2021 may well have been another shaky year in terms of social elements and the ongoing global pandemic, but it hasn’t been short of good music. Here’s another new band to add to your growing list of artists to check out.
Tag Archives: metal
Sepultura box set covering 1998-2009 coming in October
Although a lot of people still associate Sepultura with Max Cavalera, the Brazilian band has been on a long and interesting journey since his departure at the beginning of 1997. Replacing a much-loved vocalist is always hard, but the band worked tirelessly to keep a high profile and bring their blend of thrash and groove metal to the masses.
The first clutch of albums recorded with Derrick Green may not be as well known as the career defining ‘Chaos AD’ and ‘Roots’ but each one contains several Sepultura classics, and although their Roadrunner Records swansong, ‘Nation’ (released in 2001) sold poorly in relation to previous albums, it captured an angry band still giving their all, and still masters of a tightly wound riff. It might just be one of the era’s most underrated metal discs. It’s definitely worth re-evaluating, especially if you haven’t heard it in a long while.
TRUMBITEN – Out EP
Trumbiten’s ‘Emotions’ EP (released in the spring of 2021) presented a huge step forward for the Swedish father/son metal duo. They’d previously entertained their audience with some well chosen covers, but this release marked the debut of their own self-penned works, and its three tracks more than delivered in terms of both riffs and hooks. Their decision to take a few old fashioned metal traits and mix them with sounds befitting of bands like In Flames also suggested that, unlike some DIY metal bands, they had tastes that weren’t purely stuck in the 1980s.
CULT BURIAL – Oblivion EP
On their self titled album from 2020, London’s Cult Burial served up an interesting mix of extreme metal sounds. Tracks like ‘Abyss’ and ‘Chaos’ assaulted the audience with a take on doom metal that injected the slowness with elements of blackened death and thrash, whilst the (relatively speaking) more melodic ‘Forever’ presented an ambitious hybrid of post-hardcore, thrash and black metal which pretty much sounded like no-one else. It seemed to be the kind of album where – assuming you could brace yourself for its onslaught and manage to absorb more than two songs at a time – it was possible to actually pick out different musical flourishes with each listen. Impressive, considering that on first hearing the whole thing seemed like a relentless outpouring of anger. One thing was for certain: their arrival had challenged Allfather and Kurokuma for the crown of “Britain’s Heaviest Band”.
Barely nine months on, the band began to hint at a follow up. It was to be a timely return; the UK had started to make their way out of a pandemic hell and the live music scene had started to gain some tentative traction. Massive riffs were certainly needed, and although their new EP would arrive too late to soundtrack the summer for a Bloodstock Festival crowd, Cult Burial were in time to hammer a new season into the advertised ‘Oblivion’.
TURN COLD – Break Your Faith EP
Turn Cold’s blend of thrash and hardcore draws a heavy influence from the both styles’ late eighties and early nineties glory years, creating a sound that has a timeless appeal. Their debut EP ‘Break Your Faith’ is by no means an easy nostalgia trip, though: its core sound also carries more of a contemporary edge through even heavier breakdowns and a socially conscious set of lyrics. During three intense numbers, the Atlanta based band share themes of inner strength and dealing with mental health issues, spurred on by the ongoing pandemic lockdown in which the demo material was recorded. The end result is an uncompromising musical statement.