A random Spotify recommendation caught this scribe’s eyes when going to put on some music, and Gore-Girl Project turned out to be quite the diamond in the rough. What initially seemed like a VTuber project turned out to be a multi-faceted, genuine metallic article with a surprising number of high-profile guests (for those aware of the Japanese scene at least) and an impressively diverse number of tracks that run the gamut from slamming, brutal death metal to power metal to jpop and blurring the lines in between.
Gore-Girl Project stands out because of it’s unique blend of different influences that span it’s tracks. One of the album’s strongest tracks, “Death Penalty” opens with an anime-ish upbeat synth only to instantly drive firmly into brutal death metal riffing and blastbeats. Featuring guttural lows and slamming riffs, it’s an impressively heavy onslaught with a surprising amount of catchiness…until Uyu (Mana Diagram) storms in with some upbeat vocals and danceable synths take the song in a completely different direction. It’s a bit shocking, but in the best way. “Crimson Violator” soars with epic, blasting power metal energy blurred with melodic death courtesy of vocals from KOKOMI (Fate Gear) and Eugenics Scarlet Divinity. Toss in a fiery solo and it’s a ripper of a track.
“Coagulation” brings some sonic battery and raging death metal behind it, complete with gurgled vocals, but some female cleans give it a few moments of restraint amidst the chaos. A fun, ‘don’t blink or you’ll miss it’ cover of Napalm Death’s “You Suffer” featuring Fate Gear serves as a nice wink and nod to the heavier moments. Meanwhile, “Blasted Blue” is laced with jpop/idol elements with a good chunk of the heaviness removed, sans some energetic drumming and riffs subtly sitting below the synthwork. The closer “Meteorstorm” fuses those modern electronic elements with a heavier backbone to push the track into a futuristic feeling, bolstered by a catchy chorus, to finish the album on.
Coregula feels very much like a beautifully woven together passion project. From the grim, almost guro-styled artwork of the cover, to the eclectic musical diversity that springs from track to track, it’s clear there was a lot of thought and effort into putting together a unique vision and concept that blends heavy metal, anime, and more. Gore-Girl Project is a welcome discovery for anyone seeking something totally outside the box that pulls from much of metal’s greatest elements and merges it with a dark yet kawaii aesthetic.
A Swedish quintet with ties to acts like October Tide, Centinex, and Interment beyond live experience with Katatonia and Entombed A.D. under their belts, Moondark originally developed a couple of demos in 1993 and 2015 respectively. Guessing that good things take time to gel (or just finding the right opportunity/time to strike), we finally arrive at the group’s debut full-length for The Abysmal Womb. Steeped in 90s-style riffing, tones, and atmosphere, these eight songs straddle the greatness of doom/death that encompasses both stateside and European elements to convey a crushingly heavy sound.
The despair seething through the growls and sadistic screams of vocalist Alexander Högbom can’t be missed while the low churning riffs plus slower rhythm section parts thump your chest – as opener “Where Once Was Life” sets the mood with its mixture of Crowbar-like moodiness next to early Crematory / Cathedral heaviness. Every riff evolves in its own fashion, the five-piece using subtle dynamic tricks to keep ears on alert. The occasional thick use of the rumbling bass by Allan Lundholm sets up death-oriented sequences where drummer Kennet Englund can flex a bit more of his double kick groove-driven flair – working to symbiotic perfection on “Palliative Dusk”. The foundational riffs along with tasty mini-breaks or circular runs from guitarists Johan Jansson and Mattias Norrman never disappoint – every nuance logical in terms of phrasing to execute the next depressive musical montage. One listen to the savage, slow intensity for “Sterile Earth” or the devilish bellows throughout “Beyond Darkness” speak volumes to the doom/death axe ambiance in full effect, a raw purity driving a stake into the heart of all underground metalheads. Intertwining songs of average four to five-minute lengths with the occasional seven to almost eight-minute epics, these musicians serve the right balance between adequate songwriting mechanics in this style to serve each track’s individual needs without overburdening the proceedings.
It’s not very often that you find artists who started a band in the early 90s returning to that same form thirty plus years later convincingly. That’s what you’ll hear from Moondark on this record. Sincere execution on The Abysmal Womb should lead most listeners into a path craving more material hopefully released in a timely manner.
Quickly popping up with tremendous buzz, Gore. surfaced at the end of 2023 with “Pray” and then again with “Doomsday” in January of this year. Their cinematic, striking visuals and effective merger of heavy metallic elements with nontraditional melodic ones caught many ears, and to no surprise, they signed with a label and announced their first EP, A Bud That Never Blooms. We caught up with guitarist Alex Reyes and bassist Devin Birchfield to discuss the band’s beginnings and vision, their first tour, signing with Spinefarm, and more!
Dead Rhetoric: How was your first tour? Any big takeaways for the future?
Alex Reyes: There’s a few things, as far as touring. Not bringing as many covers and blankets. It just occupied a lot of space. Honestly, overall it was just a great experience. I have toured before with previous bands and this was a little bit different because it was like, ‘get there, set up, there’s no fucking around.’ It’s straight business. When I was younger, it was like vacation and like, “Let’s just go play shows!” This was more like, it’s time to get down to business.
Devin Birchfield: This was my first tour so it was all new. But my biggest takeaway was that I overpacked. So I’ll probably skip out on some stuff in the future to save space in the van. Lugging around my giant suitcase every day sucked [laughs]. Overall though, I think it went really well! Don’t trust the hotels when you book a room I guess? We learned that lesson!
Reyes: That’s a story in and of itself right there! We were tired.
