Many of us missed an entire generation of metal because millennials came after the rise of hip-hop and rap-influenced acts like nü-metal and Pantera, so it was almost an entirely different genre. At the core of deathcore like Human Mass Extermination beats a heart of groove, and with it, the influence of rap/rock on death metal and grindcore.
2 CommentsFleshcraft – Human Error (2014)
Sometimes a single example of a genre reveals something of the genre, perhaps without intending to, which may be the case of Fleshcraft, a metalcore band with the usual buzzword of blackened death and technical death metal that reveals its core to be old-fashioned heavy metal.
10 CommentsTags: fleshcraft, metalcore
Varathron – Glorification Under the Latin Moon (2020)
Varathron burst into black metal as an outsider, playing Mercyful Fate inspired black metal melodies at a doom metal pace, but never understood what made them appreciated, which was the intense sense of a descending mood with possibility around each corner that this album evoked.
17 CommentsTags: Black Metal, varathron
Miasmal Sabbath – Ominous Radiance (2020)
Genres are like corporations: they move from innovation to participation to cash cow, at which point noone knows where to go and they simply aggregate everything that has not failed. Miasmal Sabbath bring together rushing death metal, d-beat punk, and Autopsy-styled necrotic doom-death into a listenable package.
7 CommentsTags: doom-death, miasmal sabbath, punk
Hagathorn – Hartwold (2020)
Hagathorn makes what might be called medieval ambient folk music, mostly implication of melody through guitar strumming which gradually gives way to a shifting texture of themes that dreamlike combine and dissolve, leaving behind an altered version of the original.
No CommentsVoid Rot – Descending Pillars (2020)
Entering the already crowded field of doom metal, Void Rot take a minimalist version of the glacial Skepticism or Thergothon approach and add a little more death metal and some of the post-rock open chord picking that gives atmosphere, creating a grating monolith of slowly moving sound which varies motifs as a form of texture.
No CommentsTags: Doom Metal, void rot
Dynatron – Aeternus (2015)
Synthwave attempts to recreate a Harold Faltermeyer or Jan Hammer soundtrack with additions from 1980s synthpop and a “cosmic spirit” borrowed from 1970s New Age music and experimental ambient like Tangerine Dream, working simple pop songs into the kind of quasi-symphonic layered and thematic environment of a movie soundtrack.
8 CommentsMegadrone – Transmissions from the Jovian Antennae (2020)
Like metal, drone attempts to make beauty from ugliness, and with the metal-infused version of drone, the genre finally gets past the waiting room music stage by using the intense dynamics of distorted guitar, allowing it to mix darkness and light in a sonic tapestry that diffuses more than focuses attention.
5 CommentsInstigate – Echoes of a Dying World
Instigate sounds like later Suffocation with more classic heavy metal riffs embedded within, sort of like Adramelech working in the style of Deeds of Flesh, but within this framework, this band make compelling songs that are both familiar and alien at the same time.
No CommentsTags: death metal, instigate
Burial Remains – Spawn of Chaos (2020)
Clearly enjoying both classic Swedish death metal and the music of Bolt Thrower, whom it covers with “Spear of Destiny,” Burial Remains seeks to make a simplified and melodic but omnivorous atmosphere out of basic verse chorus songs with a few interludes to develop mood and theme, but otherwise a high-speed, rigid attack.
No CommentsTags: burial remains, death metal