We caught up with Cedrik Davis of Sanguisugabogg ahead of the release of their new album, “Homicidal Ecstasy” – due out this week via Century Media Records! We chatted about the ascent of the band to the forefront of modern death metal, their varied influences, and a track-by-track analysis of the new album! Continue reading
What was the first bit of heavy music you ever heard in your life? Did you level up, gaining mana from the ear-peeling riffs and shouts? Lovers of extreme metal surely have had experiences like this in their lives, where their entire world is tossed upside-down a new band, or a clutch of new demos from an emerging scene. This is how my ears felt hearing Grief Symposium, with a new take on the Death / Doom sub-genre with their debut, …In The Absence of Light (Church Road Records). Although mysterious and secretive, they did not set out to reinvent extreme music, but rather invent themselves, and a sound that should echo for a long time.
January is always a strange month for new music as albums will drop, are loved, and then usually become an afterthought by July. Having said that, the sophomore release from Minnesota’s own Nothingness, entitled Supraliminal (Everlasting Spew), is the grimey death metal that will revisit my earholes for months to come. The overall sense of dread on some of the tracks is an added bonus as I do enjoy heavier music with some feelings outside of anger and brutality.
Recently renovated classic venue Irving Plaza in New York City is the scene for the finale of the US leg of At The Gates most popular album, Slaughter of the Soul. Enforced opened the night. They’re an interesting group to me. They sound like a mix of Death Metal/Thrash with a some hardcore-tinged vocals. Whatever they’re going for, it’s working for them. I dig it.
Besides writing reviews and attending shows, I have both full time and part time jobs, a family and too many cats. It’s safe to say that I like to stay busy but I have nothing on Exhumed founder and frontman, Matt Harvey. In this year alone he toured with both Gruesome and Death tribute band Left To Die (performing Leprosy in its entirety!) If that’s not enough, he somehow conjured up more hours in a day to write and record Exhumed’s latest batch of gore soaked madness, To The Dead (Relapse Records).
Artificial intelligence is a concept seemingly ever-present in the modern day. But nobody talks about when musical instruments become sentient and develop their own mannerisms and consciousness.
Blending together subgenres of metal to further push the boundaries of heavy music is not an uncommon practice these days. Hierophant, while starting off as mostly a blackened sludge metal group, is more recently focused on mixing the extremes of black metal and death metal. Their fifth release, Death Siege (Season of Mist), continues this signature for the Italian foursome.
I’ve been a huge Transformers fan since the original 1980s cartoon and toy line (yes, I’m old). So when I was sent Kill Division’s debut album, Peace Through Tyranny (Redefining Darkness Records), Megatron’s quote line from the original action figure, I was instantly intrigued. Continue reading
To say that Revocation has another banger on deck seems a bit obvious, right?
Speaking only from this author’s perspective this Boston unit has never fumbled the ball on a studio album. Dispute that amongst yourselves in the comment section, just don’t tag me along in your spirited debates. Last thing I need are more notifications via my phone. So, the point is Netherheaven (Metal Blade) may as well be subtitled “Revocation continues to be awesome and David Davidson is more talented than you, will never run out of riffs and can make out with your special lady friend whenever they like”.Continue reading
Survival Of The Sickest (Napalm Records) sees the return of Bloodbath, European death metal’s number one super-group, a band created in homage to the old school masters of the grisly art in 1998, by Jonas Renkse and Anders Nystrom of Katatonia, Mikael Akerfeldt of Opeth and Dan Swano (Edge Of Sanity).