ALBUM REVIEW: Mugger – Luck Forever


Rising from Austin, Texas, Mugger are turning heads with their familiar yet fresh brand of Hardcore Punk. The four-piece band makes a promising first impression with their debut album Luck Forever (Quiet Panic Records).Continue reading


ALBUM REVIEW: Blind Girls – An Exit Exists


Rising from Gold Coast, Australia, Hardcore quintet Blind Girls redefines standards with their own brand of the genre. With their new album, An Exit Exists (Persistent Vision Records), the band proves they know how to keep listeners on their toes.Continue reading


ALBUM REVIEW: Rarity – Lower Feeling


While many modern Post-Hardcore bands have been testing the limits of the genre, there is a certain charm to the ones who are still keeping things raw and clear-cut. Canadian quartet Rarity continues to do just that with their third album Lower Feeling (New Damage Records/Dine Alone Records), combining Hardcore rage with Pop Punk catchiness.Continue reading


ALBUM REVIEW: Bloom — Maybe In Another Life


Hailing from Sydney, Australia, melodic metalcore band Bloom introduces their first album with Pure Noise Records, Maybe In Another Life. While there are undoubtedly some standout tracks on here, they are easy to overlook on first listen. Many of the songs flip flop between exactly the kind of quality melodic hardcore the scene is lacking in, and those sounding like filler tracks from a 2010s metalcore album. Continue reading


ALBUM REVIEW: Being As An Ocean – Death Can Wait


It is not every day you come across a band like Being As An Ocean. The Californian genre-benders have always been experts at executing public service announcements in the form of poetic melodic hardcore songs. There are not many artists out there who can consistently put out such lyrically blunt music that still feels more motivational than pessimistic. As their first album to follow the dumpster fire year of 2020, Death Can Wait (Out Of Line Records) is a true test of the band’s longevity in staying true to that defining quality.Continue reading


ALBUM REVIEW: Splitknuckle – Breathing Through The Wound


Having a band named Splitknuckle evokes certain ideas even before you’ve heard the music. Violence, aggression, possibly-self-inflicted pain. Such ideas are only amplified in the title of latest album Breathing Through The Wound (Daze Records) and yes, the music within very much follows these initial impressions. 

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Ghost Cult’s Albums of the Year 2023: Part 2 (40-21)


After such a fine introduction to the albums that have soundtracked our 2023 (Part 1 – 75-41), we now get into the belly of the beast and plunge on through the never, a testament to the diversity and abundance of alternative and heavy music that availed and impressed us this year.
So, without further ado (fewer words, more riffs…)Continue reading


Ghost Cult’s Album of the Year Countdown 2023: Part 1 (75-41)


 

2013 saw Ghost Cult crown Surgical Steel (Carcass) as our inaugural Album of the Year in a democratic aggregated vote process, untouched by editorial hands (other than the sliding of the abacus balls from one side to the other – or rather the logging of votes and the use of a rather rudimentary spreadsheet), a format we continue to utilise as the years pass, and the seasons grey. Our dedicated team of writers, editors, photographers make their submissions on demand following a month of much wringing-of-hands and profanities being aimed into the editorial mailbox.Continue reading


ALBUM REVIEW: False Fed – Let Them Eat Fake 


 

To say that a line-up which features Discharge vocalist Jeff (JJ) Janiak, guitarist Stig Miller (Amebix), drummer Roy Mayorga (Nausea/Amebix) and bassist JP Parsons is an enticing prospect would be an understatement. This type of musical pedigree promises us that something special looms on the horizon in the form of Let Them Eat Fake (Neurot Recordings).

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ALBUM REVIEW: Code Orange – The Above


 

The hope for a band to “return to their roots” is a phrase that has been thrown around so much in modern music, it has begun to lose its meaning. As with the roots of a tree, a band’s roots are always there, securing the foundation of their sound, no matter how many different directions it may branch out into. 

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