Read Poets Society

   Trivium have been consistently hit and miss for me over he years; for every album I dig there is at least one album I can't get into. In fact, more often than not their material as a whole fails to leave an impact on me. I can appreciate  Ascendancy and Shogun for what they were at the time and the ripples they sent through the metal scene, and while incredibly bloated and overlong In Waves has some killer tracks nestled in there. Apart from that, there isn't much to be had in terms of enjoyment for me in the band's music. It was a surprise for me, then, when I found myself enjoying The Sin And The Sentence a lot more than I had anticipated. Whether or not this was because of the incredibly biased expectations I had coming in is anyone's guess, but for the most part I had fun with this new album from Trivium. It's not rewriting the metal history books, and it's not going to blow everyone away, but it was a reminder of just why they were such a massive hype ba...

   Read the full review over at  Killyourstereo.com!

   You can read my full review for Movements' masterful debut full length over  here  at Killyourstereo.com, where I will be doing some of my reviews from now. In short, it's great and you should go listen to it while you deliberate about texting that ex-girlfriend or guiltily eating your way through an entire packet of Mint Slice. Or not, it's up to you.    In the meantime, let me know what you thought about this record, or any others that you want to see reviewed. For those who keep asking me about that Chainsmokers record, it'll definitely be in an end of year list - you'll just have to wait and see which one.

    Caustic is the most brutal, unpleasant, abusive, oppressive and masochistic album I have heard in a long time, certainly this year. Every thing about this album in comparison to the band's previous, slightly more one-note releases is bigger, heavier, dirtier and more punishing. For one thing, it's over an hour long, but definitely is closer to epic than overlong. The guitar tone is absurdly disgusting, the vocal delivery is like the devil himself tying you down and yelling at you through a mouthful of broken glass and teeth, and the songwriting draws on slow, punishing, doom-influenced grooves that simply don't let up. It's not super diverse and the playing isn't the most mind-meltingly skilled shredding you'll ever hear, but something this overwhelmingly crushing deserves more than a casual listen for anyone who enjoys a little pain in their pleasure.    Rating: 7.5/10

   P!nk's seventh album Beautiful Trauma gets the job done, no more, no less. Expect to hear pretty much any of these songs in General Pants Co. at some stage, but if you're looking for a game changing pop album then you're going to be disappointed. But really, is anyone going to be looking for that in a P!nk album? Eminem's verse on "Revenge" is a great addition, adding some sharp sarcasm to a track already dripping in it, and P!nk's signature brutal honesty is all over this album giving it a raw authenticity that is immediately easy to grab a hold of. For me there is this weird dichotomy all across Beautiful Trauma that I find really distracting, in a very similar way to the most recent Ed Sheeran album. The songs work best when they are firmly settled within whatever style it wants to be; when there are these country/EDM crossovers I struggle. Her voice is great, though, and doesn't falter once, and for that it's worth a brief listen to hear a...

   Stick To Your Guns have been dealing in frenetic, anthemic hardcore punk for almost 15 years now, and their sixth studio album  True View follows the same well-tread path that they (and so many other similar bands) know so well. This isn't necessarily a bad thing; they certainly know how to put together a banger or two, but it really depends on where you sit on the fence with hardcore punk. For me there was just enough of interest to keep my attention for the whole album and keep me relatively entertained, but on second and third listens there really isn't much there for me and I suspect that this will be the case for most. I mean, you can only hear the same build up and breakdown formula so many times before it becomes exhausting. The strongest element of True View is the lyricism, which has always been the biggest stake I've held in Stick To Your Guns' music, but even in this corner the band has lost some of the vitality and impact they once had. I don't know i...

   I have no experience with Poppy's internet presence, where I understand she is an eccentric and popular YouTuber, and will talking about this album from a purely musical point of view. With no context as to her personality and online content, I thought  Poppy.Computer was a generally catchy and  surprisingly complete pop album. There are more than a few earworm melodies that will burrow into your head, which is a testament to Poppy's affinity to penning catchy melodies. Her voice sits nicely above the almost entirely electronic instrumentation and carries these melodies well, and while there isn't a whole lot of extravagant personality behind her lyrics, there is enough interest in the glitchy, sometimes 8-bit instrumentation for that to not be a particularly prominent problem. In fact, the production beneath the melodies and hooks is the real hero here, and I was pleasantly surprised to find a pop record with instrumentation that was really interesting and fun ...

   Protomartyr songs often don't contain a clear beginning, middle and end, and this disregard for standard form or structure made the band's fourth album Relatives In Descent daunting and impenetrable for me. Not to say I didn't enjoy it, but this isn't necessarily an entertaining album as such - you don't put these songs on a playlist, you don't put the album on at a dinner party, you don't casually listen to it. It asks to be explored and worked at over time, to be experienced rather than listened to. Lyrically this album is a whole lot to take in, and impossible to fully understand, I suspect. Not really for me, to be honest, but this blend of spiralling post-punk and poetic dirges into depressive passages certainly has my appreciation and respect. I guess the word I would give to my experience of this album is oppressive - it only runs for about 43 minutes, but that time seemed to crawl by.    Rating: C

   Overshadowed by  another great pop-punk record  this week, Roam's second album  Great Heights & Nosedives will probably go under the radar of most casual fans of the genre, which is a shame, because it is a great improvement on their debut Backbone. Where Backbone was seriously lacking in the production area for my (and lots of others') tastes, Roam   now sounds like most other pop-punk bands with enough money for a decent production job. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, either - if it isn't broke, don't fix it - but for me it does get pretty derivative relatively quickly. The same can be said for the music too. As a pop-punk record it is ahead of the lacklustre Backbone , but still fits firmly in the discount bin of the majority of other records in the genre. Worth a listen to see how far Roam have come, but here's hoping they can make the same step forwards with their next record and leave the crowded pack.    Favourite Songs: Alive ...

