FIXT Review by Mike Bax Excerpted from AllMusic – Industrial Music: The most abrasive and aggressive fusion of rock and electronic music. Initially a blend of avant-garde electronics experiments (tape music, musique concrète, white noise, synthesizers, sequencers, etc.) and punk provocation. Industrial is a term that was used to describe a great many bands in…
Category: Album Review
Tomi Swick – The Yukon Motel album review
Slaight Music Review by Mike Bax Is It Worth it? Whatever you wanna do. Guaranteed. I’m leaving it up to you. It’s opportunity. These are lyrics from ‘Opportunity’, one of 14 low-fi, straight-up roots-rock tracks on Tomi Swick’s wonderful third album, released today on Slaight Music. An album of addictive introspection, The Yukon Motel is…
The Balconies – Rhonda album review
Self Released Review by Mike Bax Taking elements of pop sensibilities from the 1980s and blending them with their own modern musicality, The Balconies have created something truly special with Rhonda, their followup to 2014’s Fast Motions. The new album is a thematic story of hope, self-discovery, and the struggle for authenticity carried through eleven…
Socionic – Dividing Horizon Album Review
Self-Released Review by Mike Bax For most bands, getting a comparison to Tool is almost a kiss of death. Tool fans, being amongst the most reverent of music fans, tend to want nothing BUT Tool, and the four eclectic members belting out their signature sounding progressive anthems. That said, don’t close your ears to good…
Nevermen – S/T album review
Ipecac Review by Mike Bax Selflessly billed as a leaderless trio, Nevermen is comprised of Tunde Adebimpe (TV on the Radio), Adam ‘Doseone’ Drucker (Anticon, CLOUDDEAD), and Mike Patton (Faith No More). Each of these musicians is a musical leader in his own right, and this collaboration showcases three virtuoso artists shedding all of their…
The Black Queen – Fever Daydream album review
Review by Mike Bax theblackqueenmusic If slow burning dirty synthesizer beats and soft vocals are your thing, Fever Daydream by The Black Queen is most definitely going to spend some time infiltrating your ears in 2016. A pet project by Greg Puciato (The Dillinger Escape Plan), Joshua Eustis (Telefon Tel Aviv, Nine Inch Nails) and…
Top Ten Albums of 2015 According to Photojournalist Mike Bax
Top Ten Albums of 2015 By Mike Bax Year by year, I take in a lot of music that spans multiple genres. I tend to be unaffected by hype, despite being bombarded by emails from publicists hyping music. I rely more on the input of my friends, my personal tastes in music, crowd-funding and an…
Anthrax – Spreading the Disease 30th Anniversary Edition review
Review by Mike Bax Universal Music In a few weeks (November 20th, to be exact) Anthrax will release a special 30th anniversary edition of Spreading the Disease, the band’s second album though their first album on a major label (Universal). At the time of its release, thrash metal was still very much in its inception…
All Them Witches – Dying Surfer Meets His Maker – Review
New West Review by Mike Bax In an era of musicianship where classification of a band’s music can make or break their early careers, I submit to you All Them Witches, a Nashville, Tennessee four-piece that sounds like a different band on every song on their album. This is not a deterrent in any way….
Faith No More – Sol Invictus review
Reclamation Recordings/Ipecac Recordings Review by Mike Bax Don’t call it a come-back. In the eighteen years between Faith No More’s last commercial release (Album of the Year) and Sol Invictus, it’s become painfully clear that the music of Faith No More continues to be important among fans young and old. Material from the two releases…
Mike Bax 