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Michael Christopher
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The Vow
Lots of folks are calling this outing by Garbage a reunion, but according to frontwoman Shirley Manson, it's nothing of the sort; it was just the right moment for the alt-rockers to rev it up again after a seven-year chill period.
Razor & Tie
Are Shadows Fall still feeling the fan backlash from two albums ago?
Cooking Vinyl
Second acts are hard enough to deliver successfully in the pantheon of hard rock, so it's surprising then that the Cult, now well into their third go-round, still give their audience exactly what they crave.
Rhino (2012)
By 1992, metal fans were in desperate need of fresh bombast. Metallica had gone mainstream with radio-friendly singles like "Nothing Else Matters," Rob Halford left Judas Priest the year prior, and Iron Maiden had long ago stopped delivering vital material.
Nowhere, Mass.
Out of all the bands that toed the line between shoegaze and Britpop at the dawn of the '90s, perhaps none have been more overlooked than Ride.
Dangerbird Records (2012)
Following a somewhat disappointing sophomore release, it appeared as if the jig was up for these alt-rock throwbacks that made a name by nicking the best of the Smashing Pumpkins.
RCA (2012)
Just what the world needed: Mumford & Sons put into a blender with Fleet Foxes, served with an Arcade Fire garnish— it's like a late-aughts hipstercocktail.
Metropolis (2012)
It's been more than a decade since Praga Khan dropped a proper Lords of Acid release, and in that time the Belgian electro-industrial mastermind has learned some new tricks on how to deliver his message of fuck.
Someoddpilot (2012)
One word describes this debut EP by Chicago foursome Beak: brutal.
Fat Possum (2012)
Whenever an artist looks back to a high point in his or her catalogue for inspiration in building a new work, it's typically "uh-oh" time.
Somebody that you know
Wouter De Backer has heard it all.
Standby Records (2012)
The second album by Orlando quintet Modern Day Escape doesn't reinvent the post-hardcore wheel, but there are still some tracks worth digging into.
Downtown (2012)
As a gift, roses are generic. It's fitting, then, that this would be the title of the Cranberries' first effort in more than a decade.
Inconvenient Truth
Last month, after Van Halen dropped A Different Kind of Truth (Interscope) — the rock legends' first album of all new material with original singer David Lee Roth in almost three decades—fans and detractors alike took to the Internet to vote yea or nay on the comeback gigs.
Key bumps
When it was announced that the Black Keys were headlining the TD Garden, it looked like a mistake.
Psychic reaction
There are loads of bands out there that defy, don't want, and often downright despise categorization.
De-evolution
Back in 2001, when Bleed American was exploding all over modern-rock radio, I sat down with Jimmy Eat World guitarist Tom Linton and frontman Jim Adkins and asked about the emo label with which their group had been saddled.
Interscope
Who would've thought Eddie Van Halen would still be innovative in his late 50s?
BMG Rights (2012)
Getting a boost with songs from their 2009 debut, Fruit , featured in iPod and Heineken ads, and getting handpicked as concert openers by a then-still-functioning Amy Winehouse in their native Copenhagen, the Asteroids Galaxy Tour rode a lucky streak out of the gate.
Virgin Records (2011)
Sinners Never Sleep is a transitional album, though such efforts rarely bode as well for the future as this does.
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