Architects somehow increase the ferocity with hit-and-run instrumentation to highlight Sam Carter, the genre's strongest clean vocalist and screamer. [Jun 2016, p.100]

The result is a vivid, nostalgic traipse into what good rock bands ought to sound like. [Mar 2008, p. 144]

Tempos have been ground down to a slow crawl, but as Melvins and Sunn O))) have proven, that tactic just gives a band the chance to prove how heavy they really are. [Jun 2010, p.105]

Dear Youth is a one-size-fits-all hardcore album, one that will lead many fresh faces through the door but leave returners looking for more.

A whole that's less than the sum of its parts, a bittersweet pill that's best taken in small doses. [Feb 2005, p.88]

Eschewing the DJ-friendly club format they perfected on 1999's Remedy, the Jaxx are now writing R&B-flavored pop songs... But their success is hit-and-miss... [Jul 2001, p.60]

Easily ranks among their best. [Oct 2002, p.83]

Confield not only documents the future of IDM; it also cements Autechre's name in the pantheon of sonic visionaries. [Jul 2001, p.63]

Doiron's presence and Squire's understated electric guitar imbue the album with haunting, spectral beauty equal to anything Elverum's done. [Dec 2008, p.138]

Thier debut album is one of the most inventive in recent memory. [Apr 2008, p.153]

While minor lulls can be found and their habit of zeroing in on daily life's mundane nuances risks self-parody, this s*** still rips. [Mar 2013, p.92]

Bardo Pond have become equally adept at making hearts and heads ache. [#155, p.68]

A collection of delicate love songs with a back-porch feel, but the electronic warbles add enough texture for a new generation of stoners to space out on. [June 2003, p.96]

A playful retro-pop event full of shifting moods. [Nov 2001, p.77]

M. Ward's creations have the fragility of drawings made in the dust that's settled on a china cabinet. [Apr 2003, p.87]

These six songs offer moments as heavy as P-Tree have ever been, but are wistfully, sprawlingly melodic as well-sometimes in the same tune.

Like Stay What You Are on steroids, it's a half-hour of instant gratification with paeans to overcoming romantic and introspective obstacles. [Oct 2014, p.101]

It crushes with more speed, weirdness and sheer sonic weight than "Hope For Men" and the band's punkier debut, 2005's "Shallow." [Sep 2009, p.108]

Ritual reminds fans that these Michigan death-metal merchants are capable of greatness. [Jul 2011, p.107]

The results are hit-or-miss. [May 2005, p.132]

Easy Pain reminds you how horrible the world can be, as well as the catharsis you can achieve if you'd only just immerse yourself in the maelstrom. [Jun 2014, p.111]

That this open-ended philosophical query ["Is it human to adore life?"] has no easy answers makes Adore Life that much more intellectually dense and appealing. [Feb 2016, p.100]

American Music Club are as morose as ever. [Dec 2004, p.150]

Like all great albums, De-Loused in the Comatorium takes multiple listens to absorb, and, even then, you're probably not going to have a clue to what Bixler's raving about. [Jul 2003, p.107]

The kind of album that functions as both background BBQ beat and windows-down sing-along. [Jul 2003, p.112]

Rather than suffering from the absence of Technicolor mania, Point instead revels in its nuances and depth, emanating a maturity and cohesion that Fantasma lacked. [Feb 2002, p.68]

Doomsdayer's Holiday shows a band pushing the limits of psychedelic post-rock and testing the boundaries of post-metal. [Dec 2008, p.142]

Through it all, they retain their fundamental hardcore power-chug while vocalist Liam Cormier gives his most diverse screaming/growling/speaking performance yet. [May 2010, p.105]