#alphawolf — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #alphawolf, aggregated by home.social.
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Extortionist – Stare into the Seething Wounds Review
Although my love f…
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Extortionist – Stare into the Seething Wounds Review
By Dear Hollow
Although my love for metal has its origins in the -core movement, it’s largely passed me by in the years since. New artists come and go, and the next thing I know, my favorite metalcore songs were all released in 2015 or earlier. Extortionist is also one of those bands I neglected, but when I first heard them, I immediately clocked it was not The Contortionist. With no prog in sight, Extortionist is known for their blend of deathcore, metalcore, and nu-metal, which has me running for the Tums right away. Oh, and they’re also known for supplementing their open snare tone by assaulting a metal beer keg with a baseball bat – beer to wash the antacid down, I guess. Anyway, here’s Extortionist’s fourth full-length.
If you clued in that Stare into the Seething Wounds looks like a Korn album cover, complete with warped symbols of childhood fed through the Tim Burton-on-weed machine, you’re dead-on. More than other “nu” acts like ten56. or Motionless in White, Idaho’s Extortionist sounds like these “on the kob” legends or Alice in Chains in its more subdued moments – complete with wonky guitar effects and vocalist Ben Hoagland’s best impression of Jonathan Davis. However, its less restrained identity enacts a brand of brutality seen in Bodysnatcher or The Last Ten Seconds of Life, weaponizing belligerent roars that recall Upon a Burning Body’s Danny Leal atop crushing breakdowns and thick riffs. Layering nu-metal’s wonky effects and lazy vocals with deathcore’s fat-bottomed tone abuse one song after another with the band’s signature drum production, the two faces of Extortionist are initially appealing, but by the end of Stare into the Seething Wounds, you’ll want to slap them both.
The subtler side of Extortionist is a more atmospheric and deadlier version of Korn’s melodies and Nirvana’s watery effects, focusing on drawling baritone vocals and short-lived random explosions into metalcore chugs. Achieving a sort of sonic haze through these means, the potential resemblance to Deftones in its layers of opaque instrumentals and minor chord progressions is a tempting one that ultimately falls flat. The dynamics are simply not there, as Extortionist will shift from the Davis drawl to a chuggy deathcore breakdown with Hoagland’s vocals providing the only crescendo. If heavier combinations of “Freak on a Leash” and “Come As You Are” sound like a good time to you, these tracks might satisfy (“The Break I Couldn’t Mend,” “Submit to Skin,” “Dopamine,” “Low Roads,” “Do You See It?”) – even if the band at large sorely lacks the charisma or songwriting chops to pull it off. These tracks end up being dull interludes between the slightly more interesting core exposés.
If being bored to tears is not your game, Extortionist’s numbskull brutality might appeal to you. Channeling a nu-metal-influenced, deathcore-forward breed of intensity that recalls early Crystal Lake or Alpha Wolf, the straightforwardness is at least unpretentious. Even then, some timing issues, usually tempo disparities between breakdown callouts and the breakdowns themselves, keep some tracks from achieving the soundtrack to the pit they so desperately strive for (“Cycle of Sin,” “Starve”). Even the more bulletproof metalcore/deathcore tracks (“Aftermath of Broken Glass,” “Detriment,” “Invisible Scars (Part III)”) offer no reason to listen to Extortionist compared to the plethora of -core rip-offs – these tracks are fast and solidly composed, featuring bone-crushing breakdowns but that’s about it: better incarnations exist in early The Plot in You and Loathe. A blessing and a curse, drummer and keg abuser Vince Alvarez’s performance is the clear highlight amid the sea of boredom and monotony, but that signature production and reverb manage to inflate the mix to something that clashes with the breakdowns and riffs, feeling lazy in the busy, overfilled attack.
For a very bloated forty-eight minutes, Extortionist blurs the lines between nu-metal, metalcore, and deathcore – their stark dichotomy of grungy drawling and brutalizing breakdowns ultimately boils down to boring and monotonous. However, if you ever forget that this is deathcore or metalcore, there will be a ten-ton breakdown to remind you. If you ever forget this is nu-metal, Hoagland will growl some off-beat “oh-oh,” “fuck,” or “yeah” faster than you can say “da-boom-da-da-mmm-dum-na-ee-ma.” All this to say, maybe I should have left Extortionist back in 2015 – peel away the cringe and novelty of Stare into the Seething Wounds and what looks so strong, so delicate.
Rating: 1.5/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Unique Leader Records
Websites: extortionist.bandcamp.com | extortionist.co | facebook.com/ExtortionistNW
Releases Worldwide: October 10th, 2025#15 #2025 #AliceInChains #AlphaWolf #AmericanMetal #Bodysnatcher #CrystalLake #Deathcore #Deftones #Extortionist #Grunge #Korn #Loathe #Metalcore #MotionlessInWhite #Nirvana #NuMetal #Oct25 #Review #Reviews #StareIntoTheSeethingWounds #ten56_ #TheContortionist #TheLastTenSecondsOfLife #ThePlotInYou #UniqueLeaderRecords #UponABurningBody
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Extortionist – Stare into the Seething Wounds Review
By Dear Hollow
Although my love for metal has its origins in the -core movement, it’s largely passed me by in the years since. New artists come and go, and the next thing I know, my favorite metalcore songs were all released in 2015 or earlier. Extortionist is also one of those bands I neglected, but when I first heard them, I immediately clocked it was not The Contortionist. With no prog in sight, Extortionist is known for their blend of deathcore, metalcore, and nu-metal, which has me running for the Tums right away. Oh, and they’re also known for supplementing their open snare tone by assaulting a metal beer keg with a baseball bat – beer to wash the antacid down, I guess. Anyway, here’s Extortionist’s fourth full-length.
If you clued in that Stare into the Seething Wounds looks like a Korn album cover, complete with warped symbols of childhood fed through the Tim Burton-on-weed machine, you’re dead-on. More than other “nu” acts like ten56. or Motionless in White, Idaho’s Extortionist sounds like these “on the kob” legends or Alice in Chains in its more subdued moments – complete with wonky guitar effects and vocalist Ben Hoagland’s best impression of Jonathan Davis. However, its less restrained identity enacts a brand of brutality seen in Bodysnatcher or The Last Ten Seconds of Life, weaponizing belligerent roars that recall Upon a Burning Body’s Danny Leal atop crushing breakdowns and thick riffs. Layering nu-metal’s wonky effects and lazy vocals with deathcore’s fat-bottomed tone abuse one song after another with the band’s signature drum production, the two faces of Extortionist are initially appealing, but by the end of Stare into the Seething Wounds, you’ll want to slap them both.
The subtler side of Extortionist is a more atmospheric and deadlier version of Korn’s melodies and Nirvana’s watery effects, focusing on drawling baritone vocals and short-lived random explosions into metalcore chugs. Achieving a sort of sonic haze through these means, the potential resemblance to Deftones in its layers of opaque instrumentals and minor chord progressions is a tempting one that ultimately falls flat. The dynamics are simply not there, as Extortionist will shift from the Davis drawl to a chuggy deathcore breakdown with Hoagland’s vocals providing the only crescendo. If heavier combinations of “Freak on a Leash” and “Come As You Are” sound like a good time to you, these tracks might satisfy (“The Break I Couldn’t Mend,” “Submit to Skin,” “Dopamine,” “Low Roads,” “Do You See It?”) – even if the band at large sorely lacks the charisma or songwriting chops to pull it off. These tracks end up being dull interludes between the slightly more interesting core exposés.
If being bored to tears is not your game, Extortionist’s numbskull brutality might appeal to you. Channeling a nu-metal-influenced, deathcore-forward breed of intensity that recalls early Crystal Lake or Alpha Wolf, the straightforwardness is at least unpretentious. Even then, some timing issues, usually tempo disparities between breakdown callouts and the breakdowns themselves, keep some tracks from achieving the soundtrack to the pit they so desperately strive for (“Cycle of Sin,” “Starve”). Even the more bulletproof metalcore/deathcore tracks (“Aftermath of Broken Glass,” “Detriment,” “Invisible Scars (Part III)”) offer no reason to listen to Extortionist compared to the plethora of -core rip-offs – these tracks are fast and solidly composed, featuring bone-crushing breakdowns but that’s about it: better incarnations exist in early The Plot in You and Loathe. A blessing and a curse, drummer and keg abuser Vince Alvarez’s performance is the clear highlight amid the sea of boredom and monotony, but that signature production and reverb manage to inflate the mix to something that clashes with the breakdowns and riffs, feeling lazy in the busy, overfilled attack.
