Metal Riot

Photograph by Mika Aalto

While the rock and metal world reeled last week from the death of the iconic Chris Cornell, thankfully this week is starting off with a reminder that metal, punk and rock will not only never die but has many disciples still here to help carry the torch forward. From UFOMAMMUT’s clobbering new “Warsheep”, to Davey Suicide’s gutter glammy “No Angel”  to Silverstein’s screamo charged “Retrograde”, let’s celebrate that rock still comes in many styles. That said, if you want to kick off your week hard may we recommend you take a big fat Finnish kick in the crotch from grindcore heroes Rotten Sound this Monday. “Thrashmonger” is here and gone in just over a minute but will open your eyes like Uma getting some of that Pulp Fiction adrenaline.

Check it out below and keep the faith.

Agoraphobic Nosebleed somehow went from being an insider’s dream concept to a full fledged legacy band (in certain circles). The closest thing we still have left to anything as vitriol fueled as Brutal Truth, yet with the industrialized power/edge of Pig Destroyer/and the relevance of Drugs of Faith to boot.

The ARC EP finds the band in top form, a sleaz-i-fied riff fest two minutes into “Not A Daughter” the first and foremost real display of a burlier and at times pretty much southern rock sound for the band. You read that right. There are some real barn burner’s thrown in amidst the slog.

The EP- harsh vocals from Kat on full blast – is a true headbanger’s oasis of skull crunching pit worthy riffs that can appeal to fans of stoner, grind, fringe hardcore and even slow death metal at times. It is awesome the band continue to fearlessly evolve, just as Black Flag once did, for example. That’s one surefire way to stay relevant, unless you make a Cold Lake (which I secretly like).

Even the record art is more of a fine art mutation than some of the shockier stuff at bedbathsaltsandbeyond.spreadshirt.com.

“Not A Daughter” ends with a horn thrower of a riff worthy of Alabama Thunderpussy’s much missed Staring At The Divine-era, albeit a lot more evil. It’ll remind you Richard lives in Virginia (I think he still does, at least).

Anyway, this is the sickest fuckin’ band and you know it (or oughta). They make me want to barf out of my eyes. It’s pure bottled charge and pay off after payoff. “Deathbed” is a grungier dirge than the majority of recent melvins and us ugly as the S/T Eyehategod stuff, complete with low male death vocals and synthetic drum poundage. “Gnaw” has some stuff so knuckle dragging in it that it almost sounds like Xibalba was an industrial crust band. Fuck yeah!!!

I wish this record was more than three gloriously hellbent songs and was at least six. It’s a monster anyway and nonetheless will exhaust you with awesome adrenaline rush wall of metal power. But in a flaming heap afterwards you nonetheless want more material, a liberal bloodlusting for good art that will thaw any frozen corpse’s heart in a guitarbang of volume, aesthetic and road.

Pre-order HERE. Right now.

I remember discovering Agoraphobic Nosebleed‘s Frozen Corpse Stuffed With Dope with my drummer friend Zac Shaw with a sense of stoned glee and an atom level knowledge that somehow life would never be the same. It was one of my earliest introductions to that level of musical insanity. I grew up on Big Black and Jesus Lizard records but Agoraphobic was another level of “that is intense” all together. For people who love to find bands that make other people say “What the fuck are you listening too?” and run in horror, this is a great place to start.

Since the band got Katherine Katz (ex-Salome), they have gotten somehow even more rad. The Richard Johnson and Scott Hull tag team of madness finds a perfect foil in Katherine’s insane screams. New record ARC thankfully drops almost a year to the day that my father died and I am thanking the grind gods for giving me something really distracting I am bound to enjoy musically during what is surely going to be a week of seriously bad mood swings for me.

It looks like this 3 song EP will focus on the slower side of the band, as it is not that many tracks but clocks in at about twenty plus minutes. Color me stoked as fuck, since sister band Pig Destroyer’s recent Mass & Volume EP was a beast.

Pre Order this fucker HERE right now!

Jucifer have the most romantic story in metal, a duo who spend every day together as a couple working to prove you can do whatever you want in this life if you have drive. The band are constantly on the road all over the world, setting up massive stacks and blasting crowds with the heaviest of metal. A new full length biopic is coming out next year but you can preview a solid chunk of it now.

Watch BELOW and tell me this isn’t the American Dream for Nomads?!

Polish grind machine Antigama are back with an aggressive new trailer for well monickered new release The Insolent.

Preorders for multiple physical versions of The Insolent have been made available. The album is available on cassette, eco-pack/gatefold digisleeve CD, black 12″ gatefold LP, and a translucent 12″ gatefold LP, limited to 100 copies worldwide. All four versions are now available for preorder in the US via Selfmadegod’s stateside mailorder outlet, Earsplit Distro, RIGHT HERE, and internationally directly from Selfmadegod including shirt bundles HERE.

View the new album trailer for ANTIGAMA’s The Insolent at THIS LOCATION.  Short bursts of hellfire that fans of Today Is The Day, Nasum and of course Antigama will gnash teeth for will fill your ears before a ticking clock counts down the seconds with ominous anticipation.

Also be sure to check dates with one of my favorites, Drugs Of Faith, just BELOW.