(((O))) Category: Records of the Year

Massachusetts’ cosmic post-metallers hit a wall on album number three. Radiant Bloom is everything you could want from an Astronoid album – unfortunately, its very little else.

For the first time in a decade we have decided against doing a writers’s poll for the end of the year. list. However, we seem to be congenitally unable to not make some sort of list for you, so instead this year I, as your humble editor, have picked 25 records that I have enjoyed over the last 12 months and I hope you might enjoy them too.
I’ll confess now, I have long considered Mono to be pretty much as damn near the top of the Post Rock tree as it’s possible to get. They sit comfortably alongside such luminaries of the genre like Godspeed and Mogwai, and live they are an utterly subli …
After 7 years without a sound Godspeed You! Black Emperor stepped out of the shadows and started entering scenes again. This time Mike Moya, one of the two band founders and a member during 1994-1998, had joined the lineup again. They were chosen as cu …
I’ve been labouring away on this review for over a week now, mostly because I want to make sure that my words do the album, ‘Lost Songs’ by …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead (henceforth just Trail of Dead), justice. Read more.
When the updated list with new releases to review was sent out, I was lucky enough to be the first one to reply and pick this much-anticipated release by American experimental doom/sludge metal band Neurosis. In retrospect I quickly realized the daunti …
I was no Oliver Twist when I found an instant appeal to Rumour Cubes’ music on first hearing them last year. Happily it’s been only a few short months to wait to hear their first full length album and, in late February, everyone gets their turn. What s …
‘for people with love for heavy guitar atmospheres and rhythm sections showing up how it’s done. The pace is slow but never boring. The energy is cranked up and the atmosphere, just like the album cover, is an expansive, vast ocean of sounds that is ne …
‘In my opinion, this album serves as a real Swans fans wet dream. Anything at fault with it? Yeah, its two fucking hours long, which is stretching it by anyone’s terms. Having said that, I believe that within this imposing tome lies probably Giras best …
I have to confess that I am a bit of a fanboy when it comes to Scottish musicians and bands. My fascination with all things Scottish began with Fish and Marillion (and Fish solo) in my teens, then bands like Teenage Fanclub in my early adult years, and …