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

Pillars of Ash by Black Tusk

Sludge metal act Black Tusk has garnered quite a bit of attention in the metal scene since their formation back in 2005. They are known as part of the big Savannah sludge metal trio that also consists of Baroness and Kylesa. While Baroness is known for the prog-metal elements found in their song writing, and Kylesa for their incorporation of psychedelic rock into their sound, it's the hardcore punk influence that helps separate Black Tusk from the rest of the sludge metal pack.

I first heard the 3-piece band on their second full-length release back in 2010 with Taste The Sin. It was their Relapse Record debut, and enjoyed a pretty good reception from critics and fans alike. I was very impressed with the album, but felt at times the band were trying to hard to suppress the hardcore punk influence that helped make their sound so unique. Back in 2013, the band's Tend No Wounds EP was released, and stood out perhaps even more than their previous album, for me personally. While staying true to their sludge metal roots, the band seemed to embrace not only their punk roots, but also incorporate more thrash inspired guitar riffs. Unfortunately, the band lost bassist Jonathan Athon in 2014 due to injuries sustained from a motorcycle injury. Later on in the year however, the band confirmed not only did they have an album on the way, but it was also recorded with Athon, and would be his final piece of work with Black Tusk.

Going into the new album Pillars of Ash, I was hoping to see the band truly allow both the hardcore punk and thrash influences that made be believe they had potential in the first place to come through on their sound. Not only did the band do that, but we also were given tracks where the band went nearly full-out hardcore punk. Punkout, thanks to it's groovy opening bass line, lightning fast drumming, and clearly punk oriented guitar riff, makes it clear that the name isn't the only punk aspect to this track. The shouty chorus accompanied with it's anti-government lyrics make for a great track, but because of the rest of the project being less punk flavoured, the track doesn't flow very well with the album. Damned in the Ground is another track that shows the band using elements of their hardcore past, as the guitar play seems to be very similar to that found on Converge's Jane Doe album.

Despite Punkout not fitting in with the track-listing, the majority of the 34 minute runtime does, and the band puts together some of my favorite material in their catalogue. Desolation in Endless Times and Walk Among the Sky are two tracks that immediately stood out to me, thanks to the thrash metal vocal style on the former, and the tremolo picked guitar lead that transformed into a very sludgy sounding riff on the latter. As the album continues on, it felt as if it was building to an epic closing track, which is, disappointingly not at all the case. Instead, Leveling, the final cut on Pillars of Ash features about a minute and a half of fairly hectic metal, before making way to the track's piano outro of the same length that feels completely off paced compared to the chaotic nature the album has presented throughout every other track.

It's definitely a stretch to compare Black Tusk to fellow Savannah based bands Baroness and Kylesa, but much like those two bands released some of their best material last year, Black Tusk came through and released a fantastic addition to their discography as well.

Favorite Tracks: Desolation in Endless Times, Damned in the Ground, Walk Among the Sky,

Least Favorite Tracks: Leveling

Rating: 4/5

Abbath by Abbath

Black metal guitarist/vocalist Abbath is best known as being one of the founding members as well as the principal song-writer for the influential 2nd wave black metal band Immortal. Despite the band's history and contribution to the genre, they've split up multiple times over the last decade, and last year Abbath decided it was time to go his separate way. Upon leaving the group, he announced his intentions to form a band of his own, and now less than a year later his eponymous band have released their eponymous debut, Abbath. (Ego much?)

At it's core, what this project provides is some very loud, raw, fast paced, frantic black metal. Abbath recruits bassist King ov Hell (of God Seed fame) and drummer Creature to join him throughout the album, and their contributions are quite nice. The record opens with a bang, as To War is one of my favorite cuts on the album for it's brutal guitar riff and showcasing of Abbath's retched vocals. It's hard to say the former Immortal front man has lost a step after leaving the band, as he still sounds great on this project, and proves he can continue on without his former bandmates.

While Abbath isn't anything new or innovative, I never would have expected it to be. It's strengths lay in the hard-hitting nature of the music being played, and it's an album meant to be played loud. The weaker parts of the track-listing, for me personally, are when the band slow down. The outro of the second track Winter Bane is an example of this, as the band begin sounding almost classic-rock like, until the climax in the last 15 seconds where a loud shriek brings the song to it's conclusion. The following track, however, picks things right back up as Ashes of the Damned is another favorite of mine thanks to a chorus that incorporates a very interesting use of horns. It's the only cut on the album where the band really take the time to play with any other instrumentation, and while it does pay off, perhaps it's the lack of it throughout the rest of the album that makes it so enjoyable on this particular cut.

As the album comes to a close, it does slow down the pacing a bit once again for Root of the Mountain, which is probably my least favorite track on the album. It's one of the slower cuts as I mentioned, and fails to build up to much, even when the pace picks up about half way through. Fortunately, once again, as soon as the album starts to drift off the trio manages to draw me back in with the closing track Eternal. Much like the way the album opened, it closes with yet another chaotic 4+ minute onslaught of blast beats and lightning fast guitar riffs, something I can always get behind.

As stated earlier, in no ways does this album bring anything new to the table, but that doesn't mean it fails. If you're a fan of Immortal, or even just enjoy raw and heavy black metal, the album is worth checking out. If Abbath can continue to put out music like this, he'll be fine without Immortal.

Favorite Tracks: To War, Ashes of the Damned, Eternal

Least Favorite Tracks: Root of the Mountain

Rating: 3.5/5