Joel Grind‘s Toxic Holocaust is back with a brain damaging new track from its new album, Chemistry of Consciousness
Four learned scholars of riffology with a penchant for injecting their unique brand of doom-ridden metal-punk with a dose of good.
Call of the Void: Dragged Down a Dead-End Path (Relapse, 3/19/13)
Released last month, Call of the Void’s debut LP announced it as a new breed of sludgy, grindy, acrimonious hardcore. Now, with this cover of “Headless/Heartless,” the band has paid tribute to one of the genre’s cult icons, His Hero is Gone, whose descendents include Tragedy, Severed Head of State, and many others.
Pick up the cover on the digital deluxe version of Dragged Down a Dead-End Path.
Pig Destroyer: Book Burner (Relapse, 10/23/12)
“The Diplomat”
In a particularly furious burst of grindcore, Book Burner, Pig Destroyer’s first album since 2007, opens with “Sis,” a densely compacted tune about a woman escaping from a mental institution. Fleeing the scene in her brother’s car, she “grins from ear to ear like a death’s head” as the volatile effects of refusing her medication overtake her mind. Front-man/lyricist J
“Sis” introduces the notions of escape and resilience that recur throughout Book Burner’s lyrical landscape. But the song also functions as a fitting analogy for the band’s entire body of work, which delves unflinchingly into realms of psychosis and sexually charged violence.
Another year, another torrential downpour of albums across our desks. As always, we encountered way too much amazing music, from Meshuggah to The Mars Volta, Converge, Killer Mike, P.O.S, and many more.
From its modest roots as a basement mail-order operation to its status as one of the premier independent metal labels, Relapse Records has carved a niche as purveyor of distortion-heavy talent. In addition to a few ALARM favorites from Pig Destroyer, Liberteer, and Primate, this year saw noteworthy releases from Dying Fetus, Baroness, Horseback, Locrian, Serpentine Path, and many others.
Pig Destroyer: Book Burner (Relapse, 10/23/12)
“The Diplomat”
After five years of relative inertia, Pig Destroyer — flaring up like an incurable Amazonian virus — is back on the books with Book Burner, a 19-track installation of furious, “misanthropic” grindcore that is as violent as it is relentless. Recorded at guitarist Scott Hull’s Visceral Sound Studios, the album hearkens back to Prowler in the Yard with a raw, live sound that waylays studio artifice for aggression.