For a very bloated forty-eight minutes, Extortionist blurs the lines between nu-metal, metalcore, and deathcore – their stark dichotomy of grungy drawling and brutalizing breakdowns ultimately boils down to boring and monotonous. However, if you ever forget that this is deathcore or metalcore, there will be a ten-ton breakdown to remind you. If you ever forget this is nu-metal, Hoagland will growl some off-beat “oh-oh,” “fuck,” or “yeah” faster than you can say “da-boom-da-da-mmm-dum-na-ee-ma.” All this to say, maybe I should have left Extortionist back in 2015 – peel away the cringe and novelty of Stare into the Seething Wounds and what looks so strong, so delicate.
Rating: 1.5/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Unique Leader Records
Websites: extortionist.bandcamp.com | extortionist.co | facebook.com/ExtortionistNW
Releases Worldwide: October 10th, 2025#15 #2025 #AliceInChains #AlphaWolf #AmericanMetal #Bodysnatcher #CrystalLake #Deathcore #Deftones #Extortionist #Grunge #Korn #Loathe #Metalcore #MotionlessInWhite #Nirvana #NuMetal #Oct25 #Review #Reviews #StareIntoTheSeethingWounds #ten56_ #TheContortionist #TheLastTenSecondsOfLife #ThePlotInYou #UniqueLeaderRecords #UponABurningBody
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Extortionist – Stare into the Seething Wounds Review
By Dear Hollow
Although my love for metal has its origins in the -core movement, it’s largely passed me by in the years since. New artists come and go, and the next thing I know, my favorite metalcore songs were all released in 2015 or earlier. Extortionist is also one of those bands I neglected, but when I first heard them, I immediately clocked it was not The Contortionist. With no prog in sight, Extortionist is known for their blend of deathcore, metalcore, and nu-metal, which has me running for the Tums right away. Oh, and they’re also known for supplementing their open snare tone by assaulting a metal beer keg with a baseball bat – beer to wash the antacid down, I guess. Anyway, here’s Extortionist’s fourth full-length.
If you clued in that Stare into the Seething Wounds looks like a Korn album cover, complete with warped symbols of childhood fed through the Tim Burton-on-weed machine, you’re dead-on. More than other “nu” acts like ten56. or Motionless in White, Idaho’s Extortionist sounds like these “on the kob” legends or Alice in Chains in its more subdued moments – complete with wonky guitar effects and vocalist Ben Hoagland’s best impression of Jonathan Davis. However, its less restrained identity enacts a brand of brutality seen in Bodysnatcher or The Last Ten Seconds of Life, weaponizing belligerent roars that recall Upon a Burning Body’s Danny Leal atop crushing breakdowns and thick riffs. Layering nu-metal’s wonky effects and lazy vocals with deathcore’s fat-bottomed tone abuse one song after another with the band’s signature drum production, the two faces of Extortionist are initially appealing, but by the end of Stare into the Seething Wounds, you’ll want to slap them both.
The subtler side of Extortionist is a more atmospheric and deadlier version of Korn’s melodies and Nirvana’s watery effects, focusing on drawling baritone vocals and short-lived random explosions into metalcore chugs. Achieving a sort of sonic haze through these means, the potential resemblance to Deftones in its layers of opaque instrumentals and minor chord progressions is a tempting one that ultimately falls flat. The dynamics are simply not there, as Extortionist will shift from the Davis drawl to a chuggy deathcore breakdown with Hoagland’s vocals providing the only crescendo. If heavier combinations of “Freak on a Leash” and “Come As You Are” sound like a good time to you, these tracks might satisfy (“The Break I Couldn’t Mend,” “Submit to Skin,” “Dopamine,” “Low Roads,” “Do You See It?”) – even if the band at large sorely lacks the charisma or songwriting chops to pull it off. These tracks end up being dull interludes between the slightly more interesting core exposés.
If being bored to tears is not your game, Extortionist’s numbskull brutality might appeal to you. Channeling a nu-metal-influenced, deathcore-forward breed of intensity that recalls early Crystal Lake or Alpha Wolf, the straightforwardness is at least unpretentious. Even then, some timing issues, usually tempo disparities between breakdown callouts and the breakdowns themselves, keep some tracks from achieving the soundtrack to the pit they so desperately strive for (“Cycle of Sin,” “Starve”). Even the more bulletproof metalcore/deathcore tracks (“Aftermath of Broken Glass,” “Detriment,” “Invisible Scars (Part III)”) offer no reason to listen to Extortionist compared to the plethora of -core rip-offs – these tracks are fast and solidly composed, featuring bone-crushing breakdowns but that’s about it: better incarnations exist in early The Plot in You and Loathe. A blessing and a curse, drummer and keg abuser Vince Alvarez’s performance is the clear highlight amid the sea of boredom and monotony, but that signature production and reverb manage to inflate the mix to something that clashes with the breakdowns and riffs, feeling lazy in the busy, overfilled attack.
For a very bloated forty-eight minutes, Extortionist blurs the lines between nu-metal, metalcore, and deathcore – their stark dichotomy of grungy drawling and brutalizing breakdowns ultimately boils down to boring and monotonous. However, if you ever forget that this is deathcore or metalcore, there will be a ten-ton breakdown to remind you. If you ever forget this is nu-metal, Hoagland will growl some off-beat “oh-oh,” “fuck,” or “yeah” faster than you can say “da-boom-da-da-mmm-dum-na-ee-ma.” All this to say, maybe I should have left Extortionist back in 2015 – peel away the cringe and novelty of Stare into the Seething Wounds and what looks so strong, so delicate.
Rating: 1.5/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Unique Leader Records
Websites: extortionist.bandcamp.com | extortionist.co | facebook.com/ExtortionistNW
Releases Worldwide: October 10th, 2025#15 #2025 #AliceInChains #AlphaWolf #AmericanMetal #Bodysnatcher #CrystalLake #Deathcore #Deftones #Extortionist #Grunge #Korn #Loathe #Metalcore #MotionlessInWhite #Nirvana #NuMetal #Oct25 #Review #Reviews #StareIntoTheSeethingWounds #ten56_ #TheContortionist #TheLastTenSecondsOfLife #ThePlotInYou #UniqueLeaderRecords #UponABurningBody
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Extortionist – Stare into the Seething Wounds Review
By Dear Hollow
Although my love for metal has its origins in the -core movement, it’s largely passed me by in the years since. New artists come and go, and the next thing I know, my favorite metalcore songs were all released in 2015 or earlier. Extortionist is also one of those bands I neglected, but when I first heard them, I immediately clocked it was not The Contortionist. With no prog in sight, Extortionist is known for their blend of deathcore, metalcore, and nu-metal, which has me running for the Tums right away. Oh, and they’re also known for supplementing their open snare tone by assaulting a metal beer keg with a baseball bat – beer to wash the antacid down, I guess. Anyway, here’s Extortionist’s fourth full-length.
If you clued in that Stare into the Seething Wounds looks like a Korn album cover, complete with warped symbols of childhood fed through the Tim Burton-on-weed machine, you’re dead-on. More than other “nu” acts like ten56. or Motionless in White, Idaho’s Extortionist sounds like these “on the kob” legends or Alice in Chains in its more subdued moments – complete with wonky guitar effects and vocalist Ben Hoagland’s best impression of Jonathan Davis. However, its less restrained identity enacts a brand of brutality seen in Bodysnatcher or The Last Ten Seconds of Life, weaponizing belligerent roars that recall Upon a Burning Body’s Danny Leal atop crushing breakdowns and thick riffs. Layering nu-metal’s wonky effects and lazy vocals with deathcore’s fat-bottomed tone abuse one song after another with the band’s signature drum production, the two faces of Extortionist are initially appealing, but by the end of Stare into the Seething Wounds, you’ll want to slap them both.
The subtler side of Extortionist is a more atmospheric and deadlier version of Korn’s melodies and Nirvana’s watery effects, focusing on drawling baritone vocals and short-lived random explosions into metalcore chugs. Achieving a sort of sonic haze through these means, the potential resemblance to Deftones in its layers of opaque instrumentals and minor chord progressions is a tempting one that ultimately falls flat. The dynamics are simply not there, as Extortionist will shift from the Davis drawl to a chuggy deathcore breakdown with Hoagland’s vocals providing the only crescendo. If heavier combinations of “Freak on a Leash” and “Come As You Are” sound like a good time to you, these tracks might satisfy (“The Break I Couldn’t Mend,” “Submit to Skin,” “Dopamine,” “Low Roads,” “Do You See It?”) – even if the band at large sorely lacks the charisma or songwriting chops to pull it off. These tracks end up being dull interludes between the slightly more interesting core exposés.
