Extreme metal four-piece Narcotic Wasteland – the full-time project of former Nile frontman Dallas Toler-Wade – hit the stage in Columbus, OH tomorrow, launching a 20+ city North American tour supporting San Diego Death Metal band Pathology on select dates. Select dates will also feature support from Contrarian and Malignancy. Continue reading
Meshuggah
Swedish extreme metal innovators Meshuggah treated U.S. fans to a surprise when they announced they would hit the spring U.S. festival circuit and sprinkle in a handful of select cities across the states in between. In addition to Welcome to Rockville, the Epicenter Festival, the Sonic Temple Art & Music Festival, and the Chicago Open Air Festival, Meshuggah chose to destroy six other lucky cities as they traversed the southern and northeastern states before heading to Europe this summer. Joining them on these select dates were Detroit, MI death metal veterans The Black Dahlia Murder. Continue reading
*This is part of our State Of The Art series, showcasing bands every Monday from the featured state. This month’s state is Iowa.*
Named after the infamous cult leader who initiated the mass murder-suicide of hundreds of his followers during the Jonestown Massacre of 1978, Jim Jones is “a good old-fashioned metal band out of Waterloo, Iowa.” As the rest of their tagline reads, “We play loud, we play heavy. Drink the fucking Kool Aid!” For those familiar with the original Jim Jones, the Kool-Aid reference is just pure metal in its blatant callousness. Continue reading
*This is part of our State Of The Art series, showcasing bands every Monday from the featured state. This month’s state is Rhode Island.*
Hailing from Providence, Rhode Island, Wreak have been bringing their unique brand of extreme music since January 2015. Just last month, the band released their second album ‘Perpetual Cycle of Uncertainty’ which contains six killer tracks. Sonically, Wreak is super intense while displaying strong influences of 80s thrash, grindcore, death, and anything else violent and insane you can think of. At times it’s a bit Morbid Angel or Pungent Stench, and at other times it’s got a bit more Napalm Death going on. When the blast beats and psychotic vocals really reach the extreme, their sound can enter into somewhat of an Anal Cunt vibe. Overall, Wreak is all about sheer destruction and their newest album is a great example of the fun and exciting intensity they bring to their performance. Continue reading
Credit: Joey Wharton
After six years the mighty Pig Destroyer are back with their sixth release Head Cage. Named after a medieval torture device, this album will be brutal skull-splitting grindcore. With the announcement of the new album comes the first single, “Army of Cops”. The video was directed by David Brodsky with Richard Johnson (Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Enemy Soil, Drugs of Faith) on guest vocals. This beautiful specimen of extreme metal is perfect for this combative political climate. Continue reading
*This is a part of our State Of The Art series, showcasing bands every Monday from the featured state.*
This month’s state is Alabama!
Hailing from Mobile, Alabama, Oracle offers extreme metal with intention. Ranging from melodic to outright bludgeoning brutality, it’s the elaborately well-conceived song structures that bring together all of the interesting musical elements for a truly exciting listening experience. Like an intricately crafted movie plot with multiple twists and turns, Oracle takes the same approach with their music. Tracks transition through multiple moods, tones, and tempos not simply because they can, but because they need to in order to achieve such monumental levels of depths and dynamics this band delivers. Continue reading
“[DER WEG EINER FREIHEIT is] the future of German Extreme-Metal” – Mille Petrozza, Kreator
German Black metal visionaries Der Weg Einer Freiheit have kicked off their European tour in support of their highly acclaimed and recently released album ‘Finisterre’. Alongside Primordial and Moonsorrow, the “Heathen Crusade 2018” tour will charge through multiple countries throughout the month and will showcase Der Weg Einer Freiheit at the height of their powers. A full list of confirmed dates are below, but be quick as these tickets are hot with the Paris show already sold-out! Continue reading
*This is a part of our State Of The Art series, showcasing bands every Monday from the featured state*
This month’s state is Kentucky!
Hello there mortals of the microcosm! A new Monday has dawned upon us and I can already tell most of you are already whining and frowning upon the inevitable. But, you’d be rather excited on the contrary to most of people if you’re an avid follower of our weekly State Of The Art segment. And today, I bring to you some horror laden and panic stricken death metal. From the state of Kentucky, today’s SOTA band is rising death metallers SURGIKILL. Remember the legendary Stevo de Caixao of the famed Illinois old school death metal band, IMPETIGO? Get outta the cave if you don’t and if you do then this is your jam. SURGIKILL is spearheaded by Stevo and treads along the similar lines of excruciating horrific death metal terror that his previous band were known for pulling off. SURGIKILL thrives on horror and gore based lyrical themes which are very common in the death metal genre but never old and stale, the plot and vibe is generally very dark, scary and sonically brutal and chaotic. Inspired by the Italian old-school horrors, revenge films, post apocalyptic imagery, and mental decay themes, the band successfully gels their theme and style of playing perfectly well. Heavy frenetic riffing, incessant , ruthless growling and hammering drums is what makes SURGIKILL the band they are today!
From the smallest canton in Switzerland comes ColdCell, from Basel-Stadt. The five member extreme metal band, currently on tour after their release show earlier this month has a lot of upcoming shows. Five years ago in 2012 the guys came together and officially became ColdCell. Seems like two maybe a lucky number for the band, since every two years since the founding they have released a new album. Their debut album ‘Generation Abomination’ produced by Gravity Entertainment in October of 2013, being their longest album to date. Two years later the band released their second album entitled ‘Low Life’ in May of 2015 with just one less song, but from a new label Avanlgarde Music. November has been a very busy month for this out of the Swiss group with the release of their third album ‘Those’ on November 3rd 2017. This eight song album was recorded, mixed, and mastered by Victor Bullock, over the course of three months in Germany at Woodstock Studio. The album was produced under the record label Avanlgarde Music. Don’t forget to keep an eye and ear out for them with many big upcoming shows on their current tour with a stop at Road Fest 2017 this December. Continue reading
Suffolk, England – 1991. Darkness manifests itself to the world of the living in the form of CRADLE OF FILTH. 26 years and eleven studio albums later this looming leviathan is back to haunt the dreams of mankind yet again with their twelfth studio album entitled “Cryptoriana – The Seductiveness Of Decay” (Nuclear Blast Records). Blazing fast execution, macabre imagery, and a complete mastery of the English language have allowed these creatures of the nether realm to imprint themselves into the upper echelons of extreme metal. Now comprised of Dani Filth – Vocals, Richard Shaw – Guitar, Marek ‘Ashok’ Smerda – Guitar, Daniel Firth – Bass, Lindsay Schoolcraft – Keys, and Martin Škaroupa – Drums, CRADLE OF FILTH is once again going to whisk you into a realm of lurid beauty and forlorn caliginosity. Continue reading
