Review Roundup: After The Burial, Antonio Paul, The Boys and Crash, White Walls

Follow @hearwax After The Burial – In Dreams As if scoffing at all the hubbub surrounding their nu(prog)metal scene, After The Burial takes a decisive step back from their overwrought-but-encouraging sophomore Rareform. The result is unadulterated silliness across the board, complete with awkward balladeering and glam-tera flirtation. Though still owning a knack for writing solid [...]

Killing The Dream – Lucky Me

Follow @hearwax It’s best to approach Lucky Me as an experiment rather than experimental.  The compelling aspect of the disc, as well as being its most glaring detractor, is that it finds the band seeking their most essential and immediate expression; it’s hardly finished, but should it be? This question is all the more pertinent [...]

Within The Ruins – Invade

Follow @hearwax Though a marked improvement over last year’s Creature, Invade lands the band in the same waning territory, their skillful writing stifled by the conventions of their genre.  In an effort to single themselves out of the herd, Within The Ruins have based Invade heavily on Gorod‘s newer output; I wonder if this is [...]

STREAM: Black Churches’ New Demo!

Follow @hearwax Black Churches rule.  Seriously.  They only have three releases to their name – a cassette tape split with Chalk Talk, the Black Gold EP, and what you are about to stream here: their 2010 Tour Demo. Sounding like a grittier Portugal The Man with whiskey on its breath, Black Churches play an energetic [...]

Mouth of the Architect – The Violence Beneath

Follow @hearwax As the closing moments of Rosetta‘s A Determinism of Morality relayed off of the satellite and approached the ears of its anxiously awaiting astronaut fanbase, the signal narrowly avoided a head-on collision with the newly launched Mouth of the Architect-operated shuttle entitled The Violence Beneath.  Unlike Rosetta’s mission to leave the atmosphere, look [...]

Review Roundup: Boris Smile, Everyone Everywhere, High Hopes, Joie De Vivre, Rintrah

Follow @hearwax Boris Smile – Rockets EP Artists use lyrics in all sorts of ways; emotional release, fantastical journeys, blatant anger.  Boris Smile tell stories.  Cute, poppy little stories.  Perfect, considering their folky, multi-instrumental indie sound. Although Rockets opens with “Satellites”, a rather noisy waste of time, “Adventures With Rockets” is a pop gem (“here [...]

This Is Hell – Weight Of The World

Follow @hearwax This Is Hell offer up a new biannual effort with Weight Of The World, thrashing with a blander canvas than Misfortunes’ and hardcore masterwork Sundowning. Never really cross-hatching with the chiaroscuro honed by Cursed and the like, This Is Hell have always excelled at playing a muscular and uncomplicated iteration of New England [...]

Weekly Worship #15

Follow @hearwax If you haven’t listened to Hacksaw to the Throat before, you might expect them to be a down tuned Myspace Deathcore band, who vehemently refer to themselves as Grindcore.  Fortunately, you’d be very far from correct in your assumption.  I feel like the band and their 2007 release, Wastelands, have been overlooked, due [...]