French band Vertex have often been reliable when it comes to a heavy riff, but their current single ‘Leviathan’ really raises the bar in terms of a brilliantly intense sound.
Tag Archives: metalcore
DEATH PILL – Death Pill
Combining elements of hardcore punk, classic thrash metal, a little crust/d-beat intensity and the attitude of the Riot Grrrl movement of the 90s, Death Pill are genuine musical force. Throughout this debut full length, the Ukrainian three piece appear musically diverse, and although the way they jump between hardcore punk and thrash-based metal might sometimes seem as if they’re splitting loyalties between two audiences, in reality, their sound is a perfect crossover.
THE LAST REIGN – Endangered Pieces Volume One
Before the pandemic lockdown turned the world on its head and bands were forced to work from home studio setups wherever possible, US metal band The Last Reign’s career had really started to gain traction. Their ‘Prelude’ EP, released in 2019, mixed classic metal with waves of metalcore and a pinch of thrash to create something huge. The end result sometimes owed a debt to riff titans In Flames and Soilwork, but as influences go, it gave the band an especially solid sound. The ‘Evolution’ album (released during a troubled 2020), cemented their place within the metal underground, and a pair of EP releases – ‘Dangerous To Go Alone’, reimagining Last Reign material as 8-bit arcade machine soundtracks, and a covers disc ‘Just Too Darn Loud’ (2021) – showed that this sometimes very serious sounding band also knew how to have fun.
HEATHEN HEARTS – Heathen Hearts EP
Hailing from Finland, Heathen Hearts play an absolutely crushing brand of hardcore. On this debut EP, their sound takes the guts of bands like H2O and Agnostic Front and applies a huge metallic crunch. The result is a sound that’s sometimes blisteringly fast but always oppressively heavy – a musical sledgehammer where the riff is king, and the guttural roars clear everything in their path. It’s the kind of introduction that’s both unsubtle and brilliant.
HAGALAS – As A Unit EP
Finland’s Hagalas are often promoted as a death metal band, but as with so many Scandinavian acts, their music has far more depth, and more of an interest in actual melodies than your average death-based act. Yes, the four songs on their ‘As A Unit’ EP come weighted down by some very aggressive vocals, but most of the time, frontman Kailie Kohonen’s approach doesn’t even venture into the old school growls and grunts associated with the genre. In fact, it’s fair to say that plugging them as a death band is to sell them short. Very short.