Metal playlists from the underground
Orange County metalcore quintet, how redundant, huh? Add End the Century’s name into the bingo cage of bands whose feral screaming sounds like a rabid animal’s revenge, as the six-track Hammer and the Anvil presents a band full of fire but seriously lacking the compelling compositions to properly get their power across. Tinny guitars, stock […]
White bread pop punk from five dudes from Indiana best describes The Sincerities EP from The Method to My Medium. This Indiana quintet sure know their New Found Glory and Starting Line catalog, as they regurgitate it back up across this annoyingly electronically manipulated 10-track affair whose vocoder-enhanced vocals and glitched beats come off as […]
Buffalo, NY trio Lemuria play a type of female-led, male-response vocal rock that takes its cues from 90’s indie rock. Get Better is a 12-track offering laden with a slight guitar crunch that rocks hard on “Mechanical” and follows the sticky sweet little girl melody on “Get Some Sleep,” helping this band shed its innocuous […]
There’s a certain 90’s slacker rock quality, audible on Home that would remind you of J. Mascis or Rivers Cuomo at their most acerbic. The latest endeavor by Ted Rosedale celebrates crunch-ridden malaise on cuts like “Green” and “619” on this album. But for all the tasty guitar licks emulating everyone from David Gilmour to […]
Calling the latest offering by Polish powerhouse quartet, Third Degree, just a grindcore album is a bit misleading despite the vicious velocity of tracks like the Napalm Death-esque “Thoughts” — as many other underground metal sub-genres play a large role in making Punk Sugar such an enraged and misanthropic monster. Adorned with hearty helpings of […]
By Mike SOS Greek troupe, Reflection, present a classic metal release with When Shadows Fall. Keyboard heavy and operatic, this 12-track’s disc’s tone falls somewhere between the epic strokes Blind Guardian uses and the sonic bombast of Fates Warning, even going so far as to include a full-on orchestral version of “Mistress of Sea,” complete […]
By Mike SOS Bursting with pop music pomp, the latest nine-track endeavor by Secret Dakota Ring finds mainman, Andy Ross [OK Go guitarist] and friends, dabbling in giddy 60’s rock motifs complete with Burt Bacharach-like compositions and instrumentations, rich vocal harmonies, well-placed string arrangements, and delicate melodies. Cantarell is a lighthearted affair that wouldn’t sound […]
By Mike SOS Canadian doom metal mavens Towards Darkness were once called The Mass, who put out an album called Towards Darkness. Confused? Allow the slow crawl of “Continuity Errror” to seep through your pores long enough, and your befuddlement will be whisked away by the foreboding sonic heft brought on by this outfit. Strong […]
By Mike SOS For those that didn’t get enough the first time around, prog metal masters Kamelot have repackaged their disc Ghost Opera with some bonus material, including videos, four new studio cuts, and 10 live tracks recorded from a very loud crowd in Serbia, calling the reissue Ghost Opera: The Second Coming. While the […]
By Mike SOS Featuring three members of Enslaved, the septet known as Trinacria can definitely be lumped into the experimental category, as their molten metal menagerie is sprinkled with dollops of oddball noise rock and avant-garde aggression. Originally commissioned for a one-off concert series, these musicians developed a strong bond and decided to forge ahead […]