Vaura: The Missing
Weekend Nachos: Still
Grizzly Bear: Shields: B-Sides
Exivious: Liminal
Brutal Truth / Bastard Noise: The Axiom of Post-Inhumanity
Primate: Draw Back a Stump (Relapse, 7/3/12)
“Silence of Violence”
Featuring members of Mastodon, Brutal Truth, and The Despised, Atlanta’s Primate is a new hardcore super-group — a furious bastard child birthed by hardcore, punk, grind, and metal. Heavy-music geeks quickly will recognize the names of vocalist Kevin Sharp and guitarist Bill Kelliher, but the rest of the lineup is no less impressive or important in crafting the band’s maiden opus.
Every Friday, The Metal Examiner delves metal’s endless depths to present the genre’s most important and exciting albums.
Total Fucking Destruction: Hater (Translation Loss, 2/15/11)
Total Fucking Destruction: “Thrashadelphia”
[audio:https://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/12-Thrashadelphia.mp3|titles=Total Fucking Destruction: “Thrashadelphia”]Given the relatively straightforward demands of grindcore, any band willing to name itself Total Fucking Destruction should know what’s expected of it. Conversely, even the most casual grindcore enthusiast probably knows what to expect from a band named Total Fucking Destruction. With Hater, the Philadelphia quartet holds up its end of the bargain, but in such spastic fashion that even the most dedicated are likely to be left in a perpetual double-take.
Hater’s 27 tracks come instilled with a musical hostility equaled only by the comically abrasive song titles (“Murdernumber,” “Hate Mongering Pig Pandemonium”), all taken to absurd heights through a near-constant everything-at-once approach. Built primarily on a foundation of furious drumming, speed-metal riffing, and stream-of-consciousness anti-authoritarianism, Hater at times flexes a kind of accidental atonality not quite Zappa-esque, but more like Slayer if Slayer abandoned the concept of riffs and played at quintuple-time.
Listening to all of this insane music is making my summer even hotter, but it’s good practice, because eventually, Hell awaits!
Ion Dissonance: Cursed (Century Media)
Did you love Calculating Infinity? ADD got you down? Not nearly enough riffs on the last three albums you bought, combined? This Month In Metal is pleased to introduce you to Ion Dissonance‘s Cursed. With a heavy hardcore slant in both attitude and execution, Cursed whips right along, tosses you every which way, and then runs you down when you try to get your bearings. Trim off the last track’s eight minutes of weird alien noises and insane-dude rambling and you have a 40-minute scorcher that’s suitable for slam-dancing of all varieties.
Ion Dissonance: “You People Are Messed Up”
[audio:https://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/02-You-People-Are-Messed-Up.mp3|titles=You People Are Messed Up]
Hail! This being my first column for ALARM Press, I thought I’d dip into some overlooked summer releases to get the blood flowing.
Decrepit Birth: Polarity (Nuclear Blast)
First up is the third album from California’s Decrepit Birth, Polarity. This album is a great example of the band’s name and the album’s title bringing to mind two completely different things. “Decrepit birth” sounds like a schlock-y gore-grind band, while “polarity” suggests spaced-out, progressive rock. Truth be told, it’s a bit of both.
Like Necrophagist before it, Decrepit Birth sticks to the old-school, growled, and slightly raspy styles of vocals in addition to its very complex, other-worldly music. This tactic is employed as a foundation: it doesn’t matter what Bill Robinson is growling about; it just matters that he does it consistently and with enough force to keep the album grounded throughout. With that being said, Robinson chooses his phrasing and placement of vocals well, allowing plenty of time for the rest of the band to do its thing, which really begins a minute and a half into Polarity, when there’s a Spanish-influenced guitar break out of nowhere.