Hate Unbound - Plague

Hate Unbound hail from Detroit, Michigan are due to release album Plague on 17 February.

They comprise of singer Art Giammarra, guitarist Daryl Mitchell,   guitarist William Cundiff, bassist Sean Demura, and drummer Franklin “Foot” Hannah.

Their influences range from Death to Lamb of God and it's telling, in the groove and heaviness on show in this thrashy deathy metal band.

Plague

Baptised In Lies opens up the album full of violent intent. A thrash standard with ripping solos, pounding double bass, heavy groove seeped riffs and satanic scales. Just what I was hoping to hear.

There are moments of greatness on this album. Cut's opening riff is simply brilliant, as is the twin style lead section. Puncture is full of drive, anger and groove, a headbangers delight. Grey Skies has and underlieing melody in parts which I love and really adds a great dimension to the music and my favourite solo on the album to see it out.

The track Suffering is unfortunately not for me, however the brutality isn't far away with tracks like Burn your Idols, Plague, Fallen and Soiled, all of which chug along satisfactorily. The outro with a slowed down riff in Burn Your Idols has some brilliant drum and guitar work as something to look out for as well as a batshit mental guitar passage in Soiled which keeps things interesting.

I, Martyr almost made me think I was going to see the softer side of Hate Unbound with a rather subtle intro. If their soft side is a sledgehammer in the gonads, then I suppose I may have been right, but it takes all of 25 seconds to allay any fears of a ballad. This is a strong track with plenty of chops and changes.

Conclusionn

In my eyes this is one for seasoned Thrash fans rather than those looking for anyone breaking the mould. But there's is nothing wrong with that, it's a fucking excellent album. This should go down very well with an old school audience who are fans of aggressive thrash with not overdone wanky solos, but nice short stabs of axe mastery which are well placed and played along with a earth shatteringly growls vocal and some strong drum work. (There's no wonder they call him 'Foot').


Not sure about all this boundless hate, they sound like teddy bears to me. Teddy bears with bloody cleavers and under demonic possession that is us, oh and they look like an awesome live act too!

Find Hate Unbound: Facebook/Twitter

Pre Order on Bandcamp

King Minos - The Minos Touch

In Greek mythology King Minos, the first King of Crete, was a bit of a grim bugger. In life, he made made King Aegus choose 7 young boys and 7 young girls to send to a labrynth to be devoured by a Minotaur every 9 years. In death, he was judge of the dead. He could often be seen with a snake attached to his pecker via it's teeth. 

All in all a gruesome, hard bastard. So basically, King Minos is a FUCKING GREAT name for a metal band. I think it was either that or 'pecker snake', and the UK based thrashy trio made the right choice......just. 

The opener, Destroy By The Use Of Violence, has a vocal performance with growl and grit. Musically its busy and interesting with some nice touches with the bass and drum stabs. There is a brilliant seamless transition between deep heavyness and high end melody on guitar. The track has a definite groove element and at points also took me back to Diabolos era Slayer, an album which holds many great memories for me. 

Get All The Knives doesnt hang about in giving you a shot to the jugular. This tracks grinds and pounds relentlessly and repetitively which accentuates the first breakdown when it hits and adds to it's effectiveness. Towards the end of the track it again slows, this time creating a chilly, menacing feel, added to by the evil laugh seeing he track out!

As soon as Eschaton begins you can tell this is going to be musically excellent. Heavy and choppier than a pork cut, with chaotic but tight drumming, this is intense. The vocal is abrasive at first but you soon adjust. Melodic elements of the guitar work and the way the vocal cuts through remind me again of Slayer. This is not their only similarity with the behemoths of thrash, as they're not afraid to take on things that are high on the political and worldwide agenda lyrically. For me, they saved the best 'til last.

Conclusion

This is a musically excellent release, all instruments in crushingly heavy tandem, creating a dirty, thrashy, grinding, bowel adjusting noise.

The vocals, shared between all three members, are at times Serj Tankian, at times Tom Araya and at times Max Cavalera! Abrasive on the first listen, but once you adjust to the tones you realise their almost another instrument adding to the heavyness.

A good EP offering some sound song writing and raw energy. I think theres scope for some great music from these guys and I'm looking forward to hearing it.....

Score 3.8/5

Get it here

Follow King Minos: Facebook/Twitter

Written by Jonny Radley

Gravehuffer - Your Fault

Crust is a term I seemed to have missed on my musical journey. And no I don't mean the best, most tasty slice of bread, or the strange gritty stuff you find when picking your belly button. I mean the musical genre!  Whislt this is the case, the style is very familiar, a dirty bastard offspring of extreme metal, hardcore, anarchic punk with a sprinkle of New Wave Of British Heavy Metal.

Gravehuffer are a self described 'Crusty Metal' band from Joplin, Missouri we received the upcoming release of their album 'Your Fault' to review.

Your Fault 

Opening with what sounds to me like the sounds of someone enterering a graveyard, digging a grave and then using it for an unsuspecting victim , you kind of get the idea of the kind of imigary the band are about. Gravehuffer (the first track) flits between slower chugged out riffs, thrashy melodic lines, blasted out extreme metal and even groove all of which sound pretty awesome.

