With Our Circle Is Vicious, Rise and Fall have created a punishing record of thoughtful hardcore that successfully integrates melody and establishes textures similar to Deathwish heroes Modern Life Is War. However, unlike MLIW, Rise and Fall is especially brooding and heavily drop -tuned; it's a fitting soundtrack for the coldest of autumn nights.

"Soul Slayer" begins as a tension builder via snare drum before breaking down into a twangy riff with touches of delay and lots of excess noise -- a good example of what to expect. The recording is not particularly tight or punchy. [more]

David Bazan is probably a polarizing figure around here, and there are two reasons for that. The first is that his music is not of the short, fast, and loud variety; Bazan plays folk rock songs that are slow, deliberate and melancholic. The second is that Bazan gained popularity under the name Pedro the Lion, where he sang about God through a Christian lens. While Bazan's musical style has not changed dramatically since dropping the Pedro moniker (though he has infused a greater pop sensibility than before), his perspective on the divine certainly has: Bazan now considers himself an agnostic. [more]

It’ll probably be considered heresy to say, but when I first heard Chuck Ragan’s Feast or Famine -- specifically “The Boat” -- all I could think was “this is what he should have been doing all along.”

Don’t get me wrong; I love Hot Water Music. I’ve followed them since No Division and I celebrate their entire catalog. But something about Ragan’s solo material is different. Something about it is truly special in a way that most other singer-songwriters can’t even hope to understand. He feels so comfortable. So at home. [more]

In a year where bands like the Bouncing Souls and Paint It Black avoided full-lengths in favor of short seven-inch bursts, Strike Anywhere rallied ahead with their fourth full-length, Bridge Nine debut, and possibly best album ever with Iron Front. Maybe it’s fitting, given that the Iron Front, the circle with three declining lines that decries communism, monarchism, homophobia, anti-Semitism and pretty much any other jerk belief system ever, has always been Strike Anywhere’s symbol. Iron Front describes the band’s aesthetic more than even an eponymous title ever could. [more]

I didn’t care too much for the first Doomriders record, Black Thunder. It seemed that the band had a very defined path they wanted to take, but in indulging these specific ideas, the whole ended up slightly less than satisfying. I wouldn't say I didn't like it -- it was moreso just OK. The band seemed to be going for a nostalgic mix of early Black Sabbath and '80s skate thrash with a healthy dose of guitar harmonies and droning repetition of barreling riffs underneath Nate Newton’s masculine scream similar to his work in Old Man Gloom. [more]

It’s hard to believe that Death Before Dishonor is ten releases and almost as many years into its career. Harder still to believe that the band has improved by such leaps and bounds just over the last three albums.

It's not so much an indictment of the band as it is acknowledgement that hardcore bands have short lifespans and don’t often show as much release-to-release improvement as some of Boston’s finest have. [more]

To the outside world, the Raveonettes are mere Jesus and Mary Chain noise fetishists, which is redundant and stupid and really not that fair. The duo of Sun Rose Wagner and Sharin Foo has constantly evolved since their debut, Whip It On. What began as an excuse to write a bunch of songs in the same key evolved into a fine blend of goth, bubblegum, ’50s rock ‘n’ roll, surf and shoegaze on 2005’s Pretty in Black. [more]

I distinctly remember being alone in a dimly lit bar a couple years ago. It was a Sunday during finals week, and I didn’t have an exam the following day but none of my friends felt like joining me. As I sat at the bar with my beer, Lucero’s “She Wakes When She Dreams” came over the jukebox.

The middle-aged man to my left closed his eyes as he nodded his head to the slow, acoustic rhythm. The couple behind me cut their conversation short to listen intently. I stopped playing Tetris on my phone so I could hang on every word. [more]

In spite of his increasingly personal songwriting in the last four years or so, John Darnielle (singer, songwriter and the core of folk-rock masters the Mountain Goats) has always spoiled his fans. Last year he dropped one of the best albums (Heretic Pride) and two EPs (Black Pear Tree EP, with Kaki King, and Satanic Messiah) of 2008; this year he repeats the trick with Moon Colony Bloodbath (a tour-only split EP with John Vanderslice) and The Life of the World to Come, yet another emotionally affecting bit of storytelling. [more]

Lewd Acts have stepped up their game with Black Eye Blues, a full-length full of dirty, grimey hardcore that manages to provide both a searing, original intensity and artistic statement all at once. Black Eye Blues speaks to its mish-mash of various influences and coalesces them into unifying themes and sounds, but that tends to be a gravelly, vaguely metallic hardcore sound that isn't so much menacing as it is a beautifully destructive, surprisingly scant 29 minutes. [more]