AN NCS PREMIERE: MUSKET HAWK — “HEXAGON”

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Feb 202019
 

 

March 29th is the date set by Unholy Anarchy Records for the release of Upside of Sick, the third album by the Baltimore-based sludge/grind annihilators Musket Hawk. At least in name, this seems to be a perfect match of label and band, since the music is itself unholy anarchy.

Musket Hawk‘s rampaging music pulls no punches, capable of fragmenting skulls like skillfully deployed crowbars, and just as capably running your head through a gauntlet of raging firestorm chaos. We have a prime example of the kind of devastating and electrifying assaults they mount on the new album through our premiere of a track called “Hexagon“. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): MUSKET HAWK — “DESOLATE”

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May 052016
 

Musket Hawk-Desolate

 

Every now and then, this question may cross the minds of metalheads with a certain bent in their listening (it even crosses what’s left of my mind on occasion): Why are we drawn to music that’s near-catastrophic in its ugliness and seems to revel in the abandonment of hope and the exaltation of violence? When music vividly catapults us into a war zone where everything is falling apart, why don’t we want to leave?

Well, don’t look at me for answers. I’ve only got questions. I’m thinking about those questions because I’ve been listening to Desolate, the aptly named new album by Baltimore’s Musket Hawk. It includes eight tracks from which mercy, remorse, and all vestiges of human kindness have been banished. Sanity doesn’t seem to be welcome either. But you travel these mean streets, and you’ll also perversely feel vibrantly alive.

This may not make sense, but maybe you’ll soon see what I mean, because a full stream of Desolate waits for you at the end of this post. Continue reading »