New year, new label… Following their first two releases under the Prosthetic banner, UK-based death metallers Cognizance are back with Phantazein, a concept album via Willowtip Records that focuses primarily on “art, obsession, and the profound influence of one’s environment.”
Daron Malakian of System of a Down is back with his solo project, Scars on Broadway.Addicted to Violence (Scarred For Life) marks the project’s second album without the drummer who played on the project’s first album and made it feel like a more direct extension of System of a Down. Much like the band that put these guys on the map, there is, at times, a punk feel that owes a great deal to the Dead Kennedys. Where this project finds its own identity is stepping away from some of the Hip-Hop bounce that drove Nu-Metal. This does not mean it forsakes groove; it approaches it differently, which can be heard on a song like “Satan Hussein.” Continue reading →
You either love Beatdown Death Metal and all its violence-even-though-it’s-carefully-controlled live atmosphere, or you think it’s a bunch of amped-up spinkickers with no respect for their surroundings.Continue reading →
