The brand of hardcore that The Killer play is influenced by both earlier hardcore and metal acts. Thus, tracks like “Where Will You Go?” are tied to the eighties metal of acts like Megadeth, with repetitious guitars driving a rhythm far into listeners’ heads. The great thing about The Killer is that the music on “Better Judged By Twelve” was recorded over two years ago, and still sounds as fresh…
“Matryoshka” is the first track listeners will encounter during Elevator Art’s self-titled release, and it is integral for beginning to understand exactly what it is that the band will set out to do here. The frenetic energy that the band brings to the table will remind listeners of Interpol and The Anniversary just as a more current and vibrant sound comes to bear.
It is really hard for an act to successfully create a cover song. I understand that there are a tremendous amount of covers out there currently, but one has to admit that the vast majority of them are pretty garish. If they sound decent, chances are good that they do nothing to make the track their own, while even if they do try to traipse down another track, their effort…
“Indians and Clowns”, the self-titled track to Miriams Well’s newest album, is a hard-hitting bit of country rock that has just as much in common with Shania Twain and the Dixie Chicks as it does with Bon Jovi and Every Mother’s Nightmare. Building a sound that transcends beyond both of these styles is hard, but is something that the band’s members does with each subsequent track. “More Than I” slows…
It sometimes can be difficult to understand what a band is all about when they provide a reviewer with an EP. However, I feel that Lithium Seven is an act that are able to squeeze in a proper introduction on the three tracks that comprise “Something Else Is Waiting”. The first song here is “Get To Montana”, a bit of pop-rock that rides the waves created by acts like John…
Brian Lee creates an incredibly interesting style of music on “Moth”. The type of sound that issues forth during “Love To Me” is beyond description. This eclectic bit of guitar and lightly-smattered drums, topped off with a male and female set of vocals, ranges the gamut of styles from Beatles-era pop, to indie, alt-country, and even Conor Oberst-types of emo. This means that there is a panoply of contexts that…
The guitar riffs that open up “Ol’ Blood N’ Guts” are absolutely intense, with hints of timeless acts like KISS placed alongside progressive metal shredders. When the vocals start up, a similarly-catchy side of Brown’s music is shown. Where production largely goes ignored now, it is the skilled production on this album that allows Brown’s solos and vocals to shine without either sounding too tinny or being forgotten in the…
Each of the compositions on “The Black Dove” are very pensive and stark in the overwhelming silence that they are couched in. There is no need for vocals in tracks like “Missing”, but Sharron’s vocals calling on masters like Allison Krauss and Stevie Nicks make the country and bluegrass stylings present into something that is compelling and catchy as all get out. In a sense, Kraus’ vocals even take on…
The opening composition of “Czar Nicholas is Dead” is “Yurovsky’s Lament”. Theme album, perhaps? I find it hard to really see or hear themes when the artist doing the theme is largely (if not completely) instrumental-based. I understand that there is a theme based on the track titles, but there does not seem to be a theme that immediately presents itself to me. How is one supposed to tell the…
To be honest, I really expected something more classical (Selena-like) when I first put on this disc, but when one starts to listen to a track like “Caterpillar Eyes” it becomes evident that Kiara is making a strong entrance into the land of pop-singers. The track does not seem to be oriented to the pop music genre in 2006, however; this is more Twila Paris and nineties pop than Kelly…
Khold is currently on hiatus, which sucks. However, the music that was recorded for “Krek” shows the band at a slightly happier time. The fury in which the band drenches their compositions on “Krek” is something new for most metal fans, as the band during tracks like “Blod Og Blek” uses a very sludgy sound to get their point across. Khold thus comes forward with a new hybrid of metal…
Khierstin used to be a teenage model, and this fact really makes sense when one hears the opening strains of the title track. What comes forth is an inoffensive, innocuous brand of pop music that is vocally-led, so much so that the instrumentation present is pushed to the background. Each of the tracks on “Lost In This” sounds similar to what has been common fare in popular music – that…
From Italy, Kharisma play a style of muted punk that has a definite eye towards the early nineties subset of punk rock. Starting out their demo disc with their theme song, “Kharisma” has compelling vocals laid down by GD, but a pretty weak electric guitar holds Kharisma back from really achieving their potential. This lack of guitar energy is endemic to the entire disc, and really is something to be…
I forget, is a two track album a proclamation to the world that the band feels that they can hang in with such storied acts as Klaus Schultze and Jethro Tull, or does it just say that the band is a bunch of pretentious assholes? One thing that can be said about bands that use such drawn out tracks (the shorter of the two tracks is still a shade over…
I should have guessed when the first track on “Always Never The Same”, “Tree of Night” started up, that this band had been around for a few years as it contained some of the most solid instrumentation that I’ve ever heard from a ska band. Every part of this eight-piece is given equal time on this disc, and one can hear drums ,brass, bass, and guitars all kicking in behind…
Kate Kennedy plays a very guitar-heavy type of looking-back rock. The new-folk of a track like “The Blues Are Exhausted” has Kennedy singing in the vein of Suzanne Vega and other nineties alternative singers, as the acoustic guitars play a folk-style that screams 2006 looking back at 1936. The guitars play interesting harmonies during “The Blues Are Exhausted”, and this is only helped by the inclusion of percussion during the…
The echoing of Kelley’s vocals during “High Boots” is interesting. The rarities aspect of this disc means that the tracks are collected through the entirety of Kelley’s life. The production of some of these tracks are a little suspect, but one can hear early that Kelley has an ear for this music. One of the things that individuals can see immediately with “Some Sucker’s Life” is that the tracks are…
While Keep of Kalessin is fast, individuals actually can understand what the hell that the lead vocalist is singing. This is a plus, for sure. While I am not sure if this is a plus or minus, the vocals cxrack and show some strain from out of the gate. It sounds almost as if the lead singer is going hoarser with each subsequent line that ey sings on “Armada”. As…
From the bands they’ve played with (Dillinger Four, Oneida), one would never expect The Keep Aways to kick so much ass. Still, here they are playing a brash brand of punk that draws equally from different times and movements in a fresh way. The snotty vocals of Mindy look towards other female-led punk bands like The Avengers and more current acts like Retching Red, and the quick start-stop of the…
Keane has been around for a few years, and they have not broken it big in the United States yet. I have no doubt that they will when copies of “Under The Iron Sea” start flooding the United States market. The sweeping electronic atmosphere that is first present during “Atlantic” fit the title sea well. There is a compelling pop-rock set of vocals on the track, but what really cinches…