More than a decade since their last album was released, Sweden's The Hives sound as nihilistic and melodic as they did on their 2000 garage-punk classic Veni Vidi Vicious. "Mmm, stand to the side when my shit starts wrecking/ You're gonna think you gone blind," frontman Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist wails on "Bogus Operandi," which starts off with grand dramatic pauses before the sparks start—and don't stop—flying.  From there, it's straight into "Trapdoor Solution," a breakneck minute and three seconds of garage fuzz that finds Amqvist as guttural as ever. But there are surprises and experiments here, too. "Stick Up" crashes together Cab Calloway vaudeville and horror punk. "Countdown to Shutdown"—with references to Ponzi schemes and Maslow's hierarchy of needs pyramid—cruises on a slinky groove courtesy of bassist The Johan and Only (Johan Gustaffson), who has toured with the band and played on 2020's Live at Third Man Records, but makes his studio album debut here. Almqvist plays it more louche—think Jonathan Fire*Eater—than fevered on "Rigor Mortis Radio" ("I got your email saying you wanted me/ I got your email, delete delete"). And he adopts a bluesman delivery for "Crash into the Weekend," a mondo rug-cutter fueled by frenzied handclaps and furious rockabilly guitar. "I'm going to crash into the weekend like a busted jaw/ Riding shotgun to a monkey on a circular saw … I’m going to crash into the bottom of a bottomless pit." Almqvist promises (threatens?). According to Hives lore, which has always been over-the-top, the album's title refers to their invisible "sixth member" and manager who mysteriously recruited each musician via letter and now, apparently, has led the band to an empty grave. (For what it's worth, the name is registered to Nicholaus Arson, a.k.a. Niklas Almqvist, band guitarist and Pelle's brother.) But don't get bogged down in the goofiness—just enjoy the ride. "Two Kinds of Trouble" stomps, "The Way the Story Goes" rides a fierce, sped-up Cramps groove and "The Bomb" is a hoot—all frenzied chanting, tight rhythm and playful call-and-response: "What do you want to do?/ Go off!/ What don't you want to do?/Not go off!" The album breathlessly wraps up with the punishingly fast and furious "Step Out of the Way," clocking in at less than a minute and a half because what human over 22 could keep up with this? © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz

4 stars out of 5 -- "AVENTINE is a strikingly spare album of great, but frosty, beauty."© TiVo

With Aventine, Agnes Obel gives a little more depth to the intimate, atmospheric and dreamlike world of her first album, the grandiose Philharmonics. Behind a stripped-down piano borrowed from Erik Satie, the Berlin-based Danish artist has added even more grandeur to her miniatures. Her reverberating voice magnifies these immense sonic spaces and  we are left to float along in this sublime sonic material. This waking dream is even more subtle than its predecessor: speckled with a few violins here or a cello there. This record confirms the talent of a timeless musician. © MD/Qobuz

A unique band that’s often copied but never equalled, Meshuggah has left an undeniable mark on the metal scene thanks to their trademark rhythms (which are as crazy as they are unexpected, and wrapped up in low-pitch, distorted sounds). Their work has led to a whole new genre that was eventually given its own name: djent. 35 years after its creation, the band continues to shake up conventions while offering a sound that’s uniquely their own. Fans have seen them switch from seven, to eight, to nine strings, and return to live recording with their album The Violent Sleep of Reason, but now the Swedish band are taking a more serious approach to metal… and it’s somehow made their music more accessible, all things considered.Immutable sounds serious in every sense of the word. Despite a lot of editing over a lot of sessions, the band has never sounded so organic. Their mechanical (though not clinical) undertones are even more imposing, sometimes sounding similar to their album Koloss, released in 2012. Die-hard fans will be pleased to hear that Meshuggah still plays the convoluted and impeccably placed riffs they’re known for (God He Sees in Mirrors, The Abysmal Eye), but this is still one of their most melodic records to date, no matter how distorted the guitars are. You can hear a faint suggestion of the editing work on the intense opening track Broken Cog and the incredible 9-minute long instrumental They Move Below. This is a release that, while still maintaining their signature djent sound, definitely pushes this Swedish band into the realms of prog rock.A true masterpiece, Immutable is a steamroller of an album with an unusual sense of depth, ready to crush anything in its path. It’s a sucker punch with finesse. More than 25 years after their incredible album Destroy Erase Improve, Meshuggah have proved they’re still the undisputed leaders of the genre they created. No one’s ever come close to following in their footsteps, and now everyone knows who’s boss. © Chief Brody/Qobuz

