Early Graves
We: The Guillotine
Ironclad / Metal Blade
39:40 - 11 Tracks
This is kind of a grind/groove metal type of thing. Growly/screamy vocals with a classic thrashy/ meat and potatoes metal music background… This band is made up pretty much of the band Apiary, which disbanded not too long ago. There’s some Entombed sound with some Slayer, and a little bit of Carcass (according to their bio)… and since I’m so horrible at writing these reviews, that does make sense. I hear so much stuff, I often can’t just pick out bands that other bands sound like… I guess that’s why bios get sent out with cds! Anyways, this is something you will hear on the Mosh Pit!
Trigger The Bloodshed
Purgation
Metal Blade
37:01 - 17 Tracks
This is some pretty intense brutal death metal. Drum-machinesque drumming, brutal and abrasive screamy vocals bounce back and forth. Fast guitars of course, it’s all almost a bit too much in the drumming department, as they seem to overpower a bit. However, there hasn’t been just an all out classic death metal release lately, so it’s always nice to have one of these… They do have just a pinch of the “core” in their brutality, but not much.
Straight Line Stitch
When Skies Wash Ashore
Koch
38:42 - 10 Tracks
A video for a song from this album has been on Headbangers Ball for a while, they got on a big tour with I can’t even remember right now… Female fronted, The CD has some great metal elements, some brutal breakdowns, great screaming from Alexis Brown, but then it goes to emo clean singing which takes a way a lot of the “metal” in my book. I guess it could be compared to some older Kittie… where there were more clean vox. There are a couple tracks that will work on the Mosh Pit!
Prey For Sleep
A Bitter Beginning
PFS
25:36 - 10 Tracks
A “local” unsigned band from Austin, TX (usually any of these unsigned bands are marketed by one of the normal national marketing companies that we deal with every week) These guys do sound just as good as any signed band of this genre out there. They have the melodic death/brutal-thrash core thing going on. The vocals are abrasive, but don’t have much of a dynamic, it’s the same kind of style throughout… not that there’s anything wrong with it, I just wanted to point it out…. maybe with a long long listen of these guys it might grate on you after a bit. The CD is only 25 minutes, so it’s not a problem!
The Acacia Strain
Continent
Prosthetic
40:26 - 11 Tracks
New release from these metal-brutalcore-ers… It’s got every normal element of a brutal-core release. Some fast metal parts, abrasive vocals, brutal breakdowns, some good hardcore vocal barking in parts too. You’ll hear this on the Mosh Pit
Pyramaze
Immortal
Locomotive
45:27 - 10 Tracks
Well, you may know some recent history of this band… they were the ones that got Matt Barlow (formerly, but now currently of Iced Earth) to come out of metal retirement to record an album with them. Well, I’ve always liked Pyramaze’s music… a prog-power metal mixed with some like, you know, real metal, not too cheesy. Barlow fits right in here, it’s nice to hear him over something other than Jon Schaffer’s chugga chugga Iced Earth rhythm guitar. He’s got a great dynamic to his vocals on this album as well. There’s a couple of slower ones on here, but that’s cool too. You will hear this on the Mosh Pit!
