Best of Hardcore 2021


Number Five: Death Goals – The Horrible and the Miserable


With a varied attack from many fronts, Death Goals’s The Horrible and the Miserable is an amazingly diverse hardcore album that totally slays!


Number Four: Tunic – Quitter


How great is this album, eh? Fast-paced hardcore closer to its punk roots than most others on this list, Tunic’s second 2021 album hits just the right spot for me!


Number Three: Anti Ritual – Expel the Leeches


Anti Ritual is hardcore blackened to a char. Expel the Leeches is a relentless album, and it’s totally oppressive. Definitely worth its spot on … Read more

Plebeian Grandstand – Rien ne suffit

Every year, there are releases that solidify the following statement: “This has been a great year for music.” Rien ne suffit is an example of this. I co-host a radio show at my local university called The Funeral Directory. It’s a metal specialty show on Monday nights. We do it for the love of aggressive music, and partially because we don’t trust anyone else to create the playlists. If you’re like me, you listen to a lot of metal, and perhaps you wrongly assume that certain bands are household names at this point. “Everyone knows Imperial Triumphant”, you might … Read more

Isaac – Évasions manquées

The Music

The Words

From their Gaulish city of Reims, Isaac—stylized as ISaAC—just released Évasions manquées, their sole release since 2011, if we don’t count their split with Térébenthine in 2014, which would still leave a wide gap between the two. The band has been likened to The Mars Volta, among others, but the similarities, although present, are threadbare. Let’s see what the band has to offer.

Évasions manquées is a three-song EP, with the longest song, self-titled, topping the twelve-minute mark. At first, with “Aliocha”, we’re greeted with a droning post-hardcore piece. The Mars Volta parallels … Read more

NOT MUSIC: Vox Medusae Is Out Now!

The Music

The Words

Potmos Hetoimos‘ 11th album—the first on the Not Music label—is now out!

The album is available to download for free. Alternately, you can acquire this limited digipak for just $10, shipping included, anywhere in the world.

This is a 56-minute concept album in 8 tracks telling the metaphorical tale of Perseus slaying Medusa, who is tearing his life to shreds.

Matt plays all instruments safe for the saxophone and guest vocals and solos. The album is mixed by Angel Marcloid (Fire-Toolz, Mindspring Memories). Members from the bands Curse and Usti Waya appear on Vox Medusae, … Read more

Laudare – d.é.o.m.é.

The Music

The Words

Life is a neverending game of catchup, recently demonstrated with Ryorchestra‘s overdue review, and today is Laudare‘s turn. d.é.o.m.é. was released in July and completely flew under my radar. The reason being that the band’s main music genre on bandcamp is “alternative”, a category I seldom if ever survey. I think it would do the band a great favour to change this to “metal”, and then complete with appropriate genre tags. But, in the end, the album has found its way to my ears, and I’m glad it did, because it’s phantastic.

The German … Read more