Orgone - The Goliath

God damn, what a technical monster this is.  It's another case of youtube recommending a "related video" to who knows what I was originally searching for.  Like it's namesake, The Goliath is devastating in it's intricate brutality, and yet somehow unknown?  Metal bloggers like me usually eat this shit up, so the problem must lie in the fact that it was released in 2007, before most of us had fully gotten on the blog bandwagon.  It's too bad, because this is the most interesting and painfully complex Death Metal I've heard in ages.  Unlike Prog-Death heroes Gorguts and Atheist (who are as "Death Metal" as it gets), Orgone definitely take from other distant genres like Post-Hardcore, Grind, and Mathcore.  A lot of those influences "Post-" can be heard in the slower, more ambient moments.  Even with those nice breaks, there's still plenty of explosive force that make up the meat of this album.  You know you're intrigued, so just do the damn thing!      

there's something in my bamboo cannon for you

Heartless - Hell is Other People

Alright, since I got such a good response from all of you coming out of the woodwork, I'm gonna keep this rollin'.  But you guys have to engage me more.  Comments, recommendations, make fun of me, whatever.  It makes reading blogs more fun, I promise.

I first heard of this band through this big fancy website's "year's best" list.  I wonder how this release passed me by, because it's totally up my alley.  A modern Powerviolence/Hardcore hybrid that I almost always love.    And on Southern Lord?  Man, they're really shining these days, instead of releasing unoriginal Drone and Doom like they used to.  Stylistically, it's pretty similar to PV contemporaries Weekend Nachos and Mind Eraser.  Like those bands, you can also tell that their roots are in Metallic Hardcore from the "muscular" attack and vocal delivery.  Ironically, I wish they would actually slow down a bit and keep the blast-beats to a minimum, as it's during the traditional Hardcore or "d-beat" parts that they sound best.  Whatever direction they choose, I'm looking forward to hearing more.

closer to the heart