Back catalogue: All genres

Review: RECOMMENDED
17 albums in and it feels like Napalm Death are only just hitting their stride. Well, they've been hitting their stride for roughly 17 albums, but while many bands - especially those at the more frenetic and uncompromising end of things - tend to start, err, compromising after four or five long forms, the Birmingham grindcore masters still sound fresh. Albeit fresh but covered in sweat and rage.

Following on from 2020's Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism, Resentment is a mini-LP that picks up where its predecessor left off. Among the highlights is a fantastic cover of 1980s industrial electronic outfit Slab!, but really it's nigh-on-impossible to pick specifics here - buckle up, turn it up, and let the ferocity wash over you. Suffice to say, keeping this level of intensity without winding up sounding like you're screaming into the abyss isn't easy, and Napalm Death's career should be considered a masterclass.

Review: 2024 saw the return of easily the biggest powerviolence act to ever decimate speakers and human hearing - Nails, who picked up right where they left off with their ferocious fourth full-length Every Bridge Burning, marking their first new album in almost a decade. Despite rave reviews, many of the fanbase argue that its 2016 predecessor You Will Never Be One Of Us is still the band's finest achievement of musical malevolence to date. Their final effort with the original trio line-up of bassist John Gianelli and drummer Taylor Young before both would amicably depart in 2020, these 21 minutes of sonic abrasion (still their longest LP) deliver on everything the Nails ethos stands for - frenetic riffage, crushing breakdowns, hulking grooves and a breakneck pace libel to instil panic attacks, while primary songwriter Todd Jones' nihilistic viewpoint and seemingly anti-everything attitude is barely decipherable through his mouth-full-of-broken-glass vocals. Be warned, however, each and every micro-burst of fury such as the 45-second 'Friend To All' is paid back by the end with the heinously oppressive noise-sludge-doom monolithic closer that is the 8-minute 'They Come Crawling Back'.

Review: After the visceral energy of their debut, 'Throb Throb', and the subtle refinement displayed on 'Jettison', the Chicago hardcore label rejecters did little to aid their claim with the brawny, scrappy 'Understand?'

Packed with an onslaught of riffs, pummelling d-beat blasts and gang vocals galore, while rife with unkempt cynicism and aggression on the anthemic anti-social title-track or the snapshot of 'The Sniper Song,' Naked Raygun would only further cement their status as punk all timers on this seminal fourth record.

Review: Following on from their critically acclaimed 1988 sophomore effort From Enslavement To Obliteration, which marked their final full-length with original vocalist Lee Dorrian and guitarist Bill Steer, Birmingham grindcore legends Napalm Death would redefine and re-establish themselves on 1990's Harmony Corruption. With the addition of current frontman Mark "Barney" Greenway, the group would trek to the iconic Morrisound Recording in Tampa, Florida (studio home to many a classic death metal record from the likes of Cannibal Corpse and Death), to craft a work far more sonically inspired by their outlying peers within the genre. Working from their refined grindcore blueprint, yet imbuing the trudging chaos with especially heavy riffage and even low guttural growls, this newly tempered form of deathgrind would not only re-chart the band's course for the ensuing decades, but cause a connective riff between the two subcultures of metallic extremity still felt to this day. Vocalists from the two legendary Floridian death metal acts Deicide (Glen Benton) and Obituary (John Tardy) also both make appearances on the vile 'Unfit Earth', making for one of the only posse-like grindcore cuts you're likely to ever have invade your ear canals.

Review: Originally released in 1990, Extinction would serve as the sole full-length from New York crust punk pioneers Nausea. While not the first band of misfits to amplify the angst and visceral aggression of hardcore, they are often cited with being integral to the genre's expansion and incorporation of equally heinous sonics from the realms of doom and sludge metal as well as d-beat, with their Discharge influence worn proudly on their tattered sleeves. Equally inspired by the anarcho-punk messaging of Crass, their lyrics urgently represented their views on feminism, anti-racism, anti-war and class conflict, while their apocalyptic world view rivalled that of their peers in Amebix. Delivered with an unmatched vitriol indicative of the time in which they were penned and further bolstered by the now iconically chaotic push-pull of dual vocalists Al Long and Amy Miret, it's bizarre to track the career of drummer Roy Mayorga who would go on to become a mainstay in mainstream metal fulfilling tenure with the likes of Soulfly, Stone Sour, and presently Ministry. Following Svart Records' recent 12" reissue/compilation of the Cybergod and Lie Cycle EPs, the label brings this nihilistic classic home to wax after two decades of absence.

