Hardcore Metal

Defect Designer, Neanderthal (Transcending Obscurity 2022)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , , , ,

Free-form death metal band Defect Designer hoe their own row on Neanderthal.

Constructed in Norway and endorsed by Diskord, Defect Designer is a death metal band that does not closely monitor is sub-genre status. Elements of grind, punk, and hardcore exist and come and go as the musical river rages by filled with objects both blunt and sharp. The band has two previous long-players, Wax (2009) and Ageing Accelerator (2015), and the new one is a tight EP loaded with accelerant. The musicians are Eyvind W. Axelsen (bass), Simen Kandola (drums), Dmitry Sukhinin (vocals, guitar, bass), and Martin Storm-Olsen (vocals, guitar).

The album begins in chaos with the one-minute title track. Growling, howling, beating, and shoving – savage knuckle-dragging punk. Tasty.

“Wrinkles” is a little more linear, in a way. It maintains the ragged power of the opener but it is followable. There is a compelling guitar line walking alongside the vocals in the second stanza and a taunting bridge that is a pure delight. The warbling stays mostly near the rails, and there is a Misfits-like playfulness that surfaces in the second half. “Trolls” then is a beating taken stretched out on a rack. The tension is relaxed and increased in a cycle that is unpredictable.

“Luddites” goes toward the land of doom and the hollow of prog, but it doesn’t actually wander over those borders. The music at first seems straight-forward but soon it reveals itself not to be. It is my favorite track. “Vlad” and “Pigsty” have a comradery in excess. The former is a dead run of brutal badgering while the latter takes a break to go to a jazz lunge for a pop before heading out into the night at the end.

“Time, Forward” shuts the door with an embedded identity of contained plethora. The press release was right about the “maniacal fervour” of this music. It exists in loosely described borders where “rules” is not a concept that is entertained seriously. It is hard, loud, and fast. Recommended.

Neanderthal is out on Friday, July 8th through Transcending Obscurity Records. Examine the options at the links below.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://defectdesignerband.bandcamp.com/

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/defectdesigner1

Defect Designer website, https://www.defect-designer.com/

Transcending Obscurity Records, https://transcendingobscurity.aisamerch.com/

© Wayne Edwards

Defect Designer, Neanderthal (Transcending Obscurity 2022)

Nequient, Darker Than Death Or Night (Nefarious Industries 2022)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Chicago hardcore band Nequient release their second full-length studio album this week, Darker Than Death Or Night.

You’ll see Nequient described as a hardcore band or maybe a death metal band. The press release declares the band’s music to be from a variety of wells, and that the band draws “influences from a broad spectrum of aggressive styles including grindcore, crust, sludge, death metal, black metal, and noise rock.” That covers a lot of ground, and it absolutely rings true. Wolves At The Door (2018) was Nequient’s first long-player, and I think the new one is even better. The band is Chris Avgerin (drums), Keenan Clifford (bass), Patrick Conahan (guitar), and Jason Kolkey (vocals).

The first track is a rampage, “First Casualty.” It sets the bar very high right at the jump. The chaos of “Worshippers of the Apocalypse” is what I imagine being gargled in Satan’s colon might be like; so to, “Consensual Hallucination.” The ragged rawness of these tracks is enough to make your gums bleed. The intensity and rapidly shifting off-angle attacks are a true aural battering. But this manner of music isn’t the only look you get, even if it does predominate. “Minotaur” is a gloriously doom-ridden landscape of mountain-high walls past which you cannot see the sun. “Wrongs” does this a bit, too, but with a more active brand of gloom.

The number one track for me comes near the end, “Bootlicker.” Here the emanations are barely contained. At many points along the way it seems like the music might burst apart into a ball of fire. “Golden Age of the Grift” is the kiss goodnight, and it is more of a kidney punch than a peck on the cheek. Nequient has put together one of the fiercest albums I have heard this year. Recommended.

Nefarious Industries will release Darker Than Death Or Night in multiple formats on Friday, March 18th and you can preorder it now.

