Deep Dive
35 years in, Converge are still the most intense band in the room
Hum of Hurt is the latest from hardcore's most uncompromising lifers — proof the fire hasn't dimmed.
Deep Dive · 1 min read
From the Riffiter desk
The Blog
Deep dives, genre histories, and the records worth arguing about. Rate the albums as you read — then settle it in the comments.
New & Notable
Wiki's Ancient History is a love letter to a New York that's vanishing
The ex-Ratking rapper keeps the city's grimy boom-bap alive on one of June's best records.
New & Notable · 1 min read
Review
Dry Cleaning's Secret Love is the year's most quietly devastating post-punk record
Three albums in, South London's deadpan poets hand the controls to Cate Le Bon — and find new depths.
Review · 1 min read
Field Guide
Rap at the edges: a field guide to experimental hip-hop
Rap's avant-garde — abrasive, abstract, allergic to the radio. A prose tour through the deep end.
Field Guide · 2 min read
Deep Dive
Spiderland: the album that broke up the band and rewired guitar music
Six songs, recorded by a band that fell apart before anyone heard them, that quietly reshaped the next thirty years.
Deep Dive · 2 min read
Essay
Talk Talk's vanishing act: the band that quit pop and invented post-rock
They had the synth-pop hits. Then they spent them — on two albums so quiet and strange they had to invent a genre to hold them.
Essay · 2 min read
Deep Dive
Loveless: the most expensive album ever made — was it worth it?
It nearly bankrupted a record label, took two years and nineteen studios, and sold modestly. Three decades later it's the most worshipped record of its genre.
Deep Dive · 2 min read
Deep Dive
Death Grips' The Money Store: masterpiece or elaborate prank?
An abrasive, gleeful, possibly contemptuous record. Fans call it a masterpiece; skeptics call it a troll. Both have a point.
Deep Dive · 2 min read
Debate
Kid A vs OK Computer: the Radiohead argument that won't die
Two albums, three years apart, one fight the internet has been having since 2000.
Debate · 2 min read