#uniqueleaderrecords — Public Fediverse posts

Based on naming traditions and a tendency to dub groups after horrific activities, such as Cattle Decapitation or Immolation, Australian Deathcore band A Night In Texas must believe there is nothing more terrifying than spending an evening in the Lone Star State. Perhaps the horror of the unknown hits hard for a group eight thousand miles away from their namesake, but A Night In Texas is no stranger to the ubiquitous elements of modern deathcore that defy the confines of any nation or state. With The Darkest Side of Humanity, the band’s latest comes at the start of their second decade, preceded by four records that exemplified solid, if a little uninspired, deathcore and a nominally influential debut. Is their latest the one to turn heads from Texas to Brisbane, or will it cowtow to deathcore trends known the world over?

Featuring a new vocalist after the departure of their longest-running lead, Sam Cameron quickly shows that he is no slouch. If The Darkest Side of Humanity has any weakness, it isn’t for lack of Cameron’s breadth and brutality. Properly Gollum-worthy highs pierce ears alongside gut-rumbling lows as he shows as much or more potency than those that came before. Founding member and lead guitarist Cory Judd is clearly the sonic soul of the band, as The Darkest Side of Humanity is as oppressively crushing as previous records. Amongst the cacophony (more on this later), Tommy Williams feels properly black metal at times, weaving tantalizingly sullen melodies just beneath the boiling surface of Judd’s bouncing battering. Freshman drummer Chris Whitbread delivers inhuman drumming that showcases technicality rarely seen in the more beatdown-driven core, lending the band a sound that at times straddles deathcore and tech-death.

The Darkest Side of Humanity stands out from much of modern deathcore thanks to A Night In Texas’ focus on speed and tech-death trappings. Bolstering their instrumental prowess are surprisingly inspired lyrics and a genuine devotion to rhythmic timing, reminding one of Unhallowed Deliverance. Each track features a standout moment and drives to a proper crescendo, but the devotion to an ecstatic ending becomes formulaic by the album’s end. The Darkest Side of Humanity could lose a track, and it would be better for it. When the record pops off, it does so with aplomb, and the back half is particularly vicious and rousing. The mid-record epic “When the Sun Burns Out” is driven by atmospheric plucking and tasteful, yet sparse clean singing. “The Chronicles of Nihilism” is an immediate standout with its bounce-worthy lead riff and adherence to speed.

While tech-death is clearly an inspiration for A Night In Texas, The Darkest Side of Humanity is another victim of the utter flattening of the genre due to the explosion in popularity of Lorna Shore. What was once tech-deathcore now must include hamfisted symphonic elements and triple-tap bursting breakdowns. While those tech influences remain a part of Judd’s DNA, the paint-by-numbers orchestration does nothing to enhance any individual song. Ironically, the back half of the album either abandons or minimizes backing tracks to great effect, becoming far more epic through sheer instrumentation and scale. The repetitive machine-gun riffage runs rampant, and while it is used more tastefully than most, I can’t help but feel A Night In Texas has the chops to do so much more and display as much alongside the derivative chords. For every predictable breakdown or riff, there is a flurry of inspired technicality or hooky earworms.

The Darkest Side of Humanity is inoffensive for deathcore, and even shows moments of true grandiosity. The latter half is great at times; the title track and finale are a high note to go out on, but cutting a track and stripping the album of most of its orchestration would do wonders for it. For a record that is so fast, heavy, and technical, with over-the-top vocals and orchestration, it sounds consistently cacophonous. This record is dense, but there is gold in them hills for those who take the time to sift. If A Night In Texas leans into the tech, focuses on hooks, and avoids chasing trends, their next record could reach the heights I know they are capable of. For now, The Darkest Side of Humanity stands out as a solid tech-deathcore record, head and shoulders above most of its peers, but the competition is not necessarily fierce.

Rating: Good
DR: 4 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Unique Leader Records
Websites: Bandcamp | Instagram
Releases Worldwide: September 4th, 2026

Stuck in the Filter: February 2024’s Angry Misses

By Angry Metal Guy

Ah yes, February. Wait, what? It’s almost MAY!!! Who approved this two-months-late bullshit?

Oh… right, that would be me. Shit.