Band photo by Nicolas Côté.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://nequient.bandcamp.com/

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/nequientband

Nefarious Industries, https://www.nefariousindustries.com/

© Wayne Edwards. All rights reserved.

Nequient, Darker Than Death Or Night (Nefarious Industries 2022)

Basilica, Basilica (Innerstrength Records 2021)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , ,

North Carolina emergent metal foursome attack their first long-player project with multifarious vivacity.

The band has only been together for a lustrum, and yet they have coalesced an approach to musical composition that is thorough while remaining eclectic. What they can do with the standard metal set up is impressive. The band is Brady Kennedy (drums), Cameron Price (guitar), Chandler Bell (bass), and Reilly Appert (vocals).

The press release reads in part: “Musically, genre inspiration is wide and varying; combining thrash and death metal elements with metalcore and deathcore breakdowns, the goal of this album is to be as diverse as possible.” As you go from track to track throughout the set you can really see this philosophy at work. It listen like a tour of heavy genres.

The first crack is “Grinding Teeth.” You have to love that title before the needle even drops. It is a blistering track with front-loaded aggression and crunchy riffs, decorated by metallic squeals and a “Flight Of The Bumble Bee” wind-up. “Exit Wound” is death metal vocals and off-color screeches. And then “The Fall of Phorcys,” an instrumental with a dark jazz, proggy vibe. Groundwork firmly laid.

I am not going through the full list because you should hear it for yourself. The album is fascinating. The execution of the increments is technically precise with both hard punches and delicate touches. The guitar solo on “Starve” is an extreme example. Segue to another instrumental, “Reflections of Galene,” that sounds like what you might hear playing from a café patio in the summer on an evening stroll – then straight into the thrash/thrumming piece, “Everything,” right after that. And still there are three songs left. It leaves you off balance and a little lightheaded in the best possible way. Recommended.

Friday February 5th is the day to get the full album. If you preorder the digital from the Innerstrength Bandcamp page you can hear “Grinding Teeth” right now.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://basilicahairslam.bandcamp.com/

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/basilicahairslam

Innerstrength Records, https://www.innerstrengthmusic.com/

Basilica, Basilica (Innerstrength Records 2021)

Gatecreeper, An Unexpected Reality (Closed Casket Activities 2021)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , ,

Desert Death Metal force of nature Gatecreeper release and incredible set that shows you how to do it fast and how to do it slow.

Hailing from Arizona, Gatecreeper has been creating music since 2014. Their first EP was the self-title release in that early year, and it landed a tight four songs with harrowing bravado. The pounding rhythm and powerfully insistent vocals were a sign and a statement. It was mid-tempo Death Metal with great hooks, and there was no mistaking the possibilities. Two years later Sonoran Depravation came out and warped musical reality. Many splits and singles have come to pass in the intervening years, plus a live album and the amazing sophomore full-length, Deserted in 2019. They have been throwing down the metal day after day.

The new EP is titled aptly as it is a direction that was not predictable. Separated into a “fast side” and a “slow side,” this is a Janus faced masterpiece. There are seven short songs on the fast side, and by short I mean some of them are less than one minute long with one clocking in at 31 seconds. There is a very hardcore punk attitude in these pieces but at the same time the Gatecreeper sound and hook is in their too, unmistakably.

The slow side is one eleven-minute Doom infused bone crusher, “Emptiness.” The band has never done a song like this before, and we can say the same about the short songs – even though they have a lot hard hitting short pieces in their catalogue, they are nothing like the fast side songs here. The combination of these two completely different elements that are also new to the work of the band to this point is a bold move, and one that pays off astronomically. Highly recommended.

An Unexpected Reality is out now from Closed Casket Activities. Most of the vinyl has sold out at last look, including the second pressings. The CD is still available, and of course the digital. You can get these at Bandcamp, etc.

Links,

Bandcamp, https://gatecreeper.bandcamp.com/album/an-unexpected-reality

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/gatecreeper

Closed Casket Activities, https://closedcasketactivities.com/collections/cd/products/gatecreeper-an-unexpected-reality-1

Gatecreeper, An Unexpected Reality (Closed Casket Activities 2021)

Cell Press review (No Funeral Records 2020)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , , , , ,

Montreal [*]core band Cell Press venture out with their first EP.

