You Will Never Be One Of Us by Nails

Grindcore/power-violence act Nails have established themselves as one of the premier groups in the genre with their first two releases, both of which have garnered a rather impressive amount of acclaim. They have a sound that is hard to explain to those who have yet to hear them, as their frantic, chaotic, straight to the point tracks normally fail to even exceed the one minute mark. Their punchy guitars, roaring drum beats, and nasty, guttural vocals all come in with such ferocity that they're over before you even have time to click play.

On You Will Never Be One Of Us, Nails do branch out in some ways, with Violence Is Forever coming in at a modest three and a half minutes, and the closer They Come Crawling Back taking up eight minutes of the 22 that the album runs for. Even on the longer cuts however, the band deliver the same kind of music you would find on their previous two efforts, and with Converge's Kurt Ballou behind the scenes producing yet again, you're all but guaranteed to find some of the ugliest sounding guitar riffs around. Frontman Todd Jones, who provides both the guitar work and the vocals for the band, doesn't shy away from experimenting with the same hardcore/metalcore territory that many of the bands Ballou has worked with in the past have, especially on tracks like the aforementioned They Come Crawling Back, which features some mathcore influenced, headbang worthy breakdowns and slow-paced drum beats that in turn build up into multiple chaotic interludes before the track comes chugging to a halt.

While the rest of the album isn't as patience testing as the 8 minute epic, it still delivers in plenty of other ways. The title track, which was released as the album's first single is another highlight, as the band kick off the album with monstrous blast beats that are delivered with such attitude and flair that you can't help but feel the music. They take a groovier approach on Made To Make You Fall, with an intro that in some ways is reminiscent of groove-metal pioneers Pantera, that is before the track descends into hell once again and the groovy instrumentation is swept away in favour of more bone-rattling guitar riffing and drumming.

When it comes to what sets this album apart and it makes such a great inclusion in their discography, I think it's simply just how well they manage the pacing of their songs. Not only does the band manage to make the most of even the shortest tracks, but they also seem to include everything imaginable within these tight timeframes. There are plenty of short, Converge-esque breakdowns and guitar passages, and just as many moments where the band create such an enveloping wall of sound that you truly become beat down by the brutality they are presenting you with.

In the time you've spent reading this review, you probably could have listened to this album in it's entirety, so that's where I'll leave this. Nails have yet to disappoint thus far into their career, and if you found yourself enjoying either of their last two full-lengths, this truly is a must hear. They aren't changing up their style, and they aren't looking to make any new fans, they're just taking the same style they've perfected with their last two efforts, and this time they're cranking it up even louder.

Rating: 4/5

Check out the title track You Will Never Be One Of Us below:

You can pre-order the album over on the band's merch site here.

untitled unmastered by Kendrick Lamar

From the groovy opening bass line and spoken word vocals to the concluding chants of "pimp, pimp!" Kendrick Lamar manages to make untitled unmastered one of the most cohesive hip-hop compilation albums released in quite some time. The eight songs featured, many of which have been performed on live television recently during the Grammy's as well as on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, were recorded at different times over the last three years. It becomes very obvious the influence that Kendrick's last project To Pimp A Butterfly had on the recording, as there are moments of very similar instrumental progression and spoken word passages that K.Dot experimented with on the album. That's not to mention the use of many direct references not only to the album's title, but also to tracks like Mortal Men and King Kunta.

The surprise release of this project not only serves as an unexpected gift for all fans of the Compton born emcee, but it also proves his versatility and consistency. These tracks aren't driven by the same overlying theme that surrounded the recordings on TPAB, and yet they still work as both songs that could easily be hits, and deal with some very interesting and important subject matter.

The album's opening track, which can't be called anything but that, since the tracks are all untitled, is an ambitious effort that finds Kendrick discussing the future of the world over a deep bass line and haunting piano play. Eventually we get to an interaction between the emcee and God himself, who asks "what have you done for me?" The track is reminiscent of TPAB's How Much a Dollar Cost in it's introspective discussion of faith, and Kendrick's apparent fear of not being accepted into heaven. Not only does it start the project off on the right foot, but it's one of the most memorable moments throughout the album as well.

