After a pretty uneventful slate of releases last week – can we all agree in the age of Spotify and Youtube that live albums and re-releases just aren't much of a sell anymore? – the labels are coming strong this week, particularly if you dig your metal on the brutal side.
As They Burn – Will, Love, Life
Genre: Deathcore
Origin: Paris, France
Label: Victory
Buy Now on Amazon.com
No surrender monkey in these riffs, As They Burn instead eschew emotive choruses in favor of relentless brutality. They aren't quite the heaviest deathcore band out there, but they do a pretty good job of mixing pit riffs with the kind of groove that's borderline djent.
Baptists – Bushcraft
Genre: Hardcore/Sludge
Origin: Vancouver, British Columbia
Label: Southern Lord
Buy Now on Amazon.com
Representive of Southern Lord's recent focus on sludge-informed, d-beat loving hardcore, Baptists flirt with death & roll as well on their debut for the label. If you're on Spotify you can preview this bad boy effective immediately, then head over to SL's online shop for the best price on your physical needs (no, not that kind). As of this writing, though, there's not a single cut from this album up on Youtube or Soundcloud, so this cut off a previous EP is the best we can do:
Devourment – Conceived In Sewage
Genre: Brutal Death Metal
Origin: Dallas, Texas
Label: Relapse
Buy Now on Amazon.com
You know what to expect here: technically adept Cannibal Corpse worship with nary a regard for human decency. Not sure anyone ever asked for such things from their gore metal to begin with, but anyway, no… not here.
Portal – Vexovoid
Genre: Death Metal/Experimental
Origin: Brisbane, Australia
Label: Profound Lore
Buy Now on Amazon.com
You know by now that Profound Lore doesn't fuck around with bands that don't push the envelope, and that streak is not gonna be broken on this new Portal joint. These guys use the austere coldness of BM without really rendering themselves "blackened" anything, so expect cavernous riffs, vocals from the bowels of hell, and probably night sweats for the next few days.
Shai Hulud – Reach Beyond the Sun
Genre: Metalcore
Origin: Pompano Beach, Florida
Label: Metal Blade
Buy Now on Amazon.com
Check out Mr. Zalucky's review here, where he assures that the album finds the band "sticking more to their hardcore roots and self-consciously playing down their more progressive metal influences." Sold, cash on the barrel.
Suffocation – Pinnacle of Bedlam
Genre: Brutal Death Metal
Origin: Centereach, New York
Label: Nuclear Blast
Buy Now on Amazon.com
Another bad boy we've already reviewed, Atanamar exalting the record as "something luminous and deadly that recalls the band’s finest work." Baller.
Also out today:
The Acacia Strain – Money For Nothing EP (Prosthetic)
The Beyond – Frostbitepanzerf–k (Horror Pain Gore Death)
Black Boned Angel – The End (Handmade Birds)
Botanist – IV: Mandragora (The Flenser)
Coldsteel – America Idle (Stormspell)
Complete Failure – The Art Gospel of Aggravated Assault (Season Of Mist)
Dark New Day – Hail Mary (Red)
Disperse – Living Mirrors (Season Of Mist)
Edge Of Attack – Edge Of Attack (Spread The Metal)
Eight Bells – The Captain's Daughter (Seventh Rule)
Enshadowed – Magic Chaos Psychedelia (Pulverised)
Eternal Solstice/Mourning – Split Re-Release (Vic)
General Lee – Raiders Of The Evil Eye (Play The Assassin)
Godflesh – Hymns Re-Release (The End)
Kingcrow – In Crescendo (Sensory)
Kongh – Sole Creation (Agonia)
Krypts – Unending Degradation (Dark Descent)
Manilla Road – Mysterium (Shadow Kingdom)
Misery Index – Live In Munich (Season Of Mist)
Nepente – Suffering Is The Seed (Sonic Blast)
Polluted Inheritance – Ecocide Re-Release (Vic)
Puscifer – Donkey Punch The Night EP (Puscifer Entertainment)
Raven Black Night – Barbarian Winter (Metal Blade)
Sacred Steel – The Bloodshed Summoning (Cruz Del Sur)
Sannhet – Known Flood (Sacrament)
Sceptre – Age Of Calamity (Demonstealer)
Skineater – Dermal Harvest (Pulverised)
Spektr – Cypher (Agonia)
Terminate – Ascending To Red Heavens (Selfmadegod)
Tsjuder – Desert Northern Hell Re-Release (Season Of Mist)
Ulcer – Grant Us Death (Pulverised)