Well, you know, sometimes life gets in the fucking way, you know? It’s been rough days, and I know I’m not the only one struggling. With 2024 on such a rocky start, it should come as no surprise that we grasp desperately for media to help us escape and find solace in the art of others. Unfortunately for my Filter minions, they don’t get to escape from the mire and muck of the neglected filtration system from which we find what could be generously described as “art.”

Undeterred, we soldier on. And as we do, we find those nuggets of goodness-but-just-shy-of-greatness which help us survive one more day in this unforgiving world. May you find something in these selections that helps you survive, too!

Kenstrosity’s Murdery Deathkillers

Aesthetic // An Enigmatic Creation [February 16th, 2024 – Self Release]

Spanish melodic death metal troupe Aesthetic have been kicking since 2000, but the aptly named An Enigmatic Creation is only their second LP. This record is one strange beast, because for almost anybody with working ears, myself included (ostensibly), it’s almost unlistenable. Entirely the result of a production that makes the album sound like it was recorded with copper instruments inside an oversized tin can, An Enigmatic Creation tests the boundaries of human enjoyment by way of unforgivably boomy drums and guitars, far too forward vocals, and a snare tone that for all intents and purposes is the equivalent of smacking the lid of an aluminum trash can with your palm. However, with the exception of one cringe-worthy, spoken-word travesty entitled “A Strange Encounter,” every song offered here is a straight-up banger. Vivacious Bal-Sagoth/Kull riffing meets Brymir‘s adventurous spirit, a tidal wave of blackened tremolos, and a chorus of melodious bells, all filtered through a nautical-sounding aesthetic reminiscent of Sulphur Aeon’s Gateway to the Antisphere. Songs like the titular opener, “Vanishing Memories,” “Flashes of Clarity,” and “This Neverending Nightmare” prove that Aesthetic know how to write killer tunes with tons of variety and myriad points of interest. It’s a shame An Enigmatic Creation’s bewildering production almost ruins it, but the artistry behind these compositions leaves me stunned and thirsty for more.

Volucrine // ETNA [February 16th, 2024 – Inverse Records]

Finnish progressive death metal group Volucrine caught me by surprise this year. If I remember correctly, I first encountered third album ETNA while scrolling my Bandcamp feed, attracted by its unique and captivating cover art. A fellow Discordian then reminded me of it in passing, leading me to spin it almost nonstop for an entire day. Progressive death metal with potentially divisive and idiosyncratic vocals lands Volucrine in the same camp as bands like The Odious and Omnivortex circa Diagrams of Consciousness, rounded out with a gentle twist of Coheed and Cambria’s bright earnestness (“Old Friend”). Fortunately, Volucrine’s songwriting flexibility helps ETNA stand out. Early hits like the thrashy “Riptide,” the In Mourning-esque “Combatant,” and “Scarred Earth” function successfully as an impressive portfolio of Volucrine’s talent and skill. While this means ETNA’s first half contains much variety, it compromises cohesion to meet that quota. However, the back half, featuring killers like “Bloodsport,” “Godsized,” and “Escapist,” prioritizes continuity above all else. An interesting strategy, honing in on developing steady and consistent momentum in the back allows ETNA’s forty-seven minutes to feel more like an even forty, thereby making revisits effortless. ETNA’s unorthodox packaging, combined with Volucrine’s twisting and unpredictable songwriting, results in one seriously creative, interesting, and entertaining record!

Atoll // Inhuman Implants [February 23rd, 2024 – Unique Leader Records]

Phoenix, Arizona five-banger1 Atoll chug along at a brisk pace, releasing new LP’s with remarkable velocity over the course of their short decade of existence so far. Clocking in for its shift as Mambo Album No. 5, Inhuman Implants is yet another relentlessly brutal, slamming death metal assault. Doing absolutely goddamn nothing differently compared to anything else in their discography, this record will beat you to within an inch of your life, infect you with virulently memorable slams, and then leave your bruised and battered body in the gutter (“Autonomic Autosarcophagy,” “Vomit Altar,” “Missionary Opposition”). Chunky rhythms (“Berdella of Blood,” “Primordial Rage”) and swaggering beatdowns (“Husks”) allow this record to retain a notably smooth momentum from start to finish, which in turns makes this respectably tight twenty-nine minutes instantly replayable. But of course, this wouldn’t be a slam record without slamples, and Atoll deliver here as well. Album highlight “Gay for God” earns its highlight status in part due to it’s incredible It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia to South Park to It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia-again triple-slample that I’ve got officially penned in my handy-dandy notebook as a… [checks notes]… certified banger. If you should need any further information on Inhuman Implants, you may send your request to my boot on its trajectory to your curb-kissing jaw.