   October has been a great month for music so far, as further evidenced by this second LP from Knuckle Puck,  Shapeshifter. The first thing I need to mention is the production - Shapeshifter sounds damn fine. The guitars in particular are on point; crunchy, warm and transparent. There is a dynamic contrast to these songs that could easily have been lost (and often is on a lot of pop-punk records) at the hands of another producer. Knuckle Puck's brand of pop-punk coloured with healthy helpings of emo is incredibly endearing to me, and lead single "Double Helix" is a great example of the catchy sing-alongs with shades of melancholy the band have a knack for producing consistently. My main gripe is to do with the lack of contrast or development, something most pop-punk fans won't even consider while they eat this up. Don't get me wrong, pretty much all of these tracks will make their way easily onto my summer playlists, but as a body of work these songs seemed to bl...

   The Ongoing Concept's third full length is easily the most unique post-hardcore record to drop this year. Whether or not it's actually good is another matter, but - as fans of the band will have come to expect - purely from a creative standpoint The Ongoing Concept have been consistently keeping it fresh with every release to date. While I've already dropped the post-hardcore label, it is a disservice to pigeonhole this band into anything, and Places confirms that notion by delivering a staggering concoction of riffs, R&B sections, ska, disco, funk, synths, horn sections, screaming, falsetto hooks and heavy guitars. As someone who's familiar with the band but not a die-hard by any means, my eyebrows were permanently raised for the entirety of the 36-minute affair (in the best way possible). And, dammit, it's really really good. Beneath the sheen of "what-the-hell-is-happening" insanity there are some seriously cool, catchy songs. I'm hesitant ...

   As one of the legion of post Brand New pop punk bands, Citizen have begun to follow in the path of their successful predecessors, moving further away from their roots into something moodier and more atmospheric. Citizen have never done it more me for the most part; not because they were particularly bad by any stretch, but simply because there wasn't much in the way of defining features to separate them from the rest of the scene. As You Please sees Citizen take a huge step away from being a generic emo/pop punk group, which if you're drawing parallels with obvious influence Brand New falls in line with the transition from Your Favourite Weapon to Deja Entendu and The Devil & God Are Raging Inside Me. This is by no means either of those records' equal - there are definite lulls back into the well worn routs they and every other band have treaded before - but it is a positive step outwards for the band. The strongest element of this album is its confidence in asking y...

   Manson's 10th studio album trades the bass-heavy glam swagger of 2015's The Pale Emperor for a more industrial, metallic tone reminiscent of Mechanical Animals era Manson, which was a disappointment for me. Instead of expanding his turf and exploring the newer, less-worn areas of his artistic output, we have a re-tread of what Manson has already proved himself to be adequate at, but without the danger and vitality his music was dripping with in the 90s. No one is going to be banning this album today, and he isn't the automatic scapegoat he once was, so this return to the past is as tiresome as it is confusing. Manson fans will likely jump right in, and there certainly is a certain glory-days vibe to Heaven Upside Down , but looking in from the outside I have no reason to care for something that was controversial and shocking 20 years ago, but dull and exhausting today (lyrics "so fuck your bible" don't do it for me on the first iteration, let alone the fift...

   Being one of the first "heavy" bands I listened to as a younger teenager, I have a special appreciation for and always give attention to August Burns Red when they release anything, and I honestly think I have actually come to appreciate them more as I have grown and my tastes have expanded. Their music has stood the test of time for me when a huge amount of other music in the genre has fallen into obscurity for me; there is something about their sound and approach to the metalcore genre that transcends the tropes and cliches that so many other bands get trapped in. So naturally I have been anxious to put this new album in and start chewing on whatever new direction they push their songwriting. More and more August Burns Red have been experimenting with different eclectic instrumental sections - 2011's  Leveler  (the weakest of their albums in my opinion) had the first notable foray into a salsa groove, 2013's  Rescue & Restore  (my favourite of thei...

   Here's a quick list of my favourite releases from the month that was September, in no particular order (unless you know the alphabet). What were your favourites of September? Let me know in the comments below, I'd love to hear your thoughts and have a discussion!      1) In Contact - Caligula's Horse    2) Hiss Spun - Chelsea Wolfe    3) Clairvoyant - The Contortionist    4) Play Dead - Mutemath    5) Always Foreign - The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die    6) Dumb Days - Tired Lion    7) Okovi - Zola Jesus

   With the month of October already upon us with a bunch of records I'm super keen for and heaps more for me to discover, here are some albums I heard in September that I didn't get around to giving a review. Let me know in the comments if there are any other from September you liked.     You're Not You Anymore - Counterparts     Counterparts is a band that never quite did it for me, but I've always tried really hard to get into because of the esteem so many hold them in. It's like there's something I've obviously been missing about their music, and in short I still can't see what that is with this new album of theirs. It's certainly rousing - the lyrics are always worth digging into, if a little samey and predictable when going through the catalogue as a whole, and there is an undeniably anthemic feeling to these tunes. I feel the stronger moments are when the tunes open up fully with less chugs and more lead guitar, like on "Arms Like Tee...