“Disappear” leads things off with abrasive, melodic hardcore from Skin Like Iron. The track is pretty decent with solid hardcore riffing, plenty of reverb and harshly screamed vocals. The second song, “The Parade” from the first half of this split is in the same vein as the first, but perhaps a bit more melodic in its crashing of guitars and drums. Both tracks are decent enough and no offense to these guys (their contributions are solid enough), but it’s the Nails portion of the split that I am really drooling for. Let’s get to it.

“Annihilation” is the first of the band’s two offerings on their half of the split and it is chock full of down-tuned, crunchy mayhem. At nearly three minutes in length the track is right in line with what we heard on Unsilent Death — buzzsaw guitars, a little old school Swedish death metal flavor and bruising rhythms. The second track, however, is the near opposite. Exploding through 25 seconds of unrestrained grind, Nails show us that no matter how much death metal leaks into their sound, they still know how to bring the grind. And bring it they do. Hot damn!

Four songs ain’t much to get real excited about, especially if you were really only looking forward to two of them, but the split still serves as a quick snack for those of you (much like me) rabidly awaiting the next full-length from Nails.

I’m kidding, of course. The hardship that the working class of this iconic city has seen and encountered has been well documented through the years. The boys in Heartless and the music on their Southern Lord debut, Hell is Other People, are chomping at the bit to unleash their fury upon the rest of world.

Kicking things off with a swift kick to the head, “Clean Slate” let’s you know exactly what you are in for over the remainder of this quick hitting album. Grind influenced, metallic hardcore explodes with just enough grime and sludge to do a body good. The riffs are big and the rhythm section hit like a back-alley beatdown in just 51 seconds. Vocally, the vitriol and hatred that these guys have deep seated within themselves is delivered harshly with an in-your-face bark, spit flying everywhere. Crusty, d-beat packed tracks like “Cede,” “Undulations” and “Late” get the blood flowing with plenty of aggression and fire — all the while teetering on the precipice of diving head first into full-on grindcore.

As violent as the first half of this album is, it’s not until the band settles down a bit in the later tracks that we are really treated with some good shit. “Pathogen” starts this stream of songs off with plenty of sludgy groove peppered into a destructive track packed with bruising riffs and malicious rhythms. “Out of Focus” is appropriately titled as it’s all over the place in terms of spastic tempo shifts, grinding blasts and driving riffs. “Cast Down” keeps the frenzied blasts flowing as it erupts for just under a minute with distorted guitars and vicious drums.

The last three tracks (“Blinders,” “Cop Out,” and “Hard Feelings”) not only end the album in stellar fashion, they are also some of its more complete songs. Distorted reverb, doom-fueled riffs and manic drum work accompany snarling barks and growls letting you know that these dudes are pissed-the-fuck off, yet quite adept at intelligently putting their thoughts together and not just mindlessly fuming at the world. If the rest of the album were like this ending trifecta, we’d have one hell of an release on our hands. As it stands, Hell is Other People is a solid debut effort that shows not just a pile of aggression, but also plenty of promise.

Relapse Records
May 11, 2011
User Rating: Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.

Track Listing

1. Hometown Hero
2. Obituary
3. Black Earth
4. For Life
5. Old Friends Don’t Mean Shit
6. Frostbitten
7. The Meeting
8. Worthless
9. Friendship
10. Jock Powerviolence
11. The Fine Art Of Bullshit
12. Dubviolence
13. You Could Exist Tomorrow
14. Future

In the mood for a solid ass kicking? No? Well, tough shit.

Weekend Nachos unleash a whole pile of ass whoopin’ powerviolence and grind in the form of Worthless, an album that is anything but. Fourteen tracks are hurled at you with reckless abandon in just over 25 minutes time. In that short period sludgy breakdowns, grind blasts and a hatred fueled vocal attack will bludgeon and bruise their way through your skull with little to no regard for your personal well being. And, in all honesty, isn’t that what extreme music is supposed to do? Leave a heavy fisted impression in the side of your cranium?