If being bored to tears is not your game, Extortionist’s numbskull brutality might appeal to you. Channeling a nu-metal-influenced, deathcore-forward breed of intensity that recalls early Crystal Lake or Alpha Wolf, the straightforwardness is at least unpretentious. Even then, some timing issues, usually tempo disparities between breakdown callouts and the breakdowns themselves, keep some tracks from achieving the soundtrack to the pit they so desperately strive for (“Cycle of Sin,” “Starve”). Even the more bulletproof metalcore/deathcore tracks (“Aftermath of Broken Glass,” “Detriment,” “Invisible Scars (Part III)”) offer no reason to listen to Extortionist compared to the plethora of -core rip-offs – these tracks are fast and solidly composed, featuring bone-crushing breakdowns but that’s about it: better incarnations exist in early The Plot in You and Loathe. A blessing and a curse, drummer and keg abuser Vince Alvarez’s performance is the clear highlight amid the sea of boredom and monotony, but that signature production and reverb manage to inflate the mix to something that clashes with the breakdowns and riffs, feeling lazy in the busy, overfilled attack.
For a very bloated forty-eight minutes, Extortionist blurs the lines between nu-metal, metalcore, and deathcore – their stark dichotomy of grungy drawling and brutalizing breakdowns ultimately boils down to boring and monotonous. However, if you ever forget that this is deathcore or metalcore, there will be a ten-ton breakdown to remind you. If you ever forget this is nu-metal, Hoagland will growl some off-beat “oh-oh,” “fuck,” or “yeah” faster than you can say “da-boom-da-da-mmm-dum-na-ee-ma.” All this to say, maybe I should have left Extortionist back in 2015 – peel away the cringe and novelty of Stare into the Seething Wounds and what looks so strong, so delicate.
Rating: 1.5/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Unique Leader Records
Websites: extortionist.bandcamp.com | extortionist.co | facebook.com/ExtortionistNW
Releases Worldwide: October 10th, 2025#15 #2025 #AliceInChains #AlphaWolf #AmericanMetal #Bodysnatcher #CrystalLake #Deathcore #Deftones #Extortionist #Grunge #Korn #Loathe #Metalcore #MotionlessInWhite #Nirvana #NuMetal #Oct25 #Review #Reviews #StareIntoTheSeethingWounds #ten56_ #TheContortionist #TheLastTenSecondsOfLife #ThePlotInYou #UniqueLeaderRecords #UponABurningBody
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Extortionist – Stare into the Seething Wounds Review
By Dear Hollow
Although my love for metal has its origins in the -core movement, it’s largely passed me by in the years since. New artists come and go, and the next thing I know, my favorite metalcore songs were all released in 2015 or earlier. Extortionist is also one of those bands I neglected, but when I first heard them, I immediately clocked it was not The Contortionist. With no prog in sight, Extortionist is known for their blend of deathcore, metalcore, and nu-metal, which has me running for the Tums right away. Oh, and they’re also known for supplementing their open snare tone by assaulting a metal beer keg with a baseball bat – beer to wash the antacid down, I guess. Anyway, here’s Extortionist’s fourth full-length.
If you clued in that Stare into the Seething Wounds looks like a Korn album cover, complete with warped symbols of childhood fed through the Tim Burton-on-weed machine, you’re dead-on. More than other “nu” acts like ten56. or Motionless in White, Idaho’s Extortionist sounds like these “on the kob” legends or Alice in Chains in its more subdued moments – complete with wonky guitar effects and vocalist Ben Hoagland’s best impression of Jonathan Davis. However, its less restrained identity enacts a brand of brutality seen in Bodysnatcher or The Last Ten Seconds of Life, weaponizing belligerent roars that recall Upon a Burning Body’s Danny Leal atop crushing breakdowns and thick riffs. Layering nu-metal’s wonky effects and lazy vocals with deathcore’s fat-bottomed tone abuse one song after another with the band’s signature drum production, the two faces of Extortionist are initially appealing, but by the end of Stare into the Seething Wounds, you’ll want to slap them both.
The subtler side of Extortionist is a more atmospheric and deadlier version of Korn’s melodies and Nirvana’s watery effects, focusing on drawling baritone vocals and short-lived random explosions into metalcore chugs. Achieving a sort of sonic haze through these means, the potential resemblance to Deftones in its layers of opaque instrumentals and minor chord progressions is a tempting one that ultimately falls flat. The dynamics are simply not there, as Extortionist will shift from the Davis drawl to a chuggy deathcore breakdown with Hoagland’s vocals providing the only crescendo. If heavier combinations of “Freak on a Leash” and “Come As You Are” sound like a good time to you, these tracks might satisfy (“The Break I Couldn’t Mend,” “Submit to Skin,” “Dopamine,” “Low Roads,” “Do You See It?”) – even if the band at large sorely lacks the charisma or songwriting chops to pull it off. These tracks end up being dull interludes between the slightly more interesting core exposés.
If being bored to tears is not your game, Extortionist’s numbskull brutality might appeal to you. Channeling a nu-metal-influenced, deathcore-forward breed of intensity that recalls early Crystal Lake or Alpha Wolf, the straightforwardness is at least unpretentious. Even then, some timing issues, usually tempo disparities between breakdown callouts and the breakdowns themselves, keep some tracks from achieving the soundtrack to the pit they so desperately strive for (“Cycle of Sin,” “Starve”). Even the more bulletproof metalcore/deathcore tracks (“Aftermath of Broken Glass,” “Detriment,” “Invisible Scars (Part III)”) offer no reason to listen to Extortionist compared to the plethora of -core rip-offs – these tracks are fast and solidly composed, featuring bone-crushing breakdowns but that’s about it: better incarnations exist in early The Plot in You and Loathe. A blessing and a curse, drummer and keg abuser Vince Alvarez’s performance is the clear highlight amid the sea of boredom and monotony, but that signature production and reverb manage to inflate the mix to something that clashes with the breakdowns and riffs, feeling lazy in the busy, overfilled attack.
For a very bloated forty-eight minutes, Extortionist blurs the lines between nu-metal, metalcore, and deathcore – their stark dichotomy of grungy drawling and brutalizing breakdowns ultimately boils down to boring and monotonous. However, if you ever forget that this is deathcore or metalcore, there will be a ten-ton breakdown to remind you. If you ever forget this is nu-metal, Hoagland will growl some off-beat “oh-oh,” “fuck,” or “yeah” faster than you can say “da-boom-da-da-mmm-dum-na-ee-ma.” All this to say, maybe I should have left Extortionist back in 2015 – peel away the cringe and novelty of Stare into the Seething Wounds and what looks so strong, so delicate.
Rating: 1.5/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Unique Leader Records
Websites: extortionist.bandcamp.com | extortionist.co | facebook.com/ExtortionistNW
Releases Worldwide: October 10th, 2025#15 #2025 #AliceInChains #AlphaWolf #AmericanMetal #Bodysnatcher #CrystalLake #Deathcore #Deftones #Extortionist #Grunge #Korn #Loathe #Metalcore #MotionlessInWhite #Nirvana #NuMetal #Oct25 #Review #Reviews #StareIntoTheSeethingWounds #ten56_ #TheContortionist #TheLastTenSecondsOfLife #ThePlotInYou #UniqueLeaderRecords #UponABurningBody
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Alpha Wolf - Haunter (Official Music Video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iFTGrxGuZw
I can't hear myself drown (shut up, shut up)
Don't wake me up//Tasmanian Metalcore//
#AlphaWolf #Haunter #Metalcore #Coping #Nightmare #MentalHealth
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Last year everyone was excited to see a single Spiritbox nom
So far for 2024 weve got Knocked Loose, Spiritbox, Poppy, and Alpha Wolf
// #Metal #Metalcore #Music #Grammys #Poppy #Spiritbox #AlphaWolf #Metalsky #MusicSky
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Stuck in the Filter: April 2024’s Angry Misses
By Kenstrosity
The heat persists. Intensifies, even. We’re not even to the dead center of summer, where pavement melts and sinew sloughs off of bones. And yet, we toil. Endless trudges through the slime and grime of sharply angled ducts and beveled sheet metal characterize an average workday for my filtration minions, who do my bidding without question as I sip a piña colada in these run down and ragged headquarters. Alright fine, we don’t have piña coladas here, but a sponge can dream! A sponge can dream…
What was I saying? Oh, right. After many months of constant pep talks and gentle reminders with a cattle prod, my team of hack crack sifters managed a respectable haul from our April buildup. Dive in at your own peril!
