Alternative
Noah’s Barks pages relating to the alternative music genre. Combine with other tags for subgenres, e.g. “alternative+rock.”
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Killing Joke – “Democracy”
‘Democracy’ isn’t as good as the two Killing Joke albums it’s between. However, it’s high-quality and consistent enough to be worthwhile. (read more)
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Devin Townsend Project – “Epicloud” (2012)
Oh, boy. I have a new album to direct people to when showing them the worst the cliches of progressive metal. Epicloud features vocoder vocals, “epic” operatic backing vocals, constant switching between clean vocals and screams, loud as fuck, formulaic guitar playing pursuing volume and pleasant textures, occasional “soft” acoustic segments that are, for some… (read more)
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Deftones – “B-Sides & Rarities”
I actually quite like these covers, particularly “Wax and Wane,” “No Ordinary Love,” and “The Chauffeur.” Problem is, they are “only” covers… and I’m going to go out and a limb and assume this isn’t a complete B-sides collection because they never fucking are (see: my Music Pet Peeves list). Anyway, a bunch of great… (read more)
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Life of Agony – “River Runs Red” (1993)
The skits here are pretty horrible. River Runs Red attempts to take on the serious concept of parental neglect and an abusive home life, but the mother’s voice for example sounds so ridiculous and exaggerated that these parts actually take on a comedic tone and end up making a joke out of something serious and… (read more)
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Alice in Chains – “The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here”
‘The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here’ gets repetitive quickly. Only a hardcore fan wouldn’t be tired by the middle of this 70-minute (!) album. (read more)
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Alice in Chains – “Facelift”
‘Facelift’ never digs itself too deep like ‘Dirt’ is capable of, and it’s at least a less exhausting listen because of it. ‘Facelift’ brings you up; ‘Dirt’ brings you down. And some days, I’d rather be up. (read more)
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Alice in Chains – “MTV Unplugged”
“Unplugged” albums are kind of a catch-22. It seems most often that their best tracks are ones that work naturally in an acoustic setting, and that’s usually because they’re similar to their original recordings in the first place. In that case, why redo an already mellow, stripped-back song? On the other hand, if you try… (read more)