After a decade together, Chicago psych-doom quartet REZN craft a second album for Sargent House, Cycles in the Infinite Dream, that’s as deadly serious in story as it is in execution.
Continue readingArchive for the Album Reviews Category
REZN’s ‘Cycles in the Infinite Dream’: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags desert rock, doom, REZN, stoner metal, stoner rock on 07/28/2026 by Kurt OrzeckCreem’s ‘A Taste of Cherry’: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Islands, Mike Stroud, Nick Thorburn, Ratatat, The Creem on 07/27/2026 by Kurt Orzeck
On their collaborative debut, Islands’ Nick Thorburn and Ratatat’s Mike Stroud mostly adhere to a conventional pop format and rarely deviate into either artist’s inherent weirdness. Read my full review of The Creem’s A Taste of Cherry at FLOOD.
Black Drumset’s ‘Friends in Dark Places’: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Brian Wiley, The Black Drumset on 07/27/2026 by Kurt Orzeck
In my second review for Bandcamp Daily, I argue that Brian Wiley (a.k.a. The Black Drumset) proves on Friends in Dark Places that he’s the rare generous solo musician/composer who is careful never to spiral too deep into his own mind and abilities—tempting though it must be—and lose the listener in the process. Instead, he welcomes all to join him for the ride.
Continue readingTwo Cent Review: Left to Die’s ‘Initium Mortis’
Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Death, Left to Die on 07/23/2026 by Kurt Orzeck
In my first review for Bandcamp Daily, I argue that Left to Die’s Initium Mortis is a relentlessly punishing—and, naturally, relentlessly macabre—debut record. It’s the product of original Death members breathing new life into vintage songs by that band, which helped lay the groundwork for the bloody birth of death metal.
Continue readingPortrayal of Guilt’s ‘…Beginning of the End’: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Portrayal of Guilt on 07/17/2026 by Kurt Orzeck
Portrayal of Guilt seemed to come out of nowhere in 2017, but once they did, they stuck their tongue to the frozen light pole and released five LPs, six EPs and three singles while our heads were still trying to catch up to their murderous maelstrom of metal. Once we got a good look at ’em, the brilliance of the band was on their collective face.
On paper, one would’ve sworn numerous bands had melded black metal and post-hardcore. But what makes Portrayal of Guilt’s music so magical is that whatever one deigns to describe in words (and yes, this writer is fully aware of the irony at play here) doesn’t do justice to the sound that bursts out of their amps like flames from a nuclear explosion.
That Portrayal of Guilt has surreptitiously tried to sidle up to the “grunge” qualifier is as laughable as the band is serious: Be proud of what you’ve accomplished, guys, by continuing to marry two heavy subgenres (to reiterate, black metal and post-hardcore) with the same success that Deafheaven did with black metal and shoegaze.
Continue readingMono’s ‘Snowdrop’: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Mono on 07/16/2026 by Kurt Orzeck
Just like poker players have a “tell,” so do songs by eminently admired post-rock instrumentalists Mono. Faintly reminiscent of The Twilight Sad or Godspeed, but not enough to call them copycats, Mono songs typically start on a gentle note, slowly crescendo into a state of guitar noise, burst into a shimmering shower of affirmation, and conclude with a carefully crafted, rarely abrupt descent. Perhaps because Mono fans are accustomed to the shape of the band’s songs, or more likely due to the fact that this is the post-rock squadron’s 13th studio effort, Snowdrop is their smoothest deployment thus far.
Continue readingWarning’s ‘Rituals of Shame’: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Patrick Walker, Warning on 07/16/2026 by Kurt Orzeck
Warning‘s Rituals of Shame is an album effectively 20 years in the making, if not necessarily literally. Frontman Patrick Walker has released plenty of material during that time, but what we have here are five doom-metal masterpieces rather ironically untainted by the very trappings of the subgenre: repetition taken to tedious extremes, fogs of pot smoke so thick that the listener is blinded by what might very well be beauty at the core; overindulgence for overindulgence’s sake. Particularly on songs like “Station,” “Landing Lights” and “Night Comes Dawn,” Walker has created something fresh and new: clear-eyed, focused, minimalist yet illustrious doom metal. Perhaps it’s because he’s reached a transcendent understanding of the human condition, or something like it; the word “love” appears six times in the lyrics to the five songs.
Continue readingMekons’ ‘Horrorble (Mekons vs. Tony Maimone in Dub Conference)’
Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Jon Langford, Mekons, Pere Ubu, Sally Timms, Tony Maimone on 07/16/2026 by Kurt Orzeck
At the ripe age of 50, Leeds post-punk/alt-country collective Mekons revisit last year’s under-the-radar Horror LP as a dub record with the aid of Pere Ubu’s Tony Maimone.
Continue readingGunner’s ‘Reality Soldier’: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Gunner on 07/15/2026 by Kurt Orzeck
In case you haven’t noticed, the most disorienting senselessness that exists in our world is the reality we suffer through each and every day. As much as the vast majority of us would not only prefer not to hear the sound of reality but block our ears with our palms with such force that we might squash our own skulls like melons, Gunner buck up and administer the soundtrack of everyday life with Reality Soldier, an eleven-and-a-half minute brutal assault that leads you to re-evaluate the question, “can I hold my breath for that long if I submerge myself in water?”
Read the rest of my Post-Trash review here.
Cola’s ‘Cost of Living Adjustment’: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Cola on 06/18/2026 by Kurt Orzeck
It appeared that Montreal’s post-punk squad Cola tried to pull a fast one when they formed in 2020. After all, properly capitalizing all the letters in their name would’ve clearly indicated it was an acronym and not a synonym for soda—which, in all fairness, would’ve been equally bland. On this, their third record, the trio finally come clean by confirming through its title that their handle is, in fact, a phrase used in the titillating field of economics and employment contracts.
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The Bad Penny (beta) 