I’d say it’s a good lineup. The new Suffocation vocalist brought some good energy when I saw them a few months ago. Uada is a popular melodic black metal band, Mortiferum is a good death doom band, and then Fulci imo is one of the stronger new death metal bands going. Knoll is solid as well and their new release has been doing well on the review circuits. Really the only band I’m not sure about is Morbid Angel and that’s mostly regarding what David sounds like now. I didn’t really like the Vltimas release earlier this year. Their drummer is also in Ascended Dead though iirc which had an incredible release last year. So I’d hope the band is tight musically at least. edit: actually I completely forgot David isn’t even the vocalist in MA anymore, it’s back to Steve Tucker. So disregard that. I have no idea what they sound like nowadays live. But if that show was coming close to me I’d still go to it for the rest of the groups.
Off topic, I went to Austin Deathfest over the weekend. Shit was tight. Saw Tomb Mold, Mortiferum, Witch Vomit, Phobophilic, Outer Heaven, Torture Rack, and Maul, among others.
I’ve really enjoyed this blackened heavy metal album by Morgul Blade, Heavy Metal Wraiths. In a similar vein to the Nite album that came out a couple years ago if anyone is familiar. Plus the art rules.
New Knocked Loose album out today. However, Knocked Loose is a shitty "core" band now. It's like they are afraid of letting a riff or an idea exist more that 5 seconds. Too much schizophrenia. Trying too hard to be "technical". It started with the album "A Tear in the Fabric of Life " but at least the writing on that album was cohesive and made sense. This new album is just shitty
Gonna be hard for them to ever top the back to back Laugh Tracks/A Different Shade of Blue imo. I’ll still check it out. I do appreciate how active they are in hardcore lifting up new bands. Reminds me a lot of Trevor and The Black Dahlia Murder edit: it’s fine, idk if I’ll revisit it much. At least it’s 27 minutes so not a huge investment
idk…i aggressively disagree with this opinion. new album rules. their sound has gotten more abrasive and challenging for the listener over time, while still being great tunes. big fan.
My girlfriend loves Poppy and hates KL so she’s gonna be conflicted with that one track on the newest release
saw Torture last night and they were amazing. idk if I’ve posted it before, but this album is so good. anti-war avant-garde slam. you can really hear the influence from defeated sanity
I actually listened to this this week after hearing about it from one of the guitarists in God’s Hate, who was being interviewed on a podcast I listen to (Bangers and Mosh).
while they’re not really a hardcore band they’re hitting both scenes big rn. you can mosh to every riff. thanks! weird death metal/grind is one of my big special interests
Not sure if anyone else here is into this band but Aquilus’ new album Bellum II is excellent. It’s atmospheric black metal mixed with classical.
Contention - Artillery From Heaven this album came out of nowhere for me (thanks r/Hardcore comments section!) and absolutely slays anybody who likes early 2000s metallic hardcore will love this. The Hope Conspiracy (Cold Blue era) is the closest comp I thought of. very limited usage (if at all) of clean vocals, which is a plus for this style in my book.
New Gatecreeper is fine. It’s fun but I just prefer their original sound. But I am looking forward to seeing them next week. I’m sure it’ll translate well live. Checking out Pallbearer, I wasn’t super into their latest release but loved their first couple albums.
Disappointed in their last two. Heard an Imbed on a review site and was less that thrilled. About an album away from abandoning metal altogether
I listened to the single when it came out and was kind of just like "... when is the cool part going to happen" and it never did
I gave up on Pallbearer that Tzompantli album that's been discussed in here a few times came out today. its a real scorcher.
seems like the new Gatecreeper is quite polarizing around these parts. i really enjoyed it. definitely a shift in style, but Dismember has always been their lodestar. there are some very melodic bits on Everflowing Stream, Where Iron Crosses Grow, Massive Killing Capacity, etc. feels like a natural progression to really lean into that aspect of their sound.
for me, at least dismember sounded like death metal. the new gatecreeper feels like it’s been watered down to appeal to the sirus xm crowd.
I like the slower parts of the first two albums, there was a lot of Swedish death metal inspiration there but also some Asphyx to their sound. That’s pretty much gone now. I expect this sound to be pretty sick live though. I see them this coming week with In Flames and Creeping Death.
I liked the AMG review of the Pallbearer album basically being like "we shouldn't get so mad when a band decides they're going to go in a different direction but I like metal"
Starting to cobble together my early mid year AOTY list as we’ll be halfway in a month and while I don’t have an obvious #1 so far, pretty impressed with the depth of this year so far
seeing 1349, Spectral Wound, Spirit Possession, and Anti-Christ Siege Machine tonight. Death to All (w. Cryptopsy) tomorrow night. gonna be sick!