Jun 072021
 

 

In February of this year the band Knives from Bilbao, Spain, released an explosive new record named Collapse. In advance of that release we featured its first single, “The Unknown“. With lyrics that expelled politically charged fury in blisteringly furious tones, that song melded punk cadences and bone-grinding riffs delivered with massive, chainsawing distortion, and coupled that with bursts of blaring melodic defiance and feverish bass outbursts, as well as a hellish breakdown.

That opening single truly was an electrifying discharge. But the balance of the tracks on Collapse proved to be equally thrilling, albeit in somewhat different ways. For example, the opener “Martyr” begins in soul-stricken and haunting fashion but then becomes a rain of megaton warheads, and then a fierce, galloping charge, and then a spasm of violence. It will give your spine a vigorous jolting, but also includes spit-fire soloing and the kind of rocketing, sky-high melodic riffing that gets hearts pounding.

And from there the band used Collapse to elaborate on their riveting brand of death/punk from one track to the next, bringing to bear one crusher after another, deploying humongously heavy chugs, incendiary leads, blood-spraying vocals, and gripping melodic accents (both grim and glorious) that keep the emotional intensity in the red zone.

Today it’s our pleasure to premiere a video for yet another song off Collapse, one entitled “Was It Worth It?“, which we hope will introduce still more listeners to Knive’s tumultuous talents. Continue reading »

Dec 262020
 

 

Time has become ill-defined for me as for everyone else this year, but I do realize that it’s not still Christmas Day. I just couldn’t get Part 2 of this round-up finished in time to post it yesterday before having a virtual get-together with close family members. Probably just as well, because stacking this much new music on top of what was in Part 1 might have drowned you, especially on top of another installment of DGR’s mountainous year-end list, which (by the way) ended today without caving in the site’s foundations, though that was a risk that left me in a cold sweat all week.

For Part 2 I’m starting with an album and then moving onto a couple of EPs and a couple of singles.

CASAVIEJA (Guatemala)

When Rennie (starkweather) first urged me to listen to this band a week ago, their new second album had just come out. He said they were from “South of the Border, South of Heaven”, but I didn’t realize until later that they hail from Guatemala. Without intending to be condescending, that’s not a nation that spawns typhoon waves of extreme metal bands, a fact that just made me more eager to hear them. Continue reading »

Mar 272017
 

 

Seventeen months ago I discovered the band Knives from Bilbao in the Basque Country of Spain. At that point there were three songs available for streaming from an album released later that year named The Blackest Noose, and I devoted some words of praise to them here at our site. Now I’m happy to report that Knives will be releasing a new EP next month year entitled Superiorem Status Spiritualitatis, and today we’re helping premiere a video for a song from the EP — “Pigs“.

Pigs” is a bone-breaker and a soul-shaker, a death-and-roll juggernaut that melds the deep, concrete-cutting guitar tone of ancient Scandinavian death metal and the raw, jugular ripping fury and punishing rhythms of crust. It’s a track that’s bleak, black, and poisonous but also one that gets the head (and the rest of the body) moving. It may make also you want to smash things around you into small fragments. Continue reading »

Oct 262015
 

Kall-Fall

 

Although we featured quite a lot of music, both new and old, this weekend, we’re far from exhausting our new discoveries. And so we begin the new week with a large collection of recently discovered songs. Most of these are ones that caught my eyes (and ears), and Austin Weber contributes one as well. Coincidentally, every band has a one-word name, which I find pleasing for reasons that make no sense at all.

KALL

I’ve been following Sweden’s Kall since mid-2013, initially because I learned that their line-up included members of the late lamented Lifelover, and later because I discovered how good their music is. I was a big fan of last year’s self-titled debut album (reviewed at length here), and I learned this weekend that the band are now working on their second full-length, projected for release before the end of this year via Catatonic State. There’s also a new song from the album available on Bandcamp — and it’s really good. Continue reading »