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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
In the sometimes stale world of modern hardcore, Crime In Stereo Is Dead is as refreshing an album as it is inaccurately named. While full of the aggression and intensity one would expect of a release on Bridge Nine Records, the album is equally big on atmospheric soundscapes and buzzing electronics. Vocalist Kristian Hallbert sings in a breathy falsetto almost as much as he screams, balancing hushed whispers with primal screeching. The haunting bridge of "Third Atlantic" finds him pulling back to channel Nick Drake, only to squeeze one more shout-along chorus into the last 15 seconds of the song. So all this begs to question - is Crime In Stereo still a hardcore band… Read more
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
Downward Is Heavenward is the fourth and final album from Champaign Illinois spacerockers Hum, released in 1998. Hum is perhaps best known for their signature "wall of sound" aesthetic, featuring two droning guitars, slowly crushing you beneath huge waves of layered distortion, while Matt Talbot's soft voice floats delicately above it all. The dual guitars perpetually build on one other's dissonance, shaping a sonic landscape of endless lingering suspensions that rarely resolve. Every sound on the album shimmers, from the epic wash of the cymbals to the background noise loops, meticulously generated from delay pedals and multi-effects processors.
Cryptic lyrics about space… Read more
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From the beginning seconds of M(US)IC, the debut album from Buffalo's Damiera, it's clear that this is a band who likes playing at full throttle. Dual guitars ceaselessly interweave meandering angular melodies and beautifully discordant chord stabs, while a distorted bass throbs and crawls between sporadic drum hits, everything somehow melding together into this math-y marriage of noise. It's a fusion of four integral parts, interlocking so precisely that they're almost indistinguishable from each other, each contributing equally to the final result. The band careens along at a breakneck pace throughout this collection of ten songs, each track ending as abruptly as it starts, until the… Read more
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