Top Picks
Missouri Executive Order 44 – Salt Sermon (mathgrind/core)
Missouri Executive Order 44 offer up quite the mathcore smorgasbord on Salt Sermon. The record is largely reminiscent of early Dillinger Escape Plan and Norma Jean, which is pretty par for the course when it comes to these sorts of things. However, there are also freqent nods to the grindier side of early Converge and a smattering of Every Time I Die-style southern swagger and lyrical delivery in play as well, not to mention touches of fellow statesmen Coalesce's more chaotic approach as well, with maybe the band it reminds me of most being Australian cult mathgrinders Robotosaurus, whihc can only be a good thing.
The band take their name from a historic government order, declaring that all Mormons "must be exterminated or driven from the state if necessary for the public peace". As they explain, in this interview, the moniker is intended as a reminder that:
We need to stand together in communities to overthrow the bigoted and hateful forces of the state, police and fascists in this country and worldwide. ... The extermination order is a cautionary tale but also a too-familiar experience of our brothers and sisters right here right now - the state can and will oppress those it deems “other” or “less than”. Our message is one of retribution, anti-colonialism, anti-state and pro-humanity.
...which all sounds rather admirable. At the same time though, the band also dress as a mockery of Mormans, in white shirts and bicycle helmets (which I have learned is a thing, apparently), and their lyrics, when not about beating up drunken cowboys, often seem to be making fun of or invoking religious abuses committed by the Mormons themselves—which is an interesting (and somewhat uncomfortable) tact to take for a band named after a real-world demand for their extermination. I’m also not really sure what any of it has to do with “anti-colonialism”? As an ignorant Australian, I don’t really have the proper context for how Mormonism fits into America’s current or historic climate, and none of this is to say that their political stance is invalid, just that it all seems rather messy and confusing, with its many desperate parts never quite coming together as well as their similarly chaotic sonic tapestry does on record. Still, it's a hell of a ride and serves as a forceful reminder to always wear a helmet, if nothing else.
Release Roundup
Abated Mass of Flesh – Doomed Inception (brutal death metal)
Ascent – Gamma (prog metal)
Attractive Chaos – Tame & Conquer (melodic/power-prog)
Avernus – Grievances (mellowdoom)
Berenice – Berenice (crusty death-thrash)
Blind Monarch – The Dead Replenish The Earth (funeral doom)
Cemetery Filth – Senses Of Detriment (proggish death metal)
Dark Shaman – Road to Hell (stoner rock)
Dark Tranquillity – Endtime Signals (forgettable melodeath)
Dead South Dealers – The Noise, The Sky, The Melody (groove metal)
Death League – Inferno (groove melodeath)
Egor Lappo – Reasonable Nonsense (synthy prog rock)
Eisregen – Abart (black/folk metal)
Evilyn – Mondestrunken (weird death metal)
Extinction A.D. – To The Detested (crossover groove-thrash)
Gel – Persona (hardcore)
Gyaos: Diabolical – (Destruction, Vector, Convergence) (black/death metal)
Hail Darkness – Death Divine (psychedelic/occult doom)
Heartline – Pink Lemonade (electro rock, baddiecore)
Holy Blade – Holy Blade (alt/goth punk, AFI-core)
Horns & Hooves – Spectral Voyeurism (black metal)
Houkago Grind Time – Koncertos of Kawaiiness: Stealing Jon Chang’s Ideas, a Book by Andrew Lee (animegrind)
i Häxa – Part 3 (alt/electro rock)
Ignobleth – Voidspawn Sacrifice (death metal)
Laid to Waste – Trauma (thrashy metal)
Left To Suffer – Leap Of Death (deathcore)
Limited Sight Distance – Terminal (oddly quiet prog-metal)
Mekigah – To Hold Onto A Heartless Heart (weird noise doom?)
Messianic – 39 Stripes (shitty death thrash)
Oxidised Razor – Stench, Putrefaction and Death (slammish death metal)
Painted Scars – Kintsugi (hard rock)
Ritual – The Story of Mr. Bogd – Part 1 (prog dudes rock)
Robse – Harlekin & Krieger (melodeath)
Starer – Waking (black metal)
Straight Red – Love Ain’t Enough (soccer punk)
Thermality – The Final Hours (melodeath)
Thotcrime – Connection Anxiety (hypercore)
Trench – Between Inverted Worlds (brutal hardcore, metalcore)
Trojka – Strobermorke (prog rock)
Vile Rites – Senescence (doomy prog-death)
Voodoo Kiss – Feel the Curse (power doom)
We Are Scorpio – We Are Scorpio (rap-rock)
Without the Sky – Reflections (black metal)
Yosemite In Black – The Pursuit Of (hardcore)