The second track on the album see's a beat more similar to something you would have found on TDE label mate Jay Rock's recent album 90059, and yet with the few moments of freejazz influence, you're reminded exactly who it is you're listening to. The lyrics on the cut see Kendrick exploring his fame, and how his own life has changed while the life in the hood remains all consistent. It's also the first time on the project we hear the chants of "pimp pimp," something that becomes a reoccurrence as the album moves on. 

The following track is one of the most impressive lyrically, and was debuted quite some time back live on the Colbert Report. Kendrick discusses encounters with members of many different races, and the advice they give him on how to live his life, yet when he arrives at the white man, all he wants is a piece of the emcee. The song is clearly being used as a metaphor for record labels and the music industry, and as far as the songwriting goes, it's one of my favorite moments on the project.

After a short interlude, we get the fifth cut on the album which see's an appearance from Anna Wise, an artist who many will recognize from her contributions on TPAB. The dynamics on this song are quite impressive, as we see Kendrick aggressively handle the laid back jazz lounge instrumental, while Wise delivers a much more beautiful and traditonal hook to the song. The duo are also joined by rappers Punch and Jay Rock later on in the track, and both drop solid verses to bring the cut to it's conclusion. Up next is the sixth track, which instrumentally reminds me a lot of the For Sale interlude from TPAB, but quickly expands to much more thanks in part to a feature by R&B/soul artist Cee-Lo Green. The song digs deep into the concepts of human flaws, as well as embracing unique traits with lines like "look at my flaws, look at my flaws, look at my imperfections and all. Look at how you think my mystique is a round of applause." This track in particular is an example of Kendrick's ability to step away from the misogynistic stereotypes that surround the hip-hop music and culture, and instead make something that can be seen as positive.

The album takes quite a turn stylistically for the seventh track, as the eight and a half minute long cut begins with much more of a "banger" beat than we've heard thus far, which is somewhat ironic considering producer/rapper Swizz Beats claimed it was his five year old son Egypt who actually provided the production on this one. Nonetheless, it isn't long before the instrumental transitions into something much broader, as the eight minute track fails to ever get repetitive, and in fact is more like three separate songs placed into one album slot. The final third of the track provides one of my favorite moments from the project, as we get a very lo-fi, direct cut from the studio audio from Kendrick. You can hear background noise, speaking, and chairs squeaking among other things, but it feels so organic and natural that it's almost as if you're in the studio as well, which is just another example of K.Dot incorporating elements of other genres into his own style.

That brings us to the closing track, which some may know as Blue Faces, which was debuted just a month or so back on Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show. The song sees the rapper delve into the mind of a love interest to ask her why it is she's so sad. The funky, fast-paced instrumental might have served better as an opener than as the closing track, but it's still yet another solid moment and brings the album to a rather quick conclusion.

It's hard for me to assign a rating to a compilation project, but it feels like much more than just a collection of untitled and unmastered tracks. It isn't anything like Kendrick's earlier releases, and all of his previous releases have been unlike anything he's released prior to those. While the core of the album is clearly influenced by his last release, it's a much more streamlined and to the point approach that still manages to be both unique and inventive. There are some moments better than others, and it does feel rather raw at times, but ultimately it's yet another fantastic release from the Compton native that will keep fans foaming at the mouth for his next release.

Rating: 4/5

Listen to Kendrick Lamar perform Untitled 2 (Untitled 8 on the album) live below:

Fervor by Daydream Society

Daydream Society is the solo project of Fort Wayne, Indiana based ambient musician Bryan Mullins. He first caught my ear with his 2015 release: For Now, a very impressive record that saw him use a traditional synth based sound to create some very uniquely lush soundscapes as well as some spectacularly vivid imagery. He released the follow-up to that project, Avulsion, this past January, and while it stayed true to that same sound found on For Now, it also saw him dig a bit deeper as an artist as he tried to define his stylistic direction a bit further.

