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DOWNLOAD: Red Fang - Number Thirteen
Portland metal band Red Fang’s most recent effort, Murder The Mountains, came out earlier this year via Relapse and followed the group’s 2009 self-titled debut. The album offers heavy yet accessible songs that fit well with the band's current tour mates Mastodon, pairing moments of guttural sludge with rousing metallic riffs. “Number Thirteen” is an epic album cut, bordering between fiery aggression and catchy heavy rock.
DOWNLOAD: Black Tusk - Set The Dial To Your Doom
Savannah, GA’s Black Tusk refers to its music as “swamp metal," and that moniker is fairly apt. The group’s latest effort, Set The Dial, which is now available via Relapse, is primal and heavy, featuring dredging guitar riffs and thick masses of metallic sound. “Set The Dial To Your Doom,” a particularly viscous number, is equally punishing and accessible. This means those with no prior predilection for heavy metal may find a cathartic release in its aggression.
DOWNLOAD: This Is Hell – Salt The Earth
For fans of heavier music: This Is Hell, a hardcore band from Long Island that formed in 2004, crafts thrashing, aggressive numbers prime for moshing. “Salt The Earth,” a cut from the group’s fourth effort Black Mass, which came out recently via Rise Records, is a viscerally intense track all the way through – its surging riffs, pummeling drums and singer Travis Reilly’s guttural yelps nearly smashing you in the face. It’s no frills hardcore, which is really the best kind.
DOWNLOAD: Helmet – Seeing Eye Dog
Helmet’s seventh album, Seeing Eye Dog, came out last year via Work Song, but it's a great time to revisit the New York group’s latest effort as they spend this fall on tour. The post-hardcore band, led by singer/guitarist Page Hamilton, has been around since the early ‘90s and the pummel of their heavy songs has yet to cease. “Seeing Eye Dog" is a complexly aggressive number that pairs metal sensibilities with strong melody.
DOWNLOAD: Rational Animals - Guess What? (Crunch)
Ponies, beer, snow and metal—you’d be hard-pressed to sum up Rochester, NY much better than that, folks. Hailing from up north and bestowing us with the benefits of a lot of time indoors, Rational Animals has arrived with a big debut. Bock Rock Parade manages to put a modern dent on hardcore rooted firmly in the past, successfully steering a love of Black Flag into an inventive and riff-filled record. “Guess What? (Crunch)” has enough harmony beneath its armor to hook even the staunchest anti-metaler, so grab the LP now on Brooklyn’s Katorga Works.
Rational Animals - Guess What? (Crunch)
DOWNLOAD: Mick Barr - Vohvar
Mick Barr has always embraced the classical just as much as awe-inspiring shredding. On the new track "Vohvar," the former Orthrelm mastermind is in peak solo form, raining complex showers of gothic notes in such rapid-fire and twisty formations that no other instruments are close to necessary. Barr plays guitar like it were a machine and the only way to make it start-up was with a jackhammer. His new record Coiled Malescence is out September 13 on Safety Meeting.
DOWNLOAD: 400 Blows - The Rescue Party
More on top of its game after 15 years than the majority of its peers, 400 Blows is back in full-force. If “The Rescue Party” is any indication, the gritty, metal-influenced threesome has stuck to what it does best with a fitful track ripe for the band’s unrelenting live show. Guitarist Scott Martin has managed to balance membership in fellow LA outfit Big Business as well, jumping from one big summer tour to another when Blows hits the road with Butthole Surfers later this month. The long-awaited Sickness and Health is out August 23 on ORG Music.
DOWNLOAD: Liturgy - Generation
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Black-metal is a tough genre to crack. Insulated with a very limited sound palatte, fans expect its biggest bands to stick to the script. Maybe that's why Liturgy is the black-metal for the rest of us. The Brooklyn band isn't beholden to genre signifiers, instead choosing to mix minimalism, polyrhythmic experimentation and the pure physical power of a group running a marathon at every musical turn. "Generation," off the band's recent Thrill Jockey effort Aesthethica, is a great starting point. Liturgy dispenses with genre posing and beats its own instruments into submission. It's loud, powerful and hypnotic music, but very listenable.