Review: Following their signing to the immensely impressive roster of pop-punk-centric label Hopeless Records, Welsh upstarts (soon to turn megastars) Neck Deep made good on all of the promise of their 2014 debut full-length Wishful Thinking with their breakout sophomore effort Life's Not Out To Get You in 2015. Linking up with A Day To Remember vocalist Jeremy McKinnon, former guitarist-turned-engineer Tom Denney and producer Andrew Wade down in Florida, the guidance and input from more seasoned veterans helped elevate the band's hardcore-adjacent blend of anthemic, saccharine pop-punk to staggering new heights, leading to somewhat of a torch-passing between bands as Neck Deep's stratospheric ascent can likely be drawn back to the success of this second LP. Now, courtesy of their ever-supportive label-home, the album lands back on wax after too long an absence.

Review: Dark Entries are back with another one of their gold standard reissues, this time focussing on the next level synth punk album Music From Hell from LA band Nervous Gender. They formed in 1978 with Phranc, Gerardo Velaquez, Edward Stapleton, and Michael Ochoa all cooking up this weird and wonderful mix of post-punk, minimal synth, and early industrial music. It has been remastered for this album, which is also expanded onto a double LP. The album kicks off with unsettling shockers then goes son to a live performance the band labelled "an electronic bruto-canto dissertation on the banality of spiritual transcendence." It's packed with occult melodies and odd bleeps and whirrs to make for a beguiling and haunting listen.

Review: It has been 26 years since people had their first taste of New Found Glory. Emerging from Coral Springs, Florida, in the height of the pop punk second wave (Stateside at least), back then they were hailed by many as pioneers of a re-energised sound, offering rowdy, speedy, unrelenting and immediately sing-along-worthy anthems by the bucketload, referencing alternative rock and hardcore without putting off anyone eyeing them up for chart targeting marketing campaigns.

Make the Most of It certainly clarifies that praise was not simply the dew-eyed ramblings of people caught in a moment. Having created the blueprint for their sub-genre, here they strip all that away without damaging the emotional quality, offering a rousing and - it has to be said - evocative acoustic record that lays bare their lyrical and instrumental talent.

Review: The goth-tinged, psychedelic new wave indie classic TheY Walk Among You from Rochester, NY outfit New Math is back on wax and newly remastered. The band's 1981 debut EP has been newly expanded with six bonus tracks: three studio outtakes and three live recordings from Rochester's Scorgies in 1983. The title track has long captivated DJs and 80s indie fans, and this reissue, originally released on Howie Klein's 415 Records and distributed by Columbia, is a must-have as a result The original EP, now out of print, comes after the 2023 compilation "Die Trying & Other Hot Sounds," for which New Math reunited and re-recorded their lost repertoire.

Review: It's hard to miss the forward motion running through New Pagans' work. The Belfast group have this way of crafting sometimes jagged, sometimes rolling, but always direct and propellant riffs that cut a fine line between a kind of Neo-punk and classic indie rock. Their tracks can simultaneously sound DIY and soaring, big room but intimate, which is no mean feat at all.

Making A Circle of Our Own is a fantastic case in point - packed with energy and ideas, it hits hard. But movement runs through much more than instrumentation and arrangements. As an outfit, they're as concerned with starting conversations about some pretty big issues, for example equality and the perversion or distortion of history, alongside smaller, more personal themes. Relationships, self-identity, and belief. Quite the package, then.

