On February 14th, progressive death metal band From Under Concrete Kings will release their second EP, ‘Modus Exodus’. The new release features four absolutely crushing pieces of music that blends death metal vocals with metalcore and progressive metal riffs, Djent influenced lead guitar work and a frightening lack of boundaries. It’s a release that all fans of inventive and extreme metal shouldn’t miss.
Monthly Archives: January 2020
YUR MUM – Ellipsis EP
A few seconds into this 2019 EP from London based two-piece rock band Yur Mum, it becomes evident that first impressions most definitely do not apply. ‘What Do You Want?’ wastes no time in cranking a huge riff – part 90s metal, part stoner rock – that makes the band sound like a cross between Godsmack and the heaviest parts of Shinedown. It’s most definitely not what you’d expect from a band who’ve decided that a moniker like Yur Mum best represents them. As the track progresses with a mid-paced, absolute crusher of a riff – something that’s brilliantly juxtaposed with Anelise Kunz’s howling and almost brattish vocal – you’ll soon realise that, despite appearances, these guys are serious. …And then, with a teeny bit more time to acclimatise to their heavy sound, you’ll then realise that the brilliant, groove laden riffs have enough force and volume to take on a full spectrum of moods. Nope, this is certainly not the work of a band whom, in name terms, might have you believe they were a teen pop-punk phenomenon.
Death On Fire unveil new video for ‘Architects’
Every once in a while, a track comes along that is incredibly forceful, but it’s the combination of riffs and images that makes for that unbelievable sucker punch. Rarely since the release of Job For A Cowboy’s ‘Tarnished Gluttony’ in 2012 – with its themes of death and guilt – has a video made such an instant impact as Death On Fire’s ‘Architects’.
GLENN HUGHES – Addiction
Two years after the release of the soul tinged ‘Feel’, Glenn Hughes returned with ‘Addiction’ – an album that couldn’t be any more different from its predecessor if it tried. With Hughes in the middle of a work frenzy, ‘Addiction’ found him not only returning to hard rock in a big way, but delivering his heaviest solo album to date.
‘Addiction’ is an album that has weathered all kinds of musical storms and from both a performance and production value still sounds absolutely terrific. Not that it was well received by everyone upon release back in 1996. Some older listeners felt that Hughes had adopted “grunge sympathies”, a lazy, somewhat ignorant claim that seemed to miss the fact that the album is also varied in style. Decades on, such claims seem even sillier, as with the passing of time, Soundgarden – and sadly missed vocalist Chris Cornell – have very much joined the pantheon of classic rock acts and Cornell’s approach to vocals never seemed that far removed from the likes of Glenn Hughes and David Coverdale anyway. [If you’re still blinkered enough to not believe this, the proof is there in tracks like Temple of The Dog’s ‘Call Me A Dog’ and ‘All Night Thing’.]
Listen: The Bloody Mallard stream second single from ‘Realm’
Based in London, The Bloody Mallard mixes metal riffs with post rock ideas, while occasional elements of dark psychedelia inform a broad and progressive instrumental sound.