Album Review – Page 3

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From Tuesday 12 August 2025

Rise Against – ‘RICOCHET’

Imagine the scene. You have a date, you want to feel refreshed. So you go to the gym, you work out hard, you spend four years lifting weights, eating chicken and rice, and watching your macros until your body looks like it belongs in a Marvel movie

Friday 08 August 2025

Halestorm – ‘Everest’

Halestorm have a lot of soul, and they’re laying it bare for us. As soon as ‘Darkness Always Wins’ dropped as an advance, we knew we were in for something on a geological scale. As it turns out, ‘Everest’ is the best possible metaphor for this album; a mountain

Tuesday 05 August 2025

As December Falls – ‘Everything’s On Fire But I’m Fine’

The resolutely independent As December Falls have returned, and they’re throwing caution to the wind. ‘Everything’s On Fire But I’m Fine’ turns vulnerability into pop-punk steel; this is a record forged through the tough times, the days when everything’s crumbling and you just have to push through. The fans

Babymetal – ‘Metal Forth’

Reviewing Babymetal’s new album might feel a little like a futile endeavour. Half of the trio’s appeal is in their frenetic live shows, and only part of their energy can be captured on record. They’re also very marmite in their appeal; you either love the intergalactic, hyper-real feel of

Friday 25 July 2025

The Dirty Nil – ‘The Lash’

The Dirty Nil’s last album – the delightful, light-hearted and colourful ‘Free Rein To Passions’ – is the audio equivalent of a pick-me-up. Striking a divine balance between fun and fragile, the record served as a double-edged sword; a reminder to take care of yourself

Friday 11 July 2025

Calva Louise – ‘Edge Of The Abyss’

Calva Louise are everything. That’s not intended to be a Swiftie “OMG they’re everything to me” statement: the three of them encompass so much in both their sound and their ambition. The multi instrumental Venezuelan-Kiwi trio, who met in London, are continuing their mission to make unrelenting genre-fusing metal

Wednesday 25 June 2025

Royale Lynn – ‘BLACK MAGIC’

Royale Lynn is a solo artist and the thing about art, real art, is that only the artist knows what they are aiming for, and what they want. The audience doesn’t know what to expect. Music is art, but it’s not pure art. A musician has to

Hot Milk – ‘Corporation Pop’

“Listen mate, it’s a social commentary, calm down…but it’s kinda true,” reassures vocalist Han Mee halfway through ‘Insubordinate Ingerland’, the second track on Hot Milk’s latest studio album. Her line is the perfect summary for where ‘Corporation Pop’ is coming from. We all know that “Hot Milk is an

Friday 20 June 2025

Malevolence – ‘Where Only The Truth Is Spoken’

Born in Sheffield in 2010, Malevolence began as a group of childhood friends (Josh Baines and Konan Hall on guitars, Alex Taylor on vocals, Wilkie Robinson on bass, and Charlie Thorpe on drums), cutting their teeth on the UK hardcore circuit with feral energy and DIY grit.

Friday 23 May 2025

Year Of No Light – ‘Les Maîtres Fous’

‘Les Maîtres Fous’ does not fit into the mould of an album. It is a sonic experience, written by French post-metal outfit Year Of No Light in 2012 to accompany an exhibition of the 1955 ethnographic documentary ‘Les Maîtres Fous’ by French anthropologist and filmmaker Jean Rouch. It