On March 29th, Whitechapel will release their 7th full-length, The Valley, via Metal Blade Records. Mixed by David Castillo, mastered by Ted Jensen, and produced once again by Mark Lewis (Cannibal Corpse, The Black Dahlia Murder), The Valley is a reference to the part of Hardin Valley (west of Knoxville, Tennessee) where vocalist Phil Bozeman grew up. Set against this backdrop, he approaches his subject matter unflinchingly, building upon everything that came before, making it clear that he has survived that which he was forced to endure and is not afraid to confront it.
Death in a band is a struggle to overcome.For the UK’s Architects, the loss of guitarist and founding member Tom Searle was a massive blow to the group. Still, this band pushes on. It’s the opening track “Death is Not Defeat” on their eighth studio album, Holy Hell, that really sends the message that this is the start of the next – albeit unexpected – chapter in the band’s history. There’s a veil of anguish that’s hanging over Holy Hell and Architects have pulled out all stops in releasing what might be the most crucial album of their career.
In today’s progressive landscape, it’s rare for spectacle and wonder to take a backseat to the artistic merits of music. Prog was founded in the late 60’s and early 70’s using both of these aspects, but acts like King Crimson exploited the more experimental and art-inspired side of the genre almost immediately out of the womb. Today, the modern math rock/proggy noodling community of internet-famous bands who, in a constantly changing environment, work even harder to get noticed by the general public, is a constant fight to differentiate one’s self. Covet is an interesting one, in that they are artistic by nature, but also rather than bore their listener with wordless displays of their superior musicianship,...
Sheesh, are we already seven albums deep into Wisdom In Chains’ discography? So long as I’ve enjoyed hardcore punk, the Pennsylvania band has been a steady and reliable force in the genre for putting out a constant stream of tried and true hardcore, epitomizing it for the modern landscape. Nothing In Nature Respects Weakness keeps the band going into 2018, following up 2015’s The God Rhythm, and while bands typically fall into a groove of comfort by this point, Wisdom In Chains are still playing in the full spectrum of their respective genre instead of pigeon-holing themselves into a corner. Refreshing? Enjoyable? You bet.
There’s seldom an album I listen to where I immediately love it. Granted, I like a lot of music. “Like” being the emphasis; I like At the Gates. I love Insomnium, I like Darkthrone. I love Emperor. Even then, I’m generally only listening to the album that I love in my spare time the artist rather than trying to convince myself to love a different album by them. I’m picky about what I love. With that logic in mind, Yob’s Our Raw Heart is a stupendous, if not transcendent album that I loved from the get-go. Three minutes into the ten minute minute opening track and it was immediatey obvious that this album was on another level, entirely separate from the rest of the pack. There’s a lot of hype...
I’ve become somewhat lost with progressive and technical death metal in recent years. Not that the genre has grown stale, but rather that my interests have been directed elsewhere while the two grew and prospered. Around 2015 is when I fell off the wagon, but through the early years of the decade I was all about the techically-inclined bands of that time. Burial in the Sky makes me nostalgic for that point in my life, but granted it’s probably not worth visiting those albums again because I’m quite certain Burial in the Sky are far more impressive to me today than what caught my attention back then.
It was in the first few moments of “Beyond Death” that I thought “Hey, this vocalist sounds like the guy from Cloak.” Surprisingly, I was right. Before Cloak debuted their album last year, guitarist/vocalist Scott Taysom was a part of Haunting, a lawless and short-lived death metal group in Atlanta, Georgia. Only releasing a single demo, Sealed Shut, the band made their sound very clear in four tracks, clocking in just over 11 minutes. Though defunct, Haunting are getting some post-mortem love from Boris Records.
