Metalcore, mathcore, noise rock, screamo, sludge. You know the drill. September was almost overwhelming with releases. Check out coverage below of Melt-Banana, As Living Arrows, Heriot, Generation of Vipers, Duhkha and more!
There's two releases not covered here I'm going to use this ambiguous intro section to also highlight. The first being the new live album from Rolo Tomassi, Live at Electric Ballroom. A lot of people have got into this band in the past few years, and this thing is a stacked setlist of the best of their past three albums, complete with one of the better live mixes I've heard in a while. The drumming mix especially is a standout and Eva sounds great as always. I'll probably be going back to some of these tracks more than their studio counterparts for a while. The other is the very surprising new self-titled release from former emo-rockers Foxing. There's still plenty of midwest angst here, but it's easily their heaviest, noisiest and most eclectic album to date, to the point I had to cover it for September's Editor's Picks column - so head there for some more in depth coverage, or just listen to it. Anyway, it's spooky season or whatever so put on some Portrayal of Guilt (or Blood Howl, see below), and see you in a month. We could run an entire column of October 11th releases, and probably will!
-TB
The Wall of Death
Melt-Banana - 3+5 (noise rock/experimental hardcore)
The legendary weirdo Japanese punks Melt-Banana, for years now consisting only of the founding duo of guitarist Ichiro Agata and vocalist Yasuko Onuki, has returned with their first new full-length since 2013. Despite being released more than a decade later, the band’s latest collection of noise punk blasts continues the euphoric noise of Fetch while adding ever more layers with a slightly slicker production.
If Melt-Banana is known for anything, it’s their maximalist and experimental approach to noise punk. While Fetch is just as multi-layered and maximalist as any other Melt-Banana post-2000 release, overflowing with numerous layered guitar tracks, Agata scaled back his extensive use of pedal effects on that album. That, together with the live-sounding production of the album, seemed to point toward Fetch being a release ready-made for the live setting.
On the other hand, 3+5 seems much more like a “studio” album. The multi-layered guitar tracks are still there, but with the combination of several synthesizer parts and pedal effects, it may be difficult to reproduce the songs on 3+5 live when compared to those found on Fetch. Not that it would be much of an issue for the band in its current incarnation since so much of their performance is pre-programmed. Nevertheless, it’s a striking difference from the sound of their previous album. The instrumental break in “Case D” is a case study (see what I did there?) in the aforementioned maximalist production quality. Squelching synthesizer effects ping pong in stereo while Agata’s guitar tracks mimic lasers and revving car engines. All the while, the programmed drums and bass keep a steady rhythm, albeit at a rapid tempo.
But it’s not just the production quality and aural pandemonium that make 3+5 another great release in Melt-Banana’s catalog. Despite the intensity of the tracks, euphoria is a prevalent emotion conveyed throughout the entire album (as well as another element found on Fetch). It feels as if the maximalist approach of the music causes a derangement of the senses that is so overwhelming that it allows the listener to break through the anxiety of sensory overload only to arrive at euphoria. Opener “Code” is a prime example of this balance. In the former, a lone guitar line accompanied by a hi-hat and a single bass note build up to an explosively uplifting chorus. That very aspect of tension and release is where Melt-Banana finds the bliss in the chaos.
While Melt-Banana hasn’t expanded their sound considerably on 3+5, there is little reason for the band to make any radical changes at this point in their career. This is because Melt-Banana continues to be one of the most singular entities in extreme music with a sound that is impossible to imitate. Their first album in 11 years confirms as much.
-JG
As Living Arrows - Hope and Ruin (screamo, post-hardcore)
Another month, another album of the year contending screamo release. This time from the UK! Not a place we’ve seen too much action from in the genre, but it definitely has a growing scene. Like a lot of euro-skramz, this release skirts the lines of post-hardcore or “emotional hardcore”, and has plenty of post-rock influence in its instrumentation. If the music here sounds familiar but the name doesn’t ring a bell, this band released an album just two years ago originally under the name Deadbird which we covered here. Now operating as As Living Arrows, the group continues to operate as a two-piece with Chris Collis on drums, known better as the long-time drummer of popular math rock group TTNG. Those percussive talents are on display again with Hope and Ruin, adding some charismatic flair to moments of introspective simplicity, and barrages of frantic complexity when things get intense.
