Car Bomb

Car Bomb – Mordial [Things You Might Have Missed 2019]

By Saunders on December 17, 2019 in 2019, Alt-Metal, American Metal, American Rock, Holy Roar Records, Mathcore, Progressive Metal, Reviews, Things You Might Have Missed 2019, Djent, Hardcore, Mathcore, Progressive Metal, 34 comments

“New York’s Car Bomb have oddly escaped my radar, so I was stoked to finally become acquainted with the band on their blockbuster fourth LP, Mordial. Admittedly I’m less adventurous towards experimental, technical extreme metal than I used to be, but bands like the mighty The Dillinger Escape Plan, along with Burnt by the Sun, Uphill Battle and large portions of the early Willowtip roster are dear to my heart. Car Bomb’s complex, abrasive blend of mathcore and choppy, groove-centric extreme metal is full of color as surprisingly penetrating hooks lend a vaguely accessible streak to otherwise challenging and uncompromising music.” Don’t cut the red wire.

Freighter – The Den Review

By Kronos on July 19, 2019 in 2019, American Metal, Experimental Metal, Hardcore, Mathcore, Reviews, Self-released, Mathcore, 17 comments

“At some stage of sleeplessness, the pace of thought continues at speed while the fragmented hard drive of the mind reads straight across without regard for pointers or references. Ideas, memories, images, and anxieties flow without order or continuity through consciousness. It’s a state best approximated by mathcore, and mathcore is what Freighter approximate it with; The Den trades in the genre’s usual angst for a paranoid psychedelia to express this unique deprivation.” Not your dad’s metal.

Ketha – Zero Hours Starlight Review

By Kronos on November 17, 2017 in 2017, Avante Garde, Djent, Polish Metal, Reviews, Selfmadegod Records, Djent, 71 comments

“It takes something else to make music that, even if it has obvious roots, seems to have been produced entirely out of these normal cycles. Such was the case with #!%16.7, the last release from Krakow’s oddball djent group Ketha. It had everything you’d never expect; grind-length grooves, a horn section, and even that Casio patch that’s just a dude grunting. Zero Hours Starlight is a wholly more conventional effort, but it still refuses easy categorization.” There’s a mole in my pigeonhole!

Colosso – Obnoxious Review

By Kronos on September 2, 2016 in 2016, Death Metal, Portuguese Metal, Reviews, Self-released, Death Metal, 34 comments

“Colosso occupy a strange perch in the metal world. While they’re obviously huge Meshuggah fans, their groovy, mid-paced metal is a far cry from the tech-prog peddled by djent bands. Yet the group’s history fits the bill quite well, beginning as a one-man band before gradually accruing members to flesh out their current sound.” More members do not a success make.

C.B. Murdoc – Here Be Dragons Review

By Kronos on June 27, 2016 in 2016, Groove Metal, Progressive Metal, Reviews, Swedish Metal, ViciSolum Productions, Groove Metal, Progressive Metal, 24 comments

“C.B. Murdoc’s claim to fame, as anyone who has heard of them will tell you, is that Tomas Haake called them cool once. And they’re cool in a groovy, idiosyncratic way, as telegraphed by their grungy ’50s bop album artwork both here and on their Spinefarm-released debut, The Green. But cool doesn’t get you very far with a guy who cares not for Deafheaven and ignored the mirrored-aviators-wearing shenanigans of the last Shining album. Kronos may not be cool, but he is more brutal than you.” Brutal is as brutal does.

Ketha – #!%16.7 Review

By Kronos on March 19, 2015 in 2015, Avante Garde, Death Metal, Groove Metal, Instant Classic, Polish Metal, Progressive Death, Reviews, Avante Garde, Death Metal, Progressive Metal, 24 comments

“Earlier this year, a band hailing somehow not from Japan, but from Kraków, released an appropriately enigmatically-named EP that by all rights should have shat all over Angra’s RoTM position, had anybody on the planet told us about it. But they didn’t. And for that you’ll burn.” We are aggrieved.