I can’t remember exactly how it happened, but one night I stumbled upon a relatively unknown cluster of Pacific deep-northwest metal bands. They were mostly average in terms of musicianship and appeal, but one act with a couple of singles from a forthcoming album stood above the pack. This band was Bushwhacker, and their since-fully released third album A Fistful of Poison is one of the most creative and polished offerings to come out of any metal scene in recent memory. To call this album “underrated” would be an understatement as big as the Montana sky; at the time … Read more
Tag Archives: Thrash metal
Hardcore Anal Hydrogen – Hypercut
The Music
The Words
The Monégasque duo known as Hardcore Anal Hydrogen just released their fourth album, under the Hypercut title. I wasn’t enthralled by any of their previous output, but I might have to reconsider, given that this one tickles my fancy! The HAH duo delivers more than forty minutes of experimental death metal that lies somewhere between the breakcore of Igorrr (which I still can’t stand) and the cybergrind of Psudoku (which I adore!) Hypercut is filled with inhuman shredding (both figuratively and literally), glitch aesthetics, genre-hopping sections, and distorted, high-pitched harsh vocals. You know, I don’t really … Read more
Vexovoid – Call of the Starforger
Italy’s Vektor, Vexovoid, just released their debut album, Call of the Starforger. Despite their name, more reminiscent of Portal than anything else, Vexovoid’s sound lies somewhere between aforementioned Vektor, and Voivod. Their own take on progressive, blackened thrash metal is nothing new, thanks to Terminal Redux being one of the absolute best albums of last year, but this had the side effect of making this special brand of metal highly demanded. Call of the Starforger is great and the flow of riffs is unstoppable, making it a very welcome addition to the not so expansive array of releases … Read more