Shroud Eater dropping ravenous sludge with new tracks off upcoming album!

It's 2017 and I have a bunch of shit on my mind that I hate. There seems to be no resolution for all of the terrible things that humanity is capable of conjuring up on a daily basis. As I am rowing myself down this river of putrid crap which bears a stark resemblance to Styx (not the band), the enchanting shroud of gloom emanating from guitar player and vocalist Jeannie Saiz drives me on over the edge and into the pit.  

The two frontwomen of Shroud Eater are like feral dogs exploding with rapture.  Janette Valentine, bassist and backing vocalist, channels a hypnotic groove while Saiz lures the listener into a tormented meltdown of beautifully toxic energy. 

The Miami three-piece has been impressing fans of the sludge genre for several years now, and Strike The Sun represents a huge leap forward musically for the band. Although the primal fury of Dead Ends and ThunderNoise were definitely leaving craters in the doom metal community, they lacked the songcraft to elevate the music to a point where it stuck.

One listen to the track "Awaken Assassin", and it's clear that they've crossed the threshold; this is a band capable of mentally conceiving deeply woven threads of intrigue and conflict, then they break it down into good rock music. 


Beyond the wall of pummeling fuzz and distortion that has become a staple of sludge, Shroud Eater writes good music.

"Awaken Assassin" is a revelation of death on the hunt guided by the furious tempest of Shroud Eater's dark metal opus."Futile Exile" represents the powerful grip of paranoia, as explained by Jeannie Saiz, it's about a beast that never stops hunting upon fear.

Strike The Sun comes out via STB Records through digital format on July 7th and on vinyl July 8th.  Be sure to pick up what this Miami doom trio is putting down below.

Album Review: Perished - Kark

Perished

Kark

(ATMF)

True Norwegian black metal formed in the womb of the genre's darkest days, Perished's Kark is a grim voyage through the darkest depths of twilight with a symphony of cruelty. Originally recorded in the late '90s, the album retains all of the dissonance and raw shredding that made black metal so visceral in that time period. 

Album Review: Circle - Terminal

Circle
Terminal
(Southern Lord)

Circle’s Terminal album is an opus that crosses into powerful ambient territories in zealous defiance of modern rock's standard structures. There is nothing that one would consider normal from this Finnish quartet. Their energy is frantic and passionate, however, orchestrated through the brilliant clockwork of their elite genre bending song craft. Few bands can artfully move through a mosaic of styles so seamlessly without rendering their efforts to filthy and painfully pretentious noise. At its core Circle revolves around a maelstrom of rock one could immediately liken to the confrontational proto-punk meltdown of The Stooges. The Finnish vocals conjure a rabid esoteric mantra of eclectic tribal Norsemen dancing dangerously close to insanity, as the music dives through psychedelic, glam-pop, and furious acid rock riffs. Terminal is the example of how far rock music can continue to grow without the boundaries of stereotypes and genre models. 

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Album Review: Death Yell - Descent Into Hell

Death Yell
Descent Into Hell
(Hell's Headbangers)

Aggressive. Vicious. Malevolently brutal. Death Yell fulfills most of the tropes necessary for a good death metal record, and they deliver with the tumult that is Descent Into Hell. The riffs take center stage throughout most of Descent Into Hell, and at times I reminisce on really old school death metal, which was just an extreme variant of 80s thrash. The album clocks in at less than 45 minutes. The album never strays from the standard death metal format, so if you’re looking for something eclectic then you’ll find no luck here, but if you’re drawn to the old school thrashing death metal sound put Descent Into Hell on your bucket list.

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Album Review: Integrity - Howling, For The Nightmare Shall Consume

Integrity

Howling, For The Nightmare Shall Consume

(Relapse Records)

Dwid Hellion and the gang are back with yet another opus of supercharged violence in Integrity’s eighth full-length album. Howling, For The Nightmare Shall Consume is an end times conceptual album drawn from the mind of a man verging on eccentric prophet; Hellion has been crafting music with deeply woven threads philosophy for years. The hymns of doom slither like a serpent from riff to riff, channeling all of the rage and turmoil of our age. Hellion conjures vocal ferocity that sounds like a dragon spitting out jets of flaming glass.

The Cleveland based band have enough ammo to shred and pummel crowds for another thirty years, and Integrity is out to prove it with HFTNSC.

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Album Review: Wolfbrigade - Run With The Hunted

Wolfbrigade

Run With The Hunted

(Southern Lord)

The soul-crushing riffs of the lycanthrope punks have returned in full force! Run With The Hunted is an unchained rampage from Sweden’s underground hardcore punk and metal scene. Wolfbrigade conjures old school nihilism in a world gone astray. The album slays for all 26 minutes and does not let up in its d-beat assault.