“Hometown Hero” opens up the back alley beat-down with a solid minute of unrelenting drums and bruising riffs. The multiple vocal attack that starts off with this track will leave you feeling surrounded and outnumbered throughout the album. There’s little diversity among the majority of the songs, but that makes them no less powerful. Each track is jammed with aggression and violent rhythms to accompany thick, sludgy guitars. The pummeling riffs of “Obituary,” the raucous gallop of “Black Earth,” the d-beat fueled “For Life” and the ADD freakout that encompasses “Old Friends Don’t Mean Shit” all build to a culmination with the title track.

“Worthless” is the first of the songs on the album to break from the burly riff and grinding blasts that have formed the first seven songs, but that’s primarily due to the guitar feedback that fills the first two minutes of of this 4:35 long song. Thankfully the last half of the song is full of gargantuan riffs and plenty of aggressive, yet doomy atmosphere. This is a slugfest of a song.

The second half of the album starts off with classic powerviolence in the form of “Friends,” a frenetically charged song that has a solid ebb and flow in it’s meager 33 second run time. The slower “Jock Powerviolence” has over-muscled , Limp Bizkit hat wearing douche bags in its line of sight as the band let loose with a verbal onslaught. “The Fine Art of Bullshit” is an awesome track with plenty of erupting blasts and sludgy breaks. “Future” wraps up the album with a slow moving, churning series of riffs that put anything from the likes of Black Breathe or other Entombed-revivalists to shame. Don’t get to comfy enjoying those initial riffs as the track is peppered with violent outbursts sure to incite a few riots.

All in all, Worthless is one of the more violent hardcore tinged albums I’ve heard this year. Weekend Nachos blend of sludge, d-beat, grind and powerviolence is addictive as all get out. The album may not be all that varied for the most part and just as you think it’s starting to sound the same, Weekend Nachos throw a haymaker from nowhere and you’re out cold for the count.

Prosthetic Records
Mar 15, 2011
User Rating: Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.

Track Listing

1. Damage Prose
2. Slumcult & Gather
3. Every Walk a Quarantine
4. Evictionaries
5. All by the Constant Vulse
6. Sordid Earnings
7. The Facts
8. Saintpeelers
9. Manic in the Grips
10. Sovereign Through the Pines
11. Drag the Wounds Eternal
12. Scars Align

It’s taken until this latest release from Trap Them for me to fully get into their material. The band’s blend of Converge and Cursed just didn’t float my boat. I mean, yeah, they delivered the goods with plenty of energy and aggression, but so did the bands they were emulating. At any rate, I don’t know what it is about Darker Handcraft that’s so enticing, but man I’m digging the hell out of it.

Released through Prosthetic records with Kurt Ballou (Converge, Doomriders) at the helm, Darker Handcraft has this sort of Entombed inspired sound that has been popping up a good deal lately — see the latest releases from the awesome Black Breath. There’s also a bit of a darker groove ala Doomriders flowing amongst the aggression. Given who’s producing the album, that’s not wholly unexpected. Perhaps it’s the deep-seated love for Entombed churning in my gut, but I’m all about Trap Them’s recent musical shift — it’s made there already in-your-face sound that much darker.

“Damage Prose” couldn’t be a better song for the band to open up Darker Handcraft. It erupts out of the speakers with down-tuned, chugging riffs, galloping drums and harshly delivers vocals that carry a boat load of anger and vehemence. The band is doing everything they can to blow out their amps and your speakers with this opening track. It more than sets the tone for the remaining 11 songs. “Slumcult & Gather” amps up the hardcore knobs a bit more as the crunchy guitars pummel away along with the maniacal drum work that highlights this song.

Man, there are so many great moments throughout this disc. The opening guitars to “Every Walk a Quarantine,” the monstrous groove of “Evictionaries” and full on old school Swedish death metal vibe to the guitars of “All by the Constatn Vulse” highlight the first half of the album. I absolutely love the build up to “The Facts” as it transitions through a Doomriders’ influence into the thick and densely packed fury that is “Saintpeelers.”

