Fire & Ice - Not of This Earth

New York Hardcore by way of Richmond Virginia.  This reminds me a lot of fellow Richmond dudes Down to Nothing, but maybe slightly more metallic.  There's also a slight Rap influence to the vocals, very much akin to their influences Breakdown and Crown of Thornz.  But don't worry, they never end up sounding like Biohazard or anything, and the lyrics are anything but thuggish.  This is just super straight-forward Metalcore with killer riffs, near-perfect production, and some tongue-in-cheek humor thrown in too.

consider yourself "Rick Rolled"

Parasitic - Poison Minds

Parasitic (I'm intentionally spelling it wrong) are somewhat of a supergroup with members paying dues in slightly better-known bands: Cannabis Corpse, Behind Enemy Lines, and Morne.  Those bands were all fine for what they were, but always fell a little short of my standards.  Thankfully, Parasitic very much delivers.  Poison Minds is a concise blast of serious, stinky Thrashing.  Parasitic remind me of the English "Stench-Core" originators Hellbastard and Deviated Instinct, mixed with modern purveyors of the genre Hellshock and Age.  If you're not hip to all this Crust Punk jargon, imagine Discharge playing Slayer covers and you won't be far off.  The riffs are outstanding, the song quality is consistent, and the musicianship is above average for this sort of thing.  You can't lose!

egregious bladder

Salome - Terminal

Despite the name, there's nothing particularly "jewish" about this band.  And despite being from the South, there's nothing particularly southern sounding about them either.  Salome play interesting Doom in their own unique way without any gimmicks or cheese.  Sure, it's still minimalist and at times ridiculously slow, but they're bringing real songwriting and originality to the table.  Which is more than I can say about pretty much any other Doom or Sludge band out there.

no business like Shofar business