OLD WHISKEY FUNERAL - OLD WHISKEY FUNERAL

Coming from the booze-soaked and swampy shores of Lake Michigan, Old Whiskey Funeral is certainly an apt moniker for this newer act out of Chicago.  Combining aspects of black, death, groove, and doom metal like a distillery blends malts and ingredients, Old Whiskey Funeral have brought forth a self-titled debut EP that should garner them a nice following in the weeks and months to come.

Satisfying and strong, Old Whiskey Funeral is an EP that hangs its hat heavily on robust riffage and estimable rhythms, all plentifully bestrewn with the bloodcurdling howls, screams, and growls of vocalist Devin Vansickle.  Although these same vocals can seem a bit harsh or high-pitched at times, Vansickle is a more than capable blackened doom n’ death crooner, and his tones of terror set the mood well on this five-track achievement.

Some of my favorites from the Old Whiskey Funeral EP include the catchy and well-written “Stoned, Drunk, and Ready to Die”; the groovy graveyard anthem known as “Morgue Whore”; and the indomitable dark and doom of “The World Shines Less Bright Today”.  As a whole, this entire album is well-produced and fun to listen to, especially on a dark and rainy day while enjoying a hot cup of coffee (and if you’d like to make it an Irish Coffee to further enhance the experience, I’m sure the dudes in Old Whiskey Funeral would fully agree with your decision).

Old Whiskey Funeral is currently available on Spotify and Bandcamp, so go enjoy this excellent EP right now! \m/

FFO:  Darkthrone, Mayhem, Saint Vitus, Pallbearer

Genre:  Blackened Doom/Death

Album Lineup:  Devin Vansickle (vocals), Joel Leonard (guitars), Jacek Leja (bass)

Old Whiskey Funeral Track Listing:

1. “No Lives Matter” (4:40)
2. “Stoned, Drunk, and Ready to Die” (5:50)
3. “Morgue Whore” (3:36)
4. “The World Shines Less Bright Today” (5:11)
5. “SerpentLord” (1:29)

Release Date:  May 1, 2017

Label:  Asylum Inc. Records

Old Whiskey Funeral Bandcamp Link: https://oldwhiskeyfuneral.bandcamp.com/releases

Old Whiskey Funeral Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/OldWhiskeyFuneral/

Written by Geoff Teach for Bloodrock Media on May 8, 2017
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DEADHAND SYSTEM - ARTIFEX

Rising from the ashes of Chicago’s now defunct extreme death act, Against the Plagues, has come the phoenix that is Deadhand System.  Featuring an amalgamation of current and former members of many other prominent Chicago groups, Deadhand System have spent the last year-and-a-half writing material, playing a few live shows, and honing their sound in preparation for the independent release of their debut EP, Artifex, available now on iTunes, Spotify, and Amazon Music.  

Sporting six obstreperous tracks, Artifex is lean, mean, and stunningly well-produced for a first effort.  Front and center on all tracks are vocalist Shaun Albro’s guttural growls and screams, guitarists John Major and Marco Martell’s vicious riffs and solos, and the excellent pairing of bassist Lisa Jablonski (also of Terranaut) and drummer Garry Naples (also of Novembers Doom, Bear Mace, and Without Waves) in the rhythm section.  These elements swirl and churn together to coalesce into a crushingly devastating whole; and as a direct result, Deadhand System’s Artifex is pure, extreme death rapture.

Without delay, Artifex greets you with the savage sounds of the opener, “Nethersphere”, and within only a few bars, you know that you’re in for one monster of an EP.  Merciless and malicious, but at the same time cleverly catchy, “Nethersphere” draws you in and paves the way brilliantly for the rest of the release.  Following up, Deadhand System blaze forth with other knockout cuts such as “On Rancid Vellum” (for which an official lyric video has recently been released); my favorite track on the album, “The Pendulum Paradigm”; and the neck-breaking nastiness that is the closer, “Calamity Trigger”.

All in all, Deadhand System’s Artifex is one hell of a how-do-you-do from this Windy City quintet, so if you’re in the mood to head-bang to some extreme death, be sure to keep this killer debut in your rotation by purchasing a copy for yourself today!

