Nestled somewhere between Bad Omens and Breathe Carolina is a lesser-known French gem that’s set to appease a wide audience. TSS –formerly The Sunday Sadness– is following in the footsteps of so many modern alternative bands in the method of genre categorization; it’s a bit of a catch-all. Elements of metalcore, alt rock, synthwave, emo, and even neo-metal can be found across their latest album, End of Time (Fearless Records)
Tag Archives: album reviews
ALBUM REVIEW: Deadguy – Near-Death Travel Services
New Jersey’s Deadguy formed in 1994 and existed for a mere three years before their 1997 split. During their original run they put out the White Meat and Work Ethic seven inches, 1996’s highly influential debut full-length Fixation on a Co-Worker, the Screamin’ with the Deadguy Quintet EP, and the posthumous I Know Your Tragedy (Live at CBGBs) set.
ALBUM REVIEW: Sodom – The Arsonist
Seventeen albums in and German thrash legends Sodom are still out there throwing riffs like hand grenades, and singing about war while worshipping at the feet of Motörhead. Of course, after forty-plus years in the business, this is a very different band to who started out in 1982, and not just in terms of personnel. The raw, youthful enthusiasm of their early years has long since been replaced with maturity and experience.Continue reading
EP REVIEW: Freeze the Fall – The Red Garden
Spoiler alert, this is one of the best albums released so far in 2025. If you do not know this young power trio, Freeze the Fall, from Canada, it’s time you did. This is the band’s second EP, but the path from gaming and internet buzz to the Rock perfection achieved here on The Red Garden (604 Records) found Freeze the Fall coming into their own as songwriters along the way. They went from being known as the kids who covered The Warning to being a superior band to their early inspiration in a short time. Most of this growth came thanks to the depth Quinn Mitzel sings with, in order to nail uncanny hooks in every anthemic chorus she utters.Continue reading
ALBUM REVIEW: Puppe Magnetik – Laudans Deum
Puppe Magnetik has existed since 2022 as the brainchild of Finnish musician Aina Virtanen. Laudans Deum (Rune Serpent Europa) is the project’s debut record, and it promises to blend elements of Neofolk, Dark Ambient, Death-Industrial, and Avant-Garde music.Continue reading
ALBUM REVIEW: Morbyda – Under The Spell
Although only formed in 2022, you could easily be forgiven for thinking that Leipzig speed metallers Morbyda have been around since the early eighties as debut album Under the Spell (Dying Victims Productions) hits all the right nostalgia notes while delivering something uniquely its own.Continue reading
ALBUM REVIEW: The Cure – Mixes of a Lost World
The Cure’s Songs of a Lost World was my favorite album of 2024, so hearing it remixed by 24 different artists gave me pause. It’s not the first time Robert Smith has loosened his notoriously tight grip to allow artists to remix his work. With Mixes of Lost World (Fiction Records), it’s obvious Smith was in control of curating who he trusted with these songs. There are the obvious culprits who you almost expect having their hand in a re-mix album like Paul Oakenfold and Oribital, then he handed it over to bands in his close circle like tour-mates The Twilight Sad and Mogwai to not just prep the songs for the dance floor but applied their instruments into their reworkings which were both very true to the creative spirt of the band. Continue reading
ALBUM REVIEW: Mugshot – All The Devils Are Here
Over the years, I have come across music that covers the full spectrum of emotion and appreciate most of it. Sometimes I just need a good angry album to take the edge off, and Mugshot has delivered just that. All The Devils Are Here (Pure Noise Records) is a storm of twelve tracks that blow past you in less than half an hour. The mixture of hardcore punk and Swedish death metal ebbs and flows in either direction as the album progresses, keeping my attention.Continue reading
ALBUM REVIEW: Archers – Temporary High
Melodic Metalcore has come on in leaps and bounds in the past half decade, with acts like Catch Your Breath earning their stripes with the high numbers of streams on TikTok as well as Bad Omens becoming a stand-out act in the genre with the help of a single album, the cleaner, more Pop and R&B-influenced side to the genre is making waves in the scene. Continue reading
ALBUM REVIEW: Byzantine – Harbingers
Charleston, West Virginia’s metal veterans Byzantine return with their long-anticipated new album, Harbingers (Metal Blade Records), set for release on June 13th, 2025.Continue reading