Had an interesting and funny conversation amongst the staff last week (our water cooler conversations are always golden) regarding tech death versus technical death metal which led into the myriad of varying genre tags. Out of nowhere came “I consider Judas Priest heavy metal, all else is just metal” which is accurate and great and made me roar with laughter – score. Really, it is that simple if you think about it…and then it’s not, everyone wants to know what they’re getting into up front. Either way, get into what this week has to offer.

To say I’ve been carried away by Moon Tooth’s Crux is the understatement of the year – it’s rock, it’s metal but most of all it’s MEMORABLE which is something we don’t get enough of these days so by all means, get yourself a copy STAT. Next up is the debut, Something Wicked Marches In, from Vltimas and I knew to expect a pummeling mixture of death and black metal based on the membership here but I didn’t count on this thing being as addictive as it is. Sliding into some nastier territory is Triumvir Foul with their blend of bestial black, death, and noise on Urine of Abomination, definitely drink this one in folks. Last up top is the third full length, Departed Souls, from Boston’s Magic Circle who show that a four year gap doesn’t mean a thing when a band can churn out doomy heavy metal as good as this, another MUST own so do that.

Those four could be the entire week but ALAS, there’s much more. Get in there with all the grind, death, core, post, black, rock, atmospheric, symphonic, heavy, power, instru-metal…I could go on for days. But I won’t. Continue reading →