It’s Friday, which means two things: giving the 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!
A Day to Remember, You’re Welcome (Fueled By Ramen)
For fans of: boysetsfire, twenty one pilots, +44
Standout track: “Brick Wall”
Pop-punk’s legacy is evolving, and so with it is A Day to Remember’s sound. The Floridian quintet’s new album incorporates the ways in which both pop-punk and hardcore have grown in recent memory (in the directions, interestingly enough, that they themselves nudged those genres). The result is streamlined inspirational soars interspersed between shimmery juds and dawn-colored clap-along movements. If you’re looking for good end-credits music for your gritty teen-oriented movie about overcoming hardship, look no further.
Thirdface, Do It With A Smile (Exploding In Sound Music)
For fans of: Botch, Fucked & Bound, Pyrrhon
Standout track: “Grasping At The Root”
Man, Nashville’s Thirdface are not fucking around with their debut full-length. It’s hardcore at its most compelling and uncommon — there are no pointless slogs here, no chest-beating, just a lot of really intense, grinding music that makes you think of the best basement shows you ever attended. This sweaty, organic vibe never ruins the record with atonal wankery, though; from start to finish, Do It With A Smile is deeply listenable, it’s just also unpredictable to no end. Grab this if you want the real heavy.
Brand of Sacrifice, Lifeblood (Blood Blast Distribution)
For fans of: Inferi, Enterprise Earth, Fleshgod Apocalypse
Standout track: “Altered Eyes”
Lifeblood might be on record to make Brand of Sacrifice the deathcore Cradle of Filth. The band have plenty of electronic influences throughout that give their music this incredible melodramatic mood, but that never comes at the expense of their ferocity. The result is basically merciless technical death metal that has this epic, operatic frame to it (which makes sense, given frontman Kyle Anderson’s love of anime, the ultimate art form when it comes to dramatic theme music). A really entertaining album that will alienate all the right people and draw in the rest of us.
Black Knife, Murder Season (Self-released)
For fans of: Desaster, Satan’s Wrath, old Bathory
Standout track: “Bloodbath Orgy”
There’s a certain poetry to Black Knife hailing from Kentucky, as the band’s music has that syrupy Southern groove deep at its core. That said, surrounding said core is a lot of serrated riffs, destructive drum gallops, and vomited vocals about murder and Satan. If you don’t like any of those things, you’re definitely shit out of luck–there’s no middle ground here, there’s no “They Rode On”–but if that sounds awesome to you, this is an amazing record to lose your shit to. The musical equivalent of a dirt-cheap bottle of whiskey you buy mostly to throw on some church steps.
Other crushers:
- Baest, Necro Sapiens (Century Media Records)
- Wolf King, The Path of Wrath (Prosthetic)
- Witherfall, Curse of Autumn (Century Media Records)
- Pustilence, The Birth of the Beginning Before the Inception of the End (Personal Records)
- Acid Mammoth, Caravan (Heavy Psych Sounds)
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Words by Chris Krovatin