Kenstrosity’s Sooty Slab
Exhumation // Master’s Personae [April 26th, 2024 – Pulverised Records]
Indonesian blackened death duo Exhumation never would’ve made it to my queue were it not for our burgeoning Discord server. Rollicking tunes, produced with a charming rawness that tingles my spine, task themselves with the summary destruction of that same spine and waste no time getting started. From the onset of opener “In Death Vortex,” Master’s Personae eviscerates with rabid teeth gnashing through my flesh. Ghoul (guitars) and Bones (vocals) display their respective talents vomiting souls out of their body and concocting sickening infernal riffs with aplomb—and made damn sure their session musicians could do more than just keep up on bass (Sebek), drums (Aldi), and lead guitar (J. Magus). With songs that kick as much ass-tonnage as highlights “Pierce the Abyssheart,” “Chaos Feasting,” “Thine Inmost Curse,” and late bloomer “Mahapralaya,” the only thing that could possibly stand in between you and total metallic indoctrination is the record’s gritty, extra-crunchy production. For some, that might even be its greatest selling point. Either way, Master’s Personae is, at its core, just a nonstop demonic party. Ipso facto, if you like fun, you like this. If you don’t, leave the Hall!
Thus Spoke’s Chucked Choices
Alpha Wolf // Half Living Things [April 5th, 2024 – SharpTone Records]
Aussie gang Alpha Wolf have always had an “angry” sound, but until now, they remained quite firmly smack dab in the middle of modern metalcore. With Half Living Things,1 however, the band move as far as they ever have into beatdown hardcore, albeit, a very glossy, and very metalcore interpretation of it. While many, myself included, think they sound better with a little bit of intrigue, a little bit of mournful melody and atmosphere, there’s no denying that this album does contain several bone-fide bangers. Opening run “Bring Back the Noise,” “Double-Edge Demise,” and “Haunter,” are a groovy set of smacks upside the head, and later cuts “Feign,” and “A Terrible Day for Rain” echo the same menace, safely keeping your head bobbing and your mean face on. The aggression can veer into the realm of cringe at points, not least on single “Sucks 2 Suck,” which includes the wild misstep of a thuggish rap bridge courtesy of ICE-T. But on the other hand, Alpha Wolf do show they have a heart, with surprisingly sadboi “Whenever You’re Ready,” and closer “Ambivalence.” It’s all pretty angsty, but questionable decisions aside, Half Living Things is worth at least the time it takes you to hear one or two of its best tracks. I’ll always be here for a little bit of adolescent ennui anyway.
Sarcasm // Mourninghoul [April 12th, 2024 – Hammerheart Records]
Whilst still a n00b, I reviewed Sarcasm’s previous album, Stellar Stream Obscured, and, to my initial surprise, really rather liked it. It was simply a quirk of circumstance that I didn’t pick up the promo for Mourninghoul. And looking back on that week, I wish I had. This thing is just as fun, just as furious, and once again the perfect balance between odd and straightforwardly blistering. Once again, they lace creepy organs and synthwork into death doom (“Withered Memories of Souls We Mourn,” “No Solace From Above”) to add a little mystique. Once again, they display some brilliant, beautiful, melodic black(ened death) metal riffery to lead refrains (“Lifelike Sleep,” “Dying Embers of Solitude,” “Absence if Reality”), not only soaking the listener in the nostalgia of the golden years of Dissection and Necrophobic, but memorable and moving in their own right. Overall, the album is a little slower and more atmospheric than its predecessor, but in this light perhaps a little more thoughtful. One to check out for anyone who dug Stellar Stream Obscured.
Dear Hollow’s Loudness Lard
Lord Spikeheart // The Adept [April 19th, 2024 – Haekalu Records]
Lord Spikeheart is the alias of Martin Kanja, one-half of grind/noise duo Duma, whose sole self-titled LP was received warmly back in 2020 by the gone-but-unforgotten Roquentin. Now a solo act, Spikeheart fully embraces the manic in his debut full-length The Adept, a fusion of noise, industrial, trap, grind, and hip-hop and tinged with native Kenyan instruments. – guaranteed to scare off unwanted listeners. Featuring a bevy of featured artists, The Adept is as jerky and unpredictable as you might expect from its laundry list of sounds. Including all, but not limited to, Author & Punisher-level of manufactured brutality (“Sham-Ra”), layers of jagged hip-hop a la Skech185 (“Emblem Blem,” “Djangili,” “33rd Degree Access”), and outright metal guitar solos and blastbeats (“Nobody”), as well as outright bananas explosive Igorrr-esque breakcore seizures and Kenyan percussion (“TYVM”) and ominous sprawls of haunting humid ambiance over manic beats (“Rem Fodder,” “Verbose Patmos,” “4AM in the Mara”), and there is little that is predictable about The Adept. Throw on Lord Spikeheart’s incredible charisma, shocking vocals, and evocative primal songwriting, and you’ve got yourself a tastefully insane and impressively uncomfortable slab of experimentation that feels dangerous and unrelenting in the right ways.
Whores. // War. [April 16th, 2024 – The Ghost is Clear Records]
Sometimes you just need a good concussion and drool out your brains to the curb because you got dinged around so much. Atlanta four-piece Whores. will provide mightily in more ways than one. Professing a riff-heavy noise rock/sludge metal combo reminiscent of Chat Pile or Iron Monkey, each of the tracks in War.’s 34-minute runtime is a thick-ass spanker with thick-ass riffs, bad-ass cymbal abuse, and mad-ass yells, and you’d be a fool to miss this broken-tooth abuse. Groove is embedded in the marrow of each bone, and the swill of riffs and noisy leads will get your head bobbing before you can learn how to pronounce opener “Malinches.” From the outright onslaughts of “Imposter Syndrome” and “Sicko,” to the bass builds and guitar squonks of “Quitter’s Fight Song” and “Hostage Therapy” or punky rhythms of “Hieronymous Bosch was Right” and “The Death of a Stuntman,” you don’t need to get all academic to abuse the drywall, and Whores. will set their teeth behind your bruised knuckles. The message is clear: get unga-bunga with riff.
Spit on Your Grave // Arkanum [April 12th, 2024 – Self Release]
You always run a risk when you change up your sound, even slightly. Mexican death metal peddlers Spit on Your Grave are familiar with it. Formerly bringin’ the slamz and gooey brutal shit to your court with unhinged insanity, Arkanum keeps the core sound while incorporating more tempo and nimbleness, making a blazing death metal album with some Behemoth-esque experimentation that keeps the album from falling into gnarly monotony and injects a necessary regality reflected in its art. Subtle plucking motifs grace opener “The Infection” and closer “The March of the Innocents,” chanting and choirs spruce up limper portions of “Into the Devil’s Realm,” and dancy rhythms and melodeath noodling kick up “Broken Hourglass.” In spite of the levels of experimentation, the riff reigns supreme throughout, made most plain in the no-holds-barred death metal assaults of “The Heretic,” “Dark Lullaby,” and “Self Sacrifice.” It’s somewhere between Behemoth’s wicked conjuration of crowns and Hate Eternal’s blazing scorched earth campaign, and while imperfect, Spit on Your Grave’s new direction is tantalizing.
Dolphin Whisperer’s Crossed Up Casting
Nuclear Tomb // Terror Labyrinthian [April 12th, 2024 – Everlasting Spew]
Filthy, frothing, furious, Nuclear Tomb embodies all that fueled the origins of the thrash and death movements, which actively rejected the tonal shift toward “pleasing” that pop-leaning forms of heavy metal were taking at the time. So, yes, it’s unsurprising to hear a punky and driven bass identity reminiscent of the overdriven pummeling of Dan Lilker in Nuclear Assault or Stéphane Picard in Obliveon. But though thrash rings true in the speed-needing assaults of “Fatal Visions” or “Vile Humanity,” death—the gnarled yet precise riffcraft you would heard in an early Pestilence summoning—feeds ugly and foul this acts hefty ambitions. Terror Labyrinthian gives exactly what its name promises: a sense of profound encapsulation and isolation in the density that Nucleur Tomb conjures alongside a sci-fi-informed fear and terror. Its ambition is such that it can fly off the rails a touch when it gets too moody (“Dominance & Persecution”), and its level of discordance can leave tracks feeling like intangible pulps of sick and snarling riffage (“Manufacturing Consent,” “Parasitic”). Despite these minor concerns, Labyrinthian Terror shakes enough to leave a worthy, full-length mark after two promising EPs. And with members of Nuclear Tomb floating around in their small scene with oddball grinders Ixias and the avant-minded Genevieve, it’s all but a promise that what comes next will be weird, frightening, and demanding.