Birchfield: It was a long day. We finished loading out in Dallas and it was around midnight or 1AM, and we rolled into San Antonio around 6AM and showed up at our hotel just for them to tell us that they had no availability or rooms. We also don’t have a booking with your name on it. I said, “you took our money.” So we called around trying to find any hotel with space. We found one, drove there, only to find the same exact experience [laughs].
Reyes: We just wanted to go to sleep. To go to bed for a few hours.
Birchfield: It wasn’t great, but there was a Walmart parking lot there. It builds character.
Reyes: We called a bunch of other hotels and they were all sold out. We found out it was sold out because of Comic Con in town. You can only guess at how sour our faces were.
Birchfield: That’s when we were like, let’s go to Walmart. I bought some mouthwash and did a birdbath in the bathroom and went to bed [laughter].
Dead Rhetoric: Could you discuss the concept of ‘emotional gore,’ as I’ve seen it in some other interviews you have done recently?
Reyes: Emotional gore is basically not just talking about the physical representation of bloody gore, but it’s the inner turmoil that one has when they are going through certain points or situations in life, where you know that storm is brewing. It’s emotional. It’s ugly. It’s not pretty to look at, but it’s in you. It’s emotional gore that comes from whatever life throws at you. That’s what we as a band are trying to personify in art.
Birchfield: Those deep emotions that maybe you aren’t super comfortable talking about, putting a sound and feeling to those and trying to convey it through music.
Dead Rhetoric: Could you discuss the band’s use of color? Is it deliberate in terms of the color palette?
Birchfield: The idea was kind of like to contrast the sludgy, gross stuff with some pretty, floral stuff. We wanted to kind of mix those together.
Reyes: When you hear a name like Gore, you think of the heaviest metal in the world, where it’s hard to read where it says whatever the name is, we wanted to give the people a bit of a juxtaposition. It’s really pretty. The colors are very vibrant. We as a group love different color palettes: pink, purple, magenta. These are all color palettes that we really enjoy and love. Plus, we are all used to the ‘everything black.’
Dead Rhetoric: I do feel that the metal scene in general could use some more color. There’s so much black. It’s to the point where you are in the scene where the question can be asked, “Do you really need another black tshirt?” Some people, sure! But it’s nice to see a band embracing the other colors and being forward about it.
Birchfield: To that point, I think bands are latching onto that too. We had a pink hoodie we were selling on tour and it was selling like hotcakes. It’s not something you’ll necessarily see every day at a metal show, but I love it.
Reyes: That’s definitely true. That pink hoodie was so rad, not going to lie. We also had some shirts in there, but the hoodie was selling like Devin said, like hotcakes.
Dead Rhetoric: Along with the color palette, could you specifically talk about the cover? I feel like it’s a great example of how you use the contrasting colors.
Birchfield: I’m not sure if Haley [Roughton] had something specific in mind, since she kind of workshopped that with our visuals guy. But to me, it kind of represents that we kind of look our best on the outsides – the flower and the background looking beautiful. But when you look at it, you see these gross, drippy sludgy things coming off of it. That’s those real emotions coming through that we all have. To me, that’s what it speaks to.
Reyes: We may seem fine on the outside, everything might look great, but on the inside there is that emotional piece that seeps out. If you think of the flower as the human body or consciousness, it’s a sludge drip of those emotions seeping out. That’s how I envision it and relate to it.
Dead Rhetoric: When you are making songs feel different from one another, what do you feel is the core of Gore’s sound?
Reyes: I would say it’s just straight vibes. Whether it is a different song feel or sound, I think the vibe is still the same.
Birchfield: Each song has its own emotion to represent it and I think that’s the overarching theme. If it’s going to be heavy, we are going to get heavy with it. But if we want something super pretty and beautiful, that’s what we do. That’s the biggest thing. Each song is meant to convey an emotion or an experience. Rather than stick to a genre or specific sound, it’s more about representing those feelings.
Dead Rhetoric: This is your first release as Gore. What do you hope people take away from the EP?
Reyes: I just want people to take away that we have range. We aren’t just a one-genre type of band. Of course, at the core of the group we are metalcore, but we don’t mind venturing off into various types of music. I just want people to take away that. We aren’t just a metal band playing metal music, we also like to veer off and see where the music takes us.
Birchfield: I just hope that people find some sort of takeaway that they can connect with. If you are in the metal/rock realm, there is probably something in the EP that you are going to like. I hope people can connect somehow. We have gotten some messages that a song has helped them through “x, y, z thing” and it’s super heartwarming to me that our art can help someone else like that.
Dead Rhetoric: It seems like you as a group are pretty good at ‘playing the social media game,’ which not a lot of bands are, currently. How do you use social media to try to grab new fans?
Birchfield: At the heart of it, social media is there for engagement with fans. It’s hard to gauge a specific social media plan. We have done it pretty well, but there is an element of just putting videos out there and seeing that they do well. We will put some out, saying they are the worst video we ever made, and the algorithm picks it up and there’s 200,000 views so we are like, “I guess they liked it” [laughs]! So there is a little method to the madness in consistently posting and making sure you engage with the fans in comments – that’s crucial. I don’t know that there is a hard rule, like having to put out a specific type of video. We try to try different things there.
Reyes: If only we knew what the algorithm was thinking. It would be so much easier! It would take the guessing game out of it.
Dead Rhetoric: Going along with that, what are the challenges of building up a new band so that people will pay attention to you when there are so many things going on through social media and everything else?
