“Death metal, for all its vast influence, can be a chore. Walls of distortion, thick riffs, and roars all on the same plane of the low and gurgle assault the ears with reckless abandon, and I have long needed breathing room to fully appreciate it. While The Gorilla God Himself prefers it putrid and slimy and the gone-but-unforgotten Kronos prefers it layered and intricate, I prefer a death metal experience that takes me places. Saskatchewan five-piece Augurium is willing to throw their crusty platter of death metal into the ring.” Death on the road.
Deathcore
Stuck in the Filter – June’s Angry Misses
The boys of Summer were stuck ungunking the Filter for months. Salute them with pumpkin spice things as they emerge into a chilly Fall.
Humanity’s Last Breath – Ashen Review
“My time reviewing music by Sweden’s Humanity’s Last Breath has been a rewarding, yet frustrating experience. I liked a lot of what they did on both 2019’s Abyssal and 2021’s Välde, but the former lacked a killer focus, and the latter needed a bit of pruning. I’ve been intrigued by this band ever since the first time I heard their world-crushing track “Abyssal Mouth,” and I keep waiting for them to deliver a full album that captures that same level of energy and unbridled heaviness. As we prepared to enter into the second half of 2023, I heard a familiar, deep rumbling, a rumbling that could only foretell one thing: a new Humanity’s Last Breath album was on the way.” Fresh breath or hateitosis?
Signs of the Swarm – Amongst the Low & Empty Review
“When you’re Signs of the Swarm, and the last ten years have been one big battle with PR, you can finally breathe after 2021’s impressively solid Absolvere. Shady human beings have been booted and one solid album free of allegations in, the Pittsburgh now-quartet can instead focus on being terrible for being a deathcore band.” Goals.
Mental Cruelty – Zwielicht Review
“A Hill to Die Upon represents the steepest improvement between two albums that I encountered during my overextended employment at AMG Torture Racks and Surgical Paraphernalia. After the disappointing sophomore slump that was Inferis, I assumed the German troupe responsible for the mighty Purgatorium, a veritable clinic on killer slam riffs and technical prowess, burned too brightly too soon. But A Hill to Die Upon gained a well-deserved rating upgrade and remains one of my most revisited albums in the entire deathcore pantheon.” Hill kills.
Stuck in the Filter – March’s Angry Misses
We cleaned the Filter back in March, but it’s taken a while to process the objects we pulled from the webbing. We apologize for the crud.
The Acacia Strain – Failure Will Follow Review
“Failure Will Follow is the album The Acacia Strain was meant to make. The second of two albums released on the same day, it is a revelation, an enigma. Like its art counterpart, Step Into the Light is the glimpse into the narrow lens of a natural if not gruesome scene: a robin feeding its chicks gore. It’s primal and strange, but not out of the realm of possibility. Failure Will Follow is the revelation, the feeding of its chicks from the massive decaying body of a deer – a graceful creature laid to waste and taken apart, its majesty a memory.” Strain, repeat.
The Acacia Strain – Step Into the Light Review
“The Acacia Strain has had an interesting career. While their breed of hardcore-tinged deathcore rattled skulls throughout the 2000s with albums like Continent and The Dead Walk, 2014’s Coma Witch and closing track “Observer” changed everything. Showcasing capabilities beyond down-tuned “djunz” and edgy lyrics, it set the path forward with purpose and prowess.” Double the Strain.
The Modern Age Slavery – 1901 | The First Mother Review
“Remember when deathcore was exciting and fun? Pepperidge Farm remembers. Even the dead horse I beat to make that joke remembers. Back when you gals could do the side part and we all wore Etnies without a second thought, folks like Whitechapel, Suicide Silence, and Carnifex dominated the iPod playlists of Warped Tour patrons who were too edgy for Chiodos or AFI. While the death metal bastards had been eviscerating and slicing and dicing for years at that point, putting them to breakdowns just hit the youths different, y’know? Well, Italian deathcore veteran act The Modern Age Slavery is here to make you aware of social issues and do so by channeling what it feels like to be trampled in the mosh pit.” Slave rages.
AMG’s Unsigned Band Rodeö: Fracturus – Versus the Void
“AMG’s Unsigned Band Rodeö” is a time-honored tradition to showcase the most underground of the underground—the unsigned and unpromoted. This collective review treatment continues to exist to unite our writers in boot or bolster of the bands who remind us that, for better or worse, the metal underground exists as an important part of the global metal scene. The Rodeö rides on.” Void fractions.