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
Tag Archives: Hardcore music
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.
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).
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.
ALBUM REVIEW: Death Pill – Death Pill
Starting in the nineties and still continuing to this day in 2023, it’s safe to say the Riot Grrrl movement isn’t dying out any time soon. New bands such as all-female hardcore punk trio Death Pill continue to emerge from the shadows, and this one has a debut album that’s tough to forget once crawled through unsuspecting ears.
ALBUM REVIEW: Other Half – Soft Action
Hailing from Norwich, England, post-hardcore trio Other Half have put out their second album Soft Action (Big Scary Monsters), consolidating their presence in the modern punk scene. It is a record that keeps the adrenaline pumping throughout its fourteen-track run-through and brings solid production to an otherwise disorderly DIY kind of tone. Despite its title, the album is anything but soft.