All Shall Perish Reveal More Details About Their Reunion


All Shall Perish has revealed more details about their upcoming reunion this spring. In addition to the Big Texas Metal Fest in May, the band will also perform at the just announced Inkcarceration Festival 2024 in Ohio this July. The current lineup of the band includes vocalist Eddie Hermida, guitarists Christ Storey and Ben Orum, and drummer Matthew Kuykendall. So far the band has not commented on who will be on bass guitar. This will be their first shows in over 11 years. Read a comment from the band below. Continue reading


Godsmack, Shinedown, Bad Omens, Parkway Drive, Killswitch Engage, Machine Head, Shadows Fall, Biohazard, As I Lay Dying, The Offspring, Booked for Inkcarceration Tattoo and Music Fest 2024


Brought to you by Danny Wimmer Presents, the biggest presenter of Rock and Metal festivals in the USA, Inkcarceration Tattoo & Music Festival has released the full line-up for 2024. Taking place July 19th to the 21st at the Historic Ohio State Reformatory, the festival boasts headliners Breaking Benjamin, Godsmack, Shinedown, The Offspring, Halestorm, Bad Omens, Parkway Drive, as well as Killswitch Engage, Machine Head, Shadows Fall, Biohazard, As I Lay Dying and many more. Tickets are available at the link below. Continue reading


All Shall Perish Has Booked Their First Show in 11 Years at Big Texas Metal Fest This Spring


All Shall Perish is back from a lengthy hiatus and ready to play live again. The band posted on their official Instagram account that they were booked for the Big Texas Metal Fest this May. The band has not played a gig since 2013. their last attempt to reunite was in 2020 and featured a line up of Hernan “Eddie” Hermida and Craig Betit, guitarists Chris Storey and Ben Orum, bassist Caysen Russo, and drummer Matt Kuykendall. No word on the present lineup and if it will involve any previous members such as Jason Richardson (All That Remains) or Francesco Artusato (Light The Torch). More details to hopefully come soon!Continue reading


Watch Light The Torch Live at Saint Vitus Bar


Light The Torch (ex Killswitch Engage, ex All Shall Perish) has shared a full concert video from 2018, of the band performing their first show under the moniker. Prior to this show, they were known as Devil You Know. This show was recorded by and presented by Revolver Magazine. The band si working on a new album, hopefully out in 2021 or sooner. Continue reading


Light the Torch – Revival


Revival, huh? That seems a bit on the nose, don’t you think, Devil You Know? I mean, Light the Torch. See, it’s a Revival (Nuclear Blast), because it’s the first album since Devil You Know was forced to change their moniker due to legal troubles with a former drummer. Fucking drummers, man. Also, it’s a revival of sorts because Light the Torch is taking their sound to novel and interesting places. Continue reading


Black Tongue – The Unconquerable Dark


Black Tongue- The Unconquerable Dark Album cover 2015

As we hit the end of the summer, I was able to get my hands on the latest album from Black Tongue entitled The Unconquerable Dark (Century Media). Being on quite a doom kick this year, hearing about Black Tongue being considered “doomcore” I had some higher than typical expectations going in. I feel the album as a whole is a solid release, but I think I was let down a little thinking it would sound more like doom than hardcore/deathcore. Sure we get the slow tempo through most of the album aside from a few passages in a few tracks but those are greatly outnumbered by the endless amounts of breakdowns. There were some tracks that did stick out to me though on this release.

The first track, ‘Plague Worship’, is one of the better tracks on the album as it has an evil opening and really sets the bar for what to expect on The Unconquerable Dark. The extremely low tuned guitars and the thunderous drums keeping everything together is sure to kick you right in the face from the start. Eddie Hermida (Suicide Silence/ex-All Shall Perish) adds guest vocals on ‘Vermintide’ and it is pretty obvious for those who know Eddie. Especially when it comes to Black Tongue pushing nothing but disgusting, gutturals and then he jumps in with his high pitched screeches. And for those who like longer tracks to lose yourself in, this one comes in at just over six and a half minutes, longest on the record.

I did have some gripes with The Unconquerable Dark with it not really meeting what I was expecting. However, I do have to say I thought this release, while expecting deathcore, is certainly better than the rest that comes out today in that genre. At the end of the day, I may not listen to this as often as other releases from other artists this year, but if I have “one of those days” then Black Tongue may just get a spin on the ride home.

