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!
Gojira, Fortitude (Roadrunner Records)
For fans of: Meshuggah, Mastodon, Opeth
Standout track: “Amazonia”
Why is everyone playing Fortitude up like it’s this huge mainstream leap for Gojira? Obviously the band’s music has become more approachable with each album, but this one’s pretty resolute in its primal concrete sledge. Sure, “The Chant” feels a little tribal tattoo-ish at times, but “Born for One Thing,” “Amazonia,” and “New Found” still bring all of the ecclesiastical groove and unpredictable shrieks that France’s heaviest export have always done so well. This is Gojira at their surest, for certain, but it’s still one of metal’s heaviest bands writing songs that will set festival crowds ablaze. So yeah, get on this record.
Evile, Hell Unleashed (Napalm Records)
For fans of: Death Angel, Annihilator, Onslaught
Standout track: “Disorder”
Those bands who truly believed in the early 2010s thrash revival are now finding their footing sans trend, and Evile are strong amongst them. Hell Unleashed shows the band writing confident, adept music to drunkenly sweat to, even after losing their lead singer. They also don’t fall back on some predictable groove riffs — there’s some great speed metal material on here. Fans of good ol’ fashion fest-pit music will fucking love this record for everything it is. Good for Evile.
Vreid, Wild North West (Season of Mist)
For fans of: Immortal, Einherjer, Satyricon
Standout track: “Wolves at Sea”
For their last few albums, Vreid have teetered between being a full-on black metal band and a strange elemental force of the wilderness, and on Wild North West it sounds like they’re striking a hard balance. The blackened tracks are black with a sprinkle of cosmic; the cosmic tracks are spacey but have have a faint lining of black. While it makes certain songs feel like landmines, it offers the listener a well-rounded-if-firmly-defined experience. Solid bonfire metal.
Domkraft, Seeds (Magnetic Eye Records)
For fans of: Monolord, Crowbar, Spirit Adrift
Standout track: “Into Orbit”
When “Seeds” first starts, one isn’t ready for how heavy it’s about to become. The same can be said for the entirety of Domkraft’s new album — at first, it feels very chill and stonery, but when the riffs kick in they do so with an impressive amount of kinetic force. The result is a more satisfying doom album than most, and one that’ll make you feel a little punchy at times. Sounds like it’s from the South, but nope, Swedes!
Tetrarch, Unstable (Napalm Records)
For fans of: Slipknot, Gojira, Dope
Standout track: “Take A Look Inside”
There’s a lot of hype surrounding Tetrarch, notably because of how hard they champion the nu-metal revival. The band are definitely nu-metal at heart, but have incorporated enough outside influences to give their music its own identity — heavy doses of Gojira, Killswitch, and radio metalcore like Dead Girls Academy. It’ll baffle and/or infuriate old-timers, but younger fans and listeners missing those giant circa-2001 drops will dig this.
Other crushers:
- Coscardh, Mesradh Machae (Invictus Productions)
- Plasmodium, Towers of Silence (Transcending Obscurity Records)
- The Plague, Within Death (Bitter Loss)
***
Words by Chris Krovatin
