It’s Friday, which means two things: giving this week the finger, and new music! Tune in every Friday for The Pit’s round-up of new releases, from singalong hard rock to pus-drenched underground death metal. Keep those ears bleeding!
Spirit Adrift, Enlightened in Eternity (20 Buck Spin)
For fans of: Khemmis, Magic Circle, Pallbearer
Standout track: “Astral Levitation”
Arizona’s Spirit Adrift are what happens when a brilliant musician sees past a genre’s boundaries. On its surface, the band’s new album Enlightened In Eternity shares a lot with the hipster doom boom of the early 2010s, but one listen proves that band mastermind Nate Garrett is more than your average weed worshipper. The record is as much a powerful tribute to the classic heavy metal of the early ‘80s as it is a nod to the Arkansas scene of twenty years after that. All of which is a long, music-journalist-ass way of saying this is probably the album of the year.
Wayfarer, A Romance With Violence (Profound Lore)
For fans of: Cobalt, Nachtmystium, Rwake
Standout track: “The Iron Horse (Gallows Frontier, Act II)”
If Bathory and Enslaved are the metal that comes out of examining the folk traditions of Scandinavia, then Wayfarer are what you get when you sink your hands into the bloody soil of the American frontier. A Romance With Violence is a whirling twister storm of extreme metal subgenres that blend together into a haunting sound which feels distinctly American. That the band pepper their howling deluge with bits of saloon piany and steel guitar only accentuates this atmosphere. Cowboys might seem like fun and games on paper, but die of a snakebite seventy miles from the nearest outhouse and call us.
False Gods, No Symmetry…Only Dissolution (Seeing Red Records)
For fans of: Tombs, Deadbird, Aosoth
Standout track: “I Know Too Much”
NYC’s False Gods do a good job of never showing their hand–their band name, album title, and sleeve art could represent anything from beatdown hardcore to icy black metal. Instead, listeners will get a strange hybrid of sounds from the band’s new album, a mixture of doom, sludge, thrash, black metal, and everything in between. There’s a distinctly primal vibe to it, but that never takes the Big Apple’s bone-snapping concrete out of their sound. An impressive release that’ll draw fans from across metal’s sicker subgenres.
Septage, Septic Decadence (Me Saco Un Ojo)
For fans of: Pissgrave, General Surgery, Sewercide
Standout track: “Mouthful of Untreated Sewage”
You might read the name ‘Septage’ and think, This band is going to sound like a leaking sore, isn’t it? But that’s short-sighted: these guys sound like about a thousand sores all leaking at once. This Dutch trio play murky, merciless death metal that sounds like something between a swarm of bees and a stomachache, all with plenty of early-Carcass burbles and sneering minor chords to give it a sense of panic and menace. At the end of the day, you’re going to see this album cover and either be grossed out or intrigued, and if you’re the latter, you’re gonna love this.
Other crushers:
- Ataraxia, Quasar (Annapurna)
- Benediction, Scriptures (Nuclear Blast)
- Aphonic Threnody, The Great Hatred (Transcending Obscurity)
- Sons of Otis, Isolation (Totem Cat)
- Lost Symphony, Chapter II (Xoff Records)
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Words by Chris Krovatin
