It’s becoming apparent that our filtering systems work quite well! The crew has done a fine job pulling filth from the workings and releasing the pressure to the system. A second too late and the toilets would have backed up.
As I Lay Dying
Feelingless – Metal against Animal Cruelty Review
“That title is great advertising. The details are even better. Feelingless is a nonprofit side project of Hugo Markaida from Spanish melodeath band Rise to Fall. Feelingless and record label Noble Demon have pledged to donate all proceeds from debut album Metal against Animal Cruelty to animal shelters in Spain and animal welfare charities abroad. I wasn’t familiar with Markaida’s other work, and reviewing a record that straddles melodic death metal and metalcore is risky business. But after reading that blurb, I couldn’t help but be intrigued.” Up with animals.
Ghost in the Ruins – Return to Ash Review
“Ghost in the Ruins is a metalcore band from North Carolina, born from the ashes of Further the Fall, debut full-length Return to Ash making a wrecking ball to eardrums everywhere. Taking cues from the glory days of metalcore, expect galloping breakdowns, dueling melodic axe work, and vicious vocals galore.” Children of the core.
Sunken State – Solace in Solitude Review
“Though childhood friends and siblings surrounded me with the stuff, the only two metalcore releases that stuck were Trivium’s Shogun and God Forbid’s IV: Constitution of Treason. And, depending on the mood, As I Lay Dying. The rest ain’t my bag. The reason I grabbed Sunken State’s debut record was mainly for the vocal performances. It’s an interesting melding of barks, rasps, and shouts. Solace in Solitude also combines their metalcore sound with melodeath, Lamb of God groove, and subtle hints of death metal. It’s an interesting combination of elements—especially for a band from South Africa.” Core tour.
Karpenter – Sleepless Review
“Karpenter plays an Americanized version of the Swedish sound which was foundational to bands like As I Lay Dying, along with the Swedish take on that Americanized Swedish sound which was done by Soilwork and In Flames on Stabbing the Drama, Sworn to a Great Divide, A Sense of Purpose, and Come Clarity. The newest of the above is thirteen years old, the oldest sixteen – Karpenter is an unintentionally hard-hitting commentary on the passage of time.” Sleeping in the past.
Bloodletter – Funeral Hymns Review
“This is year two of Covid and we’re still discovering new ways in which the pandemic is altering the way we live. For instance, we’ve received multiple 2021 promos for Funeral Hymns, the sophomore release from Chicago thrash metal band Bloodletter, but Metal Archives and Bandcamp say it was released in September of 2020. I’m sure we will have more situations like this in the next couple of months. In fact, my review for next week is in the exact same boat. Not knowing who to trust, I’ve decided to trust the only person that I can trust: yours truly.” Blood can’t be dated.
Midgard – Tales of Kreia Review
“Tales of Kreia continues the direction of travel from Wolf Clan through Book of Fate and sees Midgard build their Viking power-folk-meets-thrash-metal sound. Heavier than its predecessors, Tales is the first all-out fantasy record from Midgard.” You just got Loki.
Neaera – Neaera Review
“No matter how hard you try, you can never really escape your past. By day I’m the kvltest of the kvlt, blasting the blakkened fukkin death while wearing a shirt that depicts Jesus getting flogged by a horde of goat demons. But when I curl up at night with my plesiosaurus plush, I know at heart I’m still the same mid-aughts core kid who got his start in the metal world with Killswitch Engage and their ilk. Even today, when the promo teat runs dry, sometimes I find myself returning to where it all began: core.” Damn core kids!
Quiescency – Message for Lamb Review
“Metalcore. Deathcore. The ever nebulous ‘melodic metal.’ These are tags that discomfit discerning metalheads like myself. In those rare moments where I experience the excitement for a new release in these genres, as I did with Russia’s Quiescency, the worst case is that my anticipation overinflates. Since the band announced Message for Lamb roughly forever ago, my expectations for their debut record swiftly reached an unreasonable altitude. Alas, what goes up must come down.” Lamb stewed.
Countless Goodbyes – Cycles Review
“It’s been pretty interesting to watch metalcore’s evolution over the years. I’m talking specifically about the strain of metalcore that cropped up in the early 2000s, the good cop/bad cop style played by the Killswitch Engages and As I Lay Dyings of the world, the type that infused At the Gates riffs with choruses cribbed from the latest alt-rock band. I ate that shit up in high school and stayed for the party when the style started adopting faster and more technical playing (see: August Burns Red and Texas in July). When djent had its heyminute in the early 2010s, bands realized chugs weren’t too different from breakdowns and thus began to add some djentiness to the proceedings (see: This or the Apocalypse’s Dead Years and Hollow).” The core cycle.
