There is no denying that one can tell exactly how Michael Lee Austin is going to sound after looking at the front cover of eir CD “Labor Painsâ€. The disc starts off with the title track, a honky-tonk type of song that will get individuals into lines, all ready for dancing in just the shortest bit of time. Austin’s vocals are easily the equivalent of a Travis Tritt or an…
Very roughly recorded album by this 3 piece band. This punk music is inherently catchy and the recording only helps endear this band to its audience. The guitars and bass are the high part of the album, with the vocals also playing a large part. Atomic Shelters are very adapt at playing different styles of music and add their own special flair to each song. As I am a bass…
ABPK’s grave sound is no doubt caused by the brooding nature of their sound, best described as a mixture of Husker Du and Marilyn Manson. When I say best describe, what I really mean are the two bands that contribute to ABPK’s sound but are not indicative in any large way to their sound. The band is just too diverse to have any single influence predominate, and depending on their…
Honestly, this is the first time that I’ve ever been lucky enough to hear Atom and his Package, although he has came highly recommended for the last 4 or 5 years. With this album, Atom’s newest, pop just flows out of the radio, at times sounding like Weird Al, other times They Might Be Giants, and about 50 different synthesizer groups that I neither have the time nor the space…
The Atari Star’s vocalist, Marc, sounds as if Dexter Holland and Neil Young had a child. The mastering on “Prayer + Pretend†is similar. There is tremendous fury laced throughout this disc, but the oppressive mastering found on this disc holds the band from achieving much more. The iconic guitar lines on a track like “Starve a Fever†jerks the listener around, only moving into an early-nineties brand of distortion…
Asva has fifty minutes of music split up amongst four tracks. This allows for the band to set their own pace in creating a very distinctive sound. For a while during “Kill the Dog…â€, I was expecting a whole-scale move to a Misfits-like slam against the wall (think “Forbidden Zoneâ€). The music is well-done, if not a little plodding, with a definite structure in place to continue to drag listeners…
I would say that Astronautalis was a new-country type of band, but there is a heavy amount of electronic and indie influence during the band’s first track on “The Mighty Ocean…â€, “Short Term Memory Lossâ€. At some point, Astronautalis is a very fun and catchy act. The vocal style presses the listeners to try to dissect all that the lead vocalist is saying. The delivery during “Short Term Memory Loss 
Throughout the years, probably since the beginning of my magazines, I have been receiving releases by The Astroglides, Israel’s premiere surf-punk band. Also throughout the years, I have noticed a definite increase of both the recording and musical quality of The Astroglides songs, which means by the time I get a new Astroglides album in my hands, I am quite excited. Again instrumental, the lyrics are non-existent, but are really…
Asteria tries to make it big in the dominant emo paradigm that is resent in popular music. During a track like “Drink Life to the Leesâ€, the emo style blends with hardcore screaming and an A Static Lullaby style to make something that is ultimately familiar but slightly different than all of the other bands that are currently on the market. The one thing that really breaks the band free…
The slow sound that starts out Asono’s EP , specifically the track “Street Full of Strangersâ€, does not lend itself well to any existing musical genre. The band is in the rock genre, but the emotional guitar work is much more reminiscent of a late eighties style. There are hints of Big Mountain and The Psychedelic Furs, even as Asono attempts to take up the standard of the current emo…
Hey, whatever makes you feel safe, just keep making records like this! Upon purchasing the new As I Lay Dying CD “Shadows Are Securityâ€, I strongly urge another purchase. Please go to your nearest hardware store and pick up some sort of facial protection, because if you don’t the music on this album just might melt, and/or tear your face off, in the best way possible. The new album from…
ASHS has been working on these tracks for three years. The disc’s first track is “Kleenâ€, and from the beginning, it sounds like the space before the action in a sci-fi movie. Particularly, the music creates a vision for me similar to the opening scene in a sci-fi move, when a crew is on space station before the negative auction happens. The band seems to have a traditional sense of…
The fact that Phil Caivano (Monster Magnet) had a hand in the recording of this album is shown by each of the riffs that are found here; the seventies-influenced, dirty and gritty rock found on tracks like “Act Like You Know†and “Feeling Good Is Good Enough†share more than a passing glance with the aforementioned Monster Magnet. Also of note is Jason’s Danzig / Davey Havok style of vocals,…
Artrosis comes from an earlier style in metal, in that the band blends together nineties goth with slightly metal, slightly industrial arrangements to create what would ultimately be Artrosis’ sound. The sound is not hard to the point of being thrash or death metal, but what Artrosis does would be cannibalized by bands like Evanescence in the more current period.
While Che Arthur has been behind the soundboard during the live shows of bands like Minus The Bear, Trans Am, and Thursday, it is eir stint in the File 13 band Atombombpocketknife that individuals may recall Arthur from the most. After releasing eir first solo album, “All Of Your Tomorrows Were Decided Today†on Flameshovel, Arthur moved to Sick Room and released this, “Ironâ€. “Iron†is given the most energy…
The picture of Arsonists Get All The Girls looks nothing like the style of music that ultimately comes to bear on “Hits From The Bowâ€. What results is a very Metalocalypse type of style, brutal metal that is bookended by screaming and some of the fastest guitars and drums out there. The great thing about Arsonists Get All The Girls is the fact that they can use very repetitious constructs…
After listening to this CD for ten minutes, I found myself becoming more and more distracted with the music, as it really was not that innovative in any sense of the term. When I put the disc on, I started to get the first inklings of a headache, which slowly dissipated as I continued listening to the CD. This is death metal of the worst sort – a band that…
10 song CD, self released. The Army of Darkness are a 5 piece band that was created from people who were from all around the world, such as Michigan, Florida, Taiwan, and the Netherlands. This CD clocks in at a tight 30:27, with each song running a tad bit over 3 minutes on the average. The music that the AoD play is a very catchy style, a phenomenon that begins…
Arms of Kismet mix together vocals that would seem proper on an Elvis Costello record (Auricular) with a staggered, false sounding set of arranged of vocals (Rise and Shine) to make for a moderated yet always fun pop sound. The synthesizer, although an instrument of “fakenessâ€, is tweaked perfectly to make for a second set of vocal accoutrements to present themselves on the disc. “Outbound Train†is Arms of Kismet’s…
Armor For Sleep’s first track on “You’re Deadâ€, “Car Underwaterâ€, mixes the best of Coheed and Cambria with Brand New. The produces Machine was spot-on with eir work on this disc, making a very cohesive sounding disc still bristle with the energy of new discovery. The intensity of Armor For Sleep on each track is a force not to be denigrated; with tracks like “The Truth About Heaven†perfect case…