Steel Druhm’s Rancid Requiems to Rotpitting
Engulfed // Unearthly Litanies of Despair [April 19th, 2024 – Me Saco Ojo]
Straight outta Turkey comes the vicious, face-melting death metal assault of Engulfed. Featuring members of Hyperdontia and Diabolizer and bearing hallmarks of both, Engulfed are a nasty savage on a war march to destroy all that lives and breathes. With a highly seasoned lineup and a lethal mission statement, Unearthly Litanies of Despair is a “not fucking around” kind of death platter full of blazing speed, thunderous blasts, and more sub-basement croaks and roars than you’d find in an illegal Balrog mining facility. All the old school legends get sound checked, with plenty of Vader, Morbid Angel, and Incantation-isms to be unearthed, but to my ears, Engulfed sounds most like brother band Diabolizer. That’s certainly not a bad thing, as anyone who heard 2021s Khalkedonian Death will attest. There’s not much subtly on display on Unearthly Litanies, and Engulfed are happy to blast away at Mach 9 for the bulk of the album’s runtime, only slowing down long enough to let slithery riffs do their tentacle things. It isn’t until the closing stanza “Occult Incantations” that they opt to get down and doomy, and though it runs way long at nearly 8 minutes, it digs up some nicely dark, gloomy textures. All in all a brutal trip to the belly of the beast feaster!
Coffin Curse // The Continuous Nothing [April 22nd, 2024 – Memento Mori]
The sophomore offering from Chile’s Coffin Curse is 100% military grade old school death with enough rot and pus to win over any genre fancier. The Continuous Nothing is really a continuous something, and that something is gnarly, thrashing death goodness in the varicose vein of Autopsy with some Deicide and Morbid Angel in the gore batter. There’s absolutely nothing new here, but the enthusiasm with which Coffin Curse comes at the classic death style is refreshing and invigorating. You’ll be smiling early into opener “Thin the Herd” due to its oh-so-righteous blend of Autopsy and vintage Morbid Angel, and it’s tough to blast “Bacchanal of the Mortal” and not want to throw your BarcaLounger out the fucking window. This is meat n’ tatters gutter death that could have come out in the late 80s or early 90s, but that doesn’t lessen its vitality and impact since these cats know how to write a ripping tune. I’m especially enamored with the disgusting vocals of Max Neira who gives even the hideous Chris Reifert a run for his scuzz-vomit money. This thing is just good, gross fun!
Tombstoner // Rot Stink Rip [April 26th, 2024 – Redefining Darkness]
Staten Island-based death thugs Tombstoner came back to kill with second album Rot Stink Rip, showcasing a whole lotta New York attitude. With a sound mixing mouth-breathing caveman brutality with New York hardcore undertones, the menu items all come with brass knuckles and steel-toed boots to your fat face (no substitutions!). This is street-level tough guy death with a Biohazard/Pantera-level IQ and anything remotely intellectual is tossed in the dumpster like a carpet-wrapped corpse. Songs like “Sealed in Blood” will rot your brain stem as it curb stomps your skull, and the beefy death grooves are ugly, stupid, and dangerous. Internal Bleeding-isms rebound off Skinless idioms amid the brainless forward momentum of the title track, and the groove-busting, barroom-bullying nastiness of primal cuts like “Metamorphosis” and “Reduced to Hate” are made for Roids Appreciation Day at Planet Meathead. The riffs are hella weighty and the overall approach is lead pipe brutality. Don’t bother spinning this if you’re one of those fancy-dancy tech types. This one is strictly for the gashouse gorillas and pimpanzees.
Saunders’ Slimy Selections
Satanic North // Satanic North [April 19th, 2024 – Reaper Entertainment]
Featuring members of Ensiferum, Finnish black metal troupe Satanic North ripped out a seething slab of old school black metal on their self-titled debut. Although the album seemed to drop with minimal fanfare or notice, having been clued into its existence, Satanic North has since provided a helluva fun time. Satanic North pull no punches and dispense with flash or bombast, adding modern beef to an endearingly old school formula that stomps hard. Harnessing the raw, punky, Venom-esque attitude of ’80s black metal, along with distinctive second-wave elements, and dashes of Darkthrone and Goatwhore, Satanic North is a varied, aggressive and utterly addictive opus. Regardless of the mode of destruction the band chooses at any given time, the songwriting quality generally maintains the rage. Grim, icy atmospheres envelope blasting, viciously executed songs, loaded with a bevy of badass riffs and pissed-off attitude. The relentless, hammering blows on opener “War,” sit comfortably alongside the crawling, sinister melodies and infectious hooks of “Village,” while expert pacing and builds highlight epic later album gem, “Kohti Kuolemaa.” Satanic North throw down some awesomely thrashy barnburners for good measure on powerhouse nuggets of black gold in the shape of “Wolf” and closer “Satanic North.” One of 2024’s underrated gems.
Iron Monkey // Spleen & Goad [April 5th, 2024 – Relapse Records]
UK veterans Iron Monkey’s 1998 opus Our Problem is a sludge classic that I’ve held in high regard for many years. Sadly, the untimely death of raw-throated vocalist Johnny Morrow, a distinctive, glass-gurgling beast behind the mic, saw the band dissolve, until reforming and crafting a solid comeback with 2017’s 9-13. Stripped own to a trio in their second coming, with long-serving guitarist Jim Rushby doing an admirable job taking over the vocal slot, Iron Monkey sound as though the piss, vinegar, and hatred still flows in their veins. Spleen & Goad offers few surprises, continuing the trend of its predecessor while maintaining the signature Iron Monkey sound. And although Iron Monkey cannot quite match the esteemed heights of their early days, this modern, well-trodden incarnation of the band still bludgeons, grooves and seethes with sledgehammer force and infectiously diseased riffs. Channeling the bluesy Sabbathian meets NOLA mode of sludge, with a side of Grief, and a shit ton of spite, the Iron Monkey lads deliver the goods again. Noisy, feedback-drenched bruisers rule the day; as swaggering, drunken grooves, surly riffs, and feral vocals drive this unhinged hate machine. Spleen & Goad is victim to some creeping bloat, however overall, it’s a stellar return and addition to their storied catalog, as rugged, bludgeoning cuts like “Misanthropizer,” “Concrete Shock,” “Rat Flag” and “Lead Transfusion” attests.
Mystikus Hugebeard’s Filthy Finding
Diabolic Oath // Oracular Hexations [April 5th, 2024 – Sentient Ruin Laboratories]
Oracular Hexations is a blast. It is a chaotic, colossally dense album of what can ostensibly be called blackened death metal, but the music is just so fucking filthy it might as well be sludge. The fun thing here is that the guitar and bass are completely fretless; the riffs aren’t hard to parse but the guitars feel almost slippery. It allows the brutal riffage of a heavy track like “Serpent Coils Suffocating the Mortal Wound” to become borderline hallucinogenic, while still hitting like a truck. The slower, oozing riffs of “Rusted Madness Tethering Misbegotten Haruspices” and “Winged Ouroboros Mutating Unto Gold” have a real viscosity to them that always reminds me of the stoner doom stylings of Conan. This album is definitely a lot, but it’s an extremely satisfying listen. The fretless imprecision paired with the music’s intensity, the delightfully disgusting guitar tone, and the vocalist’s tectonic gurgles all give Oracular Hexations a ritualistic atmosphere so thick you can practically sink into it. There’s plenty one could say about the musicianship—the drummer deserves praise for his diverse, technical performance—but trying to dial in on any one ingredient is like trying to appreciate the subtle flavor undertones of sheep stomach in a plate of haggis. Just cram the whole thing in at once, man, because this is the kind of sensory brutalization that you’ve gotta just let happen to you.
Iceberg’s Singular Surfacing
Venomous Echoes // Split Formations and Infinite Mania [April 05, 2024 – I, Voidhanger Records]
Extreme metal’s penchant for horror and destruction never ceases to amaze me. It doesn’t matter how I came across Venomous Echoes second album Split Formations and Infinite Mania, one look at that album cover and the curtain rise of squelching music within had me transfixed. Brutal Floridian death metal meets the dissonant disintegration of Portal meets the crushing weight of funeral doom and they all come together in the unrated cut of a Cronenberg flick. One-man-band Benjamin Vanweelden takes the listener inside his own personal hell as he wrestles with body dysmorphia, making for an experience not unlike recent cuts by An Isolated Mind or The Reticent. This is challenging, highly uncomfortable music, abandoning pitch and rhythm at will, bending and twisting notes and smothering the listener with oppressive atmosphere. From the sickening stomping sound effects of opener “Ocular Maltosis ov Schizophrenia” to the ultra-dissonant ostinato and DSBM wailing of closer “Split Formations and Infinite Mania,” this album is the definition of the car crash you can’t look away from. Far outside any zone of comfort is exactly where Vanweelden wants his listeners, and I have to say this makes for a sickly impressive, revolting, yet mesmerizing experience.
