Continuing to project a sideways southwestern tinged approach in their vibrant and adventurous rock ‘n roll presentations, California troupe Totimoshi return with another 10-track potpourri of eclectic heaviness with AVENGER. Doling out a sludge addled hard rock bonanza (“Mainline”) with shaman-like spirituality at the core, these perennial road dogs’ latest offering includes an intriguing barrage of barroom blues (“Rose”), acid rock (“Waning Divine”), and desert metal (“The Fool”) yielding a wealth of primal bottom-end, innovative psychedelic guitar (“Leaves”) and uncompromising grittiness that allows Totimoshi’s critically lauded levels of enthusiastic expansiveness to ascend to greater heights while maintaining the raw and unorthodox style of hard rock that keeps them one of the underground scene’s most cherished entities.
www.atalossrecords.comRx Mundi - IHVH
Debemur Morti
French black metal squad Rx Mundi manages to make a mark within a confined genre as exhibited on IHVH. Unquestionably draped in misanthropic malaise passed down from the raw and relentless elite such as Marduk, Immortal, and Mayhem, this re-released seven-track affair voraciously conveys vitriolic venom with a flurry of unorthodox elements for added dread and despair. Championing the combination of throat-ripping lead vocals, barrages of hypnotically redundant buzzing riffs and hellacious percussive blasts from the depths of hell while a menagerie of eerily captured chants solidify an already foreboding atmosphere, Rx Mundi’s chilling debut affair contains all the evil one can endure before succumbing completely to the demonic world.
http://www.debemur-morti.com/As You Drown - RAT KING
Metal Blade
Swedish quintet As You Drown whip a dastardly mix of redundant and bludgeoning deathcore with a string of savvy modern death metal elements on their sophomore effort RAT KING. While a bulk of the compositions on this nine-track offering suffer from a lack of originality which compounds the unit’s glaring interchangeability, this squad’s concoction of Gojira-esque riffs (“You Should Be Paranoid”) and battle-ready rhythms that sound like a melding of Job for a Cowboy and Through the Eyes of the Dead (“Cleansing Hands”) are indisputably crushing, demonstrating that these guys are capable of obliterating everything in their path while relentlessly delivering an intense skull pounding with familiar extreme metal ferocity propelling the savagery.
www.metalblade.comMorkobot - MORBO
Supernatural Cat
Avant-garde Italian trio Morkobot unleash a mesmerizing array of mechanical menacing on seven-track release MORBO. Consisting of two bass players and one drummer with no vocals, this troupe’s tone switches up between noisy industrial clatter and viscous blasts of bottom end with a double dose of weird acting as the music’s guiding force. Channeling a varied set of influences while maintaining a dirty rock ‘n roll swagger throughout (“Orbothord”), Morkobot create a quirky album that illuminates their unique brand of modern-day progressive heaviness.
www.supernaturalcat.comBattlecross - PURSUIT OF HONOR
Metal Blade
Furiously ripping through 11-tracks of explosive skull pounding blasts of heaviness, Michigan quintet Battlecross unleashes a top shelf mix of punchy modern metal on their debut entitled PURSUIT OF HONOR. Ferociously channeling death metal melodies from fellow statesmen The Black Dahlia Murder while employing Maiden interpreted guitar heroics third hand from As I Lay Dying, Battlecross uses these elements merely as a springboard to launch past obvious influences into new levels of mayhem. Sporadically interjecting shards of Swedish metal sweetness, galloping metal majesty, and organic old school thrash metal rage, Battlecross assuredly delivers a crushing presentation brazen with the kind of memorable metallic moments the extreme end of the spectrum can repeatedly enjoy (“Breaking You” and “Push Pull Destroy”). www.metalblade.com
Megaton Leviathan - MEGATON LEVIATHAN
Volatile Rock
Portland, OR trio Megaton Leviathan casts a gargantuan-sized psychedelic heaviness with warm and rich tones on the unit’s five-track eponymous 2009 reissue. Combining haunting drone and hypnotically downtrodden sludge to form syrupy rhythms that freely explore avant-garde sound territories (“Guns and LSD”), this squad’s fearless stylistic shifts and intense interplay yields a bombastic release custom made for those who enjoy uninhibited loud and heavy music stocked with intriguing twists and turns.
www.megatonleviathan.comElks - DESTINED FOR THE SUN
Tee Pee
Championing a sound that crosses southern sludge metal with unabashed hardcore fury, Elks deliver a mammoth six-track endeavor entitled DESTINED FOR THE SUN. This Brooklyn, NY based quartet serves their down and dirty hybrid with a slew of familiar modern metal inflections in tow, achieving the scalding vocal fire, spry fretwork manipulations, and menacing bass and drum battering of the likes of Baroness, Black Tusk, and Kylesa while ambitiously intertwining the concept about the history of a tribe of nomadic space Vikings into the grand scheme. While some may argue Elks relies on their influences a bit too prominently, this band demonstrates the skillful chops and fiery musical sensibility necessary to present a formidable array of thrash metal thunder, rollicking rock ‘n roll hostility and cosmic metal jams. www.teepeerecords.com - Mike SOS
The House of Capricorn - IN THE DEVIL’S DAYS
Swamps of One Tree Hill
Slow-churned stoner doom quartet The House of Capricorn go slow and aim low on their 10-track offering IN THE DEVIL’S DAYS. This New Zealand troupe’s sunshine stoner shuffle (“Illumination in Omega”) to suffocating doom (“Horns”) switch-ups are gracefully handled and feature a slew of 90’s metal influence that manages to cram Electric Wizard, Danzig, Cathedral, Type O Negative, Melvins and Clutch. Guided by attentiveness for tempos, The House of Capricorn balances dread and despair to proper levels with versatile and well-versed musicianship skillfully surveying the dark and heavy atmospheres.
Fuck the Facts - DIE MISERABLE
Relapse
Multifaceted Canadian grindcore vets Fuck The Facts challenge the metal universe with eight tracks of unhinged aggression with DIE MISERABLE. Tactfully weaving in and out of genres while championing a grindcore mindset chock full of brawny blasts and brainy compositions laden with jagged melodies and twisted tendencies, this quintet effortlessly shifts directions from velocity-driven demolition (“Drift”) to bludgeoning and unorthodox heaviness (“Lifeless”). Pushing the grindcore paradigm without abandoning the style’s basic crush at any cost principles, Fuck the Facts confidently creates a chaotic and exhilarating extreme metal ride aimed to pique the adventurous metal listener’s fancy.
www.relapse.com
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