As strong as that drum performance and engaging song-writing is, it’s hard to not pick the vocals as the defining element here. Somewhat unique for the genre, they fluctuate between your typical pained false chord screams, and a wavering distraught spoken-sung clean voice that comes off earnestly flawed, and human. There’s something peculiar about them. Maybe the slight drawl and accent, or the slight nasally goat-iness of them comparable to Exotic Animal Petting Zoo, but this sense of brokenness is palpable, and relatable. Bands like Dreamwell, Chalk Hands and Dangers use this to a lesser extent, offering moments of reprieve and contrast, but the way these vocals are built into the central structure of their song-writing feels novel and an effective way of conveying emotion and accents the hard-hitting poetic lyrical content.
Tying this all together is some excellent production. It’s tight and sharp without being over-polished. The softer moments, the delicate piano and melancholic clean guitars feel roomy and live, and the breaks of heavy distortion are raw and noisy without muddying, basically exactly what you want from a screamo mix. Hope and Ruin is intimate, engaging, and surprisingly catchy. Like most good post-rock albums, it takes its time to get somewhere and the payoff is worth it. The dynamics make the weight of everything just have so much feeling, it will truly fill you with both hope, and ruin.
-TB
Duhkha - A Place You Can’t Come Back From (metallic hardcore, mathcore)
The bar was already set sky high for the category of ‘2024 metallic hardcore’, with titanic releases from the likes of Knocked Loose and Underneath, but it seems this year is not done with us yet. Entering stage left is Californnia’s Duhkha and their debut full length, A Place You Can’t Come Back From, is the darkest of dark horses, snarling and spitting from the back of the pack as it demolishes everything in its path. Although that’s probably not surprising when I tell you that the band's members also frequent (or frequented) Teeth, Tzompantli, Seizures and Eighteen Visions. You can hear the caliber and experience in the whole package, from the songwriting right down to the crisp yet powerful production. It’s a class act.
Everything about this record feels enraged, but not in a scattergun, out of control kind of way, more like a precise, calculated assault, which is so much more effective with landing every punch. And boy do those punches land. Straight from the beatdown laden opener “Ictal” you know this is going to hurt, but it’s a pain you can’t get enough of, which is just as well because the intensity doesn’t relent. “Arrows” and “Echo Theft” keep you black and blue, with the latter adding a touch of Meshuggah-esque melody as some form of desperate respite. Fear not, “Ascension Night” pummels you back into a pile of skin and bones with what must surely be an homage to late 90’s metalcore legends Blood Has Been Shed. (If you haven’t heard Novella Of Uriel you need to sort that shit out immediately)
There are some crushingly heavy riffs on this album, with a standout example being the sludgy and brutish protagonist on “A Crisis Area Forever”. It’s one of those riffs that will bury its way into your subconscious, to the point where you’ll think you heard it somewhere before, but that just shows how catchy this beast is. Oh, and if the ludicrously downtuned finale of “Revelator” doesn’t open up a black hole somewhere in the universe then I’ll be damned.
This isn’t just meat and potatoes hardcore though, there are a lot of intricate time changes and well thought out song structures, especially on the gordian knot seven-minute closer “null”, which hints at what could come next for Duhkha. The performances are all stellar and utterly devastating, with a special mention going to vocalist Cameron Miller’s acerbic delivery throughout. Howard Jones comparisons cannot be ignored, and although we (thankfully) don’t get clean vocals, the occasional spoken word interludes add another eerie layer to proceedings.
A Place You Can’t Come Back From is more than an impressive debut, it’s laying down the gauntlet. Duhkha manage to balance retro elements of hardcore, metalcore and mathcore, but take them by the scruff of the neck and bring it all screaming into 2024. It’s innovative as much as it is mauling, and that’s a wicked combination in anyone's book.
