After the blast of intensity and creativity of Remission, fans expected nothing less than more of the same. Oddly, Leviathon does not deliver and listeners are the better off for it. Instead of continuing where the last album left off, with an apocolyptic, dense roar, Mastodon opted for variety andRead More

I think it’s pretty cool that the band opted to not carry the Black Sabbath moniker for their tour in support of the material Ronnie James Dio, Tony Iommi and Co. recorded as Black Sabbath in the early 1980s, then again in the early 1990s, and once again this yearRead More

The secret of the Machines is that they have an addictively fun, poundingly-heavy beat that is reminiscent of Led Zeppelin, and they have a penchant for really stretching out their compositions for texture and emphasis. It’s prog-rock without the slightest hint of twee frilliness. Road was an EP with aRead More

After Frances the Mute, I honestly wasn’t sure if I particularly cared where the Mars Volta was going next. I found the album completely misguided — or maybe unguided is a more fitting word — and a sonic mess, as if the band simply threw together every chord progression andRead More

Brian Eno’s first vocal, “pop”-based album since 1990’s overlooked classic (in my opinion) Wrong Way Up with John Cale and also to Nerve Net, Another Day On Earth found Eno in much more ambient territory than one might expect from the description. Comparisons to 1992’s Nerve Net are likely moreRead More

Most people, when they look at me, think I’m probably one of those types who, if they get into music at all, go for the Kenny G, lite-jazz, adult-contemporary pablum — the type of stuff that people who don’t really like music get into because it gives them something toRead More