Trap Them have received a good bit of notice and acclaim for their past material, but it’s this latest effort, Darker Handcraft, where the band has truly found their sound. Dense, evil, dark and disruptive, the music found throughout these 12 songs is unrelenting and persistent in its goal of beating you senseless. I just can’t get enough of it.

MetalSucks.net
Mar 22, 2011
User Rating: Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.

Track Listing

1. Hello, World!
2. Return Void
3. Algorithms
4. Recursions
5. (Null)
6. Hope Springs Eternal (Spaghetti Code)
7. Sundowners
8. Foo
9. Dining Philosophers
10. Garbage Collector

Man, I’m all for some crazy timing and sequencing in a song, but what Brooklyn’s Meek is Murder have done with their brash (and sometimes pretentious) blend of Converge, The Red Chord and The Dillinger Escape Plan, is just down-right nasty. Algorithms is a frenetic and cerebral trip through ten math-fueled tracks of caustic hardcore in just under twenty minutes. It’s an album with a dense and atmospheric production that accents and highlights all the key moments in an album chock full of them, yet oddly enough doesn’t overwhelm with sensory overload.

“Hello, World!” greets the listener with enough reverb and dissonance to drown an elephant in static textures. It’s essentially just an intro, but it does a wonderful job of setting the mood well. “Return Void” is where all the fun starts. It’s a song that is dense and layered with thick riffs and rumbling rhythms that jump and stop and start, all the while keeping up with one another to the tune of 43 seconds of squonky noise and anger. The title track is all over the place with nerdy, computer-esque guitar flourishes and enough vocal aggression to match the thicker, down-tuned guitars when the band gets away from the glow of their computer screens for a few seconds.

For as varied as this album is in terms of it’s spastic, ADD nature, it’s got a certain flow to it that keeps the listener engaged and attentive without confusing us too much. Each track is nicely timed and limited in length to exactly what it needs to be, never overstaying it’s welcome. The first four songs are indicative of what the band is capable of mashing together and still sound as a single unit. From the droning intro to the alternative treatment on “Recursions,” Meek is Murder have the sound of well traveled touring veterans and a seasoned, matured sound. It’s not an album that throws everything at you all at once and leaves nothing for the imagination. There’s restraint here and song structure that usually come with some maturation. It’s a surprise to hear it in a band’s debut album.

“(Null)” is a stellar track that shifts from noisy, dissonant hardcore with full on aggression to a subtle and subdued piano track to end it out. “Hope Springs Eternal (Spaghetti Code)” continues the aggressive Converge-like sound, but with the strict timing of The Dillinger Escape Plan. It’s a track that really showcases the band’s abilities nicely. As do the melodic guitar in “Sundowners” — lending a post-something vibe to the band’s sound.

The final combination of songs “Foo,” “Dining Philosphies,” and “Garbage Collector” sum up the album the best as far as the band’s outside influences go. There’s plenty of dissonant hardcore, noisy math, sonic atmosphere and a little down-home sludge all thrown in for good measure as the guys jump from rhythm to rhythm at OCD levels of timing and repetition. Algorithms is a hell of a debut album. It’s one that will cement the band’s name in a few year-end lists, that’s for damn sure.

Epitomite Productions
Jan 18, 2011
User Rating: Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.

Track Listing

1. Night Of The Desirable Objects
2. Disturbing Remedies For A Desperate Disease
3. Purveyors Of Scum
4. Necroplunger
5. The Natural Disasters
6. A Harmless Walk
7. An American Obsession
8. Laughing In The Dark Pt. I
9. Laughing In The Dark Pt. II
10. The Bundy Curse

I don’t tend to go for deathcore as much as I used to, but I’ll be damned if I didn’t find Abacinate’s latest effort a healthy dose of kick-assery. Genesis could very easily be thrown into the deathcore pool, but unlike many of their contemporaries that still tread water in the shallow end, this New Jersey crew actually hurls some seriously decent death metal your way via traditional deathcore trappings.

