Whisper it, but 2023 is almost over. It’s been another incredible year for heavy music (if you need evidence of that, check out the stellar 50 best metal albums of 2023 list that our own readers – that’s you lot! – voted for), and despite January being just a couple of weeks away, it’s still not slowing down.
Want some proof? We’ve got four more brilliant new metal bands and artists to throw your way, running the gamut from nu-industrial noise to black metal from the grim, frosty realms of, er, Los Angeles, to catchy-as-crabs hardcore to good old fashioned doom-death. Cast your eyes (and ears) beloew for nore.
When singer Ian Shelton shaped Militarie Gun in early 2020, his goal was to make hardcore “more and more melodic. “But after writing and recording the My Life Is Over EP on his own, he formed a band, just in time for COVID to go off the rails. all immediate plans. ” They were essentially the last people I saw before the total global lockdown,” he admits.
Possibly it would have been, however, a blessing in disguise. Time spent concealing and refining Militarie Gun’s understanding of the music they wanted to make, and the result is that the debut album Life Under the Gun is an incredible combination of modernity and vitality. Independent and hardcore influences in the Turnstile vein are combined with a lot of rock. “Fugazi encouraged me a lot,” agrees Ian. I think you can draw a line between them, Modest Mouse and us, they’re all big influences. “
After two more EPs – All Roads Lead To The Gun I and II, both released in 2021 – Militarie Gun signed to Loma Vista for Life Under The Gun, making them unlikely labelmates with everyone from Korn and Ghost to punk legend Iggy Pop and hip-hop superstar Denzel Curry. But the way Ian sees it, the new material Militarie Gun is writing is actually way ahead of where hardcore currently sits, so having such a diverse group of bands on the same label might be another unexpected blessing.
“Lately, people are experimenting with other things,” he says. We try to stay true to the band as we grow and experiment. We’ve written songs where we’re like, “Maybe in five years, everybody’ll be in a position to do it. “We are more than willing to do things until the right time comes. Get settled: Milatarie Gun might be around for a while.
Life Under The Gun is now available through Loma Vista
The 2015 Negative Vortex demo was a surprising and satisfying love letter to the dark and grim death of the ’90s. But after countless failed lineups, discarded recordings and intellectual fitness issues, and needing a stage replacement, NV founder M. Feschner left his home Brazil to settle in the artistic center of Los Angeles and sought out his old friend Libra, with whom he had pioneered the Brazilian goregrind scene in the 90s band The Endoparasites. Thirty years later, Feschner contacted Libra to produce Negative Vortex’s debut album in his Hollywood studio and soon after, the one-man band has become a duo. But while their collaboration has been fruitful, it hasn’t been an easy partnership. When asked if the recording was an amicable process, the two men laugh long and loudly.
“I’m surprised we’re still alive!” Feschner said, “I had such a strict concept of what it was. . . “”And I absolutely destroyed his concept!” Libra adds with a smile. “It has its old-school roots, and anything that’s not like that sells. I sense that I need to stay underground, but I like to elevate things to an epic, movie-like atmosphere. “It was all a struggle between those two things; This drama is featured on the album.
In the end, Libra’s grand production breathes radiant new life into Feschner’s old-school doom, something Feschner was content to confirm once the dust settled. “One day, while listening to the album, he sent me a message. Out of the blue saying, ‘Thank you for making this possible, it looks perfect,'” says Libra. “I got excited!”
Tomb Absolute is now available through Sentient Ruin
In The Elder Scrolls global video game series, Daedric princes are powerful, supernatural entities capable of committing terrible evils. They are also the lyrical inspiration for the Texas metallurgists’ nu-industrial-electronic hybrid, Daedric.
“I play Skyrim incessantly,” says singer and lyricist Kristyn Hope, the former singer of prog metal band Aesop, speaking to Hammer from her hometown of Dallas, Texas. The band’s self-described “gaming metal”, sees her take the lore of that fantasy universe and apply it to her own life. Recent single, Wretched, from debut album, Mortal, sees her battle her own inner demons (“Do you fear the hatred down below?”), assuming the character of Daedric Prince Hircine, with Kristyn singing over throbbing synths and bouncing guitars.
“I was such a shy person,” she says. “I didn’t even speak in high school. Going in this vocal journey of wanting to sing in front of people was a very difficult. You have to push past that fear and say, ‘I’m bigger than this’.”
Since Kristyn formed Daedric with her husband, Clay Schroeder, and producer Geoff Rockwell during the pandemic, they’ve had a steep trajectory, recording over a million streams on Spotify. . . all without having played a single gig. “
Instead, the organization focused on building an online fan base. “I get a lot of DMs on Instagram and it’s lovely because anything as vulgar as gaming steel has made a difference in someone’s life, and it’s worth it. “
Mortal is now available via Fixt
Agriculture aren’t your standard black metal misanthropes. Befitting a project heralding from the “city of angels”, the US quartet are snubbing the genre’s hate-fuelled obsessions and getting busy with the rapture.
“We use this intense musical flavor to galvanize joy and connection to spirit,” says singer-guitarist Daniel Meyer-O’Keeffe. “To think that Black Steel is just sad, nihilistic and dark is too reductionist. The black steel we love (Wolves In The Throne Room, Sanguine Eagle, Agalloch) is spiritual, or at least spirit-oriented. Black Steel can also be fun; there’s nothing miserable about seeing a Mayhem concert.
In keeping with their positive outlook, Agriculture’s self-titled debut album is a glorious rush of tremolo-picking and ecstatic shrieks, building on the euphoric promise of last year’s EP, The Circle Chant. Punctured by fragments of pedal-steel, sax, violin and an Ebullition Records-style 90s emo tear-jerker, it’s bold, buoyant, but predominantly hard-hitting flux – dubbed ‘ecstatic black metal’ by the group – has garnered an instant cult following.
Merlin took over as editor-in-chief of Louder in early 2022, after more than a decade at Metal Hammer. There, he served as an online editor and associate editor, before being promoted to editor-in-chief in 2016. Prior to joining Metal Hammer, Merlin worked as an associate editor at Terrorizer Magazine and in the past has written for magazines such as Classic Rock, Rock Sound, eFestivals, and others. Throughout his career, he has interviewed legends such as Ozzy Osbourne, Lemmy, Metallica, Iron Maiden (including an Ed Force One courtesy of Bruce Dickinson), Guns N’ Roses, KISS, Slipknot, System Of A Down, and Meat Loaf. It’s also probably to blame for 90% of all nu metal-related content on the site. .
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