Noise Rock

Järnbörd – Filmer för blinda Review

Järnbörd – Filmer för blinda Review

“Though every album lands into our grabby hands with a visual artistic adornment of some sort, and that representation may reflect in the music to varying extents, a lot of compositions don’t rely on the strength of that accompaniment for a full impact. To an extent, our eyes get the opportunity to shop before our ears in the modern day, with absurd band names and grand images (or conversely, the rejection of AI images) standing on lists and tag trees as important first impressions where a faceless radio single may have filled in before. Järnbörd takes the idea a step further using their own narrative recordings to adorn their grind-loaded messages with a fun cinematic flair” Welcome a Börd!

Chat Pile – Cool World Review

Chat Pile – Cool World Review

“Two years ago, I named Chat Pile’s debut full-length God’s Country my Album o’ the Year, at considerable risk to myself. You see, the senior partners at AMG and Sons, LLC have no love for the Pile or for the greasy noise rock/post-hardcore/sludge these Oklahoman’s produce. After submitting my year-end list, I endured all manner of verbal abuse, which would have been fine had it not been followed closely by physical abuse. A hulking ape branded a large “P” on my chest, after which a gang of masked n00bs beat me senseless. Two years have passed, and Chat Pile’s sophomore release Cool World has arrived.” Pile on the abuse.

Pyrrhon – Exhaust Review

Pyrrhon – Exhaust Review

Pyrrhon has spent much of the past few years living, trudging the way many do in their 30s. It’s not that life becomes untenable in the twists and turns about which time inevitably navigates, but that reality grows a face, a scent, a terror that swells as its layers develop and crust and encapsulate. Uncertainty and anxiety weigh heavy in the heart, and, no doubt, after releasing 2020’s Abscess Time, Pyrrhon hit a wall. Time passed, pressure grew. So to escape the grind with grind, to combat noise with noise, to face life with death metal, Pyrrhon holed up in the woods to create again—not to Exhaust, but to explore and explode.” Dead birds and NYC fumes.

Mamaleek – Vida Blue Review

Mamaleek – Vida Blue Review

Vida Blue, Mamaleek’s ninth full-length, mourns the 2023 death of member Eric Livingston – paralleled by the Oakland Athletics’ relocation to Las Vegas. It reflects on legendary pitcher and namesake Vida Blue’s legacy – and Livingston’s. In honor and homage, Vida Blue takes the squelching and jangling hemorrhaging cyst-blues template of 2022’s impressive Diner Coffee, painting a ’70’s folk-, blues-, prog- and jazz-rock sheen across it with reckless abandon.” Memories, moments, baseball.

POHL – Mysteries Review

POHL – Mysteries Review

“There was a time when spending my nights playing in tiny, shoulder-to-shoulder music venues with the rank of perspiration, booze, and fog felt like home. These days, however, they are places I frequent rather than dwell, an aftermath of the stark reality that is the present-day music industry. Because­­­­— if nothing else— being in a band is hard work. This is a truth UK noise rock duo POHL understand. Despite suffering from various starts and stops over their twelve-year existence, guitarist/vocalist Will Pearce (ex-Hey Colossus) and rhythmist Dr. Linda Westman (ex-Old Hope) overcame adversity to release three EPs of gratifying experimental noise rock that pulled from a platter of influences like psychedelic, punk, stoner, and heavy metal. Four years have passed since their last offering and the Sheffield rockers have now returned with their debut LP Mysteries.” POHL watching.

Full of Hell – Coagulated Bliss Review

Full of Hell – Coagulated Bliss Review

“If you’ve been following the modern grindcore scene in any fashion over the past fifteen years, then you’ve at least heard of Maryland’s high-output, low-trend grindmongers Full of Hell. Collaborating or splitting space with everyone from tough punks Code Orange to Japanese static spinner Merzbow to pneumatic pulse demons The Body, Full of Hell scrapes ideas from every corner in the extreme music space to fuel the iterative process of the twenty to thirty-minute burners that are their “full-length” releases.” Hell is home.

Couch Slut – You Could Do It Tonight Review

Couch Slut – You Could Do It Tonight Review

Couch Slut does not concern itself with the prettier things in life. While the noise rock tag may be a dead giveaway, the unconvinced need only to look at the cover of the Brooklyn five-piece’s 2014 debut My Life as a Woman (not at work) to understand. The monotone theme is a spirit likewise captured in fourth full-length You Could Do It Tonight, displaying a humanity succumbing to vice, filth, and weed.” Couched in debauchery.