Gimme Metal Program Director Brian Turner delivers the week's top 5 office buzz-worthy tracks.
Reeking Aura – "A Vegetative Mush That Melts Among the Shelves Lined with Meats of Indeterminate Origin"
With Artifical Brain's Will Smith on the mic these days, Reeking Aura continue to stake their terrain as miners of vintage old school death metal moves, with a special brand of claustrophobia to boot. Asphyxiating atmosphere, grinding riffs and solos almost doing battle with the smoke clogging the room, it all unfurls and encompasses in a way that is the aural equivalent of rat infestation. And with good reference point, these guys hail from NYC/NJ!
Judicator – "The High Priestess"
Horn sections, dizzying keyboard solos and smashings, it almost smacks of that Matt Berry prog fantasy parody video, but no, this is majesty of Judicator. Power metal goes uptown jazz? Rhapsody riding into the ancient forest of elves and crackin' open Buds? Lyrically heavy, restless in motion, these guys are the real deal and we dig it!
Spellbook – "The Witch of Ridley Creek"
On their second LP Deadly Charms (our September 23 on Cruz Del Sur), Baltimore's Spellbook rechristen themselves with two new guitarists to flank Nate Tyson's soaring vocals and grind out more to some 70's melodic opuses. Hairy and catchy, Spellbook's witchbaiting is strident and fuzz-fueled. Boogie down with them as they host a Gimme DJ special September 26!
Dying Fetus – "Compulsion For Cruelty"
8 LPs and 25 years down the line, Dying Fetus and their specialized zone of death/grind is no worse for the wear. Hypertechnical solo spasms flutter around the stop-on-a-dime chug, the grisly throat workout as effective as ever, and as far as we know this is the first hinting of a hopeful full length, and the first we have heard of them for five years. They work their way down south on tour this week with Knocked Loose, so hopefully we're in for a lot more of their return.
Xenobiotic – "The Wretched Strive"
With doublekick feeling like faceslaps, Xenobiotic emerge as yet more Australian examples of owning the world of tech-death of 2022. Malevolent and massive sounding, their vocalist is unhinged, bathed in the strobe of hyper/hypno-blasts of noise and sickened percussive attacks. Waves of convulsions pile on top of one another until its ambient demise minutes later. Hate Monolith is out now on Unique Leader.
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