If one thing can be said about both of the last two projects, it's how much I found the music correlated with the album art. The brightly lit neon city that graces the cover of For Now matches the vibrant synths of the album perfectly, and often times the music itself provoked the feeling of walking down a brightly lit city street on a dark rainy night. Meanwhile, the artwork for Avulsion is quite different, yet the wintery forest that you are presented with on the cover still manages to connect with the music quite well, as this time the sound is more of a warm blanket, enveloping you much like the bright sun that can be seen peaking through the aforementioned trees does to the forest.

So, what about the newest album, Fervor? This one was hard to get a read from by simply looking at the album art, but after hearing the first few songs, it becomes immensely clear what the artistic direction is. The project, which Bryan himself referred to as being "an album about love, without using any lyrics" is the darkest I've heard him get. The angry, dirty distortion on tracks like Daring to Deceive You and Fate or Fiction Pt. 2 feel both loud and abrasive when contrasting the hauntingly beautiful synths that occupy most of the other tracks, however when set against the backdrop of the shadows and darkness of the album's cover, it all seems to make complete sense.

While he has classified his previous projects as experimental, it wasn't until Fervor that I felt the tag truly belonged. The closing track The Best Dream of Your Life, a cut that comes in at nearly 7 minutes long, is a wonderful example of that. The extra slow pacing of the piece is wonderful, and while it's kicked off with the same buzzing atmosphere that you might expect, it's as the track progresses that we find surprises such as the ugly keys which manage to still boarder on being pretty in their own eccentric way. When that's mixed in with what appears to be a very sci-fi inspired sound, it creates one of my favorite tracks on the entire album. It was an ambitious decision to venture further into experimental territory, but fortunately the plethora of new sounds included on this record don't interfere with the same atmospheric nature that can be found on the rest of Daydream Society's projects. Even with some moments being more out there and unpredictable, the project as a whole remains very coherent and has it's own unique identity without alienating any of the elements found on older material. 

This is certainly the most ambitious Daydream Society album I've heard, and for each second of beauty and love, there's also a moment of sadness and despair, but after all, isn't that what love is? In many ways, I consider an ambient piece to be much like surrealism is in art. You may not be able to hear or feel exactly what the artist was thinking when creating it, but each listener will have their own interpretation of what's beneath the surface. For me, Fervor is a journey for both love and lust, a journey that has ups and down, and is equal parts alluring as it is tragic. Is Fervor Mullins' best project? Perhaps not, but it certainly is on par with the rest of his works. What it truly is however, is a sign of musical maturity and further development of what was already an incredible approach.

Rating: 4/5

You'll be able to download or stream Fervor on March 1st, over on Daydream Society's bandcamp page here. In the meantime, head over and check out some of his other material.

Ufonaut by Entropia

For those not familiar with Entropia, they are a Polish post/black/experimental metal outfit who really hadn't crept onto my radar until the release of this LP here; Ufonaut. With that being said, the fusion of black metal and post metal, also known as blackgaze, has been one of my favorite metal sub genres over the past few years, and it has led me to a handful of fantastic releases from the likes of Deafheaven, Ghostbath, and Harakiri for the Sky. So, when going into this album, I clearly had high expectations. Fortunately for myself, and any other fan of this genre, Entropia delivered in quite impressive fashion. 

On Ufonaut, the band encompasses a traditional black metal style as means to create a basis or outlining sound for their music, but it's their ability to take influence from other subgenres and incorporate them throughout that really adds the extra substance to this project. The opening track Fractal is a great example of that, as the opening 45 seconds or so, see's the band weaving in and out between a much more traditional black metal guitar riff and some Mastodon-esque sludgy, slow paced guitar stylings. As the track progresses, we also see the band incorporate the use of an organ which helps contribute to the very haunting nature of the song. As it comes to end, horns are introduced, which really allow for the group to build a fantastic crescendo to what is easily one of the best moments on the entire LP. 

From there, you find much more of that same risk taking and genre bending formula as the album proceeds. Songs like the title track Ufonaut see the band experiment with some slower, cleaner guitar tones in between heavy, hard hitting moments, while both Mandala and Paradox are used to showcase the group's more experimental side, as they use variations of middle eastern instruments to help create some intricate, folkish instrumental passages. The record's closing cut, Veritas is also worth mentioning, as it's the longest track on the record and also perhaps the loudest. It finishes the album off with a fantastic climax, thanks to the final minute of the track which is full of in your face, wretched, ugly screams that really help drive their sound into your head like a car with no breaks smashing into the side of a burning building (that was seriously the best analogy I had.) 