Agnes Obel's striking success in her home country of Denmark with her debut is all the more remarkable given how understated Philharmonics is as a listen, a seemingly straightforward piano/vocal album that isn't. Combining a strong ear for immediate appeal -- Obel's deep singing voice is lovely and her ear for a calm hook is crucial -- with a feeling of just-unsettled-enough unease is key. Part of it lies in Obel's ear for vocal arrangements; hearing her own overdubbed harmonies showcases her talents further, both as performer and producer. But there's something that's not trying to be straightforward here. There's an elegant, slipping darkness that creeps in around the corners, like something is being hidden in plain sight. The short instrumental "Falling, Catching" starts off the album on a sweet note -- perhaps sickly sweet, there's something so strangely focused in its intensity that it almost unsettles. Her first vocal provides a bit of necessary contrast on "Riverside" immediately thereafter, but at the same time further showcases how gently unusual Philharmonics ends up being -- it may not be Patty Waters, say, but it's not Vanessa Carlton or KT Tunstall either. The underpinning bass part on the cover of John Cale's "I Keep a Close Watch" set against the high intensity of the lead piano gives a good personal stamp to a standard, but it's her subtle variety throughout the album that impresses even more. There's "Avenue"'s music-box-meets-near-film-noir-jazz on the one hand, while "Louretta," another short instrumental, has a controlled theatricality that seems like it should soundtrack a Neil Gaiman ballet. "On Powdered Ground" has a gentler sweetness that feels like a slight respite toward the end, but Philharmonics in general aims for the darkly beautiful and succeeds on an unexpected level. © Ned Raggett /TiVo

With five tracks from this album already released as singles, the long-awaited Deceivers by Arch Enemy has finally seen the light of day, five years after the Swedish band’s last ‘full length’ album. Of course, the element of surprise has been somewhat lost as they had already offered the world a taste of what was to come. Nevertheless, it is always better to judge a record as a whole. This logic works in Arch Enemy’s favour: the album succeeds in being quite varied while retaining a coherent thread over its duration. Over the years, Michael Amott (the band’s guitarist and main writer) has learned to transform each of his riffs into an instantly memorable ritornello. However, whilst this easily accessible music might have given the band an outrageously stereotypical sound (some might even dare to say “commercial”), it is counterbalanced by the assertive and aggressive vocals of Alissa White-Gluz. For only her third appearance with the band, she definitely gives the previous vocalists (Angela Gossow and Johan Liiva) a run for their money, forging a space for herself within the quintet. The band have an unmatched capacity for using their time efficiently, with the exception of the dispensable and short instrumental, ‘Mourning Star’. Deceivers has all the right ingredients to become a landmark of the band’s career, joining the ranks alongside Burning Bridges (1999) and Wages Of Sin (2001), both of which boast so many strong tracks. ‘Deceiver, Deceiver’ and ‘The Watcher’ are simply irresistible; fast and injected with a good dose of thrash metal. The same goes for the heavy ‘Poisoned Arrow' and ‘Spreading Black Wings’—watching these live is surely a recipe for breaking your neck. Some albums make an impact from the very first listen, and Deceivers is definitely one of them, cementing Arch Enemy as the European leader of melodic death metal. A real success. © Charlélie Arnaud/Qobuz

4 stars out of 5 -- "AVENTINE is a strikingly spare album of great, but frosty, beauty."© TiVo