Birchfield: The internet’s attention span is [so small], so being a new band and trying to be strategic about what we put out – if we just dumped all five songs out last December no one would care. It wouldn’t get to people. One of the hard parts is that we put a song out, people liked it, and then we have to keep promoting the same one over and over. People ask where the new stuff is and we say we are working on it. But we have to play the game spacing it out, so that it actually reaches people. Now that we have an EP out, we can promote multiple songs – it’s a little bit easier. Specifically, when we were in that gap between releasing “Doomsday” and waiting for the label announcement, it was particularly rough. People were like, “what’s going on?”
Reyes: I had people, an old engineer acquaintance hit me up. I hadn’t worked with this guy in like almost 10 years. He messaged me saying that he had heard the two songs and asking when the next one was dropping. I’m like, “where did you come from?” and was like, “it’s coming soon!” He was like, “I just want it – when it is coming out!”
Birchfield: Most of the time, we were like “I don’t even know!”
Reyes: A lot of it is when things derailed, in a sense. When the label got involved. We had to play the long game and ‘blueball’ the people [laughter]. We just kept edging them on.
Birchfield: It’s like…’big things coming soon!”
Dead Rhetoric: So all five songs were done before you released “Pray” last year. How deliberate was it that you chose that song out of the five possible?
Reyes: We kind of just wanted to ‘come at you very hard and in your face’ in that song. It’s in your face. It also has an amazing hook. It’s one of the heaviest songs we have, and also, you are going to be singing it…a lot in your head.
Birchfield: It’s a good mix of what we have going. There’s some pretty stuff there, but it starts off right out the gate really heavy. It can grip people with the chorus.
Reyes: With “Doomsday” we threw a curveball. It sounds like it’s going to be heavy as hell, but next thing you know, boom – it’s got clean guitar and very pretty. Then we still hit you in the face with some heavy guitars. It was more of a build-up. It was like, ‘reverse “Pray.”’
Dead Rhetoric: Some pretty heavy lyrics on that one too!
Reyes: We were like, “man, I don’t know how people are going to take it!”
Birchfield: Honestly, most people didn’t really comment on it as much as I would have thought.
Reyes: I’m happy because one of the interviews that we did with a podcast, they really got it. It’s about the desensitization of humans to everything. It’s really talking about us as humans being desensitized through social media to violence, and the negative nature of humans. It’s really painting that picture. But you would never get it unless it’s really in your face with that opening line.
Dead Rhetoric: In terms of having a label come in, what ultimately made you go with Spinefarm?
Birchfield: Honestly, it just felt right talking with the team. They seemed genuinely excited and trusting with our vision. They weren’t going to turn us into ‘whatever they want.’ They are very excited for us to do our thing and help us along with that journey. That really got me excited. I got in there and they were really amped up to get in there and see how they could help.
Reyes: Spinefarm was really down for us. We have had talks with other labels before Spinefarm, and each one was like, trying to gas us up and get us to go with them. With Spinefarm, it felt more genuine. They thought our vision was amazing and wanted to build on it. They aren’t going to try to enclose us in a bubble. They wanted to see what we are talking about. They have really been helping us out.
Dead Rhetoric: It’s to your credit that you have such a distinct vision this early on with the band. I remember finding Gore. a few days before “Doomsday” and there’s a very distinctive flavor. It’s not often that you see that with a newer act. There’s often some flailing, but you have seemed to have locked in on what you want.
Reyes: We did a lot of brainstorming when we first started. We didn’t want to be a typical band that looks cool and ‘we are hard.’ There was attention paid to the planning and visuals and the marketing when it was time to write the songs. We put a lot of time in the mixing/mastering and the songwriting. We wanted to give each song it’s day. I think we were able to do that.
Birchfield: We were starting out as a new band, but it’s like, what if we gave everything the same care as we would to a seasoned project? Why not just spend your time on the little details, because in the end it all adds up. The color palette, the story, how we do music videos, mixing/mastering, all that. We really wanted to come out of the gate really representing the vision we had in our heads. Not necessarily that ‘we want to look so pro’ but we wanted to do justice to the vision we had in our heads.
Dead Rhetoric: Lastly, what’s in the future for the band after the EP?
Birchfield: We are going to be writing a lot, into the end of the year. We will be doing a lot more of that. There’s no shows lined up yet, but there’s going to be a ton of that too next year.
Reyes: Yeah, a lot of writing music, but we’ll see what happens with shows. But that’s pretty much what’s going on now. We are excited. The stuff we have been working on sounds great. It’s also very much Gore. Prepare to be Gore-ifed [laughter].
Some may remember us speaking about an up-and-coming Italian death metal band Kaivs last year when we reviewed their EP Horrend, and having an in-depth conversation with the band to boot. The quartet showed plenty of promise in said first release, encapsulating an unfiltered celebration of death metal’s fundamentals. Since then, we’ve been curious as to what they may put together for their debut full-length. Wait no longer, as the deathly horde has bestowed After the Flesh on our rotting ears.
The tried-and-true raging Dismember-esque chainsaw tone is revved up, with the band cutting down whatever hapless object that may be obstructing their path. “Koshercannibal” buzzes forth with a shredding riff that calls back that 90s Stockholm sound incessantly. The track pulsates with intent, maliciousness, and a direct, pacey trajectory. “Beyond the Autopsy” continues the frenzy, opting for a briefly slower start before ramping up into grimy, determined roars via vocalist Max Foam’s gritty, coarse voicings and axe wielder Tiziano Mortician’s wailing rhythms, finishing with a death/doom pacing that’s ominous and definitive.
Cuts such as “ For Satan Your Flesh for God Your Soul” ruminate in an Entombed-inspired groove, highlighted by drummer Leonardo Sastro’s and bassist Jacopo Simonelli’s coordinated low end pummeling, and Foam’s commanding groan. The influx of the HM-2 tonality is the focal point of Kaivs’ sonic projection, rending the hapless listener gnarled and disoriented, riff after riff.