While researching as I prepared to review Genesis, I learned that the band’s vocalist, Jason Sica, passed away last September. That’s truly a shame. His delivery is just about perfect for this kind of music — deep guttural growls, raspy shrieks and hardcore-style shouts all come together for a very natural and smooth overall presentation. It will be interesting to see where the band goes on from here. There’s a pile of talent in this album, despite the band’s unfortunate loss.

As far as Genesis is concerned, there are enough death metal outbursts to keep, at least, myself entertained, while Abacinate also incorporate just enough hardcore elements for those fans looking for more of that, as well. It’s a precarious position to find yourself in, I suppose, but the band seems to balance the varied elements (from At the Gates to more traditional U.S. death metal). It’s not a stellar album, but it does have enough going on to keep the listener engaged long enough to make it through the album a couple of times.

For as strange as the title may be, “Necroplunger” is a hell of a song. It’s got serious death metal chops and technical flourishes abound. It’s quickly followed by the chugging, yet groove injected vibe of “The Natural Disasters” — a song that shows a solid, varied base for the band to grow from. “An American Obsession” starts off with a nice chugging gallop before diving head first into a furious bit of crushing riffage. The two-track spanning instrumental “Laughing in the Dark” contains some of the best material on the album, albeit the least death metal influenced of them — there’s a little bit of everything here from doom to thrash to some sweet melodic riffing.

While the future of Abacinate may still be up in the air, the music within the confines of Genesis certainly is not. It’s burly, chugging nature may be more akin to the deathcore style, but the death metal influences amongst the mosh are just too strong to ignore.

Selfmadegod Records
Feb 22, 2011
User Rating: Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.

Track Listing

1. Grayed Out
2. Foreign Climates
3. Race To The End
4. Hidden Costs
5. Giveaway
6. Anemic
7. Vignette
8. No We Can’t
9. Untitled
10. Checkers
11. Sight Unseen
12. Farewell Kiss
13. Hinges
14. Age Of Reason

Tackling your country’s social and political issues with music is nothing new. Tackling it with some frenzied, nasty grind-core certainly isn’t revolutionary, but D.C.-based Drugs of Faith do just that and more with their debut full-length Corroded. Featuring Richard Johnson of Agoraphobic Nosebleed, the 13 tracks on this album are chock full of grind-core elements, but there’s also a swagger about the music. It’s not just straight, up-in-your-grill grinding mayhem.

Corroded hits hard and often with a D.C. hardcore influence, some nicely timed groove and just the right amount of noise rock to create a sound that spans several genres within the metal scene — and with plenty of aggression to boot. Opening track “Grayed Out” erupts out of the gate with frenetic drums and distorted guitars delivered at a frenzied rate. There’s a sludgy influence within the band’s sound — oddly enough that reminded of Lair of the Minotaur — that’s well suited for the band’s overall sound and message.

Listen to a slightly different version of “Grayed Out” below:

“Foreign Climates” sees a more grinding attack that is staggered and all over the place before settling down a bit as the vocals come in. This frenzied eruption of noise and blasting elements is present throughout the album, but certainly not in any formulaic capacity. The hardcore and noise rock elements that bleed into the band’s tempered grinding attack really make for a unique sound that is infectious and crushing.

“Race to the End” and the bass-thudding “Hidden Costs” are a great pair of tracks that show the polar ends of the band’s influences. On one hand you’ve got a blistering eruption of grind and the other, a more noise rock influenced, yet driving interlude of caustic metal. Be sure to check out the aggressive “Anemic,” the groovy, noisy “Vignette,” the monstrous “Checkers” and the frenetic blast of “Hinges.” You can’t go wrong with any of them.

As bands try to incorporate more and more elements of the various metal genres that abound these days, the more and more piles of shit we tend to get. Luckily, Drugs of Faith have been able to mash influences of grind, hardcore and noise together into a sound that is cohesive, yet discordant, original and aggressive. It’s a sound that is old school as well as new, without sounding forced or faked. It’s the sound of a band that shows some serious promise with future releases.