The Coral weren't really looking to make another album so soon after completing the epic Coral Island concept album, but when one of their favorite haunts, Parr Studios, was about to close down, they took advantage of the friendly surroundings to cut another record. Two, in fact. The more substantial of the pair, Sea of Mirrors, is a sepia-toned, string-filled, and melancholy imagined soundtrack for a vintage spaghetti Western starring Lee Hazlewood as the busted-up and bitter troubadour. Calling in the arrangement expertise of Sean O'Hagan of High Llamas fame, the band chose to outfit the songs in orchestral flourishes, vocal choruses, and Western-friendly banjos and acoustic guitars. It ends up being their most adult-sounding album yet; stately and nostalgically sad, it sheds all traces of psychedelia in favor of an almost-middle-of-the-road approach where the road is old and covered in sand, barely used, and caked in nostalgia. The elaborate ballads and misty melodies are tailor-made for James Skelly's voice, he's got pipes big enough to inhabit the songs like an aging gunfighter while at the same time hinting at the pain lurking beneath the hard-worn surface. The band proves just as adept at creating the perfect atmosphere, filling the sonic spectrum with galloping basslines, rippling percussion, jangling and twanging guitars, and the occasional dusty piano. When paired with the widescreen efforts of O'Hagan, they come up with a sound old Lee would have been proud to call his own. Certainly one that some wily filmmaker might have stuck in their movie to conjure up a dramatically melancholy mood. The title track or "Wild Bird" could have fit into Midnight Cowboy with their aching vocals, shimmering strings, and downcast feel. Other songs might have been good for moments where lovers pine for one another ("That's Where She Belongs"), the lead ponders where it all went wrong ("North Wind") or wanders the night in a trance-like state ("Dream River"). The combination of O'Hagan and the Coral is so perfect it's hard to believe it actually happened. Each of them brings out something intrinsically good in the other; the Coral are so resolutely earthbound that O'Hagan's additions could never veer too far toward the precious, and his fluttering arrangements give the group space to nimbly explore lighter, less earthbound territory. It's definitely not like anything else in their catalog, and it's pretty clear by now that the Coral could take on just about any kind of guitar-based music and make it fully their own. Deeply bruised, cinematic, and graceful Western music is no match for their skills, and Sea of Mirrors is another triumph for the band.© Tim Sendra /TiVo

With the emergence of the new wave, all kinds of synths and keyboards were being integrated more and more into rock instrumentals. In Düsseldorf, Germany, Kraftwerk were capturing the spirit of the age and the industrial civilisation in their completely synthetic and electronic melodies. With their sixth album which was released in 1977, entitled Trans Europe Express, these avant-gardists who were driven by contemporary music reached sublime perfection. Coldness turned into art, minimalist aestheticism and atmospheric harmonies, Kraftwerk’s music would fascinate David Bowie (cited with Iggy Pop in the song Trans Europe Express) and Brian Eno just as much as the first rappers (Afrika Bambaataa) and the future popes of electro. For when this forerunning universe of Kraftwerk collided with the stakhavonist groove of disco, techno would be born… © MZ/Qobuz