The second half of After the Flesh mainly contains re-workings of the three songs contained on the band’s Horrend EP. The fuzzy, churning “Krushing All Altars” – Mortal Kombat anyone? – resides as one of the most distorted offerings on After the Flesh, whilst “Sepulchrist” adds an ironic quotation of a bible verse about eternal life before unleashing a rumbling, ominous Entrails-meets-doom sort of mashup that was the highlight of said EP, with this recording adding significant presence in comparison to the original. “Blasphemer After the Flesh” coordinates proceedings back to a feverish forward romp before signing off via the similarly fervent “Horrend.”
The production is louder and more robust than the EP, with a molasses-thick, grinding, volatile sound profile that fits their highly specific sound profile. An improvement would be for the drums to be a little less washed out and prominent, as they could add additional heft and dynamism if more discernible from the rest. Visually, the artwork by Juanjo Castellano screams a Like an Ever Flowing Stream influence, but in a horrific cave setting, giving a matching aesthetic to the band’s vehement sound.
Kaivs’ heart definitively resides in the early 90s scene, and After the Flesh is a solid homage to that most classic of death metal sounds that no doubt will have influence over the genre forever. What would make the record resonate even more would be if the band leaned into their more spacious, death/doom side to add additional variance to their dense, meaty outputs. More of that and some production tweaks could really see Kaivs make a statement within the now very crowded death metal landscape. For now, After the Flesh is an album that shows a band that has the chops, gnarly riffs, and instrumental talent in spades that know how to tear limb-from-limb by way of the truest of time-honored death metal paradigms. In our book, there’s nothing wrong with that.
Already on this scribe’s radar in the early days through their self-released debut EP Deaf Nite back in 2018, Polish thrash band Pandemic arrive on the Dying Victims Productions roster for this second full-length Phantoms. Gaining Filip Worek on drums in 2022, the band continue to develop a sound that can be very forward-thinking in terms of power and speed, injecting the best elements of melody and hooks yet never wavering in its main thrash stance. As such, these eight songs pack a mighty wallop thanks to a hefty, beefy bass propulsion that next to primal rhythms and heroic lead breaks should keep followers headbanging incessantly while chanting in unison to the slower segments that harken back to traditional European/NWOBHM-oriented aspects of the early 80s.
When the quartet throw in progressive stop/start riffs, Filip’s tempo control injects that foundation to allow guitarists Marcin Konieczny and Wiktor Lobarzewski ample space to drive the riffs to the stars, beyond circular runs that contain Angel Witch / Iron Maiden-esque twists (bassist/vocalist Gniewko Jelski a third key musician to up that ante). Check out all the musical exploration within “Bane of Brook Hall” which features a guest vocal assist from fellow Polish speed metal singer Mayheer of Pursuer, a gallop-fueled affair rich in harmonic, epic textures – the leads elevating excitement in the right spaces, while Gniewko’s main vocal delivery carries the right energy in mid-range to slightly higher spots. A Latin musical intro soon gives way to more driving triplet rhythm riff madness for “Santa Muerte”, the gang background vocals aiding the dynamic musical underpinning while the semi-blasting spots work next to this adventurous, winding progressive-oriented arrangement. Smartly mixing up the track listing to execute more straight-ahead bashers like the title cut and the anthem-oriented “The Last Road”, boredom will be the last think on one’s mind taking in this material – there’s plenty of information to absorb from a multitude of angles, even at its modest 37 minutes playback.
Not commercially driven when it comes to influences or execution, Pandemic combine a lot of speed, power, and throwback traditional aspects into the mix that makes Phantoms probably a record for more of the deeper thrash maven than one who has dabbled in the genre. Nevertheless, the quality can’t be denied – so dare to plunge into a more adventurous sound as the payoff could be massive.
A band that has never been afraid to change things up as they progress and evolve, Australia’s Make Them Suffer continue to bring new sounds into their music even after a span of 15 years. Their latest album, a self-titled release, exemplifies that spirit to continue to evolve with the times, providing a modern yet hard-hitting sound with a broad appeal. We spoke to vocalist Sean Harmanis to get his insights on the process of everything from the new album, to band dynamics, to the early challenges the band faced in trying to make a name for themselves.
Dead Rhetoric: You joked that the self-titled album was ‘a greatest hits album, but with new songs’ on the press release. Do you feel it’s representative of what you’ve done over the years?
Sean Harmanis: In some ways. Undeniably, this sounds very different to a lot of our other work, just on the surface. But in some ways, yes, because the songwriting tools that we have gained along the way and how to put a song together – certain decisions that we make when writing songs – there are still go-to things that we go to. There are things that I do as a vocalist or other people do, that make them “Make Them Suffer.” There’s always that element of female vocals and a softer element paired with it, whether it’s piano, synth, or classical elements. That’s the bread and butter formula. We have transported that to a more modern, futuristic kind of realm with this one.
Dead Rhetoric: How do you feel that your own vocal performance has changed since when you started?
Harmanis: I definitely feel like I have a lot more control over what I do. I can find an exact pitch, the tonality that I am trying to get with a lot of the lines is a lot more accurate. My taste in what I think are good and bad vocals has changed a lot. I used to do the cookie cutter lows and highs, and now I’m more into audibility. Being able to hear the lyrics is important for me, as well as knowing the correct phrasing and timbre to deliver that line in. Some words need to be said in the right way to evoke the emotion that word gives. I’d say that is what I have been diving into more.
Dead Rhetoric: So how much emphasis do you put on those sort of things like timbre and phrasing?