5.5/10

TIM LEDIN

 


Oceano – Ascendants


Oceano-Ascendants-800x800

Releasing their fourth album in only six years, all on Earache, Chicago, Illinois’ Oceano don’t do two things – subtlety or surprises. Wading in like a behemoth sumo, with each stab of the guitar representing a tree-trunk leg thudding down and with each pig squeal signifying the friction of flabby thigh slapping flabby thigh, the beatdown-focused Ascendants lumbers into town, modelling deathcore 101 with the open string chug enhanced by some tight and imaginative percussive work.

Taking their cue from Thy Art Is Murder and All Shall Perish’s more staccato moments, Oceano’s is a considered violence, a repetitive ham-hock fist to the head with pendulum regularity and in no particular rush; it’s the troll wading through the sea of bodies that are trying to force it back in an exercise in futility. For those who enjoy their pro-wrestling, they are the Big Show; cumbersome, but effective (and somehow higher-profile than you think they deserve to be, and you prefer the other, more interesting wrestlers anyway….).

Oceano are also beginning to suffer from the inevitable law of diminishing returns. If their debut, Depths, one of the best examples of deathcore to date, showcased diversity in amongst the rhythmic bullying chug and Contagion had a darker, twisted feel, Ascendants is Oceano at their lowest common denominator, most Neanderthal, a notion that is enhanced by ‘Dawn of Descent’ and it’s more atmospheric endeavours, which help it stand out in a sea of proto-human repetitive pounding.

Other acts, in particular Suicide Silence, have shown it’s possible to continue to progress a sound and develop as a band while retaining a deathcore identity (though the further they, and others move from the deathcore “core” the more successful they are and the better they sound), but Ascendants is still a decent, if unspectacular, repetitive brain injury of a deathcore album. With (another) new line up in place, one wonders about the future of Oceano as not even by playing it safe and playing the genre card to the max – for this is dictionary definition beatdown laden deathcore – is enough to bring Ascendants up to the level of their previous outings.

6.0/10

Oceano on Facebook

STEVE TOVEY


Suicide Silence – You Can’t Stop Me


 

Suicide Silence - You Cant' Stop Me (Ltd. Digipak-Cover)

In the event of a musician’s death the surviving members have a few options. You can do the Led Zeppelin and call it a career. Or you can turn the page and start fresh like New Order. And there’s always the AC DC method which is to keep plowing forward giving people what they’re familiar with.

Suicide Silence have chosen the AC DC path.

Three years since their last recording, The Black Crown (Century Media), and two since frontman Mitch Lucker’s untimely death, Suicide Silence have returned the appropriately titled You Can’t Stop Me (Nuclear Blast). While there was doubt on the prospect of new music, Suicide Silence took a year off and recruited Hernan “Eddie” Hermida to replace the late Lucker. While he was a magnetic stage performer, Lucker wasn’t the most accomplished growler, which is why Hermida’s entrance to the band should be a welcome one. If you ever got the chance to see Hermida’s former band, the commercially inferior/musically superior All Shall Perish you know he’s got chops and stage presence himself

While non-processed vocals and a strong live show is always good news, there are some bad news. The bad news being that they still sound like Suicide Silence. Like this could be the sequel to The Black Crown. It’s a sound that I’d hesitate to call death metal. After enough listens You Can’t Stop Me sounds something more akin to groove metal, metalcore or even nu-metal.

I’m not sure if it’s because of Lucker’s death, but Suicide Silence leave no doubts that this is an album from the folks who gave you ‘Disengage’ and ‘Wake Up.’ All earmarks are present, from the triggered drums, requisite breakdowns and simple song titles (‘Monster Within,’ ‘Warrior,’ ‘Inherit the Crown’). And to really make sure you understand it’s the same band you know and love (or love to hate), they’ve conveniently also included a re-recorded version of ‘Ending is the Beginning’ from their debut EP. Ironically ‘Ending is the Beginning’ may the best song on the album.

They say the more things change the more they stay the same. Suicide Silence believes that and for good reason. They’re on of the few metal acts today that consistently finds themselves debuting with the Billboard Top 100. It’s just disappointing because they had a fantastic opportunity here to reinvent themselves. But they seem to enjoy being the Toyota Camry of extreme metal. Selling well while being perfectly vanilla.

SuicideSilence2014d

 

5/10

Suicide Silence on Facebook

 

HANSEL LOPEZ