#AlphaWolf #AmericanMetal #AnIsolatedMind #Arkanum #AustralianMetal #AuthorPunisher #AuthorAndPunisher #Autopsy #Behemoth #Biohazard #BlackMetal #BlackSabbath #BlackenedDeathMetal #BrutalDeathMetal #ChatPile #ChileanMetal #CoffinCurse #Darkthrone #DeathMetal #Deicide #DiabolicOath #Diabolizer #Dissection #Duma #Engulfed #Ensiferum #EverlastingSpewRecords #Exhumation #FinnishMetal #FuneralDoom #Genevieve #Goatwhore #Grief #Grind #Grindcore #HaekaluRecords #HalfLivingThings #HammerheartRecords #Hardcore #HipHop #Hyperdontia #IVoidhangerRecords #Igorrr #Incantation #IndonesianMetal #Industrial #InternalBleeding #IronMonkey #Ixias #KenyanMetal #LordSpikeheart #MasterSPersonae #MeSacoUnOjoRecords #MelodicBlackMetal #MelodicDeathMetal #MementoMoriRecords #Metalcore #MexicanMetal #MorbidAngel #Mourninghoul #Necrophobic #Noise #NuclearAssault #NuclearTomb #Obliveon #OracularHexations #Pantera #Pestilence #Portal #PulverisedRecords #RawBlackMetal #ReaperEntertainment #RedefiningDarknessRecords #RelapseRecords #Review #Reviews #RotStinkRip #Sarcasm #SatanicNorth #SelfRelease #SharpToneRecords #Skech185 #Skinless #Slam #Sludge #SludgeMetal #SpitOnYourGrave #SpleenGoad #SplitFormationsAndInfiniteMania #StuckInTheFilter #SwedishMetal #TerrorLabyrinthian #TheAdept #TheContinuousNothing #TheGhostIsClearRecords #TheReticent #ThrashMetal #Tombstoner #Trap #TurkishMetal #UKMetal #UnearthlyLitaniesOfDespair #Vader #Venom #VenomousEchoes #War #Whores_
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Stuck in the Filter: April 2024’s Angry Misses
By Kenstrosity
The heat persists. Intensifies, even. We’re not even to the dead center of summer, where pavement melts and sinew sloughs off of bones. And yet, we toil. Endless trudges through the slime and grime of sharply angled ducts and beveled sheet metal characterize an average workday for my filtration minions, who do my bidding without question as I sip a piña colada in these run down and ragged headquarters. Alright fine, we don’t have piña coladas here, but a sponge can dream! A sponge can dream…
What was I saying? Oh, right. After many months of constant pep talks and gentle reminders with a cattle prod, my team of hack crack sifters managed a respectable haul from our April buildup. Dive in at your own peril!
Kenstrosity’s Sooty Slab
Exhumation // Master’s Personae [April 26th, 2024 – Pulverised Records]
Indonesian blackened death duo Exhumation never would’ve made it to my queue were it not for our burgeoning Discord server. Rollicking tunes, produced with a charming rawness that tingles my spine, task themselves with the summary destruction of that same spine and waste no time getting started. From the onset of opener “In Death Vortex,” Master’s Personae eviscerates with rabid teeth gnashing through my flesh. Ghoul (guitars) and Bones (vocals) display their respective talents vomiting souls out of their body and concocting sickening infernal riffs with aplomb—and made damn sure their session musicians could do more than just keep up on bass (Sebek), drums (Aldi), and lead guitar (J. Magus). With songs that kick as much ass-tonnage as highlights “Pierce the Abyssheart,” “Chaos Feasting,” “Thine Inmost Curse,” and late bloomer “Mahapralaya,” the only thing that could possibly stand in between you and total metallic indoctrination is the record’s gritty, extra-crunchy production. For some, that might even be its greatest selling point. Either way, Master’s Personae is, at its core, just a nonstop demonic party. Ipso facto, if you like fun, you like this. If you don’t, leave the Hall!
Thus Spoke’s Chucked Choices
Alpha Wolf // Half Living Things [April 5th, 2024 – SharpTone Records]
Aussie gang Alpha Wolf have always had an “angry” sound, but until now, they remained quite firmly smack dab in the middle of modern metalcore. With Half Living Things,1 however, the band move as far as they ever have into beatdown hardcore, albeit, a very glossy, and very metalcore interpretation of it. While many, myself included, think they sound better with a little bit of intrigue, a little bit of mournful melody and atmosphere, there’s no denying that this album does contain several bone-fide bangers. Opening run “Bring Back the Noise,” “Double-Edge Demise,” and “Haunter,” are a groovy set of smacks upside the head, and later cuts “Feign,” and “A Terrible Day for Rain” echo the same menace, safely keeping your head bobbing and your mean face on. The aggression can veer into the realm of cringe at points, not least on single “Sucks 2 Suck,” which includes the wild misstep of a thuggish rap bridge courtesy of ICE-T. But on the other hand, Alpha Wolf do show they have a heart, with surprisingly sadboi “Whenever You’re Ready,” and closer “Ambivalence.” It’s all pretty angsty, but questionable decisions aside, Half Living Things is worth at least the time it takes you to hear one or two of its best tracks. I’ll always be here for a little bit of adolescent ennui anyway.
Sarcasm // Mourninghoul [April 12th, 2024 – Hammerheart Records]
Whilst still a n00b, I reviewed Sarcasm’s previous album, Stellar Stream Obscured, and, to my initial surprise, really rather liked it. It was simply a quirk of circumstance that I didn’t pick up the promo for Mourninghoul. And looking back on that week, I wish I had. This thing is just as fun, just as furious, and once again the perfect balance between odd and straightforwardly blistering. Once again, they lace creepy organs and synthwork into death doom (“Withered Memories of Souls We Mourn,” “No Solace From Above”) to add a little mystique. Once again, they display some brilliant, beautiful, melodic black(ened death) metal riffery to lead refrains (“Lifelike Sleep,” “Dying Embers of Solitude,” “Absence if Reality”), not only soaking the listener in the nostalgia of the golden years of Dissection and Necrophobic, but memorable and moving in their own right. Overall, the album is a little slower and more atmospheric than its predecessor, but in this light perhaps a little more thoughtful. One to check out for anyone who dug Stellar Stream Obscured.
Dear Hollow’s Loudness Lard
Lord Spikeheart // The Adept [April 19th, 2024 – Haekalu Records]
Lord Spikeheart is the alias of Martin Kanja, one-half of grind/noise duo Duma, whose sole self-titled LP was received warmly back in 2020 by the gone-but-unforgotten Roquentin. Now a solo act, Spikeheart fully embraces the manic in his debut full-length The Adept, a fusion of noise, industrial, trap, grind, and hip-hop and tinged with native Kenyan instruments. – guaranteed to scare off unwanted listeners. Featuring a bevy of featured artists, The Adept is as jerky and unpredictable as you might expect from its laundry list of sounds. Including all, but not limited to, Author & Punisher-level of manufactured brutality (“Sham-Ra”), layers of jagged hip-hop a la Skech185 (“Emblem Blem,” “Djangili,” “33rd Degree Access”), and outright metal guitar solos and blastbeats (“Nobody”), as well as outright bananas explosive Igorrr-esque breakcore seizures and Kenyan percussion (“TYVM”) and ominous sprawls of haunting humid ambiance over manic beats (“Rem Fodder,” “Verbose Patmos,” “4AM in the Mara”), and there is little that is predictable about The Adept. Throw on Lord Spikeheart’s incredible charisma, shocking vocals, and evocative primal songwriting, and you’ve got yourself a tastefully insane and impressively uncomfortable slab of experimentation that feels dangerous and unrelenting in the right ways.
Whores. // War. [April 16th, 2024 – The Ghost is Clear Records]
Sometimes you just need a good concussion and drool out your brains to the curb because you got dinged around so much. Atlanta four-piece Whores. will provide mightily in more ways than one. Professing a riff-heavy noise rock/sludge metal combo reminiscent of Chat Pile or Iron Monkey, each of the tracks in War.’s 34-minute runtime is a thick-ass spanker with thick-ass riffs, bad-ass cymbal abuse, and mad-ass yells, and you’d be a fool to miss this broken-tooth abuse. Groove is embedded in the marrow of each bone, and the swill of riffs and noisy leads will get your head bobbing before you can learn how to pronounce opener “Malinches.” From the outright onslaughts of “Imposter Syndrome” and “Sicko,” to the bass builds and guitar squonks of “Quitter’s Fight Song” and “Hostage Therapy” or punky rhythms of “Hieronymous Bosch was Right” and “The Death of a Stuntman,” you don’t need to get all academic to abuse the drywall, and Whores. will set their teeth behind your bruised knuckles. The message is clear: get unga-bunga with riff.