Harmanis: It’s what I spend the most time thinking about when we are writing a song. I think a lot of vocalists do that. I often try to figure out the phrasing before putting the words to it, and having an idea of what the song is going to center around. Some songs we will start off from a lyric or an idea/concept, but a lot of the songs start with finding what the correct rhythm is to accompany the instruments and building backwards from there.
Dead Rhetoric: What keeps your spark and excitement going as a group, knowing that the group has changed and evolved over time?
Harmanis: I suppose it’s the fact that we always switch it up. It’s every record for us. It’s always a bit of a learning experience. There’s an uncharted territory that we are trying to record, not on every song, since some are safer than others. But if you compare our sound from this album to the previous one, it’s like night and day even between those two. We are always moving and evolving, and I think that keeps the pressure on us. All the while, I feel like we are honing our sound, even still, and I’m always open to doing something completely different. It’s exciting for us.
Nick [McLernon] has even said that he tried a different tuning for his guitar on this album, for example. He said that he had felt he had run out of juice a bit with what we had been playing before. He felt it opened up a whole bunch of new doors for him, creatively. It’s not just tuning, but the tonality of the guitar is different. You have a whole set of sounds that accompany it and it’s a whole new world. The world of futuristic, synth-y cyberspace that we have been trying to experiment with everything. That whole Blade soundtrack kind of vibe [laughs].
Dead Rhetoric: Regardless of the different albums over time, what do you feel is an essential piece of a Make Them Suffer song?
Harmanis: It’s very difficult, but we have given it a bit of thought. I think for me, personally, Make Them Suffer has always been a band that centers its sound around contrasts. Good and evil, light and heavy, beautiful and angry…that kind of opposing emotions and sounds. Even in the lyrics, there is that juxtaposition. We have that within the vocals, as well as between the melody on the piano versus the guitars.
Even in our songwriting, we sometimes make intentional decisions to have transitions be jarring. It can jump from one extreme to another, and I think that has become one part of our sound. I think it’s shocking for some people, but it’s a very deliberate choice. We love pushing the boundaries of how far we can drive both of those opposing elements in the song.
Dead Rhetoric: Could you speak to the dynamic with yourself and Nick over the years, as members that have been there the longest?
Harmanis: Nick lives in Melbourne and I live in Perth, which is where Nick used to live. Perth is our hometown. So we do a lot of communication about songwriting through the internet and email. We don’t actually talk too much on a day to day basis except when fielding each other’s questions about decision points for the band. Not just the songwriting, but what we are doing tour-wise, the financial things, and stuff like that. In some ways, it’s probably good, because when we tour together and go into the studio, we have a lot of time together.
It’s very confined spaces and having to have integral discussions, and we have gotten it down – the art of keeping conversations civil down to an artform. Nick is a pretty fiery dude, and so am I in a different way. Sometimes tensions can get high, and in the studio I don’t think we have ever had a recording without getting into at least one argument. We are much better at resolving those, and I think just a lot of time, we have opposing ideas about where we want the song to go in certain areas, and I think that it’s actually a lot of where our sound comes from. We have started doing this thing where he thinks it should be a certain riff and I think it’s a different one so we will just do half and half. It’s two measures of each, so that creates some choppy sounding songs and I think that has become a part of our sound, which has become quite interesting. It’s important to have that.
I’ve found when one person writes too much of one song, and is never challenged or anything like that, it can sound a little safe. It needs to have some tension, and you have to have strong opinions about the direction you want to go. It’s been a fundamental part of Nick and I’s relationship in the band.
Dead Rhetoric: It goes back to what you were saying about contrast in the band.
Harmanis: Yeah, exactly. Thankfully, we can always bring it back to a vote. At least there’s 5 members in the band and not six [laughs]!
Dead Rhetoric: Speaking of five members, what’s the impact of Alex [Reade] been on the band?
Harmanis: It’s been incredible. People have welcomed her with open arms and I think that, with good reason. Tonally and everything, she sounds fantastic. Outside of the singing side of things, she has added this additional element of being able to contribute screaming vocal capacity. To me, that’s almost more fun and impressive than her singing ability, and her singing ability is amazing. The back and forth on the screams is something that gets us excited in the studio. It’s something we really enjoy doing. I think it brought that new X-factor for this new era of our sound.
I’ve been loving having her in the band, and everyone else feels the same. I think that really shows, with the comments from the fans and everything, she seems to be very highly regarded and with good reason.
Dead Rhetoric: You’ve toured with a number of bands that I hate to say but some would argue aren’t ‘metal.’ Bands like Bad Omens, for example, that make some extreme metal fans scoff at least. What have you taken away from bands outside of the more extreme scene?
Harmanis: I think bands like Bad Omens are extremely impressive in their music. I actually really like them, I think their songwriting is really some of the best going at the moment. I think touring with them, and many other bands that have been growing in a similar realm, have opened the floodgates to this new generation of people listening to them. Through that, they are getting into metal in general. I think that’s really important. So we have taken note when we did the Bad Omens tour in the US – their fans are very unique.
It’s almost like The Beatles. They have swarming fans trying to get a photo, it’s absolutely crazy. You get to the venue at the beginning of the day and people are lining up, and it was crazy to see that sort of fandom. Now when we go back to the States, we see a handful of fans at every one of our shows and we can identify them as ‘the Bad Omens’ fans that we met on that tour. They behave in similar ways, and I think it’s really nice. They are super supportive. They have really opened up a metal resurgence, because of bands like that.
We also toured with Bring Me the Horizon as well, for example, in Australia. That was an arena-level tour. We had never played a tour of that magnitude before. Watching Bad Omens and Bring Me the Horizon, those bands had such a step up in terms of their live production, professionalism, and showmanship. We were a little rough around the edges, and it’s been a part of our brand. We like to rock out pretty hard on stage.
