Hardcore

Highrider – Roll for Initiative Review

By Treble Yell on September 20, 2017 in 2017, Doom Metal, Hardcore, Reviews, The Sign Records, Thrash Metal, Doom Metal, Hardcore, 35 comments

“It’s been a long and bitter journey. Fatigue clings to you like a drowning sailor; a debt accrued from the rancid marches and frigid mountains your troupe of brigands have had to push through. You stumble out from a forest that delighted in stymying your efforts to leave unscathed and come across a time-worn bridge that leads to a welcome sight — home. Before you can muster a cry of exultation a blood-curdling roar splits the silence and a gigantic blur of teeth and scales crashes down before you. A dragon now blocks your path.” Chaotic neutral.

Helpless – Debt Review

By Mark Z. on September 12, 2017 in 2017, British Metal, Grind, Hardcore, Holy Roar Records, Reviews, Hardcore, 15 comments

“If I were looking for a way to market Helpless, I would describe them as a combination of the brutal rage of Nails with the wild noise of Anaal Nathrakh – yet perhaps a more accurate description is simply “a grindier Gaza.” Like them, Helpless’s lifeblood is dissonance.” Noise as art.

Ledge – Cold Hard Concrete Review

By Kronos on September 2, 2017 in 2017, American Metal, Doom Metal, Hardcore, Hibernation Release, Reviews, Translation Loss, Hardcore, 40 comments

“What’s one to do when one’s beloved powerviolence quartet, hyped for years by fans and the press, decides to pull a Seinfeld and call it quits while still on top? If your name is John Hoffman and that band is Weekend Nachos, you go solo.” Taste the concrete.

Moral Void – Deprive Review

By Kronos on August 11, 2017 in 2017, American Metal, Black Metal, Crust Punk, Grind, Hardcore, Powerviolence, Reviews, Translation Loss, Hardcore, Powerviolence, 20 comments

“Last year’s Nails record was as blunt as they come. It’s rare that a band can generate enough hype — and then live up to it — that they can brazenly assert their superiority without being a laughingstock. But the trio did just that, leaving an open challenge to would-be peers in the title track of You Will Never be One of Us. When Moral Void heard the refrain, they thumbed their noses at the speakers. ‘Fuck you, Todd Jones,’ they said, ‘yes we will.'” Join or die.

Dead Cross – Dead Cross Review

By Akerblogger on August 4, 2017 in 2017, American Metal, Hardcore, Ipecac Records, Reviews, Hardcore, 44 comments

“Dead Cross is a supergroup, of sorts, playing a style of music close to each member’s angry heart. All the Patton-isms are featured here: the nonsense lyrics, the gibberish sounds, the medley of singing styles. Lombardo, too, sounds like he’s back in the 80s, playing with joyous urgency. Supergroups are destined to fail though, right? Just like Fantomas sucked, right? Are we about to take a trip into the rotten realms of half-arsed nostalgia, or have Dead Cross constructed something freshly re-invigorating?” Right cross from dead field.

Integrity – Howling, For The Nightmare Shall Consume Review

By Ferrous Beuller on July 25, 2017 in 2017, American Metal, Hardcore, Relapse, Reviews, Hardcore, 29 comments

“If you’ve followed the band’s thirty year career at all, you may think you have an idea of what you’re in for; but Howling demonstrates a disregard for convention as flagrant as my indifference for sentence length.” Run-on with the pack.

River Black – River Black Review

By Eldritch Elitist on July 14, 2017 in 2017, American Metal, Hardcore, Season of Mist, Black Metal, Death Metal, Hardcore, Thrash Metal, 37 comments

“River Black, a new project featuring members of Revocation, Municipal Waste, and the long-defunct Burnt by the Sun, doesn’t feel like an attempt at outclassing those bands so much as spruced up recordings of jam session spitballing.” Supergroups in the river.

Heaven in Her Arms – White Halo Review

By Huck N Roll on July 11, 2017 in 2017, Hardcore, Japanese Metal, Progressive Metal, Reviews, Translation Loss, Hardcore, Progressive Metal, 69 comments

“The AMG Overlords are vengeful overlords. One wrong step, one missed tithe, and an underling can find oneself working in the boiler room again. Or worse yet, getting duped into a review of something unexpected. Case in point, someone we all know and love was late with a review and thus, scrambling to get back in Madam and Steel’s good graces, frantically grabbed a promo described by the Overlords as “post-something.” I’ve been had. Heaven in Her Arms are a Japanese hardcore act who incorporate some progressive elements, some death elements, and some screamo, but not really any post-something.” Post-punishment.

Hexis – Tando Ashanti Review

By Akerblogger on April 19, 2017 in 2017, Black Metal, Danish Metal, Halo of Flies, Hardcore, Reviews, Black Metal, Hardcore, 28 comments

“Think of the most oppressive, putrid, and harrowing music you know. Now multiply the numerical representation of that oppressive and harrowing putridity by a thousand million. Your numerical representation is dwarfed by that of Hexis. In their world, Wormed sound like the Beach Boys, Ahab sound like wimpy clown fish, and Annal Nathrakh sound like a Tony Bennett tribute act.” That’s a mad world, right there.

No Zodiac – Altars of Impurity Review

By Ferrous Beuller on April 11, 2017 in 2017, American Metal, Deathcore, Hardcore, Reviews, Deathcore, Hardcore, 23 comments

“I’m an extreme guy. By this I don’t mean that I consider myself dangerous or an advocate of some horrendous 90’s marketing initiative, rather that I am a man of extremes – when I like something, I like it a lot; when I dislike something, I have almost no capacity to hide it. Having said that, I pride myself on giving anything and anyone a fair chance, and so it is with music. Lest I resort to using an entire genre as a de facto pejorative, I make sure that it’s an informed opinion that I weigh against an act. Thus, when I say I’m not a huge fan of deathcore, it’s an evaluated choice – not a trendy point of view.” Extreme regression.