Aside from Veritas however, the vocals do, at certain moments at least, tend to come off as rather gimmicky and annoying. It's not so much the vocalist himself, (who goes by the stage name of U, as each one of the band members is named after a letter from the word Ultra,) but it's the production choices. Like on the aforementioned opening track Fractal for example, we find a blowing, wind-like noise appearing seemingly every time U opens his mouth, and then as the album continues, the vocals become coated with an echo effect that would make you assume the band recorded the frontman while he was screeching in a dark, empty cave. And while typically that might be a positive on a black metal project, this isn't your ordinary record, and the rest of the production is rather clean and lively in comparison to the raw, lo-fi nature of the vocals. 

With that being said, the vocals only appear on perhaps a third or so of the album, and the focus clearly lays on the instrumentation, which is of course consistently fantastic, so it doesn't interrupt my enjoyment all that much. There really isn't anything on this album that doesn't deliver in a unique and intriguing fashion. It's certainly heavy enough to welcome any fans of more traditional black metal acts, but it also keeps you guessing by firing post-metal inspired passages at you on nearly every single track. A great addition to the Polish black-metal scene, and a fantastic statement for all blackgaze bands around, Entropia delivered a very nice LP.

All in all, I'm giving Ufonaut a 4/5.

Let me know down in the comment section, have you heard the album? If so, what'd you think?

Listen to Fractal, the second single released from the album down below:

You can download or stream the album over on Entropia's bandcamp page here.

All is Dust and I Am Nothing by Slaves BC

Here we are in the 21st century, with a metal scene unlike we've ever seen before. No longer can a band succeed by striving to simply be the "heaviest" or "most metal," because it's been done countless times before. Now, it's about the style just as much as it is the substance, it's about broadening the horizons of the listener and incorporating more than just blast beats and ugly vocals, that is if you want to make a great record. For Slaves BC, they do exactly that with a blend of hardcore punk and blackened doom metal that has established themselves as one of the most exciting upcoming bands in the metal scene, in my personal opinion at least. They've released a handful of singles, 7' splits, and EPs over the last couple years, but All Is Dust And I Am Nothing is their first full-length album, and boy is it ever packed to the brim with the rawest of raw vocals and nasty, chugging, guitar riffs guaranteed to leave you begging for more (or maybe less?)

The album, loosely referred to as a concept album, sees the band explore the meaning of life. If you are unsure of what exactly it is that they discovered throughout this venture, maybe the song titles will help clarify. A quick peak at the track listing gives you titles such as God Has Turned His Back, All Find Their Way to Their Grave, and Everything Is Meaningless. The music however, doesn't deliver exactly in the same vein that the song names might lead you to expect, as the project feels quite a bit more like the narrative of a man's life than it does the emo record that the track listing might imply. As the LP progresses, the screeched vocals, which do at times feel as if they were inspired by early 90's screamo, feel as if they become lower and lower in the mixing. Progressively becoming drowned out in dirty, muddy, distortion. It's as if the man's thoughts are no longer clear, or at least are not distinguishable to those who hear them. The ferocity and raw nature of the vocals are perhaps best displayed when tracks come to a halt, on cuts such as Crawling Through Nothing and Why Are We Here? the band makes the decision to finish the tracks with blood curdling, animalistic shrieks rather than relying on the heaviness of their respective instruments. 

Anyone can pound on a drum set and scream into a microphone, and while at times it may seem as if that's all that the Pittsburgh based hardcore outfit are doing, it always leads to something bigger and badder. Whether they're looking to bring out the ugliest, meanest noise possible on the tracks God Has Turned His Back and Nothing Remains But Death, which feel at times as if they were influenced by mathcore acts such as Converge or Dillinger Escape Plan, or moments where they are looking to create some cleaner, more traditional metal instrumentation like on Everything Under the Sun, the band always seems to be looking to try something different than what you have heard on the previous track. Even if the progression is minuscule, it can still always be found.