But at the same time, the production that goes into a Bring Me the Horizon show is just unbelievable to witness. You don’t even need to be a fan of the band to enjoy their live show. You don’t need to know a single song, it’s just purely just entertaining and amazing. Seeing how that translates, we really want to incorporate some of that into our live show.
Dead Rhetoric: I think you are completely on point with that. Some of those bands, despite how some people might like it, are injecting some new blood into the scene, which it desperately needs.
Harmanis: Metal has always had an element of elitist and gatekeeping and that sort of thing. I remember it was different when I started getting into it and I was obsessed with bands like Job for a Cowboy and the Doom EP. You had this group of people saying that it wasn’t death metal. People got into fights at All Shall Perish shows because you had the metal people and the hardcore people there.
It’s always been an element, and then you get older and you like ‘all metal’ and you realize that none of it really mattered. People are always going to gatekeep in metal and that’s just the nature of some of the people that the genre attracts. I welcome any change with open arms. A saying I have always tried to live my life by is “adapt or die” [laughs].
Dead Rhetoric: In your opinion, what are some of the challenges of being an Australian band and trying to break into the international touring circuit?
Harmanis: It was particularly difficult for us because we are from Perth, which is on the west coast of Australia. It’s the only major city on the west coast. It’s the most isolated capital city in the world. The width of Australia is roughly the same as the United States, but there are no cities in between. It’s a four day drive from Perth to any of the other major cities, like Brisbane. For us, there was the added challenge of not really having a community to ask questions when we started touring, as well as the added cost of booking flights over there. Whereas the east coast they could rent a van and drive up and down the coast. We had the added cost of flights.
It was definitely a bit of a challenge for us and we have been going for about 15 years. It has taken us a little bit longer than some, and one of the reasons for that is that we were a local band for four years before we started touring. We played maybe 1 or 2 weekends in our third or fourth year. That was thousands of dollars of money down the drain for a few shows in Melbourne. It took a while to just get out of Perth. Then we made it out and started touring Australia, and this is probably year five or six of the band now and we finally got an offer to go to Europe and went there on the Bonecrusher Tour in 2013. It was later renamed the ‘Bandcrusher’ tour by the people on it, because we were opening a six or seven band bill and the tour just flopped really hard. A lot of the headlining bands on that tour even lost a lot of money, and a number of bands ended up breaking up or going on hiatus after it. The booking agent was actually very apologetic to us when he first met us in person, but we were just the opening band so we were happy to play to 100 people every night. For us, it was fine and we were just excited to be in Europe at the time.
Going on that tour and seeing the scale of the European market, and thinking about that seven band bill – it was our first time in Europe. We wondered how long it would take for us to just climb to the top of this bill. It dawned on us that it was a really long slog. When you are first faced with the international market, it’s overwhelming for a lot of bands. It took a while and it was daunting at first, but the thing with being in a band or a musician, is that persistence really does pay off.
If you just stick at it, people will stick around. We still have people who have been listening to us since the EP and our first album despite sounding completely different on those. They still leave comments and it’s like, “What? Why are you still listening?” But good on you, thanks for sticking around somehow! They are still checking us out [laughs]! It’s been a journey for sure, navigating to where we are in the touring market now.
Dead Rhetoric: What’s next for the band after the album comes out?
Harmanis: I think the main goal is to try and up our live show and try to do some headlining shows and tours in markets outside of the US. I’d love to headline the States and Europe and just see how we do. We get enough requests for sure for longer sets. It’s tough to know how tangible those comments can be sometimes and if it actually translates to people coming to shows.
Regardless of the success of the tours, it would be exciting to bring a headline set to even a small number of people. I think that fans that have been listening and stuck with us know that it’s a pretty special and exciting time for the band and we want to share that with the fans who have been there through thick and thin.
So I had no idea what was happening when I first hit play on this new Misanthropy record The Ever-Crushing Weight of Stagnance, the third studio album for this Illinois act via Transcending Obscurity Records. Now this is without a doubt one of my favorite record labels and I’d say 99.9999% of the time what I’m hearing is a home run. Not in this case, however.
No,no, relax. This is not gonna be a review in which I relentlessly bash the band. Quite frankly I’m too old and tired to do that anymore. But I will say this. There really isn’t a whole lot to sink my teeth into, and there is a lot, I mean a lot of meandering around town when it comes to this brand of progressive death metal.
Now, to be fair when it works it really works. Case in point is “The All-Devouring” one of the record’s best and brightest cuts. A second example would be the next track “A Cure For the Pestilence.” But I was not very impressed with the opener “Of Sulking and the Wrathful.” You just feel like it really wasn’t headed anywhere. Again, we have another banger in “Condemned to a Nameless Tomb” but that kind of intensity can’t save numbers like “Sepulcher” or “Consumed By the Abyss.” Both of these just felt like paths to nowhere in the heavy metal forest. Hey, John Q. listener might hear something I don’t, who knows?
On another positive note “Descent” is a rager bent on wrecking shop, so there’s that. It’s done in slow, deliberate fashion, so this scribe definitely dug that. Look, they can’t all be home run records, right? Did I hate the album? No. It just didn’t really move the needle. You be the judge, though.
Standout Tracks: “Descent”, “The All-Devouring”, “A Cure For the Pestilence”.
As a staff our varied, eclectic tastes in heavy music allow us to develop content that’s equally diverse. As much as we love progressive, technical, or extreme forms of metal, sometimes you need that palate cleanse so to speak that may be more melodic, catchy, or possess commercial leanings. The latter comes to mind when assessing Portugal band In We Fall – swirling themselves in a cocktail of alternative, post-grunge-oriented metal with a mix of current, modern influences that they put on display through this debut album Inner Self. Formed in late 2022, the band would release three singles in 2023 that along with seven other songs for this record encompass a thoughtful, passionate first glimpse into the quartet.
