NOFX – Coaster
[Fat wreck chords, 2009]
Genre: punk rock, ska punk
Album Review by Goresonic
Twenty five years of existence. Twenty-five years full of punk rock energy. Their political actions and the way they transformed their music to political movement against American wars are memorable. The way they perform their songs with a funny but loud mood is what it really made them special. Their previous failure with “Wolves In Wolves’ Clothing” didn’t disappointed them and this year NOFX, the symbol of the new age punk, came back in business with “Coaster” and show to everyone why they are that famous.
From the first hearing I realize their return to where they belong: the LA – punk and ska-punk. Songs like “We called it America”,“The quitter” “Blasphemy”, “First call”,” Eddie, Bruce and Paul”, ”Suits and ladders” are the examples of their LA punk return and songs like “Creeping out Sara”, “Best god in show”, “The agony of victory” and “I am an alcoholic” are examples of their ska-punk roots.
They start the album with “We called it America” an aggressive start full of speed drums. The political speculation is obvious from the first lines of the song (“That was the America that we thought was number one”). Then the bass is violently used from Fat Mike on “Quitter”, 25 years of experience made him understand that this instrument is probably the most important in punk groups. The bass violation continues in the next song named ”First call”. In both songs NOFX show (especially Mike) the result of their previous alcoholic problems. In the ska-punk song “I’m an alcoholic” we see a self-sarcasm for the negative consequences of their alcoholism. The music that accompanies the lyrics was perfectly chosen and written.
Back to the political – social songs, “Blasphemy” and “Best God show” except of their fantastic guitar riffs and the fucking hardcore drums are also the way that the band view the religious hypocrisy and madness and explain the reasons why they are atheists.
The album surprise is the “creeping out Sara”. The band’s sense of humour for them and for other bands is obvious. “Creeping out Sara”, my favourite song in the album, is Mike’s Personal experience with Sara from Tegan & Sara duo. His voice is the typical NOFX voice that made me their fan back when I was 15.
A song that we have to mention is “my orphan year”. A song that is loud and very rhythmic. Mike’s voice is more upset as he is sharing his sentiments for loosing both his parents when he was alcoholic and how sorry he feels for that. That’s the reason that NOFX in this song gave it all and transformed this song in one of their bests.
The album ends with “One Million Coasters” on a smooth & jazzy vibe.
I really enjoyed their return to the music scene. I hope you will too.
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The album: NOFX COaster 2009 rapidshare
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Links:
http://www.nofxofficialwebsite.com/
http://www.myspace.com/nofx
Tracks:
01. We called it America
02. The quitter
03. first call
04. my orphan year
05. blasphemy (the victimless crime)
06. creeping out Sara
07. Eddie, Bruce and Paul
08. best god in show
09. suits and ladders
10. the agony of victory
11. I am an alcoholic
12. One million coasters
Goresonic
Ramesses – baptism of the walking dead [ep] 
Moss – Tombs of the Blind Drugged EP
CFCF – Panesian nights EP
Eilen Jewell – Sea of tears
The Same Sky – Two Hearts/Apart Under The Same Sky
The album starts with something from Mastodon’s previous releases… and then there are diffused some psychedelic atmospheres and a lot of clean vocals. The album sounds heavy and it is, but in the end there is a softer, more post-rock sound, scattered around. In some parts I can’t believe it is Minsk. I think Grails and some other more psychedelic and experimental bands can be linked there. All this criticisms are not planned to harm the band’s compositions and inspiration. I think the album is more interesting than the previous one, but from another point of view, a bit more alternative and experimental. This is not doom metal like before; this is post-metal, experimental rock, progressive something or just alternative metal. For sure there is a sludge sound inside the noise of the guitars and this is the base of their music structure. Sometimes when I listen to a record and I can’t have a direct opinion for it from the beginning, it results to a great and classic album (for me). I spend days per days to understand this album, and I started to like it after the 10th-15th try. So I think it could be one of my favorite (again). There is a great turn for the band, but maybe is for good. I think this style they have in this work is really interesting and this kind of experimentalism is great and innovative. I also think the title of the release hit the bull’s eye, and maybe there is a definition of their point of view: Echoes from stones… 
‘Songs of Shame’ is the forth full length album of this NYC based band, named Woods. The first time I’ve listened to the album I said that this new Woods album is acceptable. Then I started to listen carefully the album and the acceptable feeling was transformed to a lovable sensation.
