| 4.0 excellent |
| *shels Sea of the Dying Dhow |
| So, what is Shels exactly? In my opinion it is one of the finest attempts to incorporate metalcore aesthetics into a progressive rock setting. Basically, they succeed where other bands have failed. They are able to be progressive without being overtly cheesy (like, say, Between the Buried and Me's "Alaska"), and they are able to be progressive without entering realms of unnecessary pretension (like the middle of Pax Cecilia's "Blessed are the Bonds"). Sure, I could throw out a list of comparisons to groups like Kayo Dot or Isis in hopes that some of their fans might streamline through this review and check them out, but Shels really doesn't embrace the arty atmosphere of either band. Everything on this album is meticulously arranged, but is also grounded in a solid base genre of metalcore. Essentially, I guess it is the best of both worlds; complete originality and full blown clich? Whatever is the key to Shels successful formula, it works and "Sea of the Dying Dhow" effortlessly proves that. |
| ...Who Calls So Loud ...Who Calls So Loud |
| Alkaline Trio Alkaline Trio |
| And The Furies Say And The Furies Say |
| Armchairpolitician Seven Segment Decoder |
| At the Drive-In Acrobatic Tenement |
| Battle Of Mice A Day of Nights |
| Post metal with a touch of doom that is extremely original and disturbing. Fronted by the female lead singer of noise rock band Made Out of Babies, and featuring members from Red Sparowes, Pere Ubu, and The Fugees this album is an excellent array of great influences and great talent. Highly recommended! |
| Battles Mirrored |
| Black Dice Beaches and Canyons |
| Black Milk Tronic |
| Black Milk Album Of The Year |
| blink-182 Cheshire Cat |
| Boris With Michio Kurihara Rainbow |
| Boris is often known for their "drone" metal but with the help of Michio Kurihara they decided to invest themselves into a realm of beautiful psych rock. Kurihara's presence is hugely impactive on why I think this record is so great, considering he is probably my favorite guitarist. This is a great album and I'd suggest it for people looking for something that meshes the old of classic rock with the new stoner rock scene. |
| Botch We Are the Romans |
| Brainworms Brainworms II: Swear To Me |
| Bright Eyes Fevers & Mirrors |
| Burton Wagner 21 |
| Callisto True Nature Unfolds |
| Charlemagne Palestine Strumming Music |
| Comets on Fire Blue Cathedral |
| Comus First Utterance |
| Cursive Burst And Bloom |
| Cursive Happy Hollow |
| Cynic Traced in Air |
| Dangers Messy, Isn't It? |
| EAQuartett Electroacoustiquarett |
| Flying Lotus Los Angeles |
| Frodus And We Washed Our Weapons In The Sea |
| Fugazi In on the Kill Taker |
| Fugazi Red Medicine |
| Ghastly City Sleep Ghastly City Sleep |
| Ghastly’s claim to fame is their transposition into standard post rock affair in the vein of Gregor Samsa. They aren’t really concentrating on crescendos but when they do they are beautiful (and feature beautiful people in the case of Ice Creaks guest from Mia Matsumiya) and they also aren’t really concentrating on huge waves of emotional catharsis. In a sense they’ve taken the sound Gregor Samsa orchestrated flawlessly on 55:12 and built upon it in vast ways. |
| High on Fire Blessed Black Wings |
| Hot Cross Cryonics |
| J Dilla Jay Stay Paid |
| John Frusciante Curtains |
| M. Ward Post-War |
| Malady Malady |
| Meet Me in St. Louis Variations on Swing |
| Meet Me in St. Louis are the latest addition to the growing and highly dominant U.K. post-hardcore scene. Million Dead, The Murder of Rosa Luxemburg, and bands like them have been creating a lot of attention with their fast paced seemingly random blend of pop-punk, hardcore and math rock. Meet Me in St. Louis is the most successful band to attempt this sound so far in terms of sheer originality. Combining Million Dead’s pop sensibility with The Murder of Rosa Luxemburg’s technical backing, Meet Me in St. Louis’ sound is basically pop songs broken down into ten second burst of energy that are strung together into three minute explosions. Where the band merely flirted with their music’s pop backing on their debut EP, “Variations on Swing” their latest releases sees them branching out into realms of electronica and more concise post-hardcore to create a much more rewarding, eclectic and dynamic sound. |
| Minus the Bear Planet of Ice |
| My Disco Little Joy |
| Navio Forge As We Quietly Burn A Hole Into... |
| Ocrilim Annwn |
| Pharoahe Monch Desire |
| Pink Floyd The Final Cut |
| Pissed Jeans King of Jeans |
| Pixies Bossanova |
| Pulling Teeth Paranoid Delusions/Paradise Illusions |