The musical chemistry between guitars, bass, and drums contains apt main chord progressions, pounding rhythm section foundational components, plus the ideal twists or supplementary progressive highlights in terms of lead breaks, bass heroics, or surprising transitions. Daniel Moreira and Carlos Carneiro as guitar players know when to be restrained in clean strumming, then latch onto the aggressive distortion passages that hit your body full force – as “Looking Inside” exemplifies both aspects back and forth between the softer verses into an explosive chorus. Stunted grooves next to uplifting vocals set “Road to Li(v)e” in ideal motion, the vocal harmonization ideal for unison audience participation as Daniel’s voice has that mix of alternative metal meets modern, post-grunge hard rock intrigue, bringing up everything from Chris Cornell to Scott Stapp in his infectious delivery.
The stand-alone concept conveys everything from multi-leveled relationships that humanity faces, the costs of war in that development, as well as the love-hate duality that exists when it comes to the world – yet you feel a sense of individual songs coming together as a whole without being buried in the overall story. A ballad like “Hope Is Gone” has those trademark clean to power chord elements to tug at your ears, the drumming groovy in a bluesy fashion while the atmosphere should connect to fans of Sevendust, Alter Bridge, and classic Stone Temple Pilots. Towards the back half of the record, the band fire up a bit of metal finesse for “Winter Shades”, drawing from a bit of older 70s/80’s aspects in the doomy nature of the pacing and progressive choppiness, drummer Frederico Lopes getting a chance throughout to showcase his adept snare, tom, and kick chops.
European acts often take American influences into new directions with their subtle background and natural environmental differences. For In We Fall, Inner Self is a great synthesis of multiple styles to create an engaging debut effort, especially for those that love the slightly more commercial sides of post-grunge meets alternative metal.
After diving back into the writing groove in the second half of 2023 after a little sabbatical, 2024 was all about branching out. Something that occurred in both my personal and musical life, meeting my amazing partner Amber at the beginning of the year and really taking some time to dig into some music that I likely wouldn’t have found otherwise. It’s been a fantastic year, with some big highlights (such as return in-person chats with HANABIE. and Isiliel), concerts, and lively anime conventions. It should make for an even bigger 2025.
There seemed to be a theme to my music picks this year. Mostly, it seems that bands that were doing something fresh were more likely to catch my ear than those who more or less meander in the same soundspace that they have been occupying. Likewise, there’s a lot of fresh picks in a massively packed year that really seemed to blow up in the fall. While it’s not the ‘tr00est’ list out there, hopefully people can find a new group to discover among the variety below.
20. Saiseiga – The Black Hole (Self-Released) Groove metal act Saiseiga bring a stronger sense of aggression and heaviness to their latest release. The augmented darkness meshes well with their sense of melody. Lots of dynamic riffing, and Regan’s vocal delivery is bound to impress.
19. Avralize – Freaks (Arising Empire) An impressive debut that manages to pull elements from all across the modern metal spectrum, Avralize makes metal fun. The songs have genuine hooks, but provide enough heaviness to satiate – it’s a tightrope but it seems they already have a great grasp of it.
18. Cognitive – Abhorrence (Metal Blade) Cognitive have been nothing if not consistent in their ability to up the ante. Abhorrence is every bit as oppressively heavy as you’d like it to be, but done in such a way that each track seems memorable. A trait that’s hard to come by in extreme metal, making Cognitive worthy of some major kudos.
17. Visions of Atlantis – Pirates II: Armada (Napalm) VoA have seemingly struck the perfect balance between their symphonic elements and bombast with their metallic side, and Armada champions a cinematic effort that few in the genre could match this year. This band has really blossomed, and this is easily their finest effort to date.
16. Nemophila – Evolve (Masterworks) Japanese modern metal act Nemophila effectively stepped up with their last full-length. Variety all over the place, weaving between metal, rock, pop, and more in their quest to write catchy, endearing songs that really resonate. Even with Saki parting ways afterwards, it seems Nemophila is still poised to make bigger international waves.
15. Ad Infinitum – Abyss (Napalm) Interestingly, Abyss sees Ad Infinitum moving away from more traditional symphonic metal beats and moving towards something that’s not as easily definable. It’s a great move for the band, who always felt a bit outside the symphonic norms to begin with. This keeps all of the band’s thrilling hooks and cinematic appeal (not to mention Melissa Bonny’s incredible range) and gives it an even stronger flavor.
14. Swallow the Sun – Shining (Century Media) Integrating some new colors into the long-standing doomy, gloomy act, Shining is a glorious example of a veteran act stepping outside their comfort zone and throwing caution to the wind. It’s a beautiful record that keeps all of the band’s traditional elements but plays with them in different sonic landscapes that are just as poignant, just speckled with just enough warmth within the darkness to make something really impressive.
13. Cemetery Skyline – Nordic Gothic (Century Media) A dark rock and gothic metal combo with high profile members from some of melodic death metal’s greatest acts? Yes please! Nordic Gothic is first and foremost a passion project about friends making music inspired by their gothic heroes, and it comes across as such. There’s such a care put into the melodies and soundscapes of each track, each one coming across as urgent and hook-filled. A great album to sit down with in the fall and winter seasons for sure.
