Helms Alee: Unapologetic, Unwieldy Post-Rock
Led by guitarist/vocalist Ben Verellen, Seattle-based post-punk band Helms Alee makes melodic heaviness that evokes grunge and post-metal — but with harmonized moments of clean-channel clarity.
Luc Rodgers
Fuck Buttons: Over the Influence
While retaining some of the dark, distorted undertones that peppered its 2008 debut, Fuck Buttons‘ latest offering relaxes a bit with atmospherics that glaze the record in a glassy sheen.
Mammoth Grinder: Pure Metal Immediacy
With its second full-length album, Mammoth Grinder combines the simple brutality of death metal with a hardcore rawness that is heard less and less in this age of digital recording programs, overdubs, and pitch correctors.
Krallice: Classically Inspired, Ambient Black Metal
The members of Krallice come from a variety of backgrounds — math metal, punk jazz, death metal — but their outgrowth of black metal in a community where the genre is lacking is reminiscent of the jazz era, when new sounds were pouring out of Queens, NY.