Spit on Your Grave // Arkanum [April 12th, 2024 – Self Release]
You always run a risk when you change up your sound, even slightly. Mexican death metal peddlers Spit on Your Grave are familiar with it. Formerly bringin’ the slamz and gooey brutal shit to your court with unhinged insanity, Arkanum keeps the core sound while incorporating more tempo and nimbleness, making a blazing death metal album with some Behemoth-esque experimentation that keeps the album from falling into gnarly monotony and injects a necessary regality reflected in its art. Subtle plucking motifs grace opener “The Infection” and closer “The March of the Innocents,” chanting and choirs spruce up limper portions of “Into the Devil’s Realm,” and dancy rhythms and melodeath noodling kick up “Broken Hourglass.” In spite of the levels of experimentation, the riff reigns supreme throughout, made most plain in the no-holds-barred death metal assaults of “The Heretic,” “Dark Lullaby,” and “Self Sacrifice.” It’s somewhere between Behemoth’s wicked conjuration of crowns and Hate Eternal’s blazing scorched earth campaign, and while imperfect, Spit on Your Grave’s new direction is tantalizing.
Dolphin Whisperer’s Crossed Up Casting
Nuclear Tomb // Terror Labyrinthian [April 12th, 2024 – Everlasting Spew]
Filthy, frothing, furious, Nuclear Tomb embodies all that fueled the origins of the thrash and death movements, which actively rejected the tonal shift toward “pleasing” that pop-leaning forms of heavy metal were taking at the time. So, yes, it’s unsurprising to hear a punky and driven bass identity reminiscent of the overdriven pummeling of Dan Lilker in Nuclear Assault or Stéphane Picard in Obliveon. But though thrash rings true in the speed-needing assaults of “Fatal Visions” or “Vile Humanity,” death—the gnarled yet precise riffcraft you would heard in an early Pestilence summoning—feeds ugly and foul this acts hefty ambitions. Terror Labyrinthian gives exactly what its name promises: a sense of profound encapsulation and isolation in the density that Nucleur Tomb conjures alongside a sci-fi-informed fear and terror. Its ambition is such that it can fly off the rails a touch when it gets too moody (“Dominance & Persecution”), and its level of discordance can leave tracks feeling like intangible pulps of sick and snarling riffage (“Manufacturing Consent,” “Parasitic”). Despite these minor concerns, Labyrinthian Terror shakes enough to leave a worthy, full-length mark after two promising EPs. And with members of Nuclear Tomb floating around in their small scene with oddball grinders Ixias and the avant-minded Genevieve, it’s all but a promise that what comes next will be weird, frightening, and demanding.
Steel Druhm’s Rancid Requiems to Rotpitting
Engulfed // Unearthly Litanies of Despair [April 19th, 2024 – Me Saco Ojo]
Straight outta Turkey comes the vicious, face-melting death metal assault of Engulfed. Featuring members of Hyperdontia and Diabolizer and bearing hallmarks of both, Engulfed are a nasty savage on a war march to destroy all that lives and breathes. With a highly seasoned lineup and a lethal mission statement, Unearthly Litanies of Despair is a “not fucking around” kind of death platter full of blazing speed, thunderous blasts, and more sub-basement croaks and roars than you’d find in an illegal Balrog mining facility. All the old school legends get sound checked, with plenty of Vader, Morbid Angel, and Incantation-isms to be unearthed, but to my ears, Engulfed sounds most like brother band Diabolizer. That’s certainly not a bad thing, as anyone who heard 2021s Khalkedonian Death will attest. There’s not much subtly on display on Unearthly Litanies, and Engulfed are happy to blast away at Mach 9 for the bulk of the album’s runtime, only slowing down long enough to let slithery riffs do their tentacle things. It isn’t until the closing stanza “Occult Incantations” that they opt to get down and doomy, and though it runs way long at nearly 8 minutes, it digs up some nicely dark, gloomy textures. All in all a brutal trip to the belly of the beast feaster!
Coffin Curse // The Continuous Nothing [April 22nd, 2024 – Memento Mori]
The sophomore offering from Chile’s Coffin Curse is 100% military grade old school death with enough rot and pus to win over any genre fancier. The Continuous Nothing is really a continuous something, and that something is gnarly, thrashing death goodness in the varicose vein of Autopsy with some Deicide and Morbid Angel in the gore batter. There’s absolutely nothing new here, but the enthusiasm with which Coffin Curse comes at the classic death style is refreshing and invigorating. You’ll be smiling early into opener “Thin the Herd” due to its oh-so-righteous blend of Autopsy and vintage Morbid Angel, and it’s tough to blast “Bacchanal of the Mortal” and not want to throw your BarcaLounger out the fucking window. This is meat n’ tatters gutter death that could have come out in the late 80s or early 90s, but that doesn’t lessen its vitality and impact since these cats know how to write a ripping tune. I’m especially enamored with the disgusting vocals of Max Neira who gives even the hideous Chris Reifert a run for his scuzz-vomit money. This thing is just good, gross fun!
Tombstoner // Rot Stink Rip [April 26th, 2024 – Redefining Darkness]
Staten Island-based death thugs Tombstoner came back to kill with second album Rot Stink Rip, showcasing a whole lotta New York attitude. With a sound mixing mouth-breathing caveman brutality with New York hardcore undertones, the menu items all come with brass knuckles and steel-toed boots to your fat face (no substitutions!). This is street-level tough guy death with a Biohazard/Pantera-level IQ and anything remotely intellectual is tossed in the dumpster like a carpet-wrapped corpse. Songs like “Sealed in Blood” will rot your brain stem as it curb stomps your skull, and the beefy death grooves are ugly, stupid, and dangerous. Internal Bleeding-isms rebound off Skinless idioms amid the brainless forward momentum of the title track, and the groove-busting, barroom-bullying nastiness of primal cuts like “Metamorphosis” and “Reduced to Hate” are made for Roids Appreciation Day at Planet Meathead. The riffs are hella weighty and the overall approach is lead pipe brutality. Don’t bother spinning this if you’re one of those fancy-dancy tech types. This one is strictly for the gashouse gorillas and pimpanzees.
Saunders’ Slimy Selections
Satanic North // Satanic North [April 19th, 2024 – Reaper Entertainment]
Featuring members of Ensiferum, Finnish black metal troupe Satanic North ripped out a seething slab of old school black metal on their self-titled debut. Although the album seemed to drop with minimal fanfare or notice, having been clued into its existence, Satanic North has since provided a helluva fun time. Satanic North pull no punches and dispense with flash or bombast, adding modern beef to an endearingly old school formula that stomps hard. Harnessing the raw, punky, Venom-esque attitude of ’80s black metal, along with distinctive second-wave elements, and dashes of Darkthrone and Goatwhore, Satanic North is a varied, aggressive and utterly addictive opus. Regardless of the mode of destruction the band chooses at any given time, the songwriting quality generally maintains the rage. Grim, icy atmospheres envelope blasting, viciously executed songs, loaded with a bevy of badass riffs and pissed-off attitude. The relentless, hammering blows on opener “War,” sit comfortably alongside the crawling, sinister melodies and infectious hooks of “Village,” while expert pacing and builds highlight epic later album gem, “Kohti Kuolemaa.” Satanic North throw down some awesomely thrashy barnburners for good measure on powerhouse nuggets of black gold in the shape of “Wolf” and closer “Satanic North.” One of 2024’s underrated gems.
Iron Monkey // Spleen & Goad [April 5th, 2024 – Relapse Records]
UK veterans Iron Monkey’s 1998 opus Our Problem is a sludge classic that I’ve held in high regard for many years. Sadly, the untimely death of raw-throated vocalist Johnny Morrow, a distinctive, glass-gurgling beast behind the mic, saw the band dissolve, until reforming and crafting a solid comeback with 2017’s 9-13. Stripped own to a trio in their second coming, with long-serving guitarist Jim Rushby doing an admirable job taking over the vocal slot, Iron Monkey sound as though the piss, vinegar, and hatred still flows in their veins. Spleen & Goad offers few surprises, continuing the trend of its predecessor while maintaining the signature Iron Monkey sound. And although Iron Monkey cannot quite match the esteemed heights of their early days, this modern, well-trodden incarnation of the band still bludgeons, grooves and seethes with sledgehammer force and infectiously diseased riffs. Channeling the bluesy Sabbathian meets NOLA mode of sludge, with a side of Grief, and a shit ton of spite, the Iron Monkey lads deliver the goods again. Noisy, feedback-drenched bruisers rule the day; as swaggering, drunken grooves, surly riffs, and feral vocals drive this unhinged hate machine. Spleen & Goad is victim to some creeping bloat, however overall, it’s a stellar return and addition to their storied catalog, as rugged, bludgeoning cuts like “Misanthropizer,” “Concrete Shock,” “Rat Flag” and “Lead Transfusion” attests.