Conspicuously absent from the laundry list of influences the Imagine Dragons so often cite is the Killers, the only other Las Vegas rock band of note. Imagine Dragons downplay the glamour the Killers found so alluring but they share a taste for the overblown, something that comes to full fruition on their second album, Smoke + Mirrors. Bigger and bolder than 2012's Night Visions, Smoke + Mirrors captures a band so intoxicated with their sudden surprise success that they've decided to indulge in every excess. They ratchet up their signature stomp -- it's there on "I Bet My Life," the first single and a song that's meant to reassure fans that they're not going to get something different the second time around -- but they've also wisely decided to broaden their horizons, seizing the possibilities offered by fellow arena rockers Coldplay and Black Keys. Despite the bloozy bluster of "I'm So Sorry" -- a Black Keys number stripped of any sense of R&B groove -- the group usually favors the sky-scraping sentiment of Coldplay, but where Chris Martin's crew often seems pious, there's a genial bros-next-door quality to Imagine Dragons that deflates their grandiosity. Certainly, Smoke + Mirrors is rock so large it's cavernous -- the reverb nearly functions as a fifth instrument in the band -- but the group's straight-faced commitment to the patently ridiculous has its charm, particularly because they possess no sense of pretension. This separates ID from the Killers, who never met a big idea they didn't like. Imagine Dragons like big sounds and big emotions -- and, if they can muster it, big hooks -- and the commitment to style over substance gives them ingratiating charm, particularly when they decide to thread in slight elements of EDM on "Shots" (something that surfaces on the title track as well), or Vampire Weekend's worldbeat flirtations on "Summer." Imagine Dragons purposefully cobble their sound together from these heavy-hitters of alt-rock, straightening them into something easily digestible for the masses but, like so many commercially minded combos, how they assemble these familiar pieces often results in pleasingly odd combinations. These guys are shameless and that's what makes them more fun than your average arena rockers.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Conspicuously absent from the laundry list of influences the Imagine Dragons so often cite is the Killers, the only other Las Vegas rock band of note. Imagine Dragons downplay the glamour the Killers found so alluring but they share a taste for the overblown, something that comes to full fruition on their second album, Smoke + Mirrors. Bigger and bolder than 2012's Night Visions, Smoke + Mirrors captures a band so intoxicated with their sudden surprise success that they've decided to indulge in every excess. They ratchet up their signature stomp -- it's there on "I Bet My Life," the first single and a song that's meant to reassure fans that they're not going to get something different the second time around -- but they've also wisely decided to broaden their horizons, seizing the possibilities offered by fellow arena rockers Coldplay and Black Keys. Despite the bloozy bluster of "I'm So Sorry" -- a Black Keys number stripped of any sense of R&B groove -- the group usually favors the sky-scraping sentiment of Coldplay, but where Chris Martin's crew often seems pious, there's a genial bros-next-door quality to Imagine Dragons that deflates their grandiosity. Certainly, Smoke + Mirrors is rock so large it's cavernous -- the reverb nearly functions as a fifth instrument in the band -- but the group's straight-faced commitment to the patently ridiculous has its charm, particularly because they possess no sense of pretension. This separates ID from the Killers, who never met a big idea they didn't like. Imagine Dragons like big sounds and big emotions -- and, if they can muster it, big hooks -- and the commitment to style over substance gives them ingratiating charm, particularly when they decide to thread in slight elements of EDM on "Shots" (something that surfaces on the title track as well), or Vampire Weekend's worldbeat flirtations on "Summer." Imagine Dragons purposefully cobble their sound together from these heavy-hitters of alt-rock, straightening them into something easily digestible for the masses but, like so many commercially minded combos, how they assemble these familiar pieces often results in pleasingly odd combinations. These guys are shameless and that's what makes them more fun than your average arena rockers.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Trumpeter Ralph Alessi's masterful technique and artfully burnished tone are on full display on It's Always Now, where he is joined by pianist Florian Weber, bassist Bänz Oester, and drummer Gerry Hemingway. The players consistently impress with their moment-to-moment invention and nuanced interpretations. Alessi's writing incorporates both free jazz and modern composition, and his playing taps into extended technique as well as the traditional resources of his instrument. "Hypnagogic" is the first of five duo improvisations by Alessi and Weber, who are frequent collaborators.  Early in the track, trumpet tones ping and echo like sonar pulses as rippling piano ascends. Throughout, Alessi works wonders with a constrained approach, varying his attack to create a variety of subtle effects. The piece makes for a mysterious, open-ended introduction to an excellent album. "Diagonal Lady," a ballad suffused with noir romanticism, starts off with a moody bass introduction by Oester that evokes the late Charlie Haden.  Alessi's solo might be his most straight-ahead statement on It's Always Now; it's also gorgeous. After providing exquisitely spare piano accompaniment, Weber steps forward to roll out a beguiling set of supple lines. Hemingway's brushwork keeps the music moving, even as he adds nice colors. At the beginning of "His Hopes, His Fears, His Tears," Alessi breathily sketches out a melody before being joined by Hemingway's artfully stray hits and Weber's agitated fingerings. Soon the instrumental threads all start to coalesce. Then the music moves into free jazz territory where the band creates some of the album's fiercest sounds. The last track, another trumpet and piano duet, is the aptly titled "Tumbleweed." Horn and keyboard lines deftly unfold, and as the mood darkens, there is a sense of moving through a transfixing landscape, one that lingers after the final notes have fallen away. © Fred Cisterna/Qobuz 