The band Cell Press is only about a year old, but the musicians it is comprised of have been plying their trade for some time. The band is Sean Arsenian, Joey Cormier, Mark McGee, and PQ. If I had to label the music on the self-titled EP, I would call it Punk, but the band does not embrace a particular label and writers are calling them everything from Grindcore to Metalcore to Sludge to Noise so I am going to go with [*]core. Fast, loud, guitar-driven music, sometimes discordant.

There are four songs and a longer track that is referred to as a “noise” piece in the press materials. “Piss Police” is up first and it begins tentatively with thrilling drumming and progressively coagulating guitar riffing, joined later by shouting. “Desert Breath” is like a person running down the street in a flaming halter top who seems to be more concerned about being late than being on fire. “Blacked Out in Verdun” – more great drumming and pensive guitar riffs to twist up the personal cataclysm. “Dead at OACI.” I assume this refers to the Metro Station (but it might not), and it goes from linear, certain riffs to pure mayhem, especially as the end nears. The long track is “My Son Will No the Truth,” clocking in at 11:40 and appearing at the end of the set. It is almost as long as the other for pieces combined. It is the sort of thing you have to just listen to and let happen. Describing it wouldn’t really get us anywhere.

Noisy and enjoyable, I give this Cell Press effort high marks. I am a Punk fan from the beginning, and I hear those roots here, certainly in the attitude, even if the category is technically off. The disenfranchisement is very appealing. Recommended.

You can buy the digital at Bandcamp, No Funeral Records has a cassette and T-shirt, and Ancient Temple Recordings will also be carrying products. Links below. The official release date is this Friday, November 27.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://cellpress.bandcamp.com/releases

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/cellpressmtl

Ancient Temple Recordings, https://ancienttemplerecordings.bigcartel.com/

No Funeral Shop, https://store.nofuneral.ca/product/cell-press-t-shirt-t-shirt-cassette-bundle

Cell Press review (No Funeral Records 2020)

Violent Life Violent Death, The Color of Bone review (Innerstrength Records 2020)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , ,

The new VLVD release roars with a creepy dankness and shakes the mystic tree of hoary lore with the reckless violence of a terminal necromancer.

Violent Life Violent Death have released four EPs (counting the new one) since 2016. Centered in Charlotte, North Carolina, the band is David Holquin (drums), Joe Benham (guitar), Scott Cowan (vocals), Joey Park (guitar), and Justin Campbell (bass). They play hardcore metal that lies on the metal side (to my ear) with deep set hooks and a penetrating progressiveness.

The new one has five songs, all in the three minute range. “Grave Walk” gets things going with a chunky clank and battering percussion. It’s companion piece, “Dead With Me,” is more explicitly dramatic, even theatrical. It has a breaking-down-the-fourth-wall fierceness as Cowan’s voice seems to reach out to the listener individually – “I wish you were dead with me.”

“Roseblade’ is the epitome of punch. The darkness you feel listening to it is a claustrophobic cloak that is a circular orchestra surrounding your head. The echoey second-line voices and the marching chop of the guitars in the second half is mesmerizing. “Linger” is discordant at the front, tipping you, dizzy, into the final piece, “The Color of Bone.” Here you are lead into a knowable space and shown a fundamental truth. Sometimes it is worth hearing what we already know stated aloud. And here it is.

You can get The Color Of Bone this Friday, October 30th from Innerstrength Records through Bandcamp and all the usual other places. You can hear “Roseblade” now, and Spotify has a couple of the band’s other EPs available, so listen up in anticipation. It is an great set. Recommended.

Band photo by Justin Driscoll.

Links.

