ALBUM REVIEW: Infected Rain – Time


Breaking away from the pack of Modern Metal bands, Infected Rain is fulfilling their promise as one of the the best underground buzz bands of the new millennium. Their new album Time (Napalm Records) goes super hard, but more importantly, showcases their maturity as writers, riff dealers, and how to make every song stand on its own. It’s rare to get to see a label trust a band to follow their muse and really grow and change from album to album. Continue reading


ALBUM REVIEW: Dying Wish – Symptoms of Survival


 

For those heavily into the metalcore scene, Dying Wish have been that band on everyone’s lips that are looked on to be the scene’s next biggest thing.

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ALBUM REVIEW: IN FEAR – All Is. All Shall Be


 

Metalcore is a style of music that will likely always have appeal, and always have avid listeners, but few in the genre can land a knockout at the start. Bristol UK metalcore scene newcomers In Fear have wound up and clocked quite the sucker punch to the noses of the dubious and unsuspecting.

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EP REVIEW: Portrayal of Guilt – Devil Music


 

On Devil Music (out now on Run For Cover Records) Austin, Texas three-piece Portrayal of Guilt up the ante with a thirty-minute barrage of inventively malevolent extreme metal, firmly achieving what they’ve hinted at on recent releases: greatness.

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EP REVIEW: Atreyu – The Hope Of A Spark


 

Having approached their twentieth year of being a staple in the metalcore scene, the prodigies of Atreyu still haven’t lost their spark (no pun intended) with the new EP The Hope Of A Spark (Spinefarm Records). Drawing from the commonalities of the quintet’s personal lives, each song is truly a shared effort among the five of them – not only musically, but conceptually.

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ALBUM REVIEW: Gideon – More Power More Pain


Eschewing hip-hop elements and influences, Alabama hardcore outfit Gideon returns with a metallic, crunchy slugfest that is More Power More Pain (Rude Records/Equal Vision), the bruisers’ sixth full-length record.

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ALBUM REVIEW: Zulu – A New Tomorrow


 

Fifteen unfinished chapters don’t combine to make a novel.

A New Tomorrow, the debut long-player from eclectic power-violence outfit Zulu (released via Flatspot Records), feels too much like a compendium of skeletal songs that largely fail to take off to truly work. Three of the first four tracks – the exception being the introductory ‘Africa,’ a piano and strings-infused number – start off heavy and emphatic, but they all conclude with a divergence. ‘For Sista Humphrey’ turns gospel; ‘Our Day Is Now’ descends into sound clips; and ‘Music To Driveby’ is marred by soft singing.

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ALBUM REVIEW: Distant – Heritage


 

As I was sampling the new barn-burner from Distant, the lethal vocals featured on ‘Plaguebreeder’ actually scared off my fiance (as in she left the room, not that she gave back the ring!).

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ALBUM REVIEW: Lionheart – Welcome To The West Coast III


 

LHHC, baby.

 

Singer Rob Watson is one of the most adept frontmen in hardcore when it comes to being able to both hype up a crowd and tell grim, streetwise lyrical tales over bouncy grooves. Nothing has changed with their latest release, Welcome To The West Coast III (Arising Empire). While the series of ‘Welcome…’ releases started with an EP, it is now halfway to keeping pace with Lil Wayne‘s Tha Carter albums. “Welcome” implies an introduction, but ironically the band no longer need one. Think of the title as more akin to an ongoing episodic documentary at this point.

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ALBUM REVIEW: Fit For A King – The Hell We Create


 

In yet another striking example of music being used as an outlet for some of life’s most traumatic misgivings, Fit For A King have returned with their seventh – and quite possibly most impactful – full-length record. The Hell We Create (Solid State) is eons more than a collection of compelling, thought-provoking metalcore.

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