FFO:  Aborted, Kataklysm, Cattle Decapitation, The Black Dahlia Murder

Genre:  Extreme Death Metal

Release Date:  April 21st, 2017

Artifex Track Listing:

1. “Nethersphere” (4:17)
2. “On Rancid Vellum” (4:50)
3. “Metehpsychosis” (4:42)
4. “The Pendulum Paradigm” (5:41)
5. “Ruin Spectacle” (5:27)
6. “Calamity Trigger” (4:28)

Label:  Independent

Video Link for “On Rancid Vellum”:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyTiFV2M73s

Facebook Link for Deadhand System:  https://www.facebook.com/DeadhandSystem/

Written by Geoff Teach for Bloodrock Media on May 4, 2017

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HIDEOUS DIVINITY - ADVENIENS

I’ve had my ear on Rome, Italy’s Hideous Divinity ever since the extreme tech-death quintet put out Cobra Verde – their concept album based upon a little-known German film of the same name about a slave-trading king-killer in Brazil – in 2014, and ever since, I’ve been hoping and praying for more new material from this fantastically strident act.  And here in 2017, thank the gods, my wish has finally been fulfilled.

Hideous Divinity have returned with their third studio full-length, Adveniens, and when I say “returned”, I mean they are “back with a friggin’ vengeance”.  Due out on April 28th, 2017, Adveniens delivers extreme tech-death barbarity on a level rarely achieved.  Always loud and insanely aggressive, Hideous Divinity have brought the goods with this nine-track release that takes no prisoners and bars no holds.

Bursting out of the gates with the nearly seven-minute track, “Ages Die”, Hideous Divinity introduces themselves in their usual fashion:  With a swift kick in the teeth.  Fierce, intense, and seemingly interminable, “Ages Die” embodies all that I have come to love about this impossibly heavy five-piece.  And that’s just the first track!  Some of the other absolute killer cuts on Adveniens include “Sub Specie Aeternitatis”, which features some of the slamming-est riffage on the entire album; the seven-plus-minute rollercoaster ride that is “Passages”; the catchy and scathing “Feeding Off the Blind”; and the technically brilliant closer, “Embodiment of Chaos”.

To be honest, though, these are just some of my favorites.  In truth, this whole album kicks some serious tail, and I beseech you to check out Hideous Divinity’s Adveniens as soon as it hits the shelves of your local music purveyors on April 28th.  ‘Nuff said.  Enjoy.

FFO:  Origin, Decapitated, Lelahell, Dawn of Azazel

Genre:  Extreme Tech-Death

Album Lineup:  Enrico “H.” DiLorenzo (vocals), Giovanni Tomassucci (guitars), Stefano Franceschini (bass), Enrico Schettino (guitars), Giulio Galati (drums)

Release Date:  April 28th, 2017

Adveniens Track Listing:

1. “Ages Die” (6:46)
2. “Sub Specie Aeternitatis” (4:20)
3. “Passages” (7:28)
4. “Angel of Revolution” (5:51)
5. “Feeding Off the Blind” (5:00)
6. “When Flesh Unfolds” (3:29)
7. “Messianica” (3:46)
8. “Future in Red” (5:12)
9. “Embodiment of Chaos” (6:11)

Label:  Unique Leader Records

Video Link for “Sub Specie Aeternitatis”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kY-jYqWDSs

Follow Hideous Divinity on social media here https://www.facebook.com/hideousdivinity/

Written by Geoff Teach for Bloodrock Media on April 22, 2017

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BUCKSHOT FACELIFT - ULCER ISLAND

Incredibly heavy and hard to define, Long Island, New York’s Buckshot Facelift have been assaulting the ear drums and puzzling the noodles of fans and critics alike since 2004.  Drawing from a veritable mish-mash of influences that includes (but is in no way limited to) grindcore, death metal, hardcore, and even doom, this power-violence five-piece cranks and crushes their way through every live and in-studio performance, much to the chagrin of many a misunderstanding music journalist.

But if you sift past the cacophony, the tongue-in-cheek sarcasm, and the intermittent political ponderings, what you come to discover is a band that is genuinely greater than the sum of its parts.  Sneakily smart and vehemently sophisticated, Buckshot Facelift have returned with their seventh studio recording, the full-length Ulcer Island; and although this D.I.Y.-style act may not be consciously seeking out the fame and adoration of the metal-loving world, this fifteen track ripper of a release may just garner Buckshot Facelift a whole lot more attention, regardless of whether they really wanted it to or not.

Ulcer Island is brutal, belligerent, and breathtaking.  Sometimes grating, sometimes grinding, and always going for the jugular, Buckshot Facelift have brought forth an album that is as intelligent as it is intense.  Starting with the hardcore title-track opener, “Ulcer Island”, the band introduces you to who they are and where they’re from right off the hop, combining punk-style distortion and drumming with grindcore vocals and sensibilities.  Other stunners on Ulcer Island such as the thrash-grind mashup “Ascend to Descend”, the abbreviated death metal screamer “Sundress Skeletor”, the doom-inspired “Dustification (End Times version)” (which also features a clever sample from The Princess Bride), and the sardonically sensational closer, “A Trophy Cup Intoxicant”, stick out as my favorite tracks on this phenomenally trenchant album.