12. Amiensus – Reclamation part I and II (M Theory Audio) An astonishing double-album that seems to invoke all of the best parts of Amiensus’ ever-evolving sound. Do yourself a favor and give both parts a listen back to back, as originally intended. It’s a riveting achievement that will take you through 90-minutes of thrilling soundscapes that all but take you away on a journey. Those seeking extreme metal at it’s finest should already have their eyes and ears on this one, but a fantastic trip for those who haven’t dug into this underrated act.
11. Alleviate – DMNS (Arising Empire) A new metalcore act that managed to dig into the extremes in both directions. Some vicious, deathcore-inspired heaviness at times trades blows with some fantastic melodic parts that soothe. The added dynamic gives the band much more space to play in that the usual bands of the style, and gives it a much more inspired take that should convince fans of this sound to give them a chance.
10. Red Handed Denial – A Journey Through Virtual Dystopia (Self-Released) The perpetually underrated modern act Red Handed Denial took some creative risks in jettisoning some of their more ‘Nintendocore’ elements for more melodic ones, but A Journey Through Virtual Dystopia comes across as their strongest album to date. Some songs still pack quite a wallop (“Eat Glass”), and when you sit them next to beautiful cuts like “One More Night,” it makes for a powerful experience.
9. Aina Suzuki – initium (Lantis) The first of the Love Live seiyuu on this list, Aina Suzuki brought all the heaviness she could muster for this latest EP. Switching it up between serene gothic-y tracks and utter shredfests, it’s a unique listen that Suzuki elevates with her elegant yet powerful vocal performance. It’s hard to walk away from this one without feeling a little spellbound by its energy. Those blast beats on “Diluculum,” are some of the exhilarating of the year.
8. HANABIE. – Bucchigiri Tokyo (Sony Music) HANABIE. have been going nonstop since last year, but that ethic has allowed them a meteoric rise internationally. This latest EP goes a bit heavier with riffing, but never loses an ounce of the fun, energetic, and unique spirit that the band possesses. There’s just something exciting that the band has, be it in the live setting or on disc, and it’s clear with evidence like this EP that they are only on the way to bigger and better things.
7. Unto Others – Never, Neverland (Century Media) Continuing to catch absolute magic in musical form, Unto Others keep smashing through boundaries and trying new things that one would think wouldn’t work, but it just keeps working in their favor. It would be all too easy to keep making their unique take on heavy metal meets gothic meets new wave, and it’d be cool. But the urge to expand into new sonic spaces, without compromising their unique vision, is what makes Unto Others such a compelling act.
6. Fit for an Autopsy – The Nothing That Is (Nuclear Blast) Another band set on pushing through musical genre barriers, Fit for an Autopsy have come a LONG way from their purely deathcore beginnings. The Nothing That Is maintains the high bar of quality extreme metal that fuses even heavier and darker moments together with slick grooves or melodies that only serve to make it stronger. It’s an addictive mix that serves up a visceral high, but has the hooks that will latch onto you and bring you back time and time again.
5. Arctis – Arctis (Napalm) Easily the most fun you are going to have in the genre this year, Arctis goes all in on their particular fusion of metal and pop. While some may snuff at the mere notion of it, the way that Arctis embraces this sonic collision makes it endlessly entertaining. The hooks sink their teeth in upon first listen and simply won’t let go. “Tell Me Why” should be storming up the charts in a more ‘metal accepting’ society. Don’t miss out on this one if you like the catchier side of metal.
4. Future Palace – Distortion (Arising Empire) Coming back with an even heavier and varied approach than the already fantastic Run, Future Palace really hit this one out of the park. Heavy, hook-y, and full of outside influences that give the band a solid foothold even outside metal spaces. Distortion also tackles its share of serious issues, with the band wearing their hearts on their sleeves. Above all else though, it’s an album that’s bound to stick with you for an insane number of listens due to its massive hooks from beginning to end.
3. Poppy – Negative Spaces (Sumerian) If I Disagree first made some turn their heads in Poppy’s direction with its notably heavy directions, Negative Spaces should be the one to really lock those fans in. Surprisingly diverse, with songs raging with metallic fury to insidiously catchy electro-pop, there’s so much to indulge in. Never does it feel too eclectic or out of place, instead the songs simply do their very best to stick with you, and never seem to fail at it. It’s full of quirky charm, and deeper lyrical content than one might have expected. A perfect album for any particular mood you happen to be in.
2. LustQueen – LustQueen (StarRise) I’ve been championing Yuina’s vocals since I first heard her a few years back in Love Live Superstar!! and her hard rock project LustQueen happily fits the bill of putting her voice behind some more guitar-centered music. All five songs in this EP serve to showcase how impressive her voice is, offering a variety to which she can elevate them to greater heights. With any luck, she’ll continue to release more songs with LustQueen on a regular basis, as there’s much potential to unearth.
1. Togenashi Togeari – Togenashi (Universal) Probably not much of a surprise to anyone that speaks to me about music regularly, as TogeToge have been perpetually on repeat all year. It’s been great to see the group’s numbers skyrocket after the equally excellent Girls Band Cry anime (of which they are from). This particular album showcases the songs from the anime itself (with 2 new songs), and is a testament to how incredibly hook-y and memorable their music is. Musically intricate without being showy, heartfelt melodies, and incredible vocals by Rina. It’s a hard combination to beat.
Honorable Mention (alphabetical order) Amaranthe – The Catalyst
Band-Maid – Epic Narratives
Bridear – Born Again
Dark Tranquillity – Endtime Signals
Entheos – An End to Everything
Exit Eden – Femmes Fatales
Gore. – A Bud that Never Blooms
icontinew – First Impact
Make Them Suffer – Make Them Suffer
MakeMake – We Are One
Mellows – alloy
Setyoursails – Bad Blood
Vulvodynia – Entabeni
