It's about as close a facsimile of the fractured and foreboding scattershot thoughts that haunt most of us at night as one can capture on record. [Feb 2008, p.115]

It's nice Walla's doing his own thing, but it's also clear from Field Manual that in terms of his main band, credit has always been given where credit was due. [Mar 2008, p.141]

It's the most solid album in the group's discography, haunting with moments of near perfection. [Mar 2008, p.140]

What makes Fortress much more than just a chain mail-clad sweep-picking clinic is the band's ability to weave bold melodies into the album's thudering riffage. [Feb 2008, p.116]

Another Sound Is Dying, despite the title connotation, is indeed giving birth to a stirring new noise. [Apr 2008, p.156]

What really impresses on the quintet's sophomore stunner is the way Black Mountain effortlessly shift from devastating to devastatingly beautiful. [Feb 2008, p.117]

Frustratingly, Jukebox takes a more soft-focus tack. [Feb 2008, p.114]

The problem with this kind of timeless rock 'n' roll is that every city in the U.S. has a band who have mnore or less mastered it. [Feb 2008, p.119]

The songs feature countless tired hip-pop cliches: gratuitous scratching, tinny programmed beats, burbling keyboards and faux-sexy lyrics. [Mar 2008, p.147]

Oracular may be a complex effort, but the verdict is simple--it's brilliant. [Feb 2008, p.115]

There are faint notes of Bossa Nova and Kate Bush in Bejar's sunny yet skewed arrangements--femme flights of fancy that brush past '70s and '80s folk-pop without sounding less than organic and original.

The Dillinger Escape Plan are far from dead and te sound they pioneered is only getting stronger. [Dec 2007, p.171]

Between the bloated song lengths and repetitive arrangements, What Angels & Airwaves really need for LP3 is an editor. [Dec 2007, p.184]

Smoke is a pleasant pastiche of David Bowie's "Berlin" period--with a lab-coated synth freakout at disc's end for all those Morton Subotnick fans out there. [Dec 2007, p.188]

The minimalist musical compositions on Situation force the listener to focus on Buck 65's idiosyncratic ingenuity. [Dec 2007, p.187]

Avenged Sevenfold is so all over the map musically and lyrically, it's difficult to decipher whether it's pure genius or the most convoluted mess of music you'll hear all year. [Dec 2007, p.178]

In the end, this dark, penetrating album is a transitional record and should be viewed as such. [Dec 2007, p.172]

The second album from the glorified solo project Babyshambles is a half-baked abortion. [Dec 2007, p.184]

You either listen without prejudice or deem it the most pretentious, boring swill on the planet. [Dec 2007, p.176]

Coheed's fourth album simply doesn't deliver on the suspense that's been loaded into it. [Nov 2007, p.155]

Bemis successfully came out of the other side on In Defense Of The Genre, producing an opus that musicians more than twice his age could only hope to create. [Dec 2007, p.185]

Herren manages to deliver another dense, cinematic electronic record without repeating himself or--worse--the competition. [Dec 2007, p.187]

The band takes a few sucessful detours on Chase This Light, but by and large, it's more of the same. [Nov 2007, p.172]

Their eighth album, Oblivion With Bells, showcases a more refined approach. [Nov 2007, p.176]

Together Fire and Water form one of the most breathtaking albums of the year. [Nov 2007, p.166]

So the Furnances are up to their usual tricks, making unexpected mash-ups of their own ideas. [Nov. 2007, p.160]

Krug tests the patience of even the most tolerant listener via a convoluted and self-indulgent mess of music that occasionally--and seemingly accidently--stumbles across moments of brilliance. [Nov 2007, p.163]

Sam Beam has returned with a third full-length that rivals just about anything in his small but illustrious catalog. [Nov 2007, p.162]