Reviews archive

October 2023

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59 articles

October 31
- 3000 fans, confetti cannons and a phallic piano: Electric Callboy just put on the wildest metal party in town
October 30
- “Their best work under the banner has always been the result of collaboration rather than dictatorship”: King Crimson’s 50th anniversary version of Larks’ Tongues In Aspic
October 29
- "The judicious use of sound effects adds to the occasionally claustrophobic atmosphere": Crime Of The Century by Supertramp - Album Of The Week Club review
October 27
- “There’s some good music, of course, but most of it was reshaped for expediency rather than for aesthetic reasons”: Yes compilation Yessingles
- "An exceptional debut album from perhaps the most ferocious new punk band on the scene": meet Problem Patterns, your new favourite band
- From aggro industrial to nu metal rage to glitchy alt pop, Zig is Poppy making music by her own rules - and it's wonderfully unhinged
- If you were expecting Poppy's fifth album Zig to deliver metallic thrills you'll be disappointed, but then second-guessing Poppy is always a fool's game
- “Polished so slickly it denies the friction which draws your ears in… once that fine film of funk is discerned, it can’t be undiscerned”: Steely Dan’s Aja remastered
- Tarot cards, a ouija board and a demonic pottery candleholder: the deluxe version of Mötley Crüe's best album is an OTT wonder
- "By the end of the album, Fallon is still fundamentally tortured": comeback album History Books finds The Gaslight Anthem reflective but utterly revived
- More heartache than hell-raising: The Cadillac Three have tampered with their hard-drinkin', southern-rockin' template
- Dokken's signature sound lives on but Heaven Comes Down has a surprising sting in the tail
October 26
- "The feeling that chaos was about to erupt was palpable": Thurston Moore's memoir Sonic Life is a fascinating insider account of life-changing outsider art, and one music geek's insatiable lust for the loud
- Doro's latest celebration of all things heavy metal brims with power, pride and passion
- “Maverick in scope and enormous in scale… but it owes much of its sprawling nature to its contributors”: Steven Wilson’s The Harmony Codex
October 25
- Slick, heavy and anchored by the brilliant Maria Brink, Godmode is the album that, if there's any justice in the world, will take In This Moment further than ever
- “It’s ostentatious and even maddening at times, but there’s no faulting the ambition”: XTC’s The Big Express
October 24
- “Darkly beautiful, Floydian in nature… a wonderful listen if the stock of Prozac holds out”: Bruce Soord’s Luminescence
October 23
- Wargasm's Venom: a fun as hell, genre-splicing, relentlessly entertaining ride, and one of 2023's essential debut albums
- "Their music was played at every party, bush bash, and camp fire you would go to": Fully Completely by The Tragically Hip - Album Of The Week Club review
October 22
- Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter: the woman behind Lingua Ignota has produced a radically different but compelling new vision with Saved!
October 20
- Baroque 'n' roll stars: Britain's most exciting new bands - The Last Dinner Party and Picture Parlour - unite for homecoming celebrations in the capital
- Hurricanes, sound issues and religious repression be damned: Indonesia's Voice Of Baceprot reign triumphant on their debut US tour: "The world awaits their encore"
- Go Ahead And Die's Unhealthy Mechanisms: Max Cavalera's latest release is billious, ferocious and headbangingly good fun
- “A mature viewpoint without sounding remotely irrelevant or unwelcome”: Galahad’s The Long Goodbye
- Warm, bright and packing some wonderful collaborations with Robert Smith and El-P, Crosses' new album Goodnight, God Bless, I Love U, Delete. is a welcome return from Chino Moreno and Shaun Lopez
- Bleed Out is undoubtedly Within Temptation's heaviest record to date. It may also be their best
- “His work with Gentle Giant surely seals his prog reputation”: Produced By Tony Visconti box set
- Duff McKagan's Lighthouse: "A long way from the howling urban venom and party-hard hedonism of GN'R in their prime"
- "In among the messy tangle of human souls, Rival Sons prove there is always room for the light to get in": Lightbringer album review
- Joe Bonamassa fires on all cylinders on the unfailingly upbeat sequel to 2003's Blues Deluxe
October 19
- "A whistle-stop tour through the best-loved parts of the band’s storied career, marked by the inescapable turbulence of life": the reunited Blink-182 return older, wiser and stronger for their scars on One More Time...
October 18
- Oni's The Silver Line is an ambitiously frantic patchwork of ideas that pays off - and it's packing one hell of a dinner party guestlist
October 17
- Myrkur's new album Spine is her magnum opus and a riveting, emotional odyssey
October 16
- "Passages of beautiful, haunting music, mellow vocals, and lyrics that conjure images of darkness, loss and betrayal": Heritage by Opeth - Album Of The Week Club review
October 13
- Twin Temple's Satanic doo-wop-powered God Is Dead is the empowering, blasphemous and devilishly fun album the rock world needs right now
- “A remarkable legacy that’s celebrated in this impressive collection, warts and all”: Keith Emerson’s Variations
October 12
- Creeper's Sanguivore: a blood-drenched Bat Out Of Hell for goths and vampires
- Goat's new album Medicine: you want an alluring mix of hypno-rock, mysticism and death-cult menace? You got it
- Blink-182 at the London O2: silly, puerile, epic, cathartic and, on more than one occasion, surprisingly emotional
October 11
- Beartooth's The Surface is a sharp, poignant and blazingly cathartic celebration of life, warts and all
October 10
- Sanguivore is a magnificent, goth-punk rock opera that confirms Creeper as one of the most vital British bands of their generation
- Of Mice & Men's Tether: another assured, mature offering from one of modern metalcore's most reliable names
October 9
- Hackney Diamonds is the Rolling Stones' most quintessentially Stonesy album in 40 years: it's also a 21st-century record for a 21st-century audience
- Tool at Power Trip: a mind-melting, triumphant showcase unlike anything else on stage this weekend
- "These bands are responsible for what Metallica are." Metallica bring Power Trip festival to a close on a colossal high
- "One of those magical instances of capturing lightning in a bottle": Vol. 1 by Traveling Wilburys - Album Of The Week Club review
October 8
- Judas Priest prove they still stand toe-to-toe with their fellow legends with a blast of a set at Power Trip festival
- AC/DC at Power Trip: if this is the band's last hurrah, they've gone out with an incredible, weekend-stealing set for the ages
October 7
- Guns N' Roses at Power Trip festival was an epic homecoming that proves they're the ruling class of rock'n'roll (even with the late start)
- Iron Maiden's triumphant set at Power Trip has set the bar for a legendary event
October 6
- “It could become a slow-burn grower like Yes’ Talk album”: Trevor Rabin’s Rio
- Roger Waters’ Dark Side Of The Moon Redux: “Audacious, affecting, annoying, dull in places… certainly worth investigating”
October 5
- The final word on Van Halen's Sammy Hagar era: it's a bit corporate, a bit rock-by-numbers, a bit... uneventful
- 20 years on, Permission To Land... Again recalls the swaggering confidence of a band about to claim their place at pop’s top table
- News just in: Roger Waters' reworking of The Dark Side Of The Moon actually works
October 2
- The Weight Of The Mask is both the prettiest and bleakest Svalbard have sounded to date - and it's a stunning monument to the human experience
- "When Ashley Holt screams, doesn't it sound like Gillan?": Warhorse by Warhorse - Album Of The Week Club review
October 1
- Muse's Manchester AO Arena show proves that whatever route their music may take, they'll always be one of the greatest live bands in all of music