★★★★★
Release Date: June 27, 2006 I'm not a dramatic guy, but I find it absolutely imperative that I write a review for this album. No, scratch that...this is absolutely, without a doubt, and obligation of mine. I have been kicking myself for the better part of half a year to sit down and write a review for this album. I don't want to scream like a little fanboy about how this album "rocks" and you "have to go buy (or download with your 'money') this now...
- absolutepunk.net
2012-06-28
★★★★★
(Mash Down Babylon Records) If you're one of the few and unfortunate that have never heard The RX Bandits and therefore dismiss them as a mere "Drive Thru Records" band or even worse, as "just another ska band that missed their time" you are very much mistaken. This band is much more reminiscient of The Police or The Mars Volta than Reel Big Fish or New Found Glory. This record picks up right where their 2003 album "The Resignation" left off...
- www.bigsmilemagazine.com
2010-12-13
★★★★★
RX Bandits were never really a ska band, really. Despite their horn section, the Bandits have always seemed to reach for something more musically complex and diverse than a mere niche genre can contain. And now, with Mandala, their seventh album, they've proceeded sans horns to make the most sonically lush and rhythmically diverse album yet. Mandala is a beast of an album, clocking in at a battering 53 minutes, nearly all of which is jammed with break-neck prog perfection...
- www.musicomh.com
2010-08-23
★★★★★
Sound: The Rx bandits recorded ths album when they have been around for a good 14 years or so and have had a huge change in sound and the creation of their songs aswell as numerous line up changes. Over the years the band has moved onto a more progressive rock sound for this album with influences from reggae. This Album's sound more a less continues off from their previous release "...and the battle begun" except minus Chris Sheets on trombone and back up vocals...
- www.ultimate-guitar.com
2010-07-21
★★★★★
Sound: After releasing an album like "The Resignation" its near impossible to put together an album with such ingenuity, intricacy, and freshness. Well, fortunately, the Rx Bandits found a way with "...And The Battle Begun." Track after track is filled to the brim with unique chord progressions, soulful singing, and all out rocking. The constantly changing time signatures easily throw off first time listeners, but this type of music is perfect...
- www.ultimate-guitar.com
2009-11-15
★★★★★
Sound: These guys can play music. When I first heard Sell You Beautiful I couldn't stop playing it. They mix hard rock/metal like Newsstand Rock and Sell you Beautiful and then do slower songs like Dinna-Dawg that are still catchy and have those good guitar riffs. They also have some of the wierdest sounds that make you say "WTF? That's awesome!". If these guys ever play a bad song you probably need to clean out your ears. // 10 Lyrics and Singing: Matthew Embree has a neat voice...
- www.ultimate-guitar.com
2009-11-15
★★★★★
Summary: Hornless and open to explore, Mandala is everything Rx Bandits have worked for and more FINALLY. Manadala might as well have been that huge gasp of air that Rx Bandits had been holding for years now. While the progressive transformation may have not been planned from their days as The Pharmaceutical Bandits, their eventual transformation has been patiently incredible...
- www.sputnikmusic.com
2009-10-31
★★★★★
The 28-second opener, "Intro" gets my blood a-racin' with its spacey, electronic ambiance. But that song is just a teaser, gosh darn it, not a hint at what is to come on the rest of RX Bandits second album, Progress. (RX Bandit's visually impressive retro-fied website is also a teaser.) The follower "VCG III" is a punk song with the addition of Rich Balling's trombone. And in this song Matt Embree's vocals sounds awfully similar to that of Todd Baechle of The Faint...
- www.adequacy.net
2009-07-21