Metal Riot

Gloomy and introspective yet contrarily heavy and distorted tribal extroverts Atriarch spread their black wings on the timely monickered Dead As Truth (Pre Order from Relapse HERE). Imagine some of the barren dirge of older My Dying Bride if filtered through a West Coast penchant for organic punk and extreme metal scene history, harsher vocals and crescendos to match bands like Intronaut and Inter Arma (albeit with a much more sinister dynamic to the dynamics).

Dead As Truth could have been a two song with the opening crusher “Inferno” (one of the most compelling pieces yet from the group) and the almost Death Rock meets New Order by way of Rudimentary Peni sounding bassline genius of single length “Dead”. These songs are going to make the band really able to flex their muscle and range live in a way that I bet will be hard to ignore. Atriarch have refined their sense of dirge here while audibly coming together more as a unit. Their past work is great but there are certain jaw dropping moments of synergy here. 1:50 or so into “Dead” when the sheets of melting glass noise solo starts and into the next, more subdued nest verse is a key example, the band treating each section with respect and then exploding into the next heavy section due to the emotional weight of it all rather than for heavy style points.

These kind of tricks, authentic reaction versus trying to be “brootal”, makes this band or Deafheaven or even older bands in very different modes like the early stuff from The Used or Blood Brothers more interesting at times than some of their peers past and present in that whatever you say about the band’s various sub-genres or career preferences, you can’t deny they are/were feeling it.

“Devolver” is ok but kills the pace a little bit. The song is like banging an anvil with a sledgehammer and that is certainly awesome. Maybe it is because I chilled out with a joint before really digging into it. I am sure it will clobber with a certain early Swans/ Neubauten brutishness live. It isn’t bad just les original than the two songs before it which managed to subvert expectations while tipping the cap to predecessors.

Whatever your take away from this record, if you didn’t know the band’s earliest stuff you will still as a newer fan be stoked that the group are able to match the quality of “Bereavement” and prove their staying power. Check out “Inferno” for a song that uses the space of the intro to cast a thick spell, like clinging to a buoy in a foggy night as ghosts, regrets and the vague outlines of ships and memories pass you in the lonely night. The song conjures personal hells quite literally and would almost give Neurosis a run for their money in places. I am glad “Inferno” was a single because you won’t forget it and the song absolutely punishes. Some people might not like the growled spoken vocal style in the verses, but I think it works very well.

The record streets on August 11th and is an eye opening, ear bleed inducing morass of knotted emotion, leaving you feeling like old tree roots, tight in the shoulders and tired but braced to endure. You’ll likely wonder at impermanence and the things we can and cannot change about others and yourself.

Toilet Ov Hell is one of the cooler blogs in the clogged plumbing of the interweb. Today they premiere the new single from tech death outfit Inanimate Existence. Tech death outfit sounds like if Iron Man went like full blown evil and just started blasting people’s heads off when Tony Stark gets too wasted. Hmmm…tangent.

Anyway, Inanimate Existence recently announced their forthcoming fourth album, Underneath a Melting Sky. If that bad ass album title doesn’t make you want to take shrooms and lose your mind reading Lovecraft immediately, perhaps you are currently visiting the wrong website?

Says Toilet Ov Hell regarding today’s song premiere:
“In Moonlight I Am Reborn” is the unification of the old and new, bearing the strong, full riffs of the band’s earlier efforts with the ethereal synths of their most recent. The beginning of the song illustrates this perfectly: you’re immediately greeted with a big meaty triplet riff backed with a subtle layer of synth and effects-laden clean guitar. The haunting atmosphere has the subtlety of their older work, but with the multilayered complexity of Calling. The two halves of their sound work together now better than ever before, and the resulting effect is something akin to meditating under a waterfall: relentlessly pummeling, but surprisingly contemplative.”

You can listen to “In Moonlight I Am Reborn” HERE

Pre-orders for Underneath a Melting Sky are now live at these locations:
Merchandise/Bundles: http://smarturl.it/INANIMATE-MERCH
Bandcamp: http://smarturl.it/INANIMATE-BANDCAMP ​

Unprecedented reigning tech death champs Origin have posted a playthrough for a new song “Accident and Error”. The song is from the band’s latest ear fuck Unparalleled Universe.

Unparalleled Universe was recorded and mixed at Chapman Studios in February 2017 alongside longtime collaborator and engineer Robert Rebeck (Tech N9ne). The band emerged with ten new songs including a cover of Brujeria’s “Revolución”, that were mastered in March 2017 by Colin Marston at Menegroth – The Thousand Caves (Altar of Plagues, Jarobe, Krallice) and wrapped in a cover prepared by Filip Ivanovic (Dismember, Cryptopsy, Heavy Montreal, Gorguts).

“It feels like an Origin album, but it’s unparalleled to what you might expect if you haven’t heard us for 10 or 15 years” says Paul Ryan. “To me, it’s a true reflection of ourselves. I compare it to an action movie. Our earlier material is filled with action from beginning to end. Now, the idea is to add a little more depth and dynamics. You could say there are some twists in the plot musically”.

Holy shit. How do SepticFlesh always manage to top themselves? From art to musical execution, they truly never leave a stone un-turned. This freaky ass Aliens meets LoTR looking art gave me chills and along with the new Cormorant Diaspora art shows that the best bands care about everything from visual to musical impact.

The Greek legends SF’s new album is called Codex Omega you can hear a completely stunning new symphonic extreme metal masterpiece called “Dante’s Inferno” HERE. It sounds even heavier than some of the most intense stuff they have released in recent years! The drums are absolutely insane.

Available September 1, 2017 in North America on Prosthetic Records, Codex Omega will be available as a 2-CD set, on purple wax vinyl as well as a US indie retail store exclusive on white wax vinyl, and on all digital outlets. Preorders are up now and available at http://smarturl.it/SepticfleshCO.

Everyone has records that first got them into rock n roll, metal, rap, smooth jazz or whatever. Formative Years is our new feature delving into the brains of various people in the scene to see what made them choose the realm of music as a focus. Jason from IKILLYA did one HERE and I also kicked it off HERE, and we have more cool artists to come in the future. Really this seed was planted by me interviewing Kayla from Witch Mountain awhile ago about her vocal influences, one of the posts that we sadly lost when we were hacked and lost almost a year of content recently. But in memory of that awesomeness we have made a whole ongoing thing out of influences in general, so thanks Kayla!

Anyhow, this round we have the one and only Mr. Cole Jacobsen of Arizona death metallers Lago. They’ve been one of my very favorite up and coming extreme metal bands ever since I first heard them, just nailing all the right components that makes death metal unkillable.  Peep their recent split with mighty Calm Hatchery HERE (you will fucking thank me later if you aren’t throttled to a pulp).

Check out Cole’s choices for albums that inspired him as a young rager BELOW and stay tuned for big things from this band in the future.