Tales From the Garden

Monkey3 // Welcome to the Machine [February 23rd, 2024 – Napalm Records]

Monkey3 has been around a while. Over 20 years on the market, with a discography running 7 studio albums deep today, the Swiss quartet’s impact has remained modest. Listening to Welcome to the Machine, I have to wonder why. The market for instrumental bands is a bit limited, granted, but not many bands can strike the balance between free-form space rock jams and colossal tidal wave post-metal riffs this well. The slow build on the first half of “Rackman” is superb, growing in gravity as it collects orbital detritus while holding fast to a solid central core, but the second half shifts gears and sounds like it could dual as a soundtrack for Blade Runner or Cyberpunk 2077. If there was any doubt the album title referred to Pink Floyd, the opening stretch for “Collapse” contains some clever, tasteful nods to “Time,” and the incredible wealth of solos strewn across the running time draws from Gilmour and contemporaries alike. It takes a lot to get me invested in a guitar solo these days, but Monkey3 shows incredible expertise at keeping solos interesting through great performances and captivating songwriting. An all-around masterclass at instrumental space-rock, every prog fan owes themselves a spin of Welcome to the Machine.

Dolphin Whisperer’s Twelve-Step Tee Off

Crippling Alcoholism // With Love from a Padded Room [February 29th, 2024 – Self Release]

If a song by the forcefully titled Crippling Alcoholism popped into a playlist when you weren’t looking, its jangly post-rock leads, melancholic refrains, and rock steady rhythms may not register right away as the air-sucking void that lurks about the unpredictable turns throughout With Love from a Padded Room. Its title serves a snippet of the album’s theme: the reimagining of a prisoner’s story as told from solitary confinement. Though a few tracks feature the back and forth of a distant guest vocalist, a majority of this hour’s worth of snarling, pitch-shifted, starkly-reverbed, and dead-faced diatribes feature as an unkempt solo breakdown to maintain the unsettling mood. Stylistically a melange of spearing-synth depressive rock (“Otessa,” “Rough Sleepers”), modern Murder Ballads goth shuffles (“Evil Has a Babyface,” “Sav”), and metal-fringed left-field swings (“Red Looks Good on Him,” “Mob Dad”), With Love avoids striking twice in the same lane to give each character its own space to fester and boil over. And, if you listen with just a little bit of attention, you can make out how truly horrifying Crippling Alcoholism has crafted these vignettes. Whether you come for the music and stay for the macabre or latch onto to the bloody details and nightmare fuel cover despite this hard-to-tag adventure straying away from the comfort of riffs and solos, Crippling Alcoholism can find a powerful hold on your musical journey if you let it. Pairs well with meth., King Woman, Sunrise Patriot Motion, and extended dissociation.2.

Dear Hollow’s Blackened Booty

Nocturnal Sorcery // Captive in the Breath of Life [February 9th, 2024 – KVLT Records]

From the cover to the moniker to the record label, you can probably guess what Nocturnal Sorcery sounds like. Captive in the Breath of Life, the Finnish trio’s second full-length since 2011, offers the bounty of blackened arts in nearly the exact form that you expect it sound like. Cold and raw tremolo, manic shrieks, and blastbeats are all unholy partakers in this trinity of second-wave worship, but thanks to formidable composition, powerful performances, and a willingness to focus on what they can control, Captive in the Breath of Life is everything you love (or hate) about traditionalist black metal. While Nocturnal Sorcery is bloated in a few too many interlude tracks and fluff over its forty-nine-minute length, tracks like “Oath at Mt. Hermon,” “Cry of the Wounded Heaven,” “Joyless Dance in the Shadow,” and “Beyond Salvation” are blackened rippers that toe the line between punishment, catchiness, and frigidity – solidly written flow between blazing riffs and passages of slower reverie with jagged teeth bared. More patient epics take the cake, tracks like “Captive in the Breath of Life,” “Damned by the Law of the Stars,” and true closer “Lucifer’s Shade.” Sure, it’s black metal, but its bulletproof compositions don’t pretend to be anything more, so Nocturnal Sorcery offers a grim ‘n cold occult trip to the 90’s with Captive in the Breath of Life for those interested.

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