Having returned from tour with my band Ratpiss in the United States this past week I encountered a ton of cool bands who definitely deserve mention on this here segment on the Heavy NFLD blog. If any of these band names, album covers, or descriptions entice you then you definitely need to check them out!
Black
April 12th, 2022
Blackened Thrash Metal
Independently Released
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Standout Song: “Day of Torment”
Emerging from the depths of Philadelpha to join the ranks of other Philly metalpunk rebels like Zorn and Devil Master, Atomic Cretins are exactly what I want from blackened thrash metal. Their debut EP is both heavy and ripping while maintaining a spooky, vampiric atmosphere, the perfect mixture for this style of extreme music. The riffs are fast and unrelenting, the vocals are absolutely atrocious (complimentary) and the drumming is pulverizing. All of this is combined with devilish guitar solos that conjure comparisons to Sarcofago and early Mayhem, while the occasional synth passage drapes the EP in a morose quality. With a name like Atomic Cretins it’s no surprise that the band sounds as nuclear as they do, with comparisons to Teutonic thrash outfits of old like Sodom and Kreator also being apt. Don’t sleep on this Philly four piece.
Death
July 14th, 2023
Goregrind / Slam / Death Metal
Independently Released
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Standout Song: “Desiccated Scalp Slowly Rotting”
Upon my band’s return route to the frozen northern wastes of Canada we made a stop in the city of West Chester, about 45 minutes west of Philadelphia, where we played in a VFW hall called The Moose Lodge. Among the bands that graced this bill was Aroma, who opened up the show. Their brand of slamming goregrind was honestly a lot more interesting than most bands who I’ve heard in this genre. Instead of relying exclusively on slow, downtuned chugs and pig squeals or gurgles like most slam does, Aroma had a lot of variety in their music. They mixed higher tempo death metal riffs in with the chugs, changing things up on a dime, while the vocals transformed back and forth between deep guttural lows and pained mid-range highs. They were easily one of my favourite bands we played with on this tour.
Doom
May 1st, 2021
Psychedelic / Stoner Rock
Independently Released
Bathurst, New Brunswick, Canada
Standout Song: “Cette Étoile Inconnue”
Not a band that my band played with on this tour, but a band that one of my other bands played with on a previous tour from last year. Messe, hailing from the far eastern town of Bathurst in New Brunswick, are pure Acadian rock and roll through and through. Mixing elements of Black Sabbath together with other groups from the same era like Led Zeppelin, Iron Butterfly, Blue Cheer, and more, these guys really embrace that old school 60’s and 70’s sound on this debut EP. While the band has released a new EP this year, this is the one I’m more familiar with so I chose to represent this one instead. It’s loud as hell, with the guitars reverberating and echoing across the boreal landscape all the way to the coast. While the music is all sung in French I think anglophones can still find a lot to enjoy from the instrumental aspect regardless.
Prog
August 16th, 2021
Mathcore / Technical Deathcore
Independently Released
Bowdoin, Maine, USA
Standout Song: “Time Enough at Last”
Admittedly this isn’t usually the kind of thing I’d be into these days. I had a huge phase in which I was super into mathcore and progressive / technical deathcore about 10 years ago, but the style doesn’t do much for me these days. However we did play alongside a band called Serling at a huge beachside fest in Boston called Weedviolence Fest during this tour, and when I found out that their whole deal is that their music is all inspired by The Twilight Zone I knew I’d have to give them a fair shake. It’s still not really the kind of stuff I personally go out of my way to listen to, but this is music that was made for people who love bands like The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza, Car Bomb, Rings of Saturn, The Dillinger Escape Plan, and The Red Chord. Mathy and heavy as fuck.
Punk
December 16th, 2023
Crust Punk
No Time Records
Burlington, Vermont, USA
Standout Song: “How Can You Justify?”
Ratpiss’ old touring mates in Corrupt World were kind enough to set up the final show of our recent run in the ol’ U.S. of A. in Burlington, Vermont and it was a pleasure to share the stage with them again. If you like noisy as hell, relentless, d-beat crust punk that incorporates elements of grindcore and harsh noise into the mix then this band is for you. This is unrepentant and raw as fuck music that pulls no punches when it comes to grinding your eardrums to dust against the pavement. Just because it’s noisy as hell, though, doesn’t mean that Corrupt World is without a degree of catchiness to their music. Quite the opposite. Many of the songs on this EP have fairly catchy guitar riffs and ripping solos that are derived straight from the Motorhead-adjacent rock and roll stylings of old school hardcore punk.
Thrash
July 14th, 2023
Grindcore / Thrash Metal / Death Metal
Independently Released
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Standout Song: “Free the Land”
While Artificial Scarcity are definitively a grindcore band, it would be remiss of me to ignore the copious amount of thrash metal influence in their music. Perhaps given that guitarist Sam Agnew has played in thrash bands before, it’s a bit unsurprising. It would also be remiss of me to not mention the band that I had just spent the past week and a half on the road with, ripping up venues all across the east coast of the States. Do not skip out on Artificial Scarcity. Not only are they musically impressive, featuring unabashed ripper after ripper across this debut record, but politically they hit the nail on the head. Appropriately calling out the state-imposed capitalist depravity of the modern world, from minimum wage slave labor to the government’s ignorance towards indigenous sovereignty, to the genocide of the Palestinians, to fighting back against state oppression. It’s all gloriously wrapped up in unbridled shred.
Trad
September 25th, 2020
Speed / Thrash Metal
Independently Released
Pittsfield, Massachusetts, USA
Standout Song: “Wing Fling”
While Goblet’s music is also undoubtedly rooted in thrash metal, there are elements of other genres present here as well. We get the occasional black metal tremolo-picked riff, while some of the riffage veers into death metal territory. They’re somewhere at the intersection of multiple genres while still feeling very much like just a Capital M “Metal” band. The music contained on here feels just as much influenced by bands like Municipal Waste and Metallica as it does 3 Inches of Blood and other power metal bands that draw upon that NWOBHM sound. We performed alongside these guys at the aforementioned Weedviolence Fest in Revere, Massachusetts and they were easily one of my favourite bands of the night. If you want fucking killer riffs, over-the-top vocals, and speed that kills, then Goblet is for you.
Non-Metal
August 9th, 2023
Bluegrass
Independently Released
Kansas City, Missouri, USA
Standout Song: “Mother of Babylon”
Perhaps one of the most interesting bills on this tour was a show we played in Atlanta, Georgia with a couple of bluegrass and folk bands at a venue called The Catacombs. It turned out that both our tours were hitting the same city on the same date so the bookers put us together for a bit of a mixed bill, which I was skeptical of at first, but came to enjoy quite a bit by the end. We performed alongside Johnny Lawhorn, the frontman of The Pentagram String Band, who performed his band’s material solo that night. His music was honestly kickass as hell. This man can play the banjo with a speed I’ve never before witnessed. Describing themselves as “suspicious of traditional bluegrass”, The Pentagram String Band draws inspiration from Satanism, the occult, and traditional Appalachian folk music to create a pastiche of darkness over the typically upbeat genre.
~ Akhenaten
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