-PK
Generation Of Vipers - Guilt Shrine (sludgecore, noise rock)
I’ve already spoken at length in another piece about my excitement, anticipation and expectation for the long awaited (10 goddamn years!!) new Generation Of Vipers release, so I won’t go over that again here. Let’s just take a moment to rejoice that we actually have another album from these Tennessee noise merchants, it genuinely looked like it would never happen.
Could Guilt Shrine possibly live up to my lofty hopes after such a long hiatus? No, probably not. When something is taken away or withheld from you, there is a tendency to build that thing up into something bigger or better than it is. I’m not saying that is the case here, this is by no means a Chinese Democracy type of record (i.e an utter disappointment and waste of everyone's time and money), far from it. But we also aren’t going to get the same band that released Coffin Wisdom in 2014, it’s just not possible. Time changes people and it certainly changes bands and the type of music they want to make.
The first thing that hits me when listening to Guilt Shrine is that there is a vibrancy and energy that was not present on their earlier releases. You’d obviously hope that a band would be rejuvenated after taking a decade long siesta, but it really does seem to be the case here. Each song feels dynamic and pulsating in its own right. This dynamism does mean that some of the gloomier heaviness heard on 2012’s Howl & Filth has been lost, but I guess that’s a fair trade off.
That’s not to say this isn’t a heavy album, there are some gargantuan hooks that will get you pulling nasty faces and banging your head, with prime suspects being the pummeling “Elijah” and catchy as hell first single “Lux Inversion”. There is also a lightness of touch that counterbalances this heaviness, especially on the last trio of tracks on the album. They almost feel like a triptych that needs to be consumed in sequence in its entirety. I would love to know if this is what they intended.
Whilst Guilt Shrine doesn't quite reach the heights of Coffin Wisdom this is still an impressive addition to their discography and extends their legacy further than any of us had previously hoped. Personally, I'm just happy to have Generation Of Vipers back as a functioning band again and desperately hope I finally get a chance to see them play live in the near future.
-PK
The Crowdkillers
Heriot - Devoured By The Mouth of Hell (metalcore, sludge)
Heriot are one of the most exciting bands coming out of the UK right now. I was going to add metalcore in there, but is this metalcore? Debatable. It’s sludge, industrial, and spookily ethereal, but it’s these elements that make the metalcore framework of this release feel more novel than their peers. Now you might be thinking, industrial and atmospheric parts are almost the trend in metalcore right now. However the way they’re incorporated here feels a lot more deliberate and purposeful than something tacked on at the end. Like something between LLNN and Loathe. Despite being around since 2014, they never really broke out until their 2022 release Profound Mortality which uncoincidentally came with the addition of guitarist/vocalist Debbie Gough. This was questionably considered an EP, making Devoured By the Mouth of Hell actually their debut full-length, and is it ever hellish. It sounds like the soundtrack to a gritty, dystopian urban horror film in the best way.
Again vocalist Debbie should be at the forefront of discussions about this release with her absolutely diabolical screams and ethereal, haunting cleans. They’re just piercing and cut viciously to your core, among the best metalcore vocal performances you can find this year. Adding to this are some killer backing brutal gutturals from their bassist, adding contrast to Debbie and giving this album a ton of range on the vocal side of things, among an already eclectic all-around sound. Now it does feel like they’ve dialed back some of that industrial edge that made Profound Mortality a little more unique, but the increased use of these gutturals goes hand-in-hand with what feels like an asserted effort to double-down on pure filthy heaviness. There’s some borderline death metal and slam riffage, and plenty of just stank-face breakdowns. Add in a few well-placed solos, a general atmosphere of terror that permeates the album from start to finish, and you’ll find a lot worth coming back to here.