Of Fish And Men, Dead Peace and Death Caprice definately show a more 'punk' ethic approach, having hallmarks of classic punk delivery musically and vocally whilst remaining very heavy and aggresive. This is Crust through and through and I think will be a treat for fans of the specific genre.

The main riff in Kill for Sport is so good, it is made to move to and forms the highlight of a decent track. But the winner on awesome riffage all the way through has to be he monumental Destroyer Of Worlds. Great riffs, heavy as a an Anchor in the temple and an awesome breakdown. This for me is the most complete track on the album.

Destroyer Of Worlds is closely followed by Worms Of God with its heavy mechanical riff and psychotic short guitar solo towards the end and Prince With A Thousand Enemies which is full of thrash intent, as two more highlights on the album for me.

Gravehuffer, genre wise, cover a lot of ground on this album and Chains Around You kind of brings this all together in one track. It nicely reminds you of what you've just heard through the last 10 tracks rounding the album off nicely.

Conclusion

Kudos has to go to Gravehuffers drummer, who gives a powerful performance throughout. Also some of the riffs on display are simply brilliant. I can't see it being anything other than a hit amongst fans of Crust, Extreme Metal even Thrash and whilst not all to my personal taste had enough to keep me listening and wanting to hear what was next. I for one will be following these guys as a fan from now on.

Score 4/5

You will be able PreOrder the album soon via Swamp Metal Records so get following Gravehuffer on Facebook and Twitter and have a spin of this when it comes out on these formats;

Morti Viventi - The Day The Dead Returned Review Blog

The Artist

Morti Viventi is Adrian Heathershaw from Stamford in Lincolnshire (up the Imps). He is a one man band. Thankfully I doubt you'll see him around Stamford High Street with a drum on his back and a kazoo but probably instead in a studio laying down some ass kicking thrash riffs. 

I can genuinely say if I heard this album thinking it was a band I'd be excited about a U.K band (and being a yellow belly myself, one from Lincolnshire no less) I could really get into. But the fact this is the work of one man makes it all the more impressive.

He is signed to UKEM (United Kingdom Extreme Metal) records, a small independent label formed in 2011.

Listening to this I am left thinking, "no one else has brought any sandwiches or sausage rolls to this metal buffet, this guys gone all out on a culinary mission, and he still didn't forget the quiche". And I fucking love quiche. The tracks all have direction and creativity and all tick the boxes of what I think lots of thrash fans would look for; fast head banging riffs, skin melting solos and aggression.

Morti Viventi means "Living Dead", the album is called "The Day the Dead Returned", the sleeve  depicts a Zombie holocaust and the songs are about......... puppies! Of course they're not, they are obviously about Zombies. 

The guy clearly knows his Zombies, in fact I bet he watches walking dead and is wondering why Rick Grimes hasn't lost a hand and thinks "who are you Darrell?". However he is still also thinking "Satan below, they've done a great job of this. (disclaimer: walking dead knowledge is not my own but stolen from someone else, do not hunt me down and kill me if this is wrong, you fanatical nutjobs)

And this is a good analogy of this music, because he also clearly knows his thrash and in the song writing he has successfully used all the great elements of classic thrash whilst giving it his own stamp. 

Sometimes when metal is so heavily themed on a particular subject they get labels like "Pirate Metal" or "Viking Metal" but this is not a trend I like and I think it can sometimes deflect from the technical and song writing ability of a band. I believe this to be the case with Amon Amarth for instance. I hope it does not happen here, for me this album is balls out and swinging in the wind thrash, with some sprinkles of groove.

Album Overview

The Day the Dead Returned... opens with Hell On Earth, an all out thrasher. He has made a video, sadly not Zombie apocolypsey, but that gives an insight to the recording methods. 

This is followed by the extremely impressive title track "The Day the Dead Returned". It is an epic anthem with a great melody running throughout. 

For me in this song the real magic happens happens half way through where it breaks into almost a new track. It has a slightly different direction and dare I say it, guitar parts I wouldn't have been surprised to hear laid down by Dimebag! (Take a deep breath, yes I said it!) 

Whorehouse of the Undead is a speed driven track with a great groove laden passage that really breaks the track up nicely.

"Maniac/Face the Shape has one of the best intros I've heard on any record in a long time. This possibly has the most hooky elements on the album. It would certainly get me in the pit in my local metal club, if i could lift my feet off the sticky floor enough to make my way to the dance floor. 

"Spawn of Another Kind" returns to a more classic thrash sound with a strong solo and some well thought out riffing.

This then brings us into "The Arrival of the Anti-God" This is an instrumental piece and it us quite frankly brilliant. Very much a musical journey which could quite easily be a soundtrack to a Zombie Apocalypse. 

Finally "Thrash Or Die" is a great way to finish the album, a fast aggressive track fitting of its title. 

Conlusion

There are no faults I can pick at with this album. Having listened to it now in excess of 10 times, I'm not getting bored, I'm just finding more I like about it. 

The production is good,  the song writing is brilliant and it has all the riffing and solo quality I could ever ask for.

You can listen to it below, however I'd urge you to seek out and buy a copy or enquire with UKEM about another pressing. Buying it will support this great independent label as well as this excellent artist and encourage further releases.

Also, I think most metalheads will consider it money well spent due to the genuine quality of the album.

This is an album you'll been dying to get your teeth into!..... oh c'mon, I've got to have at least one lame Zombie joke.

Folow Morti Viventi
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