What a nice surprise this was. No Zodiac are purveyors of Heavily Death Metal influnced Beatdown Hardcore. The grooves run slow and thick as tar, with enough blastbeats and thrashy moments to keep tensions high. The considerably seismic guitar tone (I'm guessing A-tuning?) will surely devastate any yuppies or hipsters within a 50 foot radius. The vocals are a bit run-of-the-mill and could use more neanderthal fury, but they get the job done. This is what I wish the Xibalba full-length sounded like. Smash all your Bane and Comeback Kid cd's. This is the real shit.
This is Deathcore in the good sense of the word (if you believe that's possible, anyway). This isn't about single-note breakdowns, juvenile misogyny, and pretty boys with neck tattoos. It's about creating challenging, technical, and brutal music. Probably what Dillinger Escape Plan would sound like if they were actually good.
You read the title right, this is indeed The Red Chord's first album. I maybe pretty prejudiced against Deathcore like most of you are, but I must admit there are a few treats to be found within it's walls. This happens to be one of them. Stylistically, it's different than their later albums; more Mathcore than Deathcore (more Coverge and less The Faceless). The production is also different, as it's much more moderate and doesn't sound compressed and quantized to oblivion. Say what you want about the current genre trend, this is still one damn good album that changes meter faster than your mom changes boyfriends.
Sometimes, youtube can be just as good a place to find new bands as any blog out there; such is the case with me finding this Chilean specialty. From the cover alone, you might think this is some straightforward Deathwish style muscle-flexing, but you'd be wrong. La Miseria brings together all the offshoots that Hardcore created in the 90's: Screamo, Metalcore, Melodic Hardcore, Mathcore... The only thing that's missing is Pop-Punk, which, you can rest assured, will never be posted here. They also blend all these sounds very nicely; all the influeces are distinct, but not choppy. The production is well and clean, which fortunately, is becoming more and more common with small-time bands like this. This is just a great little album that has the hardness, the variety, and the substance. Fans of Trial, Breach, Reversal of Man, and Loxiran should all find something to like here.
Being a side-project of now worshipped Slam band: Wormed, this really hasn't been making the rounds in the blogosphere like you would think. Personally, I think this is way better than Wormed, but then again, I hate Slam.
Right away when you listen to this, you'll notice that the boys from Spain are trying to achieve something different here from their more guttural bands. The influences are so much more vast, you have the expected elements: Death Metal, Mathcore, a bit of Slam, as well as some unexpected Avant-Jazz (saxophone included). The overall sound is also much cleaner, you can actually hear each diminished chord and atonal note, instead of it just degrading into indecipherable rumbling. Despite the instrument clariy, there's still a live, garage-y kind of ambience that's a nice break from the slick, plastic sounding Deathcore bands that are so popular these days. Also different from popular Deathcore bands, these guys can actually play! They're not just using Beat Detective for their shitty time and a chain of efffects for their shitty tone. This is a well executed vision for a genre-salad type project, giving all the individual influences respect, instead of just watering them down into a more homogenous commercial package.
If you're at all a fan of the more dissonant Metalcore like Converge and early Dillinger Escape Plan, or "skronky" Deathgrind like Cephalic Carnage, hit the play button.