Sometimes artist’s little comments include the whole spirit that a reviewer is trying to describe. The Heavy Liquid album is dedicated to Lux Interior (lead singer and former of THE CRAMPS) and to Mr. Hunter S. Thompson. If you don’t dig those two you’re probably unable to understand what the LAST DRIVE is about.
Human Bell – human bell 
Aerial – the legion of dynamic dischord EP 
From the Sky – a warm place with no memory 
Last year I have been impressed with the experimental live performance Sunn did in Norway (
FabioRosho – untitled
FabioRosho – tracks
Various artists – Trashfuck 1.2
Great riffs… I missed pelican, i ‘ve heard their previous release last year, but I miss that energy I found inside this disc. Three great songs, three metal songs, three modern meta-metal compositions.
Δε μπορώ να πιστέψω ότι ένας αμερικανός στρατιώτης από το Colorado,ο οποίος ήταν προσφάτως στον πόλεμο, μαζι με ένα τυπο από το Denver έγραψε αυτό το αριστούργημα. Φοβερές progressive black-death συνθέσεις με αρκετές δόσεις sludge και post metal. Black φωνητικά ως επί το πλείστον και dark καθαρά εκεί που πρέπει. Δε μπορώ να βρω κάτι κακό στον δίσκο. 
An excellent ethereal and rhythm release from an Austin based band. They mix all kinds of strings like violin, cello, guitar, banjo, double bass, with piano and more, and they create a collage of sounds. This band is an emotional orchestra. Talented people, create fantastic music. The most of the times instrumental albums is not so commercial, and it is not so attractive to the ears, but these guys create great soundscapes and their work can be more attractive than others. They can intertwine your mind, your soul and your feelings. Their music is quite cinematic and theatrical. 
This band has no distributor. They are not in a label, but I think they should be. Electronic post-rock music, ambient sounds and slow motion vibes. Easy listening relaxing music and dreamy compositions. Half an hour of decently and trimly soundscapes. I think their music is quite original, pioneer and innovator. Check them out if you like experimental rock, ambient electronica and lo-fi. This is really modern post-rock by a band from Ukraine. Great job, they deserve some congratulations.
Another ambient trip album. They remind me bohren and dur club of gore. They are similar with the above, but they have a more alternative, indie and dark rock side. Their guitars are murkier. They are so experimental, and they combine darkwave music and post-punk feelings with ambient and emotional sounds. I vote for this album, and it can be a fellow traveler for every night. Sometimes the sound of this album sounds really progressive and other times scary. Dark music and slow tunes. Dusty noises and soundtrack recordings. 
Πρόκειται για μια από τις καλύτερες κυκλοφορίες της χρονιάς. Οι ιρλανδοί post-blackαδες εδώ ζωγράφισαν. Η μελαγχολική διάθεση της μουσικής τους είναι εμφανής και διαχυτη σε ολο το δισκο. Black metal εναλλασσόμενο τέλεια με ambient, post, και doom μελωδίες, καθωτι ο drummer χρησιμοποιει synths αλλα και διαφορα samples. Οι συνθέσεις είναι καθηλωτικές και σε ταξιδεύουν. Στα φωνητικά κυριαρχούν τα black-death. Δε λείπουν βέβαια τα σημεία που αλλοτε θα σε κάνουν να χτυπιέσαι και άλλοτε να τρομάζεις μέσα από αργόσυρτες και σκοτεινες doom εκτελέσεις.
Incredible experimental rock music with a punk, post rock and progressive attitude. This album is really interesting and it is the debut full length release from this band. A virtuoso instrument sound and an avant prog sound collage. Accelerated rock speed, noisy percussions and post-hardcore guitars. There is a metal heart deep inside their minds and make their rock more attractive to modern metal fans. A noise rock revolution under the blanket of post-metal and sludge. Sometimes their rock is old school orientated, other times is more modern than anyone else’s tries. This is a great inspired album and a fantastic work from the production. A collage of modern ideas and post-rock future glances. A technical and math rock mosaic. I found their music amazing. High-toned sounds and a noise continuous deformation. Tickling music from happy people. Dance in their tones and feel the hit of the summer… find it among these 11 tracks. After several instrumental post-rock releases, my ears get confused and tired, but this band is quite ahead the others. 
