While Luciferian Towers evokes a lot of gorgeous imagery to soothe the soul, it lacks a lot of inventiveness and imagination I usually associate with the band.

On this particular album, they achieve just the right amount of flair and flavour to spice things up with character and believe it or not, lyrical depth. Track-wise, there are some growers. Then you've got some tedious chores to work through mid-way but overall, the album ends on a fairly decent note.

Cook nails it in the earliest stages, making it a bit front-loaded.

It's classic Fidlar. However, while the musical style's sure to leave fans scratching their heads, peer a bit deeper and you'll see their signature's very much there--it's just, well, diluted and funkier than ever.

Comfort/Distraction is a good album that shows off how well Broadway Calls understand how to make pop-punk, but it's hard to shake the feeling that the band are pulling its punches in the name of wider appeal.

While each member's technically great at what they do, once more, the magic from the band's debut seems too hard to recapture and as a sum of all its parts, DGD comes up short on Instant Gratification.

Tell Me I'm Pretty, while poppy and as mainstream as ever, loses its sense of appeal, character and individuality in coming off too much as a carbon copy of The Black Keys.

Ultimately, it feels like too much is crammed in and AFI can't tell if they want to go pop, goth, retro or symphonic. And with something that schizophrenic, it undercuts a lot of what could have been diamonds in the rough.

Angry riffs and gigantic hooks build the base of the album and it's one heavily steeped in frustration and angst. Sadly though, as emotional and honest as the record gets, too many songs are forgettable and lack the punch possessed a couple years ago.

If you stack this up against all the Pixies' previous output, it leaves a sour taste. But if you judge it simply on its own merits, it's a not-half-bad set of somewhat generic indie rock.

Given Morello’s dynamite live sets with the E Street Band, it’s a shame that the Springsteen album with his biggest influence is so underwhelming.

Quiet Slang was the stripped-down version of the band so we don't need acoustics like "Nobody Say Nothing" or "Nowhere Bus" or the piano-driven closer "Bar No One". They're catchy, sure, but I mean, they're songs we've heard over and over so if it ain't new, at this point, please fix it. I do commend the band for attempting to cut a new road with songs like "Stiff" but again, it's all about sex appeal here and I just can't connect with a band and a vocalist that comes off like a 17 year-old who is now trying too hard.

AAF spread all their goodies out over these tracks with the rest of the album lacking energy. Sad to say, the other tracks feel drab and don't translate well at all.

I think the punk rock attitude is to not easily be impressed with technical musicianship that doesn’t make you feel much of anything. American Head didn’t hit me in the heart or in the gut, but it did make me want to go back and listen to “She Don’t Use Jelly” again and, if nothing else, that’s a positive that comes from this experience.

The big hooks don’t connect, swinging too hard for something both underground and mainstream. This is a feat these two have accomplished before, but on Material, it always sounds just out of reach.

A few songs impress but the majority is meant to fill radio stations and leave you wondering where the magic this band held went. Probably outer space...

This album and The Party’s Over share many of the same problems that the band can't seem to shake off. Whether you were fan of Public Enemy, Cypress Hill or Rage Against The Machine first I think you’ll agree that this whole project just comes off as clumsy.

In a year that will see an actual new Gaslight Anthem album, as well as Brian Fallon's new side project Molly & the Zombies, The B-Sides can be easily skipped.

Good Charlotte know how to write a hit and a hook but their honorable intentions to be memorable fall short.

The lyrics are cheesy and uninspiring at best.

They try to be all vulnerable but come off overly cheesy with no real big hooks.

Everything Now feels like everything's dead as it lacks any sort of freshness or intrigue.

I can only assume the title Save Rock and Roll is intentionally ironic on their part because even they should know it's quite a stretch to call this rock and roll.

Sad to say, this follow-up lacks a lot, music-wise and heart-wise, and apart from one or two decent interjections, leaves a lot to be desired.

Coming Home scrubs away the band's aggression and tries to get more emotional, but all it does is end up sounding like that perv you'd never leave a drunk friend around.

Most of the album is way over-polished and creatively stifled. MTB try to maintain a sense of how well they did prog-punk but this is a line they can't even straddle anymore. The beauty that was once there is gone. Voids is aptly titled.

It's such a musically bare record. "Into The Earth" is the only song that feels like a rock song and it's also very soft and drab. So many songs riff off the same synth beats that HYMNS end up being a contemplative session that puts you to sleep as opposed to prodding at your mind.

Most of the jams offered come off like this: wasteful and undesirable with heavy riffs, no melody and heavy double-kicking that all combine into an incoherent mess.