Beauty in metal is more prominent than ever before. Subgenres such as post-metal and blackgaze, are seeing acts incorporate lush soundscapes and more atmospheric elements into their sound that previously wouldn't have been accepted as being heavy metal. For Slaves BC however, their sound is as far from being pretty as humanly possible. It's dirty, it's raw, and it's ugly as hell, yet the band refuse to let that be the ultimate selling point of their sound. Instead, they focus on building bone crushingly heavy and slow, methodically placed riffs that when met with the angry drum bashing and wretched vocals makes for arguably the nastiest metal album I've heard this year. 

Rating: 3.5/5

Listen to the the track Everything is Meaningless below:

You can download or stream the band's album at their bandcamp page here.

If you enjoy ugly, disgusting, rage inducing metal music I suggest also checking out my review for the latest Seven Sisters of Sleep album Ezekiel's Hags.

II by Magrudergrind

Power-violence/grindcore outfit Magrudergrind rose to prominence back in 2009 with the release of their self-titled second full-length album. It was a project that brought fans and critics alike together with immense praise and respect for the groups ability to combine brutally crafted grindcore and power-violence with the use of vocal sound clips and many different stylistic influences. They have continuously managed to impress with their ferocity and hardcore aesthetics while also improving between each release since their inception back in 2002.

Following the release of their 2010 EP Crusher, the band dropped off the radar, and despite a couple of public appearances and reissues of former material, have left fans disappointed with their lack of output. The politically charged trio are back this year however, and with Converge's Kurt Ballou handling the engineering duties once again, Magrudergrind are looking to pick up where they left off and wreak havoc on any and all potential listeners.

What hasn't been done already within extreme music? There isn't much an act can do to be any louder or more chaotic than the music that came before it. In the case of Magrudergrind, they instead look to incorporate moments, like one found on the second track Divine Dictation, where the guitar playing slows down to a chugging pace momentarily, serving as a hardcore punk influenced break from the ferocity, something that reoccurs throughout the LP. With that being said, it's primarily earth shaking blast-beats, punk oriented guitar riffs, and blood curdling vocals that provide the barbaric nature of the music on II.

The biggest change from the band's last full-length to this one, is the disappearance of the sound clips, which were one of the defining factors on their previous releases for me personally. They take advantage of the extra time allotted from the decision to leave out any vocal samples by instead delivering 24 minutes of unrelenting force. It's that same bloodthirsty savagery that has garnered so many comparisons to British grindcore originators Napalm Death. While the band has been around for 30+ years and continues to put out fantastic material (see their Apex Predator - Easy Meat album released last year for any needed proof) they are getting older, and it appears that Magrudergrind may just be the right act to inherit the title of the biggest grindcore act.

The music that the American extreme outfit is crafting isn't necessarily for everyone, but it definitely serves it's purpose. For anyone who enjoys the kind of music that is guaranteed to make your ears bleed and turn you into a weeping mess of a human, this LP is a goldmine.

Rating: 4/5

Check out the track Sacrificial Hire from the new album below:

You can download the album at Magrudergrind's bandcamp page here.

Le Dernier Crépuscule by Chthe'ilist

Profound Lore Records became one of the most exciting labels for loud, ugly, and noisy music last year thanks to two fantastic releases from solo black metal project Leviathan and noise/experimental act Prurient. This year however, it's the long awaited full-length debut from French-Canadian technical death metal outfit Chthe'ilist that has people talking. The lyric sheets from the new album reads like a choose your own adventure novel, detailing dark fantasized stories in ways that only a death metal outfit can. Of course the vocals are not the focus of the sound they're creating though,  as their sheer brutality and lyrical creativity serve only as the cherry on this atrocious cake of an album.

From the moment that the church bells and loud footsteps of the opening title track give way to the band's booming drums and dark, operatic atmosphere, the Canadian three-piece look to grab the listener's attention. Whether it be through the animosity and chaotic nature of their sound, or by their impressive musicianship, they certainly succeed to that degree. They merge the seven track LP into a exhibition of their proficiency, not simply showing off as many technical metal acts tend to do, but also using intriguing song writing and composition to help showcase their capabilities. While at times the mid-song transitions do feel forced and sloppy, the trio often finds themselves able to prove the necessity only a few short moments later when they have already moved onto bigger, badder, and angrier things.

