01. New Born Porn
02. Infant Annihilator
03. Devotion to the Child Rape Syndicate
04. Anal Prolapse Suffocation
05. Whorespawn
06. Embryonic Fetish
07. Immeasurable Foetal Mutilation
08. Torn From The Womb
09. Cuntcrusher
10. Pinned Down and Fisted
11. Flayed and Consumed
12. Bathed In Placenta
13. The Palpable Leprosy of Pollution
14. Decapitation Fornication
15. An Exhalation of Disease
16. Paedophilic Supremacy
[12/12/12]
[Self Release/Total Deathcore]
Thanks to the internet and inexpensive studio equipment, there’s an increasing surge of bands that are built almost entirely as an online presence first and foremost. This movement seems to flourish in the realm of deathcore in particular, where bands like Slice the Cake get more attention than many touring bands. One such band, Infant Annihilator, have quickly gained notoriety across the internet sparked by a viral music video and a sense of irony and dark comedy that is welcomed by this community of deathcore fans. The group’s first album The Palpable Leprosy of Pollution was highly anticipated, but the reaction so far has been mixed, and rightly so. Infant Annihilator first made their name online through simulated gay sex among its members, which just goes to show how seriously they take themselves. While having a carefree attitude and the ability to make and take jokes is an admirable trait, the carelessness shows through the music as well.
01. Nuchal Cord
02. Ancestal Perplexities
03. The Gynecic Curse
04. Combaticus
05. Minutia
06. A Sheep In Wolf’s Clothing
07. Mer/ka/ba
08. Fail Science!
09. Charlie Guiteau
10. Joint Ventures
11. Houses of Stone
[12/18/12]
[Self-Released]
The Odious are, it seems, the latest darling of the digital age. While not an ‘online band’ per se like Slice the Cake, their rise to relative recognition in the scene has been somewhat catalyzed by the metal blogosphere. It’s certainly well deserved, though, as the band released an absolute ripper of an EP in 2011′s That Night a Forest Grew, which fused elements of The Faceless and Between the Buried and Me together with hefty doses of jazz and psychedelia as well as clean vocals a la Alice in Chains. The uniqueness and talent showcased on this release garnered them quite the hype for their debut album, but now that it’s here, is it really the swansong 2012 deserves, or just the one it needs?
If I had my say, there would be a top one hundred list, because I enjoyed so many different albums this year. I’ve changed this list fifty seven times over the past week, so this list is me finally making a decision. It’s honestly been harder choosing this list than it has been choosing classes for next semester. I must say that 2012 has shown that music has not totally gone down the drain, because there are still so many amazing bands I’m just now hearing about, and so many great albums to listen to. So, without further ado, here are the twenty best albums to come out in 2012, and the six best albums that would be twenty one through twenty six that just didn’t make the cut.
Some of you may be aware of who I am. AlucardXIX on youtube, amongst other websites. The guy who does all the Veil of Maya covers, the mind behind Encircle, and another writer on this here great ol’ blog. 2012 was both an interesting and disappointing year to me, musically. Some absolutely astounding albums came out this year, and some serious let downs as well (The Faceless, The Contortionist). Originally it was hard for me to pick a top ten; I thought about all the albums I’ve heard that I abandoned after a few listens, albums I loved at first listen and then wondered how I even thought that to begin with. I thought I could barely muster together 10 albums to begin with, but remembering back to the beginning of the year, I managed this humble fifteen:
The first thing I want to say, as the newest addition to the Heavy Blog team, is what a privilege it has been to write with these guys over the past few months and to have the opportunity to perhaps expose more great Australian progressive rock and metal to the world.
Gushing aside, though, two things have struck me about 2012, the first of which has been the breadth and the quality of the releases by Australian bands, some of which appear on my list below. Of those releases that didn’t quite make the cut, I was particularly impressed with, amongst others, Elysian‘s Wires of Creation, Okera‘s A Beautiful Dystopia, and Avadante by Kettlespider. Promising EPs were also released by Gods of Eden and In Trenches, all of which bodes well for the future of music in this country.
The other thing that stands out to me, as I look down the list of albums that really captured my interest this year, is that 2012 has been a year dominated by mood, atmosphere and emotion. Now, to be fair, I am generally drawn to vibe heavy music, but never before have I listened to so many doom influenced bands!
At the end of the day, however, I was in no doubt as to which three albums would vie for top spot, each one stylistically, technically and structurally progressive, yet still emotionally accessible, and I am sure that all three will remain stalwarts of my collection for many years to come.
01. Blow Up Voodoo Doll
02. False Illumination
03. Nebulayer Cake
04. The Siren’s Song
05. Fractal Exam Sequence
06. A Dance With Dragons
07. 4th Dimensional Obversation
08. Cleansed
09. Genghis Tron, Come Home, We Miss You!
10. The Great Migration
11. Kow Otani’s Castle in the Sky
[12/21/12]
[Myriad Records]
The term “deathcore” is oft times a very polarizing way to describe a band; nearly as polarizing as the “djent” label. Though the rule still stands that there are outliers in every genre, and Slice the Cake happen to be one of the best examples of this, most accurately described as “progressive deathcore”. They’ve had quite a big year, now releasing two, yes two, full length albums in under twelve months time. Some would think this would lead to a quantity over quality situation, but they couldn’t be further from the truth. Opening the year with their stellar debut full length concept album The Man With No Face and closing it with Other Slices proves them to be some of the most prolific writers in the online metal scene.
