Hurricanes can suck it, we’ve had enough but there’s more to come. If you’re in the path of this damn thing get yourself out of harm’s way, it’s not worth trying to pull a Captain Dan. Harsh times call for harsh music and we have plenty of that on this edition of Initial Descent. Leading the way is the UK’s Helpless with their debut full length Debt and honestly this album took me completely by surprise with a brutal mix of grind, hardcore and noise — I can’t recommend this one enough. Next up is the absolutely dark and nasty funeral doom of Usnea‘s Portals into Futility, this band never cease to amaze with their level of utter desparity. Moving on and closing out the opening spots, we have another top shelf surprise with the extremely dark black metal of Biesy on their debut full length Noc Lekkich Obyczajów and honestly this is 42 minutes that will keep you GLUED to the speakers or headphones or whatever you choose to jam it on. But as usual that’s not all so read on to find more that will inevitably become favorites with us.
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Helpless – Debt (Holy Roar) – extreme metal [full review]
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Usnea – Portals into Futility (Relapse Records) – funeral doom [full review]
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Biesy – Noc Lekkich Obyczajów (Third Eye Temple) – black metal
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Also on tap:
Arch Enemy – Will to Power (Century Media) – melodic death metal
Argus – From Fields of Fire (Cruz Del Sur Music) – heavy metal
Astaroth Incarnate – Omnipotence – The Infinite Darkness (CDN Records) – black metal
Boyed – S/T, EP, CD Version (Vetala Productions) – powerviolence
Cannabis Corpse – Left Hand Pass (Season of Mist) – brutal death metal
Cardinals Folly – Deranged Pagan Sons (Nine Records) – doom metal
Binary Creed – A Battle Won (Rockshots Records) – prog metal
Darto – Human Giving (Agoo Records) – psych metal
Demon Eye – Prophecies & Lies (Soulseller Records) – heavy doom
Devil’s Emissary – Demiurge Asceticism (Third Eye Temple) – death metal
Eshtadur – Mother Gray (Bleeding Music Records) – melodic death metal
Exterminator – Total Extermination (Greyhaze Records) – heavy metal
Glass Mind – Dodecaedro (Rockshots Records) – instru-prog metal
Grift – Arvet (Nordvis Produktion) – black metal
Hands of Orlac/The Wandering Midget – Split (Cruz Del Sur Music) – doom metal
High Spirits – Escape, EP (High Roller Records) – metal, rock
Mausoleum Gate – Into a Dark Divinity (Cruz Del Sur Music) – vintage metal
Muert – Ye Canariae Abezan (Hammerheart Records) – black metal
Nemeziz – Gerechter Zorn (Independent) – alt-metal
New Language – Everybody Screams (Independent) – heavy rock
Plastic Tones – Wash Me With Love (Svart Records) – power pop
Praise the Flame – Manifest Rebellion (Caverna Abismal) – death metal
Slaughtbbath – Contempt, War and Damnation (Hells Headbangers) – blackened death metal
Tales of Gaia – Hypernova (Fighter Records) – power metal
Temperance – Maschere – A Night at the Theater, (Scarlet Records) – melodic metal
The Great Russian Empire – Low Ends (Independent) – dark rock
Thera Roya – Masterful Universe (Independent) – sludge / noise
Twelve Boar – No Forgiveness (Independent) – rock
War Cloud – S/T (Ripple Music) – hard rock
– Josh
Nine Circles 