Album Review: Pelican

Album Review: Pelican
Album: Forever Becoming
Label: Southern Lord

It’s been a period of transition for Chicagoan post-rockers Pelican. In 2012, two years after he stopped playing out-of-town shows, guitarist and founding member Laurent Schroeder-Lebec threw in the towel admitting that his heart wasn’t fully into it anymore. Stepping up to the plate on Forever Becoming, the band’s fifth album in a decade, is Dallas Thomas.

Album Review: A Storm of Light

Album Review: A Storm of Light
Album: Nations to Flames
Label: Southern Lord

A Storm of Light are not the most subtle band you’re ever likely to hear. Take one look at Nations to Flames’ fiery album cover – and the title itself – and you can take a good guess at the subject matter driving the Brooklyn outfit’s fifth album.

EP Review: Hawk Eyes

EP Review: Hawk Eyes
Album: That’s What This Is
Label: Self

Since adopting a new moniker, Hawk Eyes have gone from strength to strength. Festival-goers across Europe have been treated to their acerbic blend of chaos and melody off the back of 2012’s explosive Ideas. Now, as a precursor to a third album, the band offers up another tasty morsel of crunching guitars and wild-eyed vocals.

Album Review: ISIS

Album Review: ISIS
Album: Celestial (reissue)
Label: Ipecac Recordings

Sometimes you hear a band for the first time and you have absolutely no frame of reference to understand what it is you’re listening to. This was my – and probably a few others’ – experience with Isis.

Album Review: Palms

Album Review: Palms
Album: Palms
Label: Ipecac Recordings

It would be fair to say that Palms achieves the fabled definition of a ‘supergroup’. At face value, it’s a recipe of one-quarter Deftones, three-quarters Isis – two of the most groundbreaking acts in alternative metal in the last decade, if not longer.

Album Review: And So I Watch You From Afar

Album Review: And So I Watch You From Afar
Album: All Hail Bright Futures
Label: Sargent House

Have you ever felt pure joy? Perhaps you were running, naked and free in a glorious field surrounded by sunshine and lollipops. Maybe you were blissfully asleep, your slumber full of smiles as your dreams, for a fleeting moment, are as good as reality. Whatever your definition of delirious happiness, All Hail Bright Futures is full of that same sense of rapturous joy in abundance.