Deadform, the three-piece collective hailing from Oakland, plays what is strongly aligned towards the fusion of Sludge Metal with Crust Punk undertones. Originally rooted from the members’ former projects Laudanum, Stormcrow, and Dystopia, the band’s debut full-length, Entrenched In Hell, releases via Tankcrimes Records, also based in Oakland.Continue reading
Sweden’s Wolfbrigade occupies a very specific place in hard-core. The band’s 11th album Life Knife Death might be their first for Metal Blade Records, but it does not venture far from the sonic ground they covered on the previous ten albums. This aligns them closely to Motorhead in a few ways, the first being they are steadfast in their dedication to burly hardcore champs. It charges at you with all the Punk and rocking fury you might expect from this band who infuses Entombed’s dense guitar tone with Motorhead’s reckless energy. The raw-throated vocals are more Lemmy-influenced than metal. There is a scant trace of the stomping sections you might expect from hardcore, though this is way heavier than punk, thus making it hardcore. Ten albums in they know what they are doing.Continue reading
Incorporating various influences ranging from Crust, Post-Metal, to Black Metal, Swedish Atmospheric Black Metal two-piece Black Birch are crafting an ever-gnarly, meticulously composed debut full-length after having previously released a sold-out EP. Continue reading
Eight years on from You Will Never Be One of Us, Californian Powerviolence four-piece Nails return with their fourth full-length, Every Bridge Burning (Nuclear Blast Records), evidently intent on doing some damage.
Slugcrust embody everything – and I mean everything – that makes grindcore the most intense, most unique and most captivating subgenre in the entire scene. Having released a pair of EPs and the hellacious slab that was Ecocide (number 10 on my album of the year list) in 2022, the South Carolina-based maniacs have blessed us all with another EP.Continue reading
Despite crust death metallers Necrot forming in 2011, the Oaklanders’ newest slab is only the trio’s third full-length in their brief-yet-inviting discography.
Essentially, the band doesn’t rush to put out a record, nor do they seem to want to release something before every “i” is dotted and “t” crossed.Continue reading
Art is a reflection of life. Thus the upswing in Death Metal – a renaissance that is not just a matter of marketing hitting just right. There is a wide breadth of different stylistic turns being taken, rather than just a worldwide tribute to the Tampa of the eighties. As someone who lives in Tampa at present, this might be the one city without an abundance of the deathly goodness that the rest of the world is nailing right now. Continue reading
A beguiling atmosphere. A deliberate sense of urgency. A cacophony of turmoil and finality: blackened Grindcore-meets-crust purveyors Yersin needed only a hair under twenty-five minutes to effectively and enthusiastically encapsulate all of the above mentioned techniques, and then some.
The Scythe Is Remorseless (Trepanation Recordings) sounds as if the Sunderland-based trio recorded seven tracks in the midst of an apocalyptic phenomenon known only to them. The sound bites and pierces; the vocals pummel and decimate. Together, it’s enthralling.Continue reading
