Death metal gets stereotyped as a one-trick pony, but plenty of bands in the genre are thoughtfully breaking the mold. In the midwest, they include Michigan death-doom outfit Temple of Void. Formed in 2013 by veterans of Detroit’s metal and hardcore scenes, the five-piece have earned accolades for their gritty, genre-bending albums—in 2020, The World […]
Tag: death metal
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Meshuggah grind deeper into the tunnel that only they can dig
Meshuggah have developed an approach to progressive death metal so distinctive and compelling that it’s spawned an entire subgenre of imitators. And right from its title, the Swedish band’s ninth album, Immutable, announces that it won’t try to fix what isn’t broken. The elements Meshuggah have made familiar over the past three decades are all […]
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Blood Incantation follow up their prog-death landmark with an ambient epic
Denver band Blood Incantation set the metal world on fire with their second full-length, 2019’s Hidden History of the Human Race, a technical death-metal masterpiece that smashes together mind-bending, virtuoso-level musicianship with Middle Eastern-inspired melodies, epic prog-rock twists and turns, and sci-fi moods and flourishes. The album’s brutal, alien take on death metal earned it […]
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Progressive death-metal band Monochromatic Black deliver the brutality on Vicissitude
In 2018, Long Island progressive death-metal band Monochromatic Black threw down the gauntlet with a video for their debut single, “The Herd,” announcing themselves as a force to be reckoned with. The following year, they released their first EP, Pneuma, to considerable acclaim: it’s an intense, versatile, and strikingly assured burst of brutality that hit […]
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Japan’s Coffins share their stench on rarities compilation Defilements
On the new double-disc compilation Defilements, long-running Japanese band Coffins solder together a patchwork of death and doom metal from five out-of-print releases that trace their development throughout the 2010s. Coffins spike the collection with covers of iconic American groups such as Death and Buzzoven, faithfully executing each homage, and their original tracks simply swing. […]
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Mr. Bungle re-form after a 20-year absence and get right back to trolling
I sometimes wonder if Mr. Bungle have been trolling their fans since day one. Their self-titled debut full-length, released in 1991 by Warner Brothers, is a blur of funk, ska, world music, and death metal that flips from Morbid Angel-influenced riffs to zany circus music and back on a dime. Formed by high school friends […]
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Ulcerate confront the inevitably of death and tragedy on their latest album
New Zealand metal trio Ulcerate look into the face of tragedy through a beautifully constructed, unrelentingly dark haze.
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Fire-Toolz captures the many colors of the rainbow bridge
Chicago experimentalist Angel Marcloid tries to contain the fractured emotional spectrum of loss with an album for her dead cat.
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The Black Dahlia Murder pull out some new tricks on Verminous
Three years after releasing their first record with new guitarist Brandon Ellis, the Billboard-charting Nightbringers, the Black Dahlia Murder have returned with their ninth studio album, Verminous. It turns out the Detroit five-piece have been trying out some new tricks and angles in their fervent death metal, making this release arguably their most diverse and […]
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Death metal supergroup Umbra Vitae blend catharsis and fun on Shadow of Life
The beauty of musical collaboration is that you can never totally anticipate what will happen, even when the people coming together have established aesthetics of their own. Some groups devise a concept and never stray from it, while others incorporate unexpected twists and turns—and Boston postmetal project Wear Your Wounds (started by Converge front man […]
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France’s Igorrr adds Middle Eastern motifs to its genre-splicing mashup of death metal and breakcore
In the tradition of heavy-music genre splicers such as Mr. Bungle, Secret Chiefs 3, and Estradasphere, French act Igorrr hybridizes industrial death metal, breakcore, chiptune, and other genres using a dizzying array of seemingly unrelated styles and instruments. Songwriter, DJ, and guitarist Gautier Serre weaves Baroque music, Balkan folk, Eastern motifs, operatic vocals, and death […]
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Possessed roar through the death metal of future past
Update: To help slow the spread of COVID-19, this show has been postponed until a date to be determined in the future. Contact point of purchase for refund or exchange information. Are Possessed a band or a hive of slavering meat puppets inhabited by time-traveling demons from the future? The case for the latter is […]
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Sweden’s Scorched Tundra metal festival debuts in Chicago in September—and tickets go on sale today
The first local installment of Scorched Tundra will host heaviness by the likes of Bongripper, Monolord, and False.
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Let the Lollapalooza lineup predictions begin
Gossip Wolf guesses about the Lolla lineup, the Hideout throws its annual party for local acts heading to SXSW, and more.
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Start the Halloween weekend with Cannibal Corpse
The death-metal masters bring their bloody blitz to Palatine tonight.