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…
Thrash and hardcore seemed to have this huge crossover a few years ago with Iron Reagan, Municipal Waste et al all dishing out dive-bombing, riff-fueled batterings, album after album; music to the ears of patched denim jackets across the world. A lot of the fallout from this resurgence, unfortunately, ended…
My initial impressions of portrayal of guilt, mostly based off their self-titled EP, were that the band bore compelling similarities to You Fail Me-era Converge. Holistically, both releases invoke the sense of urgency in the aftermath of trauma (something arguably still present in Let Pain Be Your Guide); more specifically,…
Denmark is home to a particular scene of hardcore-meets-sludge that contains heavy-hitters such as The Psyke Project (sadly no longer), Hexis, and LLNN. I was very pleased to discover that We Are Among Storms, featuring members from the first two bands as well as Église, had popped up with a four-track EP that…