Metal Blade Records
Feb 1, 2011
User Rating: Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.

Track Listing

1. Doomageddon
2. Villains
3. Rise & Conquer
4. The Walking Dead
5. Silence Is Golden
6. Die Like You Live
7. Gravedigger
8. Gutter Mouth
9. War Machines
10. Battle Hymns and Broken Bones
11. C.O.B.R.A.
12. Cain Marko
13. The Path I Walk

To this day I still play the hell out of Full Blown Chaos’ Wake the Demons. It’s a burly album that’s simplistically barbaric in its presentation and delivery — aggressive and massive breakdowns accompany a bruising metallic hardcore attack. Unfortunately, the band’s next two albums fell on deaf ears. I just wasn’t a fan of where they had taken their sound. I appreciated the effort they put into each album, but there was a lack of energy and power with Within the Grasp of Titans and Heavy Lies the Crown.

The band’s latest full-length, self-titled effort is a beast unto itself. Just about everything about the album reminds me of why I still blow my ear drums with their debut while pounding weights at the gym. The music on Full Blown Chaos is powerful, bruising and delivered with an energetic ferociousness that was missing in their more recent material.

Lead growler, Ray Mazzola, also appears to be back in form after what I saw as a step back in terms of his delivery the past two albums. His vocals are fuller, more vicious and completely full of enough animosity to let you know he means business with this effort. He delivers a solid performance that is much more full of depth and power, a delivery similar to the beastly growls and shouts that he let loose on Wake the Demons. And he’s not alone in his performance. The riffs (a dual effort from Mike Facci and Mark Gumbrecht) feel that much more bruising — hell there are even some sick leads thrown around amongst the mosh. The rhythm section (Dustin Jennings on bass and Jeff Facci on drums) is laying it down like no tomorrow, creating a bludgeoning foundation from which the rest of the band builds and expands.

The appropriately named opening track is indicative of the band’s efforts. It’s a three minute long neck snapper that goes by so quickly it feels more like an intro to the album. In fact, once the raging stampede effect of that track is over, the album seems to fly by like nothing. It’s full of massive riffs (that can get repetitive at times, but that’s the nature of the beast) and more than enough tempo shifts to keep you full entertained through 40 plus minutes.

If you’re not ready to throw yourself into the first circle pit you see after that opening song, then perhaps the driving pace and shout-along chorus of “Rise and Conquer” or the rumbling groove of “The Walking Dead” will get you stoked for the rest of the disc. “Silence Is Golden” is a great song to get excited about. It’s got an amped up delivery, aggression and more developed song structure that’s reflected throughout the rest of the album in tracks like “Gravedigger” and album closer “The Path I Walk.”

Full Blown Chaos has been four years in the making through more struggle than I can imagine leaving the band that much stronger for it. It’s one thing to deliver pissed off metal. It’s another thing to capture your vehemence in a fashion that is truly awe-inspiring. The 13 tracks on this album are the cumulative effort of a band that’s not only been playing together for quite some time, but also that of a band that’s seen tremendous growth and maturation in their song writing since their last full-length release. Full Blown Chaos is one of those albums that will capture the raw intensity of their debut for fans like myself, as well as bring in newer blood with a renewed sound and natural progression. Needless to say, this album has been on repeat for a good while since it arrived.

Label: Six Feet Under Records
Release Date: 2010
User Rating: Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.

Track Listing

1. Conform
2. Scum Will Rise
3. Your God
4. Suffering Soul
5. Unsilent Death
6. Traitor
7. I Will Not Follow
8. No Servant
9. Scapegoat
10. Depths

Label: Trendkill Records
Release Date: Aug 28, 2010
User Rating: Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.

Track Listing

1. Moonshiner
2. Because I Can Kill You
3. Salt Water Cthulhu
4. Temple of the Morning Star
5. The Drought (Ov Salt and Sorrow)