Buckshot Facelift’s Ulcer Island is officially available on April 14th, 2017, so be sure to wrap your ears and your minds around this paradoxical opus as soon as you’re able!

FFO:  Napalm Death, Nasum, Pig Destroyer, Everything Must Die

Genre:  Deathgrind/Experimental Metal

Album Lineup:  Zorg, Fergus, Fleece, Meta(1), and Uncle Buck

Ulcer Island Track Listing:

1. “Ulcer Island” (2:37)
2. “Czech Yourself” (0:45)
3. “Afterbirth Puzzle 2016” (0:44)
4. “Ascend to Descend” (2:47)
5. “Burn the Baby Raper” (0:33)
6. “OxyDocs” (2:34)
7. “Sundress Skeletor” (1:26)
8. “Comptroller Cult” (2:43)
9. “What Does Fergus Dream Of?” (3:15)
10. “Hell Eats Repetition (Goodbye)” (Instrumental) (3:29)
11. “Don’t Hang From the Pipes” (3:13)
12. “Weathered Mask of Autumn (Unearthing the Armless)” (3:07)
13. “Delusions of a New Age” (4:22)
14. “Dustification (End Times version)” (3:41)
15. “A Trophy Cup Intoxicant” (5:18)

Check out Buckshot Facelift here:

www.facebook.com/buckshotfacelift/

Written by Geoff Teach for Bloodrock Media on April 13, 2017

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ALL HELL - THE GRAVE ALCHEMIST

Asheville, North Carolina’s horror-thrash three-piece All Hell have made some incredible strides since I last saw them live here in Chicago in early 2016.    At that time, All Hell were promoting their second full-length, 2015’s The Red Sect, that had been released by Philadelphia’s respectable independent label, Horror Pain Gore Death Productions.  Presenting a stronger-than-steel stage presence combined with their own unique blend of rip-roaring “metalpunk” (their own words), I was verily impressed by the act from start to finish, and I left the show with an excellent impression of both the music and the band members themselves.

Fast-forward about fourteen months, and All Hell have taken their solid stage act and unique music to new heights.  Now signed to L.A.’s much bigger and more ably-backed Prosthetic Records, All Hell are all geared-up to make a big, bloody splash on the national scene with the impending release of their third studio album, The Grave Alchemist.  Due to hit the shelves of metal retailers nationwide on April 14^th, 2017, The Grave Alchemist displays everything that I’ve come to love about the band, but better. Much better. Better production, better songwriting, better everything.

Constantly conjuring imagery of dark, decrepit graveyards and foreboding castles brimming with alluring, bloodsucking vampires, The Grave Alchemist sports twelve delectable horror-thrash offerings that are truly all killer and no filler.  From start to finish, this album is one hell of a humdinger.  Solid offerings from the front half of the album such as “Grave Alchemy”, “Necrosophia”, and “The Castle” show you what All Hell are all about:  solid song composition featuring darkly muddy and distorted riffs, and the perfect mix of punk rhythms with metal attitudes and subject matter – but it is on the back half of the album where The Grave Alchemist truly sets itself apart.  Tracks such as “Memory Tomb”, the black-metal-inspired “The Madness Out of Time”, the swampy and spine-chilling “The Thing in the Ground”, and the swaying, head-bang-inducing closer “I Am the Mist” stand out as some of the finest tracks that the trio have ever written, hands down.

So be sure to pick up a copy of All Hell’s The Grave Alchemist on or after April 14th.  Your metal-loving ears will thank me.

FFO:  Toxic Holocaust, Celtic Frost, Bathory, The Misfits

Genre:  Horror Thrash/Metalpunk

Album Lineup:  Jacob Curwen (vocals/guitars), Erik Ballantyne (bass), Kurt Henderson (drums)

Release Date:  April 14, 2017

Track Listing:

1. “Grave Alchemy” (4:02)
2. “Necrosophia” (3:27)
3. “Wed the Night” (2:21)
4. “Vampiric Lust” (2:40)
5. “The Castle” (3:43)
6. “Laid to Unrest” (3:36)
7. “Memory Tomb” (2:54)
8. “The Madness Out of Time” (4:09)
9. “The Thing in the Ground” (3:49)
10. “Return of the Reaper” (3:03)
11. “Elixir” (Instrumental) (2:40)
12. “I Am the Mist” (4:44)

Label: Prosthetic Records

Written by Geoff Teach for Bloodrock Media on April 7, 2017

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