Metal Injection

by Justina Villanueva

This is proof it's never too late …

I'm not the hippest person when it comes to new music. Most of my metal friends are aware of how stubborn I am when it comes to being receptive with bands outside of my top five (Slayer, Mastodon, DEP, Opeth and Pig Destroyer). I'd say 86% of the time I find out about bands through shows and the rest is through Rob Injection and other bloggers banging a mallet over my head with band names and new albums from bands I already love (i.e. I'm still warming up to 'Crack The Skye'). So I've decided to take the time and review three success story albums, since I won't be reviewing anything in 2009 anytime soon, and because YOU ALL need to hear these. NOW.

Cephalic Carnage 'Anomalies' (2005)

This is a band I had never actually listened to prior to doing a FULL US tour with them. (I did the same thing on a Psyopus tour last year, I never heard any War From A Harlots Mouth before the first show.) I did some preliminary research on the grinders. Rob Injection sent me a couple of albums so I could at least have some idea of what to expect. When they were on stage at Irving Plaza in New York City, I finally realized THESE GUYS HAVE A SONG CALLED "KILL FOR WEED." And, something must be so wrong with them that I have to spend as much time as possible with all of them.

Along with Withered's (another Blackened Fest band) 'Folie Circulaire', 'Anomalies' has been blasting through my car speakers since June. The last song "Ontogony Of Behavior" has become a sort of soundtrack to my late night walks home after shows. It begins with soothing tones and climaxes with abrasive grooves that (and there really is no other way to put this) make me loose my shit.

Not only does Cephalic brew a crafty brand of grindcore, they are professional stoners. I don't think the name "pot head" can even begin to describe what I've seen these maniacs do, which is why they are sponsored by a vaporizer company and have a strain of medical marijuana named after them and why you don't. And that they have sustained decent lives from manufacturing this kind of extreme metal is really fucking cool, too.

Rwake 'Voices of Omens' (2007)

I don't know how I discovered Rwake or how this album made its way to my iTunes. I also don't know why Satan teased these guys and gal so much in elementary school, but I can tell you that I appreciate that they have been so tortured. 'Voices' has provides me with ringing ears daily, since I listen to this album (no exaggeration) at least once a day. Many days I listen to it twice.

Vocalist C.T. is working on a documentary that will define the wrathful beauty of metal from the U.S.'s southern states. And, that is exactly how I can describe this album: mean and blackened, ugly doom with pot-soaked swamp heat from hell. It's 120 degrees in here and these guys are possessed by demons from outer space because that is just how cool the production is on this album.

In "Fire and Flight" you're traveling through Limbo for almost two minutes before you are kicked hard in the ass with a spiked Doc Martin boot down to Layer 7. You are tossed back up and down again and never really meet the beast, but trust me, you are scared. This album predicts the future of what extreme metal can be. I just can't believe it took me two years to discover it.

You can view a trailer of 'Slow Southern Steel' here.

(Please note how addictive 'Voices' is: I couldn't write this blurb without listening to the album the whole way through even though I finished typing this before it was halfway over.)

Gojira 'From Mars To Sirius' (2005)

This is the perfect example of me learning about bands through shows, except I was still really late to learn about these French metallers. Gojira played New York's Gramercy Theater a week or two before I hopped on the Mayhem tour. At the time I really didn't get the buzz about the show. Now, I can't play it in my fancy schmancy '96 Buick Century without drumming on my steering wheel and mildly headbanging (I don't want to go to jail for listening to Gojira too loud, although I would have major metal cred if I did so).

I'm going to make a VERY bold statement, so prepare yourself to call me a dumb cunt: Gojira do what Meshuggah SHOULD be doing. They produce highly proficient technical yet artsy metal with skull fracturing melodies that jab your head into swirls. You can't help but not get sucked into this monster journey that aptly follows the concept album name, 'From Mars To Sirius.' It's progressive in the organic sense (aka no overbearing wankery) and its on my list of stuff I just can't stop listening to. After reading this, it will be blasting out of your speakers, too. I promise.

There is some new stuff I'm digging lately, however. It's Dark Castle's 'Spirited Migration,' Baroness' 'Blue Record' and Liturgy's 'Renihilation.'