Internet-based progressive/technical deathcore band Slice The Cake has inked a deal with burgeoning record label Myriad Records. The band and label have decided to announce their new partnership through Heavy Blog, and you can read statements from the band and the label below as they detail the impending releases (yes, plural!) and stream the band’s new track ‘The Siren’s Song.’
First off, we’re proud to announce our signing to Myriad Records!
Myriad is a great independent label with some real ethics fueling them, rather than being an exploitative machine that destroys artistic expression. Some other great bands that have worked/are currently working with Myriad are The Schoenberg Automaton, Bleeding Skies, Friend For A Foe & Ever Forthright. Myriad’s a great little family of musicians and we’re stoked to be joining them!
Leading on from that, we shall be releasing our next album Other Slices through them, first through all good digital distributors and on CD + 10″ Vinyl Picture Disk soon after. For this album, we wanted a release from the thematic intensity of our previous work, an opportunity to bring in some guest musicians, and a chance to show people what gets left on the cutting room floor.
Though that’s not to say we think these songs are somehow lesser works than anything we have released to date, but rather this album is a collection of songs we felt were great that just didn’t fit into our previous releases for a variety of reasons. Some of it was written after the release of The Man With No Face, some of it before, some of it is a drastic departure from what we’d usually do, some of it is more traditional, but we think you’ll find it all equally delicious…
The tracklist is as follows:
1. Blow Up Voodoo Doll
2. False Illumination
3. Nebulayer Cake
4. The Siren’s Song
5. Fractal Exam Sequence
6. A Dance With Dragons
7. 4th Dimensional Obversation
8. Cleansed
9. Genghis Tron, Come Home, We Miss You!
10. The Great Migration
11. Kow Otani’s Castle in the Sky
And to satiate your appetites, here’s the first slice from our incoming collection of baked goods…
Since Other Slices is mostly about looking back, we felt it important to give our fan base some insight into where we’re headed, so we are also happy to announce our next conceptual pieces “The Man of Ash and Rust” and “The Man of Stone and Silver.” This duo of EP’s will expand upon themes we have flirted with before, while adding to our own conceptual cosmology that was given life with the Cleansed and The Man With No Face.
Musically, they will be a big departure from anything you have heard from us previously and will have far more organic production (and real drumming!)
We don’t want to say much more about these for now, but more information will be coming soon…
Here’s a statement from Myriad Records owner Jaime Gamble:
“To have a band of the calibre of Slice The Cake on Myriad is great, just listening to their previous work it’s clear to see the talent on offer, they’re an incredible band, and I feel this is a huge signal of intent on our part, we’re here to get the cream of the crop to have on our label, and in my opinion, these guys are the cream of the crop in what they do.”
Be on the lookout for Other Slices, due out December 21st on Myriad Records. For more information on Slice the Cake and Myriad Records, visit them on Facebook.
Slice The Cake‘s The Man With No Face was definitely a surprising record. Being the pessimist I am, I automatically assumed it would be another boring breakdown infused deathcore release. But an album that seemed so bad turned out to just be fucking killer. It’s been on constant rotation since it came out, and we here at the blog even thought it was a beautifully crafted metal record. With a sophomore album ahead, the curse of the “Sophomore Slump” is more prevalent than ever. Similarly to The Contortionist‘s Intrinsic, with such a great debut album, the follow-up is always the biggest challenge. What roads will they take? What sound will it have?
While they figure all that out, they have decided to feed our massive appetites for more Cake by releasing a collection of B-Sides. They want to make it clear that there aren’t any rough demos of tracks on their first record; this is purely songs that nobody but the bands has heard before, in their true form. Good thing, too; nothing makes me more annoyed than to buy a B-Sides release and hear 4 new songs with about 15 demo version of 3 songs. Here’s the update:
Hey guys!
We’re all currently hard at work on the new StC release, and with no delays in the foreseeable I think it’s ok to let a few little bits of info out of the bag.
01. Intro
02. Rational Thinking, Logical Future
03. City of Ghosts
04. Time Unwinding
05. Of Gallows
06. As Written In Pnakotus
07. Promethean
08. Equilibrium
09. The Chasm
10. The Man With No Face
[03/01/12]
[Self-released]
You know, Slice The Cake were doing the whole progressive deathcore thing before it was popular. Their 2010 EP, Cleansed came right before the big boom of the genre. Oh, by the way, did you know that members of STC have never met in person, and they’re an internet band? They were among the first bands to combine the deep, resonating growls with crisp yet smooth guitar production and choppy, technical riffs. Betraying The Martyrs and Substructure expanded upon that sound last year and I was very impressed by them, but STC were always on the back of my mind. Now, on the second anniversary of their EP, they’ve released a full length album titled The Man With No Face, but does it hold up to its peers that came after the big boom of the genre? Let’s see.
I would have sworn that we spoke about burgeoning progressive deathcore group Slice The Cake before, but apparently not (or I can’t seem to find it now at least). At any rate, this online-formed intercontinental band based out of UK, Sweden, and Australia are a testament to how the internet has helped change the face of music and the process of songwriting/recording for the better. Formed in 2009, they released an EP titled Cleansed the following year to a fair amount of buzz online, and for good reason. It was damn heavy and quite impressive for a group of people that have never met face-to-face.
Two years later, they have finally released their debut full-length album The Man With No Face. Noyan will have our full review in the near future, but let me tell you that The Man With No Face is just nuts. Don’t let the silly name sway you; we’re talking about massively heavy progressive metal here, with plenty of technical and orchestral influences. I don’t know how many 20-minute deathcore songs there are, but the title track for this record manages to make it justifiably work. You’ll see.
Infant Annihilator
The Odious
Slice the Cake
Slice The Cake
