SOUND BITES

Clutch's twelfth album begins with a song about a bad experience during their formative years; Gimme the Keys tells the tale of a band playing a terrible venue and making a getaway from some very angry people. It's energetic, bombastic and right in the Clutch wheelhouse. Tellingly, it might also be the weakest song on the album. Having built a reputation for the quality of both their albums and their live show, Clutch spent their last two album cycles recommitting to rock; Earth Rocker and Psychic Warfare were no muss, no fuss rock records, a pair of albums that further enhanced their formidable resumé. With Book of Bad Decisions , they're ready to expand their sound while keeping their core aesthetic intact. For this record, they worked with producer Vance Powell, whose award-winning expertise has resulted in some decisions here that are far from bad. One of the album's most thrilling surprises is In Walks Barbarella , a song that could be considered a sta...

Somehow, someway, Interpol have found themselves one of the most enduring of the first wave of popular indie bands. Arriving sixteen years ago with the universally hailed Turn On the Bright Lights , they've gone through ups and downs over the course of their career and yet have become a dependable source of good music even if their albums have been less consistent and thrilling than their debut. That said, they've never made a truly bad record, just some underwhelming ones. Marauder follows four years after the pleasantly surprising El Pintor , and kind of picks up where that left off. There are muscular and boisterous rockers such as lead single The Rover , middle-of-the-road moments of bliss like If You Really Love Nothing and Number 10 , and peak-recalling driving jams like Flight of Fancy and NYSMAW . There are also a handful of off-brand experiments to break up potential monotony. That said, the most remarkable thing about Marauder is its garbage production by Dav...

With the release of their sixth album, Alice in Chains now officially have as many albums with William Duvall as their lead singer as they did with Layne Staley during the band's rise as part of the Seattle scene in the early '90s. This means that we now have the option to assess the two halves of Alice in Chains' career on more or less equal footing. If we choose to separate these two phases of the band, it's a little easier to make more rational judgments; after all, we can't honestly compare Layne and William in any way other than their vocal similarities; Duvall isn't burdened by a crippling addiction, and Staley sadly didn't live long enough to enjoy the clarity and reflection that is often afforded my middle age. So, then, why hold an album like Rainier Fog up beside an established classic like Dirt and expect to draw true parallels? That said, of the three albums released in this current incarnation, Rainier Fog offers the most variety and hi...

Following founding guitarist Chris Walla's departure, many speculated what Death Cab for Cutie's music might sound like going forward. Would we get a deluge of synth and keyboards, like we did on 2011's Codes and Keys ? Maybe they'd retreat into the sparser sounds of their earlier work. Perhaps it would be "none of the above", and Death Cab would go off in a direction they'd never gone before. As it turns out, our answer is "a little bit of all of that"; pianos and keyboards do play a bigger role, but there are tasteful guitars running throughout to prevent a repeat of the blandness of Codes and Keys . There are slight glimpses into past glories, with a chord here and a particularly effective lyric there. Then, there are sidesteps like Summer Years , the stuttering backbeat and shimmering guitar for which lends the song a Radiohead vibe. Unsurprisingly then, Thank You for Today is just a bit of a mess, though admittedly a more engaging li...

After trying their hands at pop/country crossover stardom on their third album Into the Wild Life and disappointing a good number of fans in the process, it's not all that shocking to hear Halestorm return to their hard rocking roots on Vicious. What may be somewhat shocking is just how hard they go from the outset; explosive opener Black Vultures , hook-heavy Skulls and breakneck-paced lead single Uncomfortable lay down the gauntlet on anyone who would doubt their ability as a band to bring the thunder. There are also a handful of potential hits on display; the down and dirty Buzz , the sultry and swaggering Conflicted and the arena-ready anthem Killing Ourselves to Live all bear the hallmarks of radio domination. Past the approximate halfway point, Vicious gets a little uneven, although the pair of ballads that are sprinkled in will hit the spot if you crave a breather in between all the rockers. Overall, Vicious makes for a pretty convincing return to form; those for wh...

As the story goes, Daron Malakian recorded the songs that would eventually become Dictator way back in 2012, but hung onto them in hopes that some of them would end up appearing on the new System of a Down record that fans have been clamoring for since 2005. However, the status of that album is now more in doubt than ever, so Malakian decided to release these recordings under his Scars on Broadway moniker. As a Scars album, Dictator is far superior to the mostly forgettable self-titled debut that dropped a decade ago; there are less absurdly silly and/or druggy moments, and more fully formed songs. You can easily tell that Malakian was taking things more seriously here and, more to the point, you can tell that most of the songs were written with System in mind. Throughout, one gets the sense that all that's really missing is the presence of Serj Tankian's unmistakable vocals. With a little input from his fellow band members, Dictator could have served as a suitable enou...

On her second full-length album, rising star Meg Myers delivers a much more somber, embattled batch of songs that pushes her musical boundaries outward. While this doesn't necessarily result in the most cohesive listening experience, there are signs that Myers is following her impulses in a way that isn't usually encouraged by those who would clamor for more hits like Desire and Lemon Eyes . That she so boldly sidesteps these expectations so (relatively) early in her career is risky and admirable in equal measure, and in doing so she's set herself up for a promising journey that holds far more interest than if she had simply delivered more of the same. July 20, 2018 • 300 Entertainment Highlights  Numb •  Tear Me to Pieces •  Jealous Sea