Holy crap. There has been so much awesome music released in the last three months. Frankly, it’s been a challenge trying to keep up. So to compensate, I am going to make a series of posts of abridged reviews of albums that have been dominating my iPod the last few months. So to start this off, let’s touch upon the first full-length from Brooklyn’s own Dustheads and Bad Religion.

Dustheads – Collected Sounds (Don Giovanni)
It seems like everyone emersed in the NYC scene are talking about these guys. Along with Deathcycle, they seem to playing every other bill. Somehow, go figure, I’ve missed every one of them. Hearing their first full-length makes me kick myself even more. Among with some of our favorite bands like Cloak/Dagger, Fucked Up and Government Warning, Dustheads take all the best parts of early 80s hardcore with a new energy and vigor. It’s about the attitude and these guys have plenty in stock.

Bad Religion – New Maps Of Hell (Epitaph)
I mean, what can you say honestly? Fourteen albums in and the band is in top form with their lastest release. It never fails to amaze me how the band has been getting stronger and stronger which each Epitaph release on. Melodic at parts, like in “Honest Goodbye,” which is somewhat reminessent to some of the material on their strongest major label effort Stranger Than Fiction. Hell, there is even some prog-rock-ish jamming on album closer “Fields of Mars.” With it’s double-tom wallop and smoking three-guitar-riffage, a song like “Scrunity” eptiomizes what makes Bad Religion the living legends they are. In fact, New Maps Of Hell just may have cracked the top five in terms of ranking the band’s best releases.