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Album Review: Moonshiner - Moonshiner (Demo)

Moonshiner

Moonshiner (Demo)

(Self-released)

I’ve never been a huge fan of anything with vocals that strictly adheres to cookie monster vocals, but Moonshiner can be an exceptional case. The two piece from Bangladesh create groovy jams that incinerate stereotypes and serve as a reminder that above all things heavy metal should be fun, loud, and weird. The self-titled demo only has two tracks, but I’m craving the righteous Sabbathian riffs and far out solos in each song! bandcamp

Destroyed and rebuilt: CKY are back from the dead with The Phoenix

When a band takes nearly a decade to release a new album, it’s typically done with the feeling of some kind of titanic shift forward.

The Phoenix unearths something new and different, but it’s grounded in the roots of CKY’s best material.

The shape of CKY to come

Chad I Ginsberg (left), Jesse Margera (center), and Matt Deis (right)

Musically, The Phoenix is a deeply vast amalgamation of styles. I really appreciate the way they are able to create soft rock music that carries off into jammin’ tracks that plunge you into a gritty spaced out class of punk. However, it would be a mistake to assume that I mean The Phoenix is a soft rock album because the band can really range from proto-rock to grunge without skipping a beat.

The lack of founding member Deron Miller barely resonates as a shortage in the overall condition of this new record. Chad I Ginsberg is such a fluid guitar player with so many nasty jazz inspired hooks and leads. Without a trace of doubt, Ginsberg has been able to carry on as the creative inspiration behind this band.

According to Ginsberg, The Phoenix is intended to be a successor to Infiltrate. Destroy. Rebuild, and this goes back to what I was saying earlier about the album remaining grounded to what many consider CKY’s best album.

CKY’s The Phoenix is due out for release via eOne music on June 16th 2017.

Album Review: Black Mass - New Waste

Black Wizard
New Waste(Listenable Records)

Holy thundering riff mother load, Batman! Black Wizard kills it from the get go with New Waste. As soon as "Revival" hits you, you're going to be in for a cruise with some of the finest riffs and melodies of the heavy metal renaissance.

New Waste parts with all of the BS that intrudes on a good classic metal album. Grieve not for the lack of impenetrable time signatures and double bass driven solos. This band hones on the fine art of crafting a good rock hook and carrying you away with the lead. These solos totally deliver; the guitar team of Danny Stokes and Adam Grant are truly remarkable.

The music of Black Wizard is like attending riff church. You drop $10 and receive a righteous blessing.

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Power Trip set the tone for future of thrash metal with Nightmare Logic

If you haven’t heard Power Trip yet, then you’re missing out on one of the hottest bands to blow up in the underground circuit in a long long time.

Before I began writing this piece, I found myself toying with the idea that this Texas unit might be the next Pantera, for what it’s worth, a lot of bands have been held aloft as ‘the next Pantera, as if there could be such a thing, however, Power Trip doesn’t need to be heavy metal’s next Pantera.

Power Trip is Power Trip, and they destroy all in their path like a monolithic wave of shrapnel exploding out of the speakers.

It’s physically impossible not to be moved by the powerful grooves of Blake Ibanez and Nick Stewart. Siphoning the attitude of the hardcore scene and the nonstop melodic shred orgies of thrash metal, this band guarantees circle pits and disaster in every city they pave through. Not only do they pummel with outstanding hooks and riffs, but there’s no stoppage of eargasm inducing guitar solos.

[Photo by Johnny Milano/courtesy of earsplit]

During their most recent tour across the states with crossover act Iron Reagan, they’ve been able to sell out several venues, and it’s really no shocker considering just how much fire Power Trip packs to their performances. Several of their acts have been recorded and uploaded on YouTube if you really want to see how wild they are.

I had the opportunity to see Power Trip perform live last summer at the Local 662 in St. Petersburg, Florida, and they completely blew me away. I had never seen or heard them before, so it was an extra treat to be exposed to this phenomena without really knowing who I was seeing. Their performance was so tight, loud, and engaged. You can tell from watching several of their performances, there’s something that’s just uncanny and natural that rolls out of Power Trip whenever they play.

Lyrically the band’s range encompasses social woes and personal tribulations. Not only are they focused on the rotten state of our world, but there’s a great deal of motivation and empowerment in tracks like “If Not Us, Then Who” and “Waiting Around To Die.”

Nightmare Logic is only their second full-length album, so there’s still a lot for this band to offer, which is perhaps their greatest asset. With a label like Southern Lord looking out for them, they’re exactly where they need to be in order to establish an absolute ass kicking career among the next generation of titanic shredders.

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