Check out ‘Sentinel Hill’, the new video by In Dakhma

When a band is pitched as “death metal”, there are certain tropes that the listener will expect. There are the pnrumatic drums – an integral part of the death metal sound, from the genre’s formative years, due to the brutal assault of bands like Suffocation – and the guttural vocals, often associated with the genre’s bigger names like Death and Entombed. You’d probably also expect to hear speed driven, huge sounding bass grinds, often providing a pivotal aspect to the aural assault.

Croatian band In Dakhma’s debut album ‘He Who Sows The Ground’ features all of that…and more. Check out ‘Sacrum’ and you’ll find a classic death metal sound delivered with a genuine enthusiasm; listen to ‘In Dogma’ and you’ll discover a hardcore infused bass part colliding with thrash riffs that are direct descendants from Sepultura’s massively influential ‘Arise’. Elsewhere, ‘Lies Beyond The Golden Ruins’ colours the band’s riffs with a hard nod towards groove metal, and the epic closer ‘Tower of Silence’ introduces sludgy riffs to bring something even heavier to the fore.

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BURIAL – Rejoice In Sin

When most people think of black metal, they think of Scandinavian bands with unreadable logos. They’re also likely to think of harsh sounding albums with particularly trebly production values and material topped with hissed and retching vocals, often with absolutely brutal lyrical content. Manchester’s Burial certainly tick some of those boxes, but their third release ‘Rejoice In Sin’ is, thankfully, blessed with a bigger, more professional sound than many of their Scandinavian forefathers and key influences. This, at least, makes for an album that’s far more listenable on a technical level.

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THE REAL GONE SINGLES BAR #56

Welcome back to the Real Gone Singles Bar, the place where we explore some of the individual mp3s that have landed in our inbox over the previous few weeks. For lovers of great indie rock, there’s a real treat; for those who like the folkier end of the indie scale, there’s something almost as strong. We’ve got electronica, we’ve got something a little gothy, and even something with a death metal core. Stylistically speaking, this week, the gloves are well and truly off…

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DISORIENTATION – Survival Mode EP

In some ways, this second EP from Disorientation sounds like nothing you’ve ever heard before. Scratch the surface, of course, and you’ll find bits and pieces of familiar noise, but nothing presented by this avant-garde metal duo ever takes a predictable route. This is doom and black metal, but never as you’ve experienced it before. It’s almost industrial, but never entirely so. There are also elements of avant-garde jazz prog and chamber vocals appearing, somewhat unexpectedly, alongside the heavier moments.

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