bands.  There are no star ratings like individual reviews, just short bursts of words that tell you if they suck or rock.  Here is our first ever.  Enjoy.
 
Elder – Reflect
“Screamo” has become a bit of a scenester trend over the last decade, but there a few bands who remember what real screamo is all about: emotion, not eyeliner.  Elder is a group of those guys who haven’t forgotten.  Reflect weaves its way through six …

The Binary Code are exposed to the same tap water that The Dillinger Escape Plan, The Number Twelve Looks Like You, and Knife The Glitter are – it shows. Not just in their penchant for tech metal with a strong theory background (which SHOULD be a given, right?), but of course, their focus on the tastefulness that (should) go along with it. Yes, this four piece is another quality export from New Jersey (fact: the water runoff from the New England Appalachian range is some of the most purified and …

As I mentioned in my blog post, I have really enjoyed 2009. Narrowing down the amount of records I liked to ten was really really really really really difficult. There are about 25 or 30 albums that deserved a spot on this list (a list I will expand on in the next couple days, hint hint). Four records battled for the number one spot. However, I managed to create an accurate representation of my favourite records of the year, and this is what I came up with:

2009, a year I would say was defined by the newcomer; true, most of the releases on this list are follow ups, but the sheer number of surprises that were thrown at our ears from every angle was monumental – to note some freshmen that did not make the list but helped assuage the great missteps of bands we were hoping better of; Ambassador Gun’s When In Hell , The Armed’s These Are Lights, The Binary Code’s Suspension Of Disbelief, Pianos Become The Teeth’s Old Pride, MiRthkon’s Vehicle, Embryonic Depravity’s …