Gig Review: Zebrahead + Templeton Pek

[Venue: Junction, Cambridge]
[Date: 16 October 2008]

The 1990s were good times for pop-punk bands. After Green Day and the Offspring exploded on MTV, Blink-182 had the launch pad they needed to send the genre into the stratosphere. With the turn of the century though things went a bit, well, girlie. Out went the size 40 Dickies […]

Album Review: Failsafe

[Album: The Truth Is…]
[Label: Smalltown Records]

I remember seeing Failsafe at a few shows at the Porland Arms and possibly the Man On The Moon. The band was in the process of making the jump from ska/punk to their new sound, so part of their set was comprised of older material, which surprisingly worked well with […]

Album Review: X One Way X / Youth Of Strength

[Album: Start Whenever / We’re Not In This To Break Down the Walls Alone]
[Label: Bosstuneage/X-Fist Records]

Anybody thinking that straight edge hardcore punk is entirely comprised of humourless militant individuals has not being paying enough attention. X One Way X are fucking BACK! Following their superb self-titled record, they’ve come back with a split release with […]

Album Review: Fucked Up

[Album: The Chemistry of Common Life]
[Label: Matador]

Canadians have long the butt of many jokes, mainly their pronunciation of words, the mullets and hockey obsession. When it comes to music, things aren’t much better either; Celine Dion, Sum-41 and Avril Lavigne aren’t exactly reinventing the wheel now, are they? Thank fuck then for Fucked Up who […]

Album Review: Guns On The Roof

[Album: New Frustration]
[Label: Unsigned]

Following the release of their 3-track demo, Guns On The Roof return with a full-length record of pretty much the same positive-sounding punk rock. I recall them trying to marry the pop/skate punk sounds of Green Day with the UK82 sound that faux-punks Rancid were known for in 1995. All in all, […]

Album Review: United Nations

[Album: United Nations]
[Label: Eyeball Records]

So what are members of Glassjaw, Thursday, Converge and The Number 12 Looks Like You among others doing together in a band? Who the hell thinks up these sort of “supergroups”? One thing that is for certain though is that for at least half of the members of those bands, this […]

Bobatron Speaks: What The End Of The Record Label Really Means

There is lots of speculation on the negative aspects of record labels having to change their mode of operation (at best) or cease to exist altogether (at worst). While Bobatron 5000 likes to work and think in negatives, there are quite a few positive things to come from the eventual and inevitable destruction of the […]

Album Review: Ceremony

[Album: Still Nothing Moves You]
[Label: Bridge 9 Records]

Whoa. This is not your typical Bridge 9 hardcore release. This is neither the current flavour of youth crew revival, nor heavy, metal-influenced hardcore. This is the sort of stuff that sweaty big-boned people with beards and skinny kids with bandanas wave their fists to in dirty squats. […]

Album Review: DragonForce

[Album: Ultra Beatdown]
[Label: Roadrunner]

One thing I can’t quite understand with modern metal is the lack of genuine enthusiasm. Modern metal bands don’t play music, they perform it as an exercise in technical proficiency. There seems to be some sort of agenda that the more technical a band is, the more boring they become on stage. […]

Album Review: Goldblade

[Album: Mutiny]
[Label: Captain Oi! Records]

Anybody who knows “what’s up” will know that old-time UK punk rock achieved perfection in 1983 with Peter and The Test Tube Babies’ classic ‘Mating Sounds Of South American Frogs’ LP, the perfect compromise between parody and punk rockage. Since then there have been many punk bands (British or not) trying […]