VLVD Bandcamp, https://violentlifeviolentdeath.bandcamp.com

VLVD shop, https://violentlifeviolentdeath.bigcartel.com/

VLVD Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/violentlifeviolentdeath

Label website, https://www.innerstrengthmusic.com

Label Bandcamp, https://innerstrengthrecords.bandcamp.com

Label Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/innerstrengthrecords

Violent Life Violent Death, The Color of Bone review (Innerstrength Records 2020)

Plague Years, Circle of Darkness review (eOne Music 2020)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , , ,

Speed and mayhem are alive and well in Circle of Darkness, the new full-length release from Michigan metallers Plague Years.

From the beginning notes of the band’s first EP, these four Detroit musicians threw down the gauntlet in a clear sign to the world they were here to create hard, fast, crunching metal. Labeled as a crossover band, you can definitely hear Hardcore, Thrash, and Death Metal elements throughout. The new album is a continuation of 2018’s Unholy Infestation, except even faster and darker. The band on Circle of Darkness is Tim Engelhardt (vocals), Eric Lauder (guitar), Rian Staber (bass), and Mike Jurysta (drums).

There isn’t a single band to compare them to because Plague Years combines so many styles and their music shifts and moves in and across the songs in the album. They show a lot of chopping steady guitar rhythms at a mid-tempo speed in narrative moments of songs, then click into phantom blasts and thrashing ramps to sink the spikes in deeper. From the new album, songs like “Eternal Fire” rest on a modulated pace overall but have mystical lead breaks and surprising percussion eruptions that are not externalities but instead are essential elements in the composition. Flat out raging numbers are there too like “Circle of Darkness” and “Play The Victim” – and in these pieces the tempo is set high but there are also echoing ethereal moments and fascinating transition bridges.

Plague Years will get a hook into any metal fan because the range of expression and the variety of their musical appeal allows them to fit in on practically any heavy title card. Recommended.

Circle of Darkness is out this Friday, September 18. You can hear a couple singles already, and preorder the download or a hardcopy in different forms now. Their previous EP Unholy Infestation is on Spotify right now so you can go listen to that to tide you over for a couple of days

Band photo by Rian Staber.

Links.

https://www.facebook.com/plagueyearsdet

https://plagueyears.bandcamp.com/

http://www.entertainmentone.com

http://www.facebook.com/eOneMusicUS

Plague Years, Circle of Darkness review (eOne Music 2020)

Brain Corrosion / Ripped To Shreds, Exhumed From Eastern Tombs split review (Horror Pain Gore Death 2020)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , , ,

A Grindcore / Death Metal split to raise your weekend from the dead: Exhumed from Eastern Tombs.

Brain Corrosion is a Grindcore band from Taiwan. There is not a lot of information about them besides their Facebook page which reveals they are a trio and they have released an EP, a demo, and two splits since 2009. On the new one, they contribute eight short brutal hammerings with loud brittle percussion, elaborate coarse vocals, and a few audio clips to fill out the episodes. Three of the songs are also on an EP available at Bandcamp called Legal Innocence from 2017 (I am not sure if these are new versions on Exhumed). They are ripping it up and cleaning out your pipes for about 13 minutes – it’s a treatment you need some time to recover from before taking again.

Ripped to Shreds is a San Jose Death Metal band that is the creation of mastermind Andrew Lee who has different bands for live performance in the US and in Taiwan. There are several Ripped To Shreds albums out, including the new full-length Luan that was released in April this year. For Exhumed, there is one new track, “Rotting Stenches Unknown,” and three short covers of well-known Hard/Grindcore songs. The new song is in the Death Metal vein, and it is right on the edge of Hardcore as is rears back and splits your cerebellum with intense ectoplasmic energy.

This is the first time I have listened to either band. Exhumed From Eastern Tombs is a worthy introduction and puts you on the right path to find out more about these bands if you like what you hear.

Out now, you can joined the excavation at Bandcamp. CDs, t-shirts, and bundles are there, too. If you go specifically to the Ripped To Shreds Bandcamp page for the split (second link below), there are also vinyl variants for sale that are scheduled to ship in October.

