andconham's Diary

An album of two halves here, featuring a handful of songs by Bleached Cross to start and True Faith to finish. The BC songs shine here, with an almost industrial goth rock sound that echoes Health at times. The True Faith songs are decent but nothing really stood out, still I will keep an eye out fo…

A thrash classic. A brief, pummeling, heavy album with punk influence all over it. May have the strongest end of any metal album I have heard with Postmortem/Raining Blood. Favourite Tracks: - Angel Of Death - Piece By Piece - Necrophobic - Criminally Insane - Epidemic - Postmortem - Raining Bloo…

How can a metal album be so dreamy? Deftones strip their sound to basics, and stick to what works. What could've ended up sounding phoned in, instead sounds focused and vibrant. Great album here. Favourite Tracks: - Swerve City - Leathers - Poltergeist - Tempest - Gauze - Rosemary

Pusha T might be the most consistent rapper in recent memory. Tight, blunt, no frills rap album here, and its great. Fill with his usual bravado, great beat selection, and decent features. Favourite Tracks: - Brambleton - Let the Smokers Shine the Coupes - Just So You Remember - Call My Bluff - Hea…

A breezy peice of spacey alt-pop that never quite connected with me. Never bad, but I felt most of the tracks struggled to stand out. It's vibes for sure though, so others will likely get more out of it than I did. Favourite Tracks: - blade bird

Impossible not to hear this album without feeling the weight of what would happen to these guys not long after. Quite a melancholy listen but for me it's more if a 'celebration of life' feeling rather than full on depressing. Really it's a brief collection of catchy indie-pop tunes that serve as a t…

Not their strongest output for me. Still, their unique gothic surf rock sound makes for a pretty breezy listen. There just isn't too much that stands out and will draw me back. Favourite Tracks: - Black Ice - Coffin Nails - Nothing To See - Don't Make It For Me

Very on-the-nose, but subtext is for cowards anyway. Idles continue their hot streak with this album, which is somehow more in-your-face and filled with character than their previous albums. It doesn't all land, but most of it does. Favourite Tracks: - War - Kill Them With Kindness - Model Village…

While I shouldn't fault bands for experimenting and changing up their sound, this album just hasn't connected with me like their previous albums did. Gone are the raw grooves, making way for more anthemic and dare i day 'poppier' tunes. Not bad by any stretch, just not my flavour. Favourite Tracks…

Too long with too much filler. The songs you already know are great, they go hard. The rest just isn't very good. Decent instrumentals are brought down by Dursts ramblings and seemingly at times ad ribbed vocals. I will always have time for those hits though. Favourite Tracks: - Nookie - Break Stuf…

First time listening to this in full since my teen years. Forgot that literally every song on here is a heater. The hits are great, but I had forgotten about all the in-between songs that also hold their own. The dual vocals, catchy hooks, chunky breakdowns, angst filled lyrics. It's all so good. No…

Some great groovy metal tracks here, as Sabbath pump out great tunes without the album ever dragging. Great highlights but a couple of skips hold it back. Favorite Tracks: - Sweet Leaf - After Forever - Children Of The Grave - Lord Of This World - Into The Void

Starts and ends quite strong, but the middle section is a bit samey for my taste. It all still goes pretty hard, but some of it is just a bit unmemorable. The highlights are good though. I like Conways cadence and fairly nonchalant flows, paired with his dgaf attitude. Not big on a few of the featur…

Consistent, but missing the edge of his earlier records. It's a good listen through but there isn't too much that stands out and demands a relisten. Still, he keeps the bars coming and the beat selection is good. I think the fat could've been trimmed here to make a more succinct album. Favourite Tr…

Better Than I Remember. My first time listening to this, probably since my early 20s. This album rules. The heavy riffs, the ethereal vocals, the screaming, it all goes together so well. This album also hosts one of my favorite songs of all time in Sextape, which I really think should have been the…

More good stuff from Deftones here. A bit more of a mixed bag here but the continue honing their signature shoegaze/metal sound. But my god, pink cellphone really is as bad as they say! Favourite Tracks: - Hole In The Earth - Rapture - Cherry Waves - Xerces - Riviére

Worth a 10/10 for the Booker T sample alone. Conway maintains his streak of solid albums, with another swagger filled collection of raps over cold beats. Some welcome features on this track list as well. Favourite Tracks: - Slapbox - Piper - Land O' Lakes - Sigel In State Prop

A good follow up to Reject 2, Conway keeps consistent with this release. Keeping it brief and relitively simple, Conway narrates his way through a small solid collection of dark grimey tunes. The only dud being the unnecessary Randy Savage DA skit. Favourite Tracks: - Devils Work - 8 Birds - Paveme…

A very frontloaded album here, with all the 'singles' coming one after the other to start. The back half of this album is forgettable and not really worth revisiting. The hits do hit hard though and are worth replaying over and over. Favourite Tracks: - Given Up - Leave Out All The Rest - Bleed It…

Better than expected. New vocalist is pretty damn good, and I can image her covering the classics quite well. There's a few bangers throughout this brief runtime as well. It's hard to escape the shadow ast over this band, but on its own merits it's not half bad. Favourite Tracks: - Heavy Is The Cr…

Decent thrash / nu metal combination here. Loses steam towards the back end, and doesn't match their earlier output but there's still a lot to like here. Favourite Tracks: - Disciple - God Send Death - New Faith - Bloodline - Here Comes the Pain

Decent but over-long HC album here. The some heaters on here for sure, but not enough variety to warrant a near hour long album for me. Still, the Hardcore/hip hop blend works well and there's some groovy riffs throughout. Favourite Tracks: - Chamber Spins Three - Punishment - Shades of Gray - Tear…

Hard to rate this once, as it's mostly a compilation of instrumentals and ambient tracks. There are some more traditional Idles style bops on here though and they are enjoyable. Still, it's rad to see Idles curating a soundtrack for what ended up being one of my top movies of the year in 'Caught Ste…

Great album here. Smooth instrumentals, with a subdued Akerfeldt on vocals this time around. Album breezes by, with a shorter run time than usual. The songs are still long but nothing outstays it's welcome, only wish the album ended a bit stronger. Favourite Tracks: - Windowpane - In My Time Of Nee…

Not really my flavour unfortunately. Some of the instrumentals are nice, and everything has a quirky Talking Heads vibe to it. But I just found the vocals quite grating. Not something I see myself coming back to. Favourite Tracks: - Taxes