Review: According to Venn, The Nightmares' Fire In Heaven is not only the band's followup to 2023's acclaimed debut album, Seance. It's also a record that "delves into the idea of love lost and the enormity of the universe at large... themes range from mythical siren songs to extraterrestrial life via the complexities of true love and an overarching question of your own existence." Hardly small themes, but certainly ones that resonate universally. A meditation, or perhaps more accurately main stage indie rock out, on the strange juxtaposition between the difficulties and problems that come with being a human forced to live on this giant rock, and the enormity of the unknown beyond its stratosphere. Far reaching and unarguably grand in sound, apart from moments such as the gentle piano sonata of 'Winterlude'.

Review: The Beacon Street Collection was a 1995 album from legendary US rockers No Doubt that they self-released. It was written across several different studios around Southern Claiborne, including at their home in Anaheim. There are 10 tracks in all here and they came in a fertile period for the band just ahead of them exploding with their smash hit Tragic Kingdom album. It has not been available on vinyl before now but comes here on nice heavyweight 180-gram wax and bears all the hallmarks of the sound they would soon be known for all around the world.

Review: Contemporary D.C. punk gets another run for its money with this seven-year anniversary of No Man's 'Glitter And Spit' EP. Emerging from the city's punk scene with the collective voracity of a starved vat of piranhas, the four-piece band came together amid the fallout of prior project Majority Rule, albeit with a similar set of musical-political aims. The EP evidences No Man's sound as huge and clunking, thanks to the nearly slowcore-esque drums and guitars of Pat Broderick and Kevin Lamiell (in its slower moments, at least), yet coming fronted by a toothy, harpish snarl by vocalist Matt Michel, backed up by guest vocalist Maha Shami on one track. The faster moments are monumentally cathartic and powerful; this is by far one of the most intense punk records we've heard all year so far, carrying enough home-headbang potential to evince many a rageful family moshpit from the sound alone, let alone the commentary over the Israeli-Palestine conflict it also bears.

Review: Opting to go out on their own terms, purposefully petulant, endlessly irreverent punk mainstays, NOFX, are set to graciously bow out of the race upon completing next year's tour cycle for their final swan song, the aptly - if rather literally - titled Double Album. Following on from 2021's excellent, 'Single Album', the project marks the return of Bill Stevenson of Descendents and Blasting Room's Jason Livermore on production duties, aiding Fat Mike and co to craft the most dynamic, seasoned, and entertaining material of their 21st century output. Sporting the endlessly playful and brilliantly titled lead single, 'Darby Crashing Your Party', as well as the originally penned for Blink-182 cut, 'Punk Rock Cliche', few artists, let alone those in the punkosphere, manage to stroll to the finish line on their own terms, merit and energy intact, but that's precisely what NOFX have accomplished. With a stacked 2023 promised for the band's final trot around the sun, there couldn't be a more bittersweet time to be a devotee of self-aware, cynical anthems.

Review: Originally released in 1989, Wrong was the fourth full-length from highly influential progressive punk outfit Nomeansno (or NoMeansNo or No Means No) and is often cited as not only their magnum opus, but one of the most quintessential albums of the formative punk scene and its expanded malleability throughout the nineties. Praised for being one of the most technical, progressive and avant-garde group of musicians within punk, Wrong distilled every facet of their maniacal aura; haggard spoken word-esque howlings of depraved, intellectual societal woes, frenetic jazz meanderings with utter disregard for time signatures in place of two-chord stompers, and an overwhelming sense of cathartic menace that would lay major influences at the feet of future noise-rock and post-punk experimentalists. Out of print for quite some time, rest assured this repress will dissipate in quick succession before joining highly inflated flipped copies on Discogs, so mark our words, snatch up a copy of what many deem to be the first ever "jazzcore" release before we've to have this same conversation again in another decade.

Review: The fourth full-length LP by Canadian punk rockers Nomeansno comes as their most popular album to date, a whirlwind of post-hardcore, heavy metal and jazzcore influences that harks back not only to nineties interpretations of post-punk, but also fresh renditions and fusions of the sound in the 21st Century. Pondering catacylsmic themes and cryptic modern aporias, this is a veritable walloping in sound from the Vancouver troupe.