“The Bearer reflects the turmoil in its hometown of Austin, Texas, lyrics protesting the affluent takeover of their city. The trio losing its practice spaces to Tesla showrooms and offices fuels its humanistic message, a reminder to value the people before they are trampled in the onslaught of capitalistic progress. Dabbling in mathcore, beatdown, and technical elements, Chained to a Tree is aflame with hardcore punk counterculture pulsing through its veins.” Bear markets.
“Negative 13 first hit the scene way back in 2002 (at the time as Negative Theory) with their self-titled (again Negative Theory) sludgefest. Presumably, life happened, as it so often does, and their dozens of fans were left with a welcome mat tagged with a goodbye note. However, in this world that keeps on giving, the past couple years have allowed people to rekindle old hobbies (and ditch new hobbies), bake bread (and then never bake bread again), and, in this case, jam with old friends. Just like that, these reinstated Pittsburghers were able to reissue their previous album as Negative 13 and lay plans for their sophomore outing Mourning Asteri.” Positive negativity.
“Moving sucks. Fleeing sucks more. That’s the story of Spill Your Guts though, who have, since their inception, churned through 11 members—all expats moving through China for opportunity. However, in their search for a better life they’ve also made the mistake of wanting to be part of the Shanghai hardcore scene, which exists under heavy government scrutiny—artists like Spill Your Guts must truly remain underground to continue. As a young band trying to break through, it can already be daunting hoping that your next gig has an audience—add to that the anxiety of wondering whether your venue will be crashed by local authorities, and it’s a wonder these hardcore hooligans could spit out even one full-length let alone this sophomore outing, The Wrath It Takes.” Crouching hardcore, hidden draGONE.
“In the three years since their sophomore release Samsara, Venom Prison has experienced a meteoric rise to fame. Samsara captured the hearts of both underground metal aficionados and non-sociopaths, by infusing high-energy brutal death metal with a healthy dose of slamming hardcore. Venom Prison’s unrelenting sound earned them a deal with Century Media, and Erebos brings the band to a crossroads as their major label debut.” Prisoner of expectations.
“Sludge is a versatile genre. Sure, there are bands that play it straight, taking the shit I spray out of my gutters in the spring, putting a sprig of parsley on it and saying “$7 digital, $35 plus shipping vinyl.” There are also bands who use it as one disgusting ingredient in their extreme metal soufflé, or like a condiment on their br00tal burger. Death doom not nasty enough? Put a little sludge on it. Prog too weenie? Sludge it up! Philadelphia’s Backslider fall into the latter category, combining filthy fucking dirty sludge with grindcore and knuckle-dragging hardcore.” Sludge grinding, pit minding.
“If you’ve never heard of Celeste, the name and the aesthetic can be misleading. Gorgeous and contemplative black and white photographs of artistic poses and strange characters greet the eyes with a moniker that points to the heavens. If you were to guess the style, you might say post-black or prog, maybe an indie acoustic troubadour, or a bedroom jazz project. However, you’d be hard-pressed to find another act as suffocating and pissed off as Celeste. A visceral fusion of black metal, hardcore, and the filthiest outskirts of extreme subgenres, these Frenchmen are the epitome of scathing consistency, releasing album after album of hypnotic tunes.” Assassin’s breed.
“Trenches is a band formed by Jimmy Ryan, former vocalist of Christian metalcore heavyweights Haste the Day. Releasing one album through Solid State Records, Jesus’ vacation home of all things -core, 2008 debut The Tide Will Swallow Us Whole instead opted for a Neurosis’ Given to the Rising-esque sludgy ‘n slow take rather than the second coming of When Everything Falls.” Jesus wept.
“Pennsylvanian-based independent label Willowtip Records was established by Jason Tipton in the late ’90s. From humble beginnings the label has stood the test of time, becoming one of the most respected and highly regarded record labels in the extreme metal scene. It takes something special to create a label with a consistently unfuckwithable roster of quality, innovative artists, while retaining long-term integrity and durability. Willowtip is the self-proclaimed forward-thinking label, releasing a slew of modern classics and top-shelf albums that may have a lower profile but are more than worth your while. This feature focuses on a pivotal early period in the label’s history that had a huge impact on my own extreme metal tastes. As such, I am highlighting some outstanding albums released by Willowtip between 2001-2006.” Watchmaker knows what time it is.
“There’s a Goldilocks Zone for musical complexity. If it’s too complicated, say, skronky dissodeath with lots of time changes, a certain segment of metal fans will feel like listening to it is work. They’ll deride it for being pretentious. Some will question, jokingly or not, if they’re smart enough to understand it. On the other side of the spectrum, certain folks will equate that with boring if it’s too simple. They may consider it too easy; low effort. Oddly, no one seems to wonder if they’re smart enough to understand what makes minimal music good.” Clever brutality.
“Waking the Cadaver is a few things to a lot of people. The first and most obvious one is them being the “Shredded Wheat” band from what was arguably the first popular metal meme. It was also the most memorable and probably the funniest, rivaled only by the Trivium “Boat Rudder” one and some gems from that page which dealt exclusively in Mortician memes. The second one, almost equally obvious, is that Waking the Cadaver traffic in a somewhat…controversial take on extreme metal which is often offensive to the ears of normies and metalheads alike. Third, Waking the Cadaver has some vitriolic bad reviews on Metal Archives. My favorite album of theirs, Perverse Recollections of a Necromangler, sits at a kingly 25% average – a firm 1.0/5.0 on the AMG scale.” Respect the dead’s authoritah!