Links.

https://hpgd.bandcamp.com/album/exhumed-from-eastern-tombs

https://rippedtoshredsdeathmetal.bandcamp.com/album/exhumed-from-eastern-tombs

https://www.facebook.com/braincorrosion

https://braincorrosion.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/rippedtoshredsband

https://rippedtoshredsdeathmetal.bandcamp.com/

Brain Corrosion / Ripped To Shreds, Exhumed From Eastern Tombs split review (Horror Pain Gore Death 2020)

Concrete, Free Us From Existence review (Black Voodoo Records 2020)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , ,

Concrete, the hardcore band from Albany, returns with devastating aggression on Free Us From Existence.

The first music I heard from Concrete was the 2014 split they did with Hammerfist. The song “Born Lost” made a big impression on me especially, but all four of them smoked. Deadlock was before the split and Everything Ends Now came after in 2017. Over the years the band has been accumulating an impressive catalogue and gaining attention and respect from fans and the heavy music community at large. Free Us From Existence casts a sharp eye on the dismal situation that exists now and condenses it into loud bursts of disapprobation and condemnation in the form of ravaging hardcore music.

The new album opens with “Executing Vengeance” which sounds like climbing a ladder that is airborne and swirling in a tornado. “Starving Serpent” starts with heavy thumps and reveals twisting urgency in the tempo, cadence, and voice: “Fed to snakes / In the abyss / Left to rot / Starving serpent, oceans black / Take my eyes, take my eyes.” The menace and threat in the guitar line that runs along beside the vocals in one of the choruses tightens in your throat when you hear. “Path of Fire” has big doom riffs at the front with rolling rapid percussion, then a shift to thrash-speed before going back to heavy thumps like a stomping sauropod.

The landscape is broad and differentiated with Black Metal, Death Metal, and hardcore throughout. It is notable how much ground the band covers in just under thirty minutes, all the while keeping their own brand of menace intact and the thematic focus narrow. This overarching dispatch is demonstrated perfectly by the back-to-back entries “Psychological Crucifixion” and “World Tomb.” Listen to it all the way through and then hit it again because you don’t want to miss anything.

Available now for download at Bandcamp, with physical versions on the way from Black Voodoo Records. This album is going to be on a lot of Best Of 2020 lists. Recommended.

Band photo by Chantel Roberts.

Links.

http://concretehc.bandcamp.com/

http://www.facebook.com/concretehc

http://www.bloodblast.com

http://blackvoodoorecords.com/

https://merchnow.com/catalogs/concrete-hc

Concrete, Free Us From Existence review (Black Voodoo Records 2020)

Reserving Dirtnaps, Another Disaster review (War Records 2020)

Wayne Edwards, , ,

Another Disaster is a short, hot clip to the ears from Reserving Dirtnaps.

The music from this Memphis band sounds like punk to me, but before I offend anybody, they are usually described as hardcore. I don’t think any of these guys will mind either way: Brandon Pearce (vocals), Paul Doherty (guitar), and Aaron Winter (bass). Judging by Spotify, Reserving Dirtnaps has two previous EPs, a self-titled one from 2014 and Part II in 2016. The new one, while being in basically the same lane, raises even more blisters than the first two.

There are four hard, fast songs that express the lives people are leading here in the middle of it all, 2020 – “Sleepless,” “Under Siege,” “Blood On The Walls,” and “The Floods.” Combine the song titles with the title of the set and there you have a fairly vivid idea of where the sound is coming from. There is a fierce energy in these songs, and they have a “live” feel to them. You can see it when you hear it. There is as much ferocity in this music as in Harms Way, say, but with the unique perspective and experience that makes Reserving Dirtnaps recognizable in the horde of hard music. The weight of the crumbling world bears down on and bursts out from the guitar and the voice and the drums and the base. This is what hardcore (and I’d say punk) is about. Recommended.

Out in a couple days, you can take a look at the EP at Bandcamp, and pre-order it. There were still a few copies of the vinyl left when last I looked, but just a few. Get going if you want one.

Band photo by Matt Wood.

Links.

http://www.war-rec.com

https://reservingdirtnaps.bandcamp.com

Reserving Dirtnaps, Another Disaster review (War Records 2020)