Οι Αυστραλοί Austere μ’ αυτή την κυκλοφορία μας δείχνουν πως μπορείς να κλάψεις ακούγοντας black. Σκοτεινό και δραματικό μέχρι τον πάτο. Φωνητικά ξεθαμμένα από In the woods στα πρώτα τους βήματα. Δε λείπουν βέβαια και τα καθαρά στα σημεία που χρειάζονται. Πρόκειται για black metal στην πολύ ελαφριά του μορφή μπλεγμένο με doom και ατμοσφαιρικούς ήχους που σημαίνει ότι άνετα μπορεί να συγκινήσει οποιονδήποτε ακροατή metal. Υπάρχει ένα θέμα γιατί σε όλα τα κομμάτια τους πραγματεύονται την ίδια μελωδία, αλλά οι εκτελέσεις είναι τόσο διαφορετικές που πραγματικά δε σε χαλάει καθόλου. Πολύ καλή δουλεία αξίζει με χίλια.
Slackly and without remorse heavy guitar riffs. This band is the British version of Neurosis. Slow motion doom metal and experimental passages. Modern metal and a more alternative seeing of the compositions. Crazy, it is insane, really noisy and industrial metal sound. Ohh my Lord… this is heavy and shitty. Fantastic, huge, unreal, fabled, fancy, incredible ambient metal. They are influenced by Neurosis, but this is the right thing. This is a noisy meta-modern metal. I think this is THE album that I seek for lot of years. A mix of the Angelic Process with Neurosis, Isis and Electric Wizard and a smack of My Dying Bride, Cult of Luna, Corrupted and Cursed, in the end there is a refreshment of Sunn 0))) and Nadja… One of the best crusty hardcore metal releases ever.
Antique Brothers are Connecticut-bred brothers Cy and Ged Gengras who instead of the ordinary sibling squabbling have focused on producing music.
Thanks to Damian from the band for sending in their album ‘Alchera’. This release is quite strong. I find out influences from all around the extreme genres of rock and metal. This is a metalgaze release, really experimental and truly inspired. It is their debut full length album. Damian used to work as a solo project but this year there is a full member band over there. 42 minutes of noisy modern metal recorded at Head Gap Studios by Neil Thomason in the heat waves of Melbourne and mastered from the post and noisy albums master, James Plotkin (Isis, Khanate, Burning Witch, Pelican, Earth). All this things together with the Label, Denovali, offer us a great mix of influences, profile, image and attitude. I really respect this label, I strongly respect Mr Plotkin and I really fall in this album. I dive deep in the waters of the Ausies. Excellent guitar riffs and drone doom atmosphere. I think this album could be one of my favourite. Industrial fuss, grief, turmoil and rattle mixed together. I can affiliate them with bands such as Jesu, Bossk, Rosetta, Cable, Black Boned Angel, Conifer, Electric Wizard and Khanate, but at the end they are more atmospheric and melodic from all the above. . A combination of sludgy, dusty, doomy, gloomy, and dirty metal with experimental ambient and noisy passages. Great job. 
Mick Flower is an unbelievable good player of this special Japan banjo named as “Shaahi Baaja”. Chris Corsano is probably the best drummer in the world. Their collaboration started in 2007 with “The Radiant Mirror” which was a very special psychedelic noisy album.
The band is now mature. Their metal is technical, raw and hard. This is heavy metal with thrash attitude and brutal vocals. This is a fresh hardcore, a more metalcore than anything else, but on the other hand, it is the most classical metal hardcore, the most heavy and power metal influenced release of the genre. This is pure and strong. Sometimes the album sounds bland but in any way, every single track is unique and interesting. This Christian metal band offers us positive tracks and hardcore music. This album could move the band forward. This is the abstract album of them. They can be better, but with this release they can get out of the mass, out of the trash. Excellent blast beat hardcore compositions. Music made for hardcore people. This is hardcore metal and nothing else. Recommended to fans of Killswitch Engage, Between the Buried and Me, the Black Dahlia Murder, Architects, Burnt by the Sun, Burst and As I Lay Dying. If you give time to this record you will realize how excellent it is. Maybe in some months or some years from now, it will be the flagship of the metal hardcore armada. 
