No Spill Blood: Heavy Electricity [Album Review]

No Spill Blood Heavy Electricity Sargent House Records [2015] Fire Note Says: No Spill Blood’s debut album is a shot of pure adrenaline for your ears. Album Review: Some bands like to impress you with their vast knowledge of various and sundry musical genres in a culmination of years and years of crate digging self-gratification. … Read more

Russian Circles: Memorial [Album Review]

Russian Circles Memorial Sargent House Records [2013] Fire Note Says: Russian Circles puts out an intense, emotional album with Memorial. Album Review: Russian Circles is a three-piece rock/metal band from Chicago, consisting of Mike Sullivan (guitar), Dave Turncrantz (drums), and Brian Cook (bass). Memorial is the band’s fifth album and also served as my introduction … Read more

Chelsea Wolfe: Pain Is Beauty [Album Review]

Chelsea Wolfe Pain Is Beauty Sargent House Records [2013] Fire Note Says: Chelsea Wolfe’s fourth album is the sound of brittle isolation and brutal desperation. Album Review: It must be a really dark, depressing place – that space between LA singer Chelsea Wolfe’s ears. Her music is so fraught with desolation and haunting beauty that … Read more

Native: Orthodox [Album Review]

Native Orthodox Sargent House Records [2013] Fire Note Says: Native‘s 3rd LP balances its strengths between timing and consistency. Album Review: If you take a look at Native‘s Facebook and bandcamp pages then you begin to see what I—along with many others—am figuring out: Indiana’s four piece Native is a math rock/post hardcore/indie band that … Read more

Bosnian Rainbows: Bosnian Rainbows [Album Review]

Bosnian Rainbows Bosnian Rainbows Sargent House Records [2013] Fire Note Says: Bosnian Rainbows are consistently interesting on their self-titled debut. Album Review: It’s a really funny thing to hear Mars Volta axe man/composer Omar Rodriguez Lopez talk about a less is more musical philosophy. During a recent Orange Amp promo video, Rodriguez Lopez gets down … Read more

And So I Watch You From Afar: All Hail Bright Futures [Album Review]

And So I Watch You From Afar All Hail Bright Futures Sargent House Records [2013] Fire Note Says: ASIWYFA create melodic, engaging, (mostly) instrumental rock tunes. Album Review: Instrumental music, especially instrumental rock music, often walks a thin line between being something worthy of your full attention and merely pleasant background music. Thankfully for ASIWYFA, … Read more

Indian Handcrafts: Civil Disobedience For Losers [Album Review]

Indian Handcrafts Civil Disobedience For Losers Sargent House Records [2012] Fire Note Says: Find the nearest dimensional tear and let Indian Handcrafts take you somewhere. Album Review: Gas up the Firebird, roll down the windows, turn the volume up, push the pedal to the metal, and gear up for the cosmos and beyond because Indian … Read more