The band also experiment and take their fair share of risks throughout their debut, moments like the industrial inspired outro to the second track Into the Vaults of Ingurgitating Obscurity, one of the few if not the only weak track on the album, still manages to provoke the image of a snarling demonic animals, maybe even a being of another planet with the bizarre noises that appear while the song is approaching it's conclusion. With that being said, it's that same uncertainty of what you're going to hear and the unknowing of what is going to come next that keeps you on the edge of your seat in anticipation upon listening. The funky bass line found in tracks like The Voices from Beneath the Well and Vecoiitn'aphnaat'smaala is confirmation that the group's ability to incorporate bold stylistic choices help them separate themselves from other flashy, technical death metal outfits. The thirteen minute closing epic that finishes the project proves to be the ultimate climax, as the band drags you through one more dark forest on one more gothic adventure, and with a name like Tales of the Majora Mythos Part 1, it would appear as if it were also an ode to the iconic Zelda game Majora's Mask.

Chthe'ilist's first full-length release offers enough diversity to feel fresh throughout the full fifty plus minutes that it occupies, while also feeling familiar enough to lose yourself in the fantasied atmosphere found throughout. The album has been quite a few years in the making, and fortunately, it proves itself worth the wait. 

Favorite Tracks: Scriptures from the Typhlodians, The Voices from Beneath the Well, Tales of the Majora Mythos Part 1

Least Favorite Tracks: Into the Vaults of Ingurgitating Obscurity

Ratings: 4/5

Listen to Chthe'ilist's The Voices from Beneath the Well below:

You can download the album on the Profound Lore bandcamp page here.

Ezekiel's Hags by Seven Sisters of Sleep

Sludge metal has always been more of a style than a genre, with it's down-tuned, methodical, swampy guitar play featured prominently alongside booming drums and vocals that can range anywhere from wretched screams to warm and welcoming serenades. It's certain that you never know exactly what to expect going into an album with the label "sludge metal," aside from the fact that it will hit you hard and it won't quit until you're done listening.

Not only does the Californian based five-piece Seven Sisters of Sleep (SSOS) embrace the sludge metal mantra, but they also use it as a stepping stone, a method of inspiration only to explore even darker and heavier depths of the metal world. The music found on Ezekiel's Hags can't be lumped into any modern genre, and trying to define it simply isn't a possibility. The band isn't looking to show their musical influences, or give you an idea of what they're trying to make, instead they're looking to engage in a complete onslaught of gigantic proportions as they envelop the listener in a cloud of raw, dirty, unrelenting musical horror.

As soon as the lightning fast blast-beats and Converge-esque screeches of the opening track Jones explode onto the album, the pace of the record is set. At only two minutes in length, you'd believe SSOS would rely on short, frantic, organized chaos to carry the momentum on their first release in three years. Instead, however, we see the band tackle multiple cuts of over five minutes, even seeing the closing track Bastard Son come in at over ten minutes. Just as easily as the band can hit you over the head with a hammer and bring your misery to an end, they can also tie you up and drag you along, stretching the brutality to twice or even three times the expected lengths while still finding new ways to keep you invested.

Even deadlier than the group's incorporation of such a varied list of genres (death, doom, and black metal as well as hardcore and grindcore, to name a few) is their ability to do so at the drop of a dime. One minute you're getting lost in the chugging guitar riffs of Plateau or Third Season, and then next thing you know, the vigorous drumming on Brother's River or the ear-splitting vocals and grindcore outro of Sacred Prostitute shakes you from your core. The album is equally technical and beautifully composed as it is ruthless and sadistic, perhaps that's exactly what Seven Sister's are aiming to do.

Favorite Tracks: Jones, Denounce, Gutter, Sacred Prostitute, Ud-Nun, Bastard Son

Least Favorite Tracks: None

Rating: 3.5/5