(Andy Synn is still large and in charge this weekend, so here’s four more recommendations from him)
Islander is still AWOL I’m afraid (and, yes, there will be a court-martial when he gets back) so you’re stuck with me again for another day.
But don’t despair, as I’ve got four seriously tasty morsels of Hardcore/Metalcore/Deathcore to share with you today, running the gamut from unpredictably punky, anthemically metallic, to blisteringly nasty… so you might just say there’s something for (almost) everyone here today!
BACKSTABBED – SERVANT OF MISERY
“Germany’s heaviest boygroup” (as they like to call themselves) Backstabbed put out an absolute banger of an EP last year called Self-Fulfilling Tragedy, which I had a lot of fun with and ended up suggesting that it could easily lead the band to bigger, better things in the footsteps of crossover success stories like Knocked Loose, Turnstile, etc.
And while that’s still certainly true, to an extent, it feels like the band wanted to ensure that no-one could accuse them of “selling out”… or even considering “selling out”… on their new EP, as both riff-happy, chug-heavy opener “Spring Inside My Grave” and pounding pit-starter “Stone Cold” go seriously hard, marrying an unrepentant sense of urgency (with the barking backing vocals scattered here and there, especially in the latter track, adding a sense of punky energy to balance the more metallic riffery) to the sort of thrilling, almost thrashy, guitar work that recalls the likes of Beyond the Styx (who put out one of the year’s best Metallic Hardcore records back in May, FYI) and Employed to Serve.
The second half of the EP doesn’t disappoint either, because as insistently infectious as the aggressively-anthemic strains of “Anomaly” and the groovier, gang-vocal laden swagger of “Bound to Misery” might be – and they definitely are, with the electrifying intensity of the former making for a real live-wire listening experience in particular – they never scrimp on the punchy riffage or crunchy breakdowns, ensuring that Servant of Misery feels like the product of a band who would be more than happy to play for bigger and bigger crowds, but who aren’t willing to compromise in order to do so.
CEASE – THE END HAS TO BEGIN SOMEWHERE
For some reason it seems like there’s been very little written about The End Has to Begin Somewhere, the new EP from Dublin-based Hardcore crew Cease… which is a real shame, as the group’s embrace of their Metallic Hardcore roots (think Coalesce, Snapcase, Turmoil, etc) combined with a punkier, more emotionally vulnerable/visceral approach (especially when it comes to the vocals) hits hard and leaves a real lasting impression (on this listener at least).
The songs themselves are short, sharp, and straight to the point – all killer, no filler, no fat or wasted space to be found – and really emphasise the raw energy of the band’s delivery, with the choppy, down-picked attack of “Face to Face” in particular being a real barn-burner from start to finish.
In fact, it’s safe to say that every track here (including stripped-down instrumental intro “Into the Abyss”) is a potential fire-starter, despite – or perhaps even because of – the fact that the EP actually gets more melodic as it progresses, with the likes of the riffier “Another Step Further Away”, the punky “Behind the Facade”, and unashamedly catchy closer “Toward Death” showing off a mix of string-skipping hooks and ringing arpeggios (and, in the case of the latter, an unexpectedly free-wheeling lead guitar part) that hints at the potential for the band to build an even bigger following going forwards.
CULTURE VOID – CULTURE VOID
You know, I cannot for the life of me remember exactly where, or how, I stumbled across the self-titled debut EP from Ohio’s Culture Void, but I’m glad I did… and, hopefully, you will be too… as this is a band whose career I definitely want to be getting into right on the ground floor.
A hybrid blend of Metal, Punk, Post-Hardcore, and a few other influences and inspirations I can’t quite place, these five tracks recall the best bits of early Incendiary, E-Town Concrete, Quicksand (whose new album I’m a big fan of as well), and Twelve Tribes (which is a name I’m sure a lot of you haven’t seen/heard mentioned in a minute) while adding their own distinctive stamp onto this genre-blending sound.
Whether that’s in the form of the atmospheric, noise-rock-meets-post-metal manifesto of “Void Culture”, the heavier, hookier “Consumer, Consumed”, or the darker, groovier “Pageburner”, you never get the sense that Culture Void are reading from someone else’s script but are committed to making the role they’ve chosen their own.
The clanging bass, bouncy guitars, and melody-tinged vocals of “Glitching”, for example, definitely have the potential for some mainstream crossover success, but never feel like they’re actively reaching for it, while the punchy hooks and haymakers of “The Stain” find the band floating like a butterfly and stinging with a punky venom that will doubtless earn them just as many fans from the underground too.
So don’t skip this one, as you’ll definitely want to say “I was there at the beginning” when they inevitably break big.
THE FAULT OF MAN – HOPE WILL EAT YOU ALIVE
Last, but by no means least, we have something brand, brand new – in that it was just released on Friday, and hasn’t even hit Bandcamp yet – that is already well on its way to becoming one of my favourites of the year.
Clocking in at just over 22 minutes, these six tracks from North Carolina nihilists The Fault of Man deliver a brutal barrage of Blackened Hardcore/Deathcore that owes little to the more modern iteration(s) of that particular sound and more to the primal, punishing approach of some of the styl’e progenitors, and shares more in common with the likes of Antagony, Zao, Bloodlet, and (early) Bleeding Through.
I’d argue, however, that the majority of Hope Will Eat You Alive is even more vicious than those bands, at times – such as during the seething blastbeats, jagged, jarring guitars, and disgustingly heavy, Death Metal breakdowns of “Convection Current” – even erring towards the Anaal Nathrakh side of things (albeit, as demonstrated by torturous tremming and thunderous chuggery of “Bright Sun”, with more of a Deathcore, rather than a Grindcore, lean).
That’s not to say there isn’t any nuance to the band’s sound is totally bereft of nuance – both the the harsh-yet-haunting title track and the unexpectedly moody and moving “Isolated Dreams” display a knack for bleak, brooding melody beneath all the scorching distortion and throat-scarring shrieks – it’s just that The Fault of Man are clearly prioritising raw intensity (with an emphasis on raw) first and foremost.
And whether that’s in the form of the archetypal ur-Deathcore assault of “Stark Times” (whose barbaric vocals and barbed riffs put me in mind of both A Prayer for Cleansing and The Famine at their harshest and heaviest) or the excessive, everything-turned-to-eleven extremity of “Molecules” (with its blistering, blast-propelled first half and monstrously heavy, breakdown-focussed finale), one thing is already clear… these guys aren’t in it for fame or fortune or to follow trends, they’re here to make some seriously nasty noise.