Mystikus Hugebeard’s Filthy Finding
Diabolic Oath // Oracular Hexations [April 5th, 2024 – Sentient Ruin Laboratories]
Oracular Hexations is a blast. It is a chaotic, colossally dense album of what can ostensibly be called blackened death metal, but the music is just so fucking filthy it might as well be sludge. The fun thing here is that the guitar and bass are completely fretless; the riffs aren’t hard to parse but the guitars feel almost slippery. It allows the brutal riffage of a heavy track like “Serpent Coils Suffocating the Mortal Wound” to become borderline hallucinogenic, while still hitting like a truck. The slower, oozing riffs of “Rusted Madness Tethering Misbegotten Haruspices” and “Winged Ouroboros Mutating Unto Gold” have a real viscosity to them that always reminds me of the stoner doom stylings of Conan. This album is definitely a lot, but it’s an extremely satisfying listen. The fretless imprecision paired with the music’s intensity, the delightfully disgusting guitar tone, and the vocalist’s tectonic gurgles all give Oracular Hexations a ritualistic atmosphere so thick you can practically sink into it. There’s plenty one could say about the musicianship—the drummer deserves praise for his diverse, technical performance—but trying to dial in on any one ingredient is like trying to appreciate the subtle flavor undertones of sheep stomach in a plate of haggis. Just cram the whole thing in at once, man, because this is the kind of sensory brutalization that you’ve gotta just let happen to you.
Iceberg’s Singular Surfacing
Venomous Echoes // Split Formations and Infinite Mania [April 05, 2024 – I, Voidhanger Records]
Extreme metal’s penchant for horror and destruction never ceases to amaze me. It doesn’t matter how I came across Venomous Echoes second album Split Formations and Infinite Mania, one look at that album cover and the curtain rise of squelching music within had me transfixed. Brutal Floridian death metal meets the dissonant disintegration of Portal meets the crushing weight of funeral doom and they all come together in the unrated cut of a Cronenberg flick. One-man-band Benjamin Vanweelden takes the listener inside his own personal hell as he wrestles with body dysmorphia, making for an experience not unlike recent cuts by An Isolated Mind or The Reticent. This is challenging, highly uncomfortable music, abandoning pitch and rhythm at will, bending and twisting notes and smothering the listener with oppressive atmosphere. From the sickening stomping sound effects of opener “Ocular Maltosis ov Schizophrenia” to the ultra-dissonant ostinato and DSBM wailing of closer “Split Formations and Infinite Mania,” this album is the definition of the car crash you can’t look away from. Far outside any zone of comfort is exactly where Vanweelden wants his listeners, and I have to say this makes for a sickly impressive, revolting, yet mesmerizing experience.
#AlphaWolf #AmericanMetal #AnIsolatedMind #Arkanum #AustralianMetal #AuthorPunisher #AuthorAndPunisher #Autopsy #Behemoth #Biohazard #BlackMetal #BlackSabbath #BlackenedDeathMetal #BrutalDeathMetal #ChatPile #ChileanMetal #CoffinCurse #Darkthrone #DeathMetal #Deicide #DiabolicOath #Diabolizer #Dissection #Duma #Engulfed #Ensiferum #EverlastingSpewRecords #Exhumation #FinnishMetal #FuneralDoom #Genevieve #Goatwhore #Grief #Grind #Grindcore #HaekaluRecords #HalfLivingThings #HammerheartRecords #Hardcore #HipHop #Hyperdontia #IVoidhangerRecords #Igorrr #Incantation #IndonesianMetal #Industrial #InternalBleeding #IronMonkey #Ixias #KenyanMetal #LordSpikeheart #MasterSPersonae #MeSacoUnOjoRecords #MelodicBlackMetal #MelodicDeathMetal #MementoMoriRecords #Metalcore #MexicanMetal #MorbidAngel #Mourninghoul #Necrophobic #Noise #NuclearAssault #NuclearTomb #Obliveon #OracularHexations #Pantera #Pestilence #Portal #PulverisedRecords #RawBlackMetal #ReaperEntertainment #RedefiningDarknessRecords #RelapseRecords #Review #Reviews #RotStinkRip #Sarcasm #SatanicNorth #SelfRelease #SharpToneRecords #Skech185 #Skinless #Slam #Sludge #SludgeMetal #SpitOnYourGrave #SpleenGoad #SplitFormationsAndInfiniteMania #StuckInTheFilter #SwedishMetal #TerrorLabyrinthian #TheAdept #TheContinuousNothing #TheGhostIsClearRecords #TheReticent #ThrashMetal #Tombstoner #Trap #TurkishMetal #UKMetal #UnearthlyLitaniesOfDespair #Vader #Venom #VenomousEchoes #War #Whores_
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Nouvelle #playlist #musique disponible ici :
En #écoute :
#Juniore #SummerSalt #NovaMay #VernisRouge #FloatingPoints #KikiRockwell #Heartworms #MarcAlmond #Selofan #Redhook #AlphaWolf
Bon appétit à vos oreilles !
#music #musicplaylist #loveplaylist #goodvibes #goodsound #musiques #musiquedumoment #musiquesactuelles
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My jaw just touched the floor
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#TheMetalDogArticleList
#MetalInjection
The Weekly Injection: New Releases From ERRA, INGESTED & More Out Today 4/5
Plus releases from Alpha Wolf, Bayside, Horndal, Korpiklaani, and Witch Vomit.#NewReleases #ModernMetal #NuMetal #AlphaWolf #HalfLivingThings #Bayside #ThereAreWorseThingsThanBeingAlive #ProgressiveMetalCore #ERRA #Cure #Horndal #HeadHammerMan #SludgeHardRock
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The Wolf, by Alpha Motor is the first EV I've ever actually wanted https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/alpha-motor-corporation-advances-preproduction-of-wolf-electric-truck-introduces-base-model-details-302097989.html
#ev #truck #electric #alphaMotors #alphaWolf #wolf #pickup #pickupTruck #batteryElectric #electricVehicles
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Ice-T makes a guest appearance on Alpha Wolf's nu song "Sucks 2 Suck".
#NowPlaying #Music #IceT #AlphaWolf
#metalcorehttps://open.spotify.com/track/256sFTOD01wutUbC7omH17?si=ea0eeb45e8114591
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Da findet doch im Sommer ein kleines #Metalcore-Festival glatt vor meiner Hasutür in #Dresden statt:
Im Rahmen der Filmnächte laden #ParkwayDrive am 06.07. ab 16:00 ans Elbufer, besonders freue ich mich allerdings auf #Erra!Sonst noch dabei: #AlphaWolf, #ThyArtIsMurder, #DyingFetus,
#FitForAKingVielleicht hat hier noch jemand meinen Musikgeschmack?
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#TheMetalDogArticleList
#MetalInjection
ALPHA WOLF Recruits ICE-T For New Single "Sucks 2 Suck"
It's a banger.https://metalinjection.net/video/alpha-wolf-recruits-ice-t-for-new-single-sucks-2-suck
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Alpha Wolf - Hotel Underground
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoOsjFUCyNI&ab_channel=BONNOTMUSIC
You gotta burn the house down
Just to snuff the rats out#AlphaWolf #HotelUnderground #MetalCore #AussieCore #CorruptSystem #BurnItDown
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Alpha Wolf - Akudama (Official Music Video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ENMe1rlA0M&ab_channel=SharpToneRecords
watch the bodies drop
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#TheMetalDogArticleList
#MetalSucks
The ‘Wall of Death’ Was Apparently a Foreign Concept During Last Night’s Alpha Wolf Show
More like a 'gap of life,' really.#AlphaWolf #LiveShow #WallofDeath #LiveMusic #Metal #Metals #DeathMetal #ForeignConcept #VenueSafety #PerformanceSafety
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CW: M2M
Daniel Tops Alpha Wolfe
#cocksucking #fucking #anal #bareback #cum #cumshot #oralcumshot #cumeating
#gay #porn #gayporn #gaypornvideoFeaturing:
#Daniel @DanielLeBang #AlphaWolf @TheAlphaWolfe1Please follow and reblog!
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#WritingWonders Day 13: Corruption or other arc
I've only just started pantsing this story and nothing has been decided yet. There are a few threads for me to tug, so it's a definite maybe on this one.
I do have a lone wolf MC with a dark past, now ostracized from his pack. Another MC who is hiding from something/someone.
There's a dynamic building between my three MCs and with that will come revelations.
That's all I have for now. -
Useless Facts, Badly Drawn #283: Alpha wolves.
.
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#alpha #alphawolf #biology #wolves #nature #toxicmasculinity #realalpha #alphamale #science #didyouknow #funfacts #facts #webcomic #comics #uselessfacts #uselessfactsbadlydrawn -
Danke Mai Thi Nguyen-Kim, dass ich nun auch das Alpha-Label habe bzw wegen Bullshit gleich wieder ablegen kann 😬
#AlphaWolf = #NormalDad
