the (uncensored) album cover, depicting a blood-soaked, three-armed, androgynous figure sitting with their legs crossed in zen lotus position, is actually a metaphor for meshuggah's identity as a band: backdropped by the dark grey clouds of the troposphere, our blood-soaked character here is sitting atop Peak Djent, highest point in the prog metal mountains. they are the final boss, the guardian angel, and ultimate observer.

i have never been the biggest djent fan, but meshuggah's immortal ... read more

not always a trad metal guy but when u blacken it it magically becomes the most epic metal in the world. on first listen this is one of the most instrumentally rich albums i've heard this year. i can chew on these guitars for hours mmmm yum

evil army outta memphis might be what u get if u raised the reatards on S.O.D.: they play irreverent, blitzing, unchained crossover thrash with all the force n fervor in the world, with a similar sense of youthful, caustic self-destruction which backdropped albums like teenage hate. those are the vibes EYE get at least. i like their vocalist even if he sounds the exact same on every song. title track, driven to violence, wrong approach, satan made me do it and friday the 13th are my favorites, ... read more

an album that understands.

three nails of fate is an excellent slice of obscure extremity hailing from the pennsylvania death metal (PADM, if u will) scene of the early 2000's. it doesn't sound very much like it's from 2003; as divination's bandcamp states, they were initially inspired by the likes of deicide and suffocation, giving them a very OSDM-rooted sound. however, by the release of this debut, the band wished to break the mold and get a little more ambitious with their compositions, resulting in a creative and ... read more

i was gonna listen to all the pre-1998 abnegation EPs and demos before checking out their debut, but for some reason i started with the second-to-last release i was supposed to listen to, so fuck it we'll just go backwards and pop out the other side like pac-man to finish with verses of the bleeding. sown in the remains is the EP i was talking about that takes a stance against abortion, presumably just so they had a cause to feel morally motivated to stand against: "As a band & ... read more

90's metalcore and proto-deathcore is where it's at. '96 saw the release of abnegation's final demo (this one!) before debuting two years later. hailing from erie, i often see them cited as one of the more notable pennsylvanian metal/deathcore groups of their era and the figurehead of erie's "lake effect hardcore" scene, but i'd avoided them in the past due to their hardline associations--including a statement against abortion on one of their EPs? tbh i don't know how deep it runs, ... read more

whenever i listen to mathcore this frantic, i wonder what possesses these musicians to play the exact notes they're playing. what spiritual force is guiding them to jerk in that specific direction? why switch to this time signature at that moment? why? why do anything? questions. johnny cage is a fake dropped this in 2005 during a time at which mathcore was quite the hot sound. personally, the genre doesn't get me goin like i know it does for a lot of other people, but i generally fuck with it ... read more

this hardcore "LP" is only 7 tracks and <20 minutes long, categorized as a full-length...it seems more like an EP, but RYM and spotify both declare it an LP, so an LP it shall remain. whatever it is, i like it. this here is self-loathing, weedy, metallic beatdown that's all riffs.

there are like two instances of jumpscare clean vocals that i don't dig, but the rest are okay. he sounds how a 2000s/2010s tough guy hardcore vocalist sounds...that is to say, fine by me, but probably ... read more

THE powerviolence album -- my favorite vocalist is the one who sounds awesome u know the one

this promo is less than 3 minutes long so i cant overrate it that much but this is some of my favorite material i've heard from slug yet! sounds like they're in prime position to drop a killer debut, hyped for its early 2024 release

this unknown little EP is a delightfully colorful cocktail of myspacecore that serves as an excellent time capsule of 2009, but its authors never garnered any real attention, and i feel for their plight; they formed in the small town of SOUDERTON, PENNSYLVANIA, population somewhere around 7,000-ish. not known for its bustling artistic community. if you've been following this account for a while, you'll recognize my compulsion to document the music of bucks county, pa for a number of reasons, ... read more

a guy on rym compared this to early gorgoroth + marduk (some of my favorite bm ever) and i'd say hes right on the money. cirith gorgor are out to curse the land of the falses with their evil metal, slaying posers with an evil demon sword from hell.. if ur tryna fly on the scaly wings of the beast on the cover, listening to this LP will give u that feeling. it certainly has a capacity for savagery; the balance of vicious force and glacial melodies sounds natural, and unlike some melodic bm, i ... read more

this is a fusion of brutal death metal (hence the album title) and goregrind, and if you're a fan of chunky, borderline sludgy death metal, it might just be the album for you. i tried desperately to come up with some accurate comparisons for these guys, but the best i can do is call em a muddier, less core-influenced bodybox who got into grind instead of metalcore at that crucial crossroads in every metal/punk lover's development...and i know that's no good. its straightforward approach sorta ... read more

in my opinion one of the most definitive deathcore albums of the genre's myspace era, the cleansing by suicide silence immediately thrust the california band into the forefront. it wasn't always among my favorites, but i think that has something to do with first hearing it AFTER i'd already gotten into deathcore and heard a buncha bands that bit these guys shit. my appreciation for it has grown considerably over the years. whereas some popular deathcore bands lost touch with their death metal ... read more

lest we forget the humble gorod! while a certain other progressive death metal band from france was making worldwide waves in 2005, gorod was debuting for the second time, re-releasing neurotripsicks a year after they dropped it under a different name. their sound was definitely indicative of the state of death metal at the time. in my last review i noted how OSDM-inspired death metal never TRULY goes out of style among metalheads, but i don't mean to undermine how the death metal landscape ... read more

one of the premiere death-thrash gems of the oughts, stockholm's repugnant (now known as the guy from ghost's first band) recorded epitome of darkness in 2002, then dropped it two years after disbanding in 2004. interestingly enough, metalsucks just posted an article in which tobias forge--repugnant frontman and the aforementioned guy from ghost--mourns the lack of success his band achieved in the death metal scene, saying he wanted to get signed to a big label and tour with slayer, but those ... read more

I CAME HERE TO EAT RIFFS. first song gave me a taste of what was to come but also kinda bad vibes. to the grave made a positive musical impression at first, but after picking up on the formula it didn't feel noteworthy--which i didn't mind, coming from the 1-minute long opener that i'd already presumed would be merely supplementary--but i was so irritated by those POINTLESS fucking electronics. the quietly whirring background synths found in all these pro tools deathcore records that are only ... read more

background music is a very influential release from short-lived boston hardcore band american nightmare. when it comes to melodic stuff, massachusetts seems to know how to do it right and american nightmare were no exception. have heart came to mind when thinking of bands who balance fury and melody in a similar way. for the most part these tunes aren't in-your-face melodeath style or anything, nor are they kiddie-punk singalongs in the vein of your worst Y2K-era bad religion copycats. if ... read more

of all the 2000's finest spazzcore greats, see you next tuesday have always been among my favorites thanks to their 2007 debut, parasite. it had been a minute since i spun it, but after checking out their latest release the other day, i decided it was time to return to this old slab o' noise. in my opinion, it holds up pretty well. i don't think it sounds as frenzied and mathgrind-y as distractions (ofc it's still very technical), but it is less overproduced and more deathcore-centric, which i ... read more