Though it’s tempting to claim we’ve reached the pinnacle of genre splicing and experimentation, the inherent nature of music makes this process inevitable and ongoing. Music will only become more innovative as more bands create and contort existing genres. Naturally, styles once considered experimental will eventually become staple genres, only…
I’m still not sure what “Horse Girl Energy” is, but it certainly has New Primals more hyped up than any other rock band I’ve heard this year. Across a tight but raucous half-hour run time, the Minneapolis-based trio consistently blows me away with the sheer amount of (horse girl) energy…
Food and kitchen analogies are pretty rife in metal journalism and I’m definitely guilty of slopping cheap comparisons onto thinly sliced metaphors. Writing this now I’m just realising that the fucking title of this column could be one of these grub related gags too. Well, stick to what you know…
Over the past few years (and specifically in 2018), I’ve been taken aback by the critical affinity with metalcore. It’s not just because of the music itself, though I’ll admit that I’m not particularly fond of recent critically acclaimed albums from bands like Code Orange and Vein. No, what really…
Fresh off a short UK tour with rising formidable heavy weights Conjurer and LLNN, Earth Moves are back with a gripping and powerful sophomore release of emotive post-metal, Human Intricacy. Their debut The Truth In Our Bodies caught my attention in 2016, ranking among my top albums of that year.…
Short bursts of off-kilter aggression have yet to go out of style for me. As much as I’ve gravitated toward longer and more complex music, I still periodically revisit my high school affinity for the ’00s mathgrind and noisecore scene. I was addicted to bands like An Albatross, iwrestledabearonce, and…
The Load In August may have been a relatively quiet month in terms of the volume of events I attended, but there can be no doubt that the quality has been exceptionally high. Having already spoken at length about Radar festival in my last column, I only have three more…
2017’s Hatred came and went with little to no fanfare, and that itself is a crime against music. We didn’t cover it here, so more fool us. Not this time though. Undercurrent, the new record from Japanese hardcore miscreants Friendship, demands the attention that Hatred might have gathered, were it…
This post has been a long time coming. We’ve been dropping hints here and there for years now about the growing underground scene in Israel, a scene which I, as a native of Tel Aviv, am well poised to explore. Interestingly enough, this has become less and less obvious as…
I Will Guide Thy Hand, the debut LP of Indianapolis-based OLAM, is uncompromisingly ferocious hardcore, recalling Botch or the harder edges of Converge; the album is propelled by galloping drums, sharp shrieks and jagged riffing, songs frequently interspersed with slower brooding moments or a strategically patient bridge. I Will Guide…