Though they probably never intended it to, Meshuggah's 2004 EP I -- featuring a single 21-minute song -- helped open new possibilities at a crucial career juncture for the long-heralded Swedish originals. That's because, for all of the justified acclaim at having established a wholly unique and instantly recognizable sonic imprint, Meshuggah's recent efforts had started to seem a little tired and repetitive, leading some critics to accuse the band of treading water in a progressive death metal pool of its own creation. Fair assumption or not, the group wisely decided to replicate and extend that single-song strategy on 2005's appropriately named Catch Thirty-Three; although the reality that its virtually nonstop 47 minutes are in fact broken down into 13 sections could also be viewed as a not so elaborate ruse to disguise just another, typical Meshuggah LP. After all, many of those breaks are totally arbitrary (the first three, sub-two-minute tunes, for instance, offer no good reasons as to why they shouldn't have been labeled as one title) and a considerable number of subdivisions ("Autonomy Lost," "The Paradoxical Spiral," "In Death -- Is Life," "Personae Non Gratae," etc.) still find Meshuggah wailing away on that familiar template combining harsh vocals and nightmarish melodies over coarse, mechanically advancing, oddball tempos. However, it's also apparent that, by doing away with the rigid formality (real or perceived) of individual song breaks, the band has bolstered its confidence for exploring ambient sounds and quieter dynamics. "In Death -- Is Death" offers the prime example with its interspersed bouts of noise and silence, but the adventurousness continues over uncharacteristically melodic portions of "Dehumanization" and the mild case of electronics and programming (as well as robotic voices) heard on "Mind's Mirrors." And whatever your opinion about all of these conspiracy theories, there's no question that on "Shed," with its tribal percussion and whispered vocals, Meshuggah deliver a masterful career highlight. So, in conclusion, does all this mean that Catch Thirty-Three represents a radical shift for the band? Not quite, but it does take care to fulfill the expectations of longtime fans while breaking enough new ground to feel like a potential bridge to continuing innovation -- not treading water -- in the very near future.© Eduardo Rivadavia /TiVo

On their debut White Noise, PVRIS shed the shackles of their early metalcore sound and created dark pop for the Warped crowd. By combining the empowering and energetic spirit of Paramore -- one of vocalist Lynn Gunn's biggest influences -- with contemporaneous sounds from indie-synth bands like Chvrches and Vaults, the Lowell, Massachusetts, trio created a darkly addictive sound fit for both dancing and moshing. Album standouts like the joyful "St. Patrick" and the propulsive "My House" employ synth stabs and dramatic atmospherics from producer Blake Harnage, while Chris Kamrada's strong drumming and Alex Babinski's jagged riffs send clear reminders that PVRIS can rock. Along with Brian MacDonald's elastic basslines, the band effortlessly bring the melody and the power, like on the appropriately-titled "Fire." Much like some of rock's most iconic female-fronted bands, PVRIS benefits from their singer's charisma and song presence. Gunn's lyrics and vocal delivery are the most engaging aspects of White Noise: conveying aggression, seething frustration, and desperation, she commands each song just as well as her idol Hayley Williams. On "Holy," she calls out an intolerant bigot for judging her coming out as gay, employing jabs against religious hypocrisy with the ghostly imagery that floats throughout the album. The title track drips with yearning as Gunn cries out "I'm aching, suffocating" to a lost love, singing through muffled static to convey her pain. Aside from the Paramore-meets-Chvrches gems that populate most of the album, White Noise surprises with "Mirrors," a big-beat pop number that cracks like Sleigh Bells, and the atmospheric swirl of "Eyelids." This is one of those albums where each song could be a single -- a non-greatest hits Greatest Hits collection -- which makes it all the more impressive for a debut from a young band. PVRIS' roots may be in pop-punk and hardcore, but they set their sights on wider domination with White Noise.© Neil Z. Yeung /TiVo

To say that Vincent Peirani shook the world of jazz accordion is an understatement... In 2015, his album Living Being further broke down the preconceptions of the instrument. "I wanted to start my own band, in which I needed to feel confident", explained the accordionist. I wanted to feel like a "family". That’s why I got in touch with four musicians who are good friends of mine". Peirani teamed up with Emile Parisien, his partner from the duo Belle Epoque, as well as the bassist Julien Herné, the drummer Yoann Serra and the keyboardist Tony Paeleman... The compositions by Peirani and the covers of Michel Portal and Jeff Buckley make Living Being an incredibly holistic album. These young musicians succeed in closing the gap that sometimes exists between composition and improvisation. Vincent Peirani's writing is touching and imaginative yet also surprising and elusive. The accordionist is from a generation that draws its inspiration from various musical sources, hence the albums’ richness. Three years later, with the same group members, Living Being II (Night Walker) is also wonderfully rich. Peirani also includes four covers alongside his eight compositions: Bang Bang by Sonny Bono, What Power Art Thou, an extract from King Arthur by Purcell and two hits by Led Zeppelin, Kashmir and Stairway To Heaven. His approach towards this atypical choice of covers is fascinating, as is the way in which his instrument adapts the score of Jimmy Page and Robert Plant. Living Being II (Night Walker) is principally the success of a group who are in perfect equilibrium. Osmosis at its best. © Max Dembo/Qobuz