Bloom Dream - It Didn’t Have to Be This Way (screamo, metalcore)
A screamo album for those maybe afraid to admit they’re a screamo fan. For those who grew up on Converge but are opening up to the lighter sides of hardcore, and yearning for some emotional catharsis. In other words, this is a screamo album coated in metallic armor with sharp edges. I’ve been coming back to this a lot for its range, and ability to effectively nail my thirst for hard hitting violent riffs, squealing breakdowns, introspective post-hardcore guitar melodies, and vocal performances where you can picture the singer being absolutely spent, rolling around exhausted and shattered on the floor. Another homerun from Zegema Beach Records.
xEdenisgonex - PAIN (old-school metalcore)
Was surprised to see this is their third full-length, evidently being one of the earlier adopters of this new wave of bands bringing back that aggressive, melodic metalcore sound of the 00s. This thing is pretty raw and unrelenting, with some melodic black metal elements coming through with hard tremolo picked riffs, shrieked vocals and an overall vibe that is not easily approachable - in a good way. Yet, plenty of fun breakdowns, dissonant technicality and moshable moments should keep fans of that early metalcore sound coming back.
-TB
Blood Howl - Signs Shall Follow Them (powerviolence, black metal)
The one release that has seemingly flown the most under the radar this month comes from Alabama’s Blood Howl. In short, this is essentially “what if Portrayal of Guilt wrote a powerviolence album?” I had to double-check that this wasn’t actually just PoG’s vocalist’s side-project, it’s that comparable, and is a big part of why this album has impressed me so much. But the comparisons don’t end there, they do that treble-y clean-sounding distortion on tracks like “Umbilical Rite” that if you’re a fan of Portrayal should instantly recognize. It adds an uneasy calm to what is a pretty unrelenting mix of powerviolence and black metal that gets this month's Certified Rotten seal of approval. Don't sue me, Rotten Tomatoes.
Правда - Наука (mathcore, chaotic hardcore)
The Russian group Правда, otherwise known as Pravda, are lowkey quickly becoming one of the most interesting bands in modern mathcore. They released their debut in 2004, went on a 20 year hiatus and have now released back to back bangers in subsequent years, this time in the form of a 15-minute EP displaying all the hallmarks of the greats of the genre. The lyrics are all in Russian, so I can not vouch to what they’re actually talking about, but the music stands on its own. Jazzy breaks, math rock licks, and refreshingly taking their time to get somewhere highlight strong use of dynamics on this rewarding mathcore album that at times feels like they also want to fill the void left by Every Time I Die.
156/Silence - People Watching (nu-metalcore)
156 have been one of the most consistent names in the more hardcore-coded realm of metalcore over the past 8 years. Now with their fifth full-length and a growing and healthy following, they seem content pumping out energetic ragers made for the pit. The mathcore elements seem a little dialed back in favor of a slightly more Octane-friendly Cane Hill-type alternative nu-metal influence that’s gradually taking over metalcore of late. While personally this shift is a little disappointing, I cannot knock the execution. An emotionally powerful vocal performance that seems a bit Silent Planet inspired, and the addition of the occasional clean vocals feels like a success, combined with some solid guest features gives the repetitious groove-centric nature of this genre plenty to latch onto.
Officer Down - …All Due Respect (metalcore, metallic hardcore)
An efficient 20-mins of unrelenting mathy panic chords, squealing guitars, mosh calls, breakdowns, and deranged higher-pitched screaming. Basically, if you’re a Knocked Loose fan you should get on this real quick. Nashville hardcore, quality. No bandcamp for this for some reason, but it should be on most streaming platforms.
-TB
The Circle Pit (Best of the Rest)
Killing of a Sacred Deer - Killing of a Sacred Deer (deathcore)
Nails - Every Bridge Burning (grind)
Thrown - Excessive Guilt (metalcore)
Kublai Khan Tx - Exhibition of Prowess (metalcore, groove)
Void of Vision - What I’ll Leave Behind (metalcore, alt-metal)
Many Eyes - The Light Age (metalcore, alt-metal)
The Narrator - Lore (metalcore)
Fijian Rote - Phyllomedusa (sludge/grind)
ILS - The End is to Begin (noise rock)
Missouri Executive Order 44 - Salt Sermon (noisecore)
Abandoncy - Assailable//Agonism (noise rock)
Giver - The Future Holds Nothing But Confrontation (melodic hardcore, post-hardcore)