Reviews and Andrew Borthwick

Cult of Luna - Eternal Kingdom

3 Jul 2008

METAL (Earache) Once pegged as post-metal rip-offs in the vein of Neurosis, Sweden’s Cult of Luna are fast becoming a formidable outfit in their own right and Eternal Kingdom strengthens that reputation. A concept album lyrically and musically based…

Dillinger Escape Plan

15 Nov 2007

METAL Ire Works (Relapse) Having written the definitive math-metal album with 1999’s Calculating Infinity debut, DEP have faced incessant criticism from a select few for daring to expand the sonic palette. Ire Works looks set to provoke further…

Ryan Adams

Album

16 Jul 2007

AMERICANA RYAN ADAMS Easy Tiger (Lost Highway) After three albums in 2005 (two were doubles) and a batch of nonsense online ‘releases’, Americana’s poster boy has put his energies into one album. And it’s easily his most consistent work to…

Records - Will Haven

3 Jul 2007

METAL After splitting up, re-forming, and then losing vocalist Grady Avenell, Will Haven’s continued existence has been in question of late. But with the arrival of long-time friend Jeff Jaworski, the California metal quartet has finally found a…

Records - Pig Destroyer

3 Jul 2007

GRINDCORE Pig Destroyer have always had more to them than your average grinders, largely thanks to the lit-heavy lyrics of JR Hayes. So, while Phantom Limb plays like the illegitimate offspring of early Napalm Death, there’s a deeply unhinged quality…

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

Album

7 May 2007

ROCK You know what you’re getting when it comes to BRMC. Straight ahead, no frills rock’n’roll delivered with a degree of calculated nonchalance. Loops, samples or a ten-minute long jazz jam are not concepts these guys are familiar with. But…

Records - Le Reno Amps

Le Reno Amps

9 Apr 2007

FOLK-COUNTRY A strange wee record this one. While Le Reno Amps plough a distinctly Scottish folk field, this Glasgow lot can nevertheless step into American alt.country when the mood sees fit. The excellent ‘How You Did Me Wrong’ and ‘Radio’ would…

Records - The Cinematics

The Cinematics

13 Mar 2007

INDIE Well, here’s a band with an identity crisis. On the one hand, Glasgow quartet The Cinematics clearly have a knack for crafting catchy wee pop gems, the unashamed Britpop forays that are ‘Sunday Sun’ and ‘Chase’ being stacked to the gills with…

End, The - album review

The End

27 Feb 2007

METAL (Relapse) 2006 wasn’t the most exciting for metal. So it’s a relief that The End have come out of nowhere (well, Canada) to restore the faith and push the genre into new forms. Gone are the tonsil-tearing screams and mathcore chaos of…

Desert Hearts - album review

Desert Hearts

29 Jan 2007

INDIE ROCK Once upon a time indie-bands had ideas and balls. But the current trend for nadger-crushingly tight jeans seems to have put a stop to that. Giving a slap to stage school rockers and banning the keyboards from the rehearsal rooms are…

Batman: Gotham County Line

(DC/Titan)

19 Dec 2006

Location. Location. Location. Or how to bring a neat twist to Batman by sending him to the ‘burbs. Asked to investigate a spate of mysterious killings in Gotham City’s suburbs by a retired Commissioner Gordon, the story shifts from Manhunter-esque…

Minus the Bear

ABC2, Glasgow, Wed 29 Nov

6 Dec 2006

INDIE When was the last time you saw a pop band mosh? And I mean, a full-on shred fest, not a choreographed McFly star-jump. That’s precisely what you get with Minus the Bear. A band that spent their formative years slugging it out in pioneering…

Manatees

Henry’s Cellar Bar, Edinburgh, Tue 7 Oct

6 Dec 2006

METAL Let’s call it the Isis effect. But nowadays with the Boston group gaining mainstream exposure thanks to a recent support with Tool, the number of bands playing epic, shoegazer, soundscape rock is a lot more than it used to be. Thankfully…

Converge - album review

Converge

11 Nov 2006

METAL OK, so metal is generally the ‘duh’-centric domain of Beavis & Butthead but amidst the OTT-ridiculousness of it all, there are groups who have pushed the genre past artifice into art. Boston’s Converge, are such craftsmen. In a 15-year…

Mercury Tilt Switch - album review

Mercury Tilt Switch

10 Oct 2006

ROCK In these re-hashed Britpop days it’s possible to forget that there once was a time when rock music was allowed to be, well, loud. Not so for Mercury Tilt Switch, who take their cues from US noise-mongers like Sonic Youth and... Trail Of Dead…