Για όλους όσους ζήσαμε live αυτή την υπέροχη μπάντα (
Subheim is the deeply personal project of electronic music composer and visual artist Kostas K., a downtempo, experimental venture fusing IDM elements with rich ambiance and female vocals by Katja. This release gives us excellent sounds. Ambient music mixed with melodic dance electronic vibes. Great music and easy listening soundscapes. Clever compositions and attractive or maybe ticklish beats. The vocals trip you away… this is the most atmospheric electronic album of the last years. Excellent job from the artist. An orchestra of vibes, ambiences and dreams. a melodic safe dream, a new dimension of ambient, a new kind of easy listening electronica. 
The launch of the new Anarthria cdr series finds the More Mars team digging deeper into the fields of obscure sounds. The first instalment finely titled “La Formula Secreta de la Coca-Cola” is the effort of Fiesta Animal, a collective of artists from Uruguay who use percussion, tapes and murky noisy sounds to create ‘genuine’ lo-fi loops and rhythmic patterns. The record contains some nice examples of how the cassette lo-fi underground of the previous decades is still thriving: repeated percussive elements, noisy clamor and mumbled vocals allocated between some ‘proper’ tracks and a few other skits. I’d say that “La Formula…” bears some resemblance to the new weirdo-diy-no wave stuff that’s currently coming out of the US with groups like Wavves, Lucky Dragons et al., although some tracks (especially those containing some metallic percussion) took me almost 30 years back, to some Neubauten songs, circa Kollaps (Jet’m etc.). Pure, spontaneous fun…
The second release in the Anarthria series comes from Spain: Muso Fantasma is a duo who managed to create a really unclassifiable record. “Se Puede Bailar Con Los Demonios Pero Siempre En Actituo De Fiesta” (yeah, that’s quite a long title…) is a mixture of sound collages, with elements ranging from dark haunting passages (Ciudad Juarez), cheapo keyboard tangos (Tango Maldito), to spoken word blended with noisy backgrounds (like Mente Terrenal, reminding the soundtracks of some early 80s Richard Kern short films, by Foetus, Thurston Moore, etc.), and Ghost Box-like retro sounds. Well, I wish I could understand the spanish texts; the mysterious and decadent atmosphere and the theatrical, dramatic ambience created by the sounds is really promising… Although it would take more than one or two listens to get into it, it surely grasps your attention.
Οι Σουηδοί κυκλοφόρησαν το νέο τους ξέσπασμα Maranatha. Πρόκειται για έναν black metal δίσκο, εξαιρετικά βάρβαρο, με αρκετά ωστόσο σημεία όμορφης μελωδίας. 
Πως να ξεκινήσεις να γράφεις για μία τέτοια μπάντα; Μία μπάντα που συνέβαλέ όσο λίγες στην εξέλιξη της μουσικής; Μία μπάντα που κοντεύει να κλείσει 30 χρόνια συνεχόμενης παρουσίας χωρίς να έχει αλλάξει ούτε ένα μέλος του βασικού του line-up (μόνο 2 γνωστές προσθήκες έχουν γίνει και μία αλλαγή στα πρώιμα χρόνια της) και συνεχίζει όχι για να βγάλει τα συντάξιμα της αλλά γιατί πραγματικά μπορεί και θέλει να συνεχίσει να προσφέρει στην «κοινωνία της μουσικής»; Μία μπάντα που έχει από τις καλύτερες live σκηνικές παρουσίες; Μία μπάντα που γαμάει και δέρνει γενικώς;
Slow tempo obsessive and soul-destroying doom metal. A 2008 work that came as a CD-r and now released from 
KTL is a duo made up of Stephen O’Malley (Sunn O))), Khanate) and Editions Mego head Peter Rehberg (Pita). In the compositions of IV, O’Malley’s doom riffs are more out front and centre and Rehberg’s tense electro-mind make the atmosphere of IV chillingly bleak. 
Raw death metal or a more blackened style of death metal?
This is a happy indie album that can bright your face and fulfilled you with smiles and beams. A neo pop release with an orchestral attitude. The Canadian post music style is diffused around the sounds of the album. Multiple drummers, electronica, tickling guitars and experimental rock glances. The atmosphere is like ‘do make say think’ releases, the guitars are quite happier, the ambiences are huge and the experimental desire is intelligent. A great album by some great musicians. This is quality music and your ears can feel quite well. Just try if you like alternative music, try it if you like post modern music, try it if you like folk and cabaret music, and give it a chance if you are into POP music… sweet and atmospheric pop. Belle & Sebastian, of Montreal, Islands, Arcade fire and the Unicorns.
