Metal playlists from the underground
Sacramento, CA metalcore troupe Elysia demonstrates how well their jaded viewpoints meet with abrasive dissonance on the aggressive nine-track disc Lion of Judas. Blending various degrees of the metal realm’s schools of thought to develop a truly unnerving sound, this Kurt Ballou produced affair captures the band creating their version of modern hardcore with gnashed […]
Playing melodic death metal with a wealth of sinewy snarl and crushing riffs (“The Passing,” “Reason is the Truth”), Machinery’s nine-track excursion, The Passing, does more than the norm to avoid sounding like your garden variety endeavor. Demonstrating a blend of In Flames, Nevermore, and The Crown throughout the duration of this disc, this Stockholm […]
Arguably the most soulful hard rock act on the scene today, the veteran trio King’s X return with a revitalized sound on XV, their 15th studio album. This powerful release is propelled by their trademark blues-rock swagger, brazen grooves and expert songwriting chops working overtime on tracks like the mellow yet intense “I Don’t Know,” […]
Shedding their previous glam-punk skin Hot Topic schlocky imagery, New Jersey’s The Banner busts out of the gate with fangs-out ferocity on their new release, the 12-track Frailty. Apocalyptic and abrasive, this disc is a tumultuous tour de force of Samhain-esque eerieness and NYHC harshness rolled into a modern metalcore paradigm, packed to the gills […]
Rocket Attack is a slick and sometimes overbearing release from The Man From the Moon, a Swedish one-man rock band whose Gary Glitter meets David Bowie pretense puts a glorious glam rock spin on the moderately interesting ’80s prog hard rock presented across this 12-track offering. Synth leads, symphonic metal overtones and Styx-esque piano balladeering […]
Conceived by members of Dimmu Borgir as a retreat of sorts from the corpsepaint community, the toothy biker rock touted on Booze, Broads, and Beelzebub fits perfectly between your Motorhead and Lordi albums. Chrome Division firmly stows tongue in cheek, completed with hot blonde stripper in the album artwork and topped off featuring an amped-up […]
Kingston Falls’ Armada On Mercury displays the good ideas that Grade used back in the day with the bad ideas of every unlistenable metalcore troupe you can muster. Exhibiting vocals that annoyingly jump genres from screamo to punk to bad metal, this band boasts some meaty riffs and niftily lifted Maiden by way of Avenged […]
Featuring a very-different sounding Jonah Jenkins (Only Living Witness, Millgram) at the microphone, the abrasive quintet Raw Radar War must have traveled through their record collections and stopped at the early ’90s for inspiration when comprising the crushingly heavy underground sounds audible on their curiously titled 15-track = = [Double Equals]. Piecing remnants of Bolt […]
Made in a basement bedroom by the male-female tandem One Small Step, Another Shelter combines indie rock twilight guitar loops with rave-esque keyboard fills and programmed drums for a synthetically-induced listen. Power-pop with electronic beats aplenty adorn this nine-track affair that would sound best at breakfast time after a neon-filled night. www.myspace.com/onesmallstep -Mike SOS 30 […]
Shame Club is a gritty rock ‘n roll band whose 12-track release Come On bursts with a wide array of ’70s hard rock flavor from Southern fried to guitar-hero. Humungous hooks, monstrous sounds, solid musicanship, and a true sense of danger all assist this disc in taking you outside and promptly giving you the ass-kicking […]