Rather than worshiping Minor Threat, DC Punks Palladists pursue darker sounds on their new album Tenebrous Ways (Fiadh Productions). This is fitting when you are named after a satanic cult hidden within early Freemasonry. When it comes to the vocals on this album, they are still very much rooted in punk. It is the guitar tones that set them apart from the rest of the punk pack. They use more effects to add a creepy touch to the otherwise in-your-face rapid-fire attack. In terms of their songwriting approach, they are not busting out the kind of hooky anthems the Misfits are known for, nor are they dwelling in the kind of drug-induced morbid self-reflection Christian Death once lamented upon.Continue reading
Tag Archives: EP reviews
EP REVIEW: Car Bomb – Tiles Whisper Dreams
It’s anniversary time for New York Mathcore mob Car Bomb. Formed in Rockville Centre all the way back in 2000, it doesn’t take an advanced mathematician to work out the band is twenty-five years old this year. Their first studio release since Mordial back in 2019, independently released three-track EP Tiles Whisper Dreams is a much-anticipated short, sharp, and extremely brutal shock to the system.
EP REVIEW: Phobetor – A Solitary Sigil
For Metal to feel its heaviest, it must also hold with the powerful attack of the guitar, a bleak emotional darkness to it, or it is just guitars beating your ears as fast as they can.
Phobetor has succeeded in finding the sweet spot here with their new album, A Solitary Sigil (Black Jasper Records).
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
EP REVIEW: Our Chronicle – If These Walls Could Speak
Our Chronicle delivers a sound that is both aggressive and atmospheric, drawing inspiration from modern metal heavyweights such as Sleep Token, Bad Omens, Spiritbox, and Bring Me the Horizon. With the release of the new self-produced EP If These Walls Could Speak (Self-Released), sole member Oliver Price showcases his ability to craft a fully immersive sonic experience entirely on his own.Continue reading
EP REVIEW: Unidad Trauma – Paradigma Egocéntrico Fatalista
Hailing from Tijuana, Mexico, Unidad Trauma delivers their latest dose of Mexican death metal surgically fused with necrotizing thrash and gore-soaked brutality. For fans of Cattle Decapitation, Brujeria, Autopsy, and Dying Fetus, this is a pathological onslaught. These so-called “medical practitioners” offer grotesque dissertations in sonic form, tailored for those with a morbid fascination for occult medicine and anatomical horror.Continue reading
EP REVIEW: Iron Form – Cut From Cold Blood – Church Road Records
The new EP from Church Road Records artists Iron Form titled Cut From Cold Blood is a five-piece band showing off their musical influences and technical merit. Another example of a band breaking through genres by just playing what comes naturally to them in their songwriting process.Continue reading
EP REVIEW: Swervedriver – The World’s Fair
Swervedriver were formed in 1989 and lumped into the Shoegaze genre, alongside Lush, Chapterhouse, My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, and fellow Oxfordians Ride. The band’s catalogue is extensive and consists of six full-length albums and eight EP’s of which The World’s Fair is the latest; the latter following up from last year’s outtakes/ demos collection Doremi Faso Latido (aka CD3 of the band’s reissued-classic-99th-Dream). The band’s somewhat sizeable catalogue is impressive even taking into account the fact that they had disbanded for a period of eight years, 1999 – 2007 with frontman Adam Franklin going on to forge an equally productive solo career under his own name as well as part of the bands Toshack Highway, Magnetic Morning and the Sophia collective. Continue reading
EP REVIEW: ONI – Genesis
Hailing from Canada, Metalcore connoisseur ONI kicks off the new year with new five-track EP, Genesis (Self-Released). Each song has a sound massive enough to blow the roof off a stadium, yet accessible to a wide enough audience that fans from Metal and Pop scenes alike could easily appreciate it.Continue reading
EP REVIEW: Howling Giant – Howling Giant (10th Anniversary Reissue)
Today on the block we have a cut that I cannot believe is ten years old. The cut I speak of is Howling Giant’s self-titled EP. This release would come crashing onto the Cosmic Rock scene. What they deliver on this cut is this soaring sound that comes at you through the endless bound for the stars.Continue reading