| Pygmy Lush Mount Hope |
| Pygmy Lush Old Friends |
| Raekwon Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... |
| A excellent solo Wu-Tang gem that basically paved the way for "gangsta" rap. Ghostface and Raekwon put in some of their best performances and "Rainy Dayz" is just one of the most perfect rap songs I've ever heard. The only problem is the album feels a tad overstuffed in comparison to "Liquid Swords" and "Enter the Wu-Tang", still this is a fantastic rap album and few records reach this level of infamy and greatness. |
| Rites of Spring End on End |
| Ry Cooder Paradise And Lunch |
| Say Anything ...Is a Real Boy |
| Shipwreck A.D. Abyss |
| Singer Unhistories |
| Six Organs Of Admittance Luminous Night |
| Sufjan Stevens Illinois |
| Tartar Lamb Sixty Metonymies |
| Ten Grand This Is The Way To Rule |
| The Mars Volta De-Loused in the Comatorium |
| The Mars Volta Amputechture |
| The National Alligator |
| The Snake The Cross The Crown Mander Salis |
| Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra Horses in the Sky |
| Third Eye Blind Third Eye Blind |
| Thrice Vheissu |
| Time of Orchids Namesake Caution |
| Tyondai Braxton Central Market |
| UGK UGK 4 Life |
| Verse En Coma Rialto |
| Yndi Halda Enjoy Eternal Bliss EP |
| 3.5 great |
| A Day In Black And White My Heroes Have Always Killed Cowboys |
| Ampere All Our Tomorrows End Today |
| Arcade Fire Funeral |
| Aspects of Physics Marginalized Information Forms One: Ping |
| At the Drive-In Vaya |
| Bright Eyes I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning |
| Burton Wagner In the Realms of the Unreal |
| Capillary Action So Embarrassing |
| Coheed and Cambria In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 |
| Cold World Dedicated To Babies Who Came Feet First |
| Ed Gein It's A Shame That A Family Can Be Torn Apart By... |
| Elliott Smith From a Basement on the Hill |
| Explosions in the Sky All of a Sudden, I Miss Everyone |
Exploding with a riff that sounds almost straight out of an Ennio Morricone composition, “All of A Sudden I Miss Everyone” certainly establishes itself as a record different from EiTS’s past work. While they aren’t building into layered soundscapes the same way they did previously, on the limited release, “The Rescue,” the combination of the ideas from that record and their past work is clearly shown on opener “The Birth and Death of the Day.” Other notable tracks are the brooding epic “It’s Natural To Be Afraid” and the depressing piano based “What Do You Go Home To?” Explosions in the Sky has clearly taken note of their flaws and with all of their effort tried to do something original with “All of A Sudden I Miss Everyone.” Adding touches of piano and improving on the stylings of their guitar playing has left the record feeling fresh. However, their search for stretching their sound does seem a little limited in the end; moments like the crescendo at 5:55 in “The Birth and Death Of The Day “ seem like they could easily be transferred back into songs found on their early releases. A sense of “I’ve already heard this” is certainly always present when listening to “All of A Sudden I Miss Everyone.”
|
| Fugazi End Hits |
| Fugazi 13 Songs |
| Fugazi Steady Diet of Nothing |
| Ghost (JPN) In Stormy Nights |
| Gregor Samsa Rest |
| Husker Du Everything Falls Apart |
| Isis and Aereogramme In The Fishtank 14 |
| Jaco Pastorius Jaco Pastorius |
| Jeff Buckley Grace |
| Jimmy Eat World Bleed American |
| Joanna Newsom Ys |
| John Frusciante The Empyrean |
| Lightning Bolt Earthly Delights |
| My Bloody Valentine Loveless |
| Omar Rodriguez-Lopez A Manual Dexterity: Soundtrack Vol. 1 |
| Pharoahe Monch W.A.R. |
| Polvo In Prism |
| Pyramids (PA) Through the Hourglass |
| Red Sparowes Every Red Heart Shines Toward The Red... |
| Red Sparowes Aphorism |
| Refused The Shape Of Punk To Come |
| Saccharine Trust Surviving You, Always |
| Sonic Youth Sister |
| Soundtrack (Film) Once More With Feeling |
| Stars Set Yourself On Fire |
| Sun Kil Moon Admiral Fell Promises |
| T.I. Paper Trail |
| Tera Melos Untitled |
| The Blood Brothers ...Burn, Piano Island, Burn |
| The Decemberists Picaresque |
| The Dillinger Escape Plan Miss Machine |
| The Murder of Rosa Luxemburg Everyone's in Love and Flowers Pick Them |
| The Postman Syndrome Terraforming |
| Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra Pretty Little Lightning Paw |
| These Arms Are Snakes This Is Meant To Hurt You |
| Tiny Hawks Fingers Become Bridges |
| Trophy Scars Goodnight Alchemy |
| TV on the Radio Return to Cookie Mountain |
| Unwritten Law Elva |
| Yakuza Transmutations |
