Brutus have entered their “ambitious third album” phase, and it sounds like it’s really working for them. The Belgian trio made waves with their second record, 2019’s Nest, which showcased their posthardcore-meets-postrock chops. Anchored by the soaring vocals and complex rhythms of singer and drummer Stefanie Mannaerts, their dynamic, aggressive songs swerved between emo introspection […]
Tag: heavy music
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Dreary North Fest will broaden your understanding of extreme music—and test your limits
Brett Ray had proved his commitment to extreme music long before he launched the extreme-music blowout Dreary North Fest last year. He’s been booking shows for more than two decades, and he’s been releasing music through his label, Suspended Soul Tapes and Records, for close to ten years. He also regularly tests strangers’ capacity to […]
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Scorched Tundra XII celebrates heavy music from Sweden, Chicago, and beyond
Promoter Alexi Front began his love affair with Scandinavian metal in the mid-2000s by publishing a zine and running a label. He started the Scorched Tundra festival in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 2011, and five years later he began throwing one in Chicago as well—spearheading a sort of underground-metal sister-cities program. Front is a curator by […]
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Sumac headline a night of dynamic, heavy music
The title track of Sumac’s latest album, 2020’s May You Be Held (Thrill Jockey), is a tough-love affirmation built for trying times, when soothing sounds just don’t cut it anymore and you need self-care that’s more like the cathartic group therapy you might find in a Klingon gladiatorial arena. The postmetal power trio use punky, […]
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Chicago’s Lilac headline a heavy triple bill with North Carolina’s Wailin Storms and local trio the Poison Arrows
Lilac are essentially a Chicago supergroup of musicians who’ve done time in underrated bands. They include former Cacaw and Coughs front woman Anya Davidson (also an underground comics artist and author and occasional Reader contributor) on guitar and vocals, Kenny Rasmussen (late of Anatomy of Habit) on drums, and two veterans of Baltimore outfit Witch […]
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Steve Von Till of Neurosis gets stripped-down and cinematic with his solo material
Neurosis have spent more than three decades redefining what heavy metal is and what it can be. They’re a multifaceted beast, moving in many directions depending on where their creative forces guide them and combining sludge metal with prog-rock arrangements, spacey soundscapes, and postrock instrumental layers. The members of the five-piece band frequently break away […]
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Era- and genre-defining posthardcore act These Arms Are Snakes hit the road on a reunion tour
Formed in Seattle by former members of technical hardcore powerhouse Botch and mathy indie-rock outfit Kill Sadie, These Arms Are Snakes defined an era and a movement of thinking person’s heavy music during their initial run from 2002 to 2009. Injecting the knotty complexity of their previous bands with a swing and throb befitting the […]
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Deftones merge metal and dream pop to remain one of rock’s most enduring heavy acts
Even though the ongoing reappraisal of nu metal has recognized that era as a significant cultural moment, Sacramento band Deftones still manage to catch a bad rap. Sure, they came up as part of the same movement as Korn and Limp Bizkit, and they toyed with some dated, aggro rap-rock on a couple songs in […]
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Ufomammut come back from hiatus with renewed focus on Fenice
I’ve never been the type to have a single favorite artist (I’ve probably got 100, depending on the context or mood), but for more than a decade I’ve counted Italian psychedelic-metal group Ufomammut among the best bands on the planet. So in January 2020, when they announced that their drummer, Vito, was departing and that […]
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Duma show that the future of metal is in eastern Africa
Africa’s metal scene has been quiet compared to its counterparts on other continents. Duma rectify that, and loudly. Vocalist Martin Khanja (aka Lord Spike Heart) and guitarist and producer Sam Karugu hail from Kenya, and they relocated to Uganda to release their self-titled 2020 debut album on Kampala’s Nyege Nyege Tapes. That label is known […]
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Four Chicago venues join forces for a celebration of local rock, metal, and punk
Update, January 10: The Save the Rock ‘n’ Roll Festival has been postponed. The new dates are Friday, April 29, through Sunday, May 1. In April 2020, just weeks after COVID-19 shut down the live-music industry, four Chicago venue operators—Louie Mendicino of Cobra Lounge, Herb Rosen of Liar’s Club, Robby Glick of Reggies, and Dave Hornyak […]
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Boris rage against a world turned upside down on the urgent, hardcore-driven No
In their nearly 30 years as a band, Boris have developed the rare ability to alchemize practically any sound in the vast realm of heavy, atmospheric, and psychedelic rock into their distorted, amplified vision. The Tokyo trio’s release and tour schedules have been equally ambitious (they’ve played Chicago so often over the past decade they […]
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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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12 O’Clock Track: “Christbait Rising” is an industrial metal landmark
In honor of their reunion tour taking place this fall, today’s 12 O’Clock Track is “Christbait Rising” by Godflesh.