The new split from Merked and Kageneko is a noisy wonderland. Merked describe themselves and their music this way, “We’re three friends in Oakland alleviating the boredom of life by spending our time creating that new sound you’ve been looking for. A nice mixture of PV, grind, and hardcore.” They are underselling it a little bit, because the music sounds like more than a hobby to me. They have put out a couple of long-players, Merked (2021) and Murk Job (2022), and an earlier split with Slag. Merked is Ill Will (drums), Fedge (bass), and Yong-Sung (guitar, vocals). There are fourteen tracks o ..read more

New York hardcore band Cash Bribe release their debut long-player, Escape From New York. Cash Bribe started out in Brooklyn four years ago as a trio, and that outfit released an EP, Facemask City, in 2022. They are an extreme metal band that can trace influences across a wide range of subgenres like hardcore, death metal, grindcore, powerviolence, and whatnot. Now a four-piece, Escape From New York is their first full-length album. The band is Kirk (guitar), Larry (drums), Joe (vocals), and Brian (bass). “Creature of Consumption” offers excruciating screaming and hardcore hammering to get thi ..read more

Portland deathgrinders Rank and Vile foment intrigue on their second long-player, Worship. Rank and Vile emerged from the mystical lawless land of Oregon in 2018. After a demo and a couple of successive releases, they have taken their time stewing and fermenting the latest since the event horizon of the pandemic. Now we have it: a dozen thunderclaps releasing razor blades and hammers to rain down on your sensibilities. The band is Theo Spence (vocals), Matt Oien (guitar), James Cox (drums), and Leon West (bass). The first meat on the chopping block is “Churchstate,” two minutes of concentrate ..read more

The debut album from extreme prog death grinders OWDWYR is curiously titled Receptor. I read a description of OWDWYR’s music that seemed to fit … “an extreme metal convergence of Tech Death, Prog, and Grind framed around a Classical core.” The music is heavy, battering, and complex. It is not what I would call pleasant, but it is fascinating. The band is Paul Plumeri, Jr. (guitar, programming), Chris Williams (bass), and Max Lichtman (vocals), a trio joined by many guest performers. There are fifteen tracks on the album that exist in a variety of structures, a sort of continuum, in a way, but ..read more

The two Franks bring a little blight into your life on their second long-player, Blight The Way. Rhode Island grindcore duo Frank Lloyd Blight (vocals) and Frank Owen Gorey (all else) have been churning the primordial goo since 2014. Housed in the nation’s smallest state, the death metal antics of this pair have been documented on two previous releases, their self-titled opening EP in their birth year, and the follow-up full-length, Summer Camp Sex Party Massacre, in 2018. They are back now to make the most of the brief pause between pandemics by serving up some tongue-in-cheek death metal fo ..read more

The Chaos and Carnage Tour landed on the shores of Covington, Kentucky last week on the national marijuana holiday, 4-20. Suicide Silence and Dying Fetus headlined the traveling mini festival with Aborted, Sanguisugabogg, Born Of Osiris, Crown Magnetar, and Slay Squad. Suicide Silence It all happened at the Madison Theater in the river city of Covington, Kentucky, a stone’s throw from where the Bengals play in Cincinnati. It is very similar to a lot of venues in the tri-state area, with a main floor and a balcony/mezzanine space. The thing that is different is the main floor is also tiered, wi ..read more

Photos by Wayne Edwards. © Wayne Edwards Main article about the show: https://flyingfiddlesticks.com/2023/04/22/suicide-silence-and-dying-fetus-at-the-madison-theater-covington-april-20-2023 ..read more

Photos by Wayne Edwards. © Wayne Edwards Main article about the show: https://flyingfiddlesticks.com/2023/04/22/suicide-silence-and-dying-fetus-at-the-madison-theater-covington-april-20-2023 ..read more

Photos by Wayne Edwards. © Wayne Edwards Main article about the show: https://flyingfiddlesticks.com/2023/04/22/suicide-silence-and-dying-fetus-at-the-madison-theater-covington-april-20-2023 ..read more

Photos by Wayne Edwards. © Wayne Edwards Main article about the show: https://flyingfiddlesticks.com/2023/04/22/suicide-silence-and-dying-fetus-at-the-madison-theater-covington-april-20-2023 ..read more