Lollipop Magazine

Daily Afflictions – Review

March 30, 2007

Andrew Boyd is an endlessly fascinating fellow. He’s an author, political activist, and culture-jamming cyber monk.

Scrapbook Max – Review

March 30, 2007

You might be under the crazy impression that scrapbooks are musty physical objects to be enjoyed decades from now, when your grandkids hop up on your lap.

Okami – Review

March 30, 2007

Okami is fun to play and has a great personality. It deserves praise for more than just its visuals. There’s nothing else that looks quite like it.

Unsane – Visqueen – Review

March 30, 2007

Visqueen is lugubrious and queasy in that Entombedly mid-tempo death Flipper-funk way that Unsane have touched (but not tongued) before.

The Twilight Singers – A Stitch in Time – Review

March 30, 2007

Everything Greg Dulli touches is priceless. Even this, an EP composed of two covers and three collaborations, is every bit as necessary as Powder Burns.

The Agency – Turn – Review

March 30, 2007

The songs are not as catchy as the band’s earlier material, the lingering smell of Dashboard Confessional-inspired melodies hang on every vocal hook.

Stuck Mojo – Southern Born Killers – Review

March 30, 2007

Bonz has been replaced by Lord Nelson, and beneath the new guy’s old school rapping, you get Rich’s soul-replenishing croon and his huge, grinding riffs.

Stolen Babies – There Be Squabbles Ahead – Review

March 30, 2007

Describing Stolen Babies as “prog-pop-cabaret-thrash-quirky-Goth-rock” provides enough space to add mambo and cha-cha-cha and still have plenty of legroom.

Lost Planet – Extreme Condition – Review

March 30, 2007

A showcase of the 360’s power, it’s a staggering example of things to come, and as a blast-and-go action game, it has the instant appeal of a subzero Contra.

Firewind – Allegiance – Review

March 30, 2007

Gus G. is only in his mid-20s, but with all the extreme metal around, his take on power metal is stacked with chords of an In Flames or Finnish metal nature.

Slot – The Sweet Black Bear – Review

March 30, 2007

The singing is dreamy in a shoegazer way, directly plainspoken or a phased sound in the background, no matter what she does, it works.

Fear My Thoughts – Vulcannus – Review

March 30, 2007

Fear My Thoughts pack and compact a pile of forceful, punishing Machine Head-esque riffing into each of these diamond-blinding constructs.

Loud Quiet Loud – A Film About the Pixies – Review

March 30, 2007

No direct interview questions, we see the subjects talking about each other and reacting to situations. Like gossip, we’re never given access to the source.

Grave – Enraptured – Review

March 30, 2007

One of Swedish death metal’s founding fathers, but they’ve never had their live show properly documented. Grave sound more menacing and crushing here than ever.

Amon Amarth – With Oden On Our Side – Review

March 30, 2007

Their sixth formal full-length offers more of the same authentic Nordic metal. The guitar work balances simplicity with hook-laden grandiosity.

Cronos – The Anthology – Review

March 30, 2007

The Anthology gathers up all three albums recorded during the man’s pointless exile from Venom, along with a handful of inconsequential rarities.

Dead Kennedys – Live at the Deaf Club – Interview

March 30, 2007

An interview with bassist Klaus Flouride

Azrael – Act III: Self Act IV: Goat – Review

March 18, 2007

Two hours of brutish beauty like Agalloch and such. Mostly instrumental (the vocals are blackened growl when they occur), mostly droning and tinkering.

Alesana – On Frail Wings Of Vanity and Wax – Review

March 18, 2007

Screaming, skimpy metal and the yearning of some poser whose balls have yet to drop. Probably have 100,000 MySpace friends, all girls who love boyz in eyeliner.

Agressor – Deathreat – Review

March 18, 2007

20th anniversary for this French death band. Old school Cookie Monster death with awkward stepping and blurry grind over blastbeats.

Abigail Williams – Legend – Review

March 18, 2007

Five-song EP from a Gothenburg-style Phoenix four-piece. Thrash gallop and blastbeats, blackened shrieks, keys of terror, and guitarwork like Emperor.

Lifetime – Review

March 18, 2007

This is what they did best in the mid-’90s, and it’s what they still do best. The passing of time has not effected the songwriting whatsoever.

Titar – A Raining Sun of Light and Love, For You and You and You – Review

March 18, 2007

Like long Iron Butterfly or Deep Purple jams, perhaps. Bio also mentions Yes, King Crimson, and Uriah Heep, at least in passing. This ain’t my thing.

The Vein – Monsters and Men – Review

March 18, 2007

Danzig to stoner to psychedelia to Jeff Buckley to The Doors, yeah, it’s a lot to absorb all at once.

The Network – This is Your Pig’s Portrait – Review

March 18, 2007

Kinda goregrind in humor/feel, has non-tinny spazz, and plenty of howl and noise. Not since Dani Filth has such a “what the??” voice worked in brutal metal.