The Knotfest team has corralled some of the best releases each week to narrow the focus and ensure your playlist for summer is all killer, no filler. Spanning the fast, heavy, violent and even the spacey - these jams are MANDO.
EXMORTUS - "BEYOND THE GRAVE" (NUCLEAR BLAST RECORDS)
Few collectives bear the chops of neo-classical shred specialists, Exmortus. En route to the arrival of the band's sixth studio album, Necrophony, the third preview in "Beyond the Grave" showcases lightning fast riffage and face-melting solos. Already celebrated among the underground, Exmortus' latest presentation positions the band to have a breakout year.
GELD - "SECRET PRISON" (RELAPSE RECORDS)
A corrosion combination of punk confrontation and heavy music hostility, Melbourne's GELD offer a vile, volatile variation of the current era of hardcore. The band's most recent full length via Relapse Records, Currency // Castration, underscores a sense of danger in heavy music often missing - making this emerging quartet a unit to pay very close attention to.
Be prepared to get your ass kicked.
SPINE - "VACIO" (CONVULSE RECORDS)
Kansas City's practitioners of hardcore leaning powerviolence need all of one minute to convey a pure beatdown with the single, "Vacio". The bleak vocal barrage of Antonio Marquez in tandem with the band's serrated rhythmic assault present unhinged brutality in short, effective bursts.
WILL HAVEN - "DIABLITO" (MINUSHEAD RECORDS)
Prepping for the release of their appropriately titled seventh full length, VII, the Sacto metallic hardcore unit offer a chugging slab of aggression with "Diablito". A meld of atmospheric and assaultive guitars, the track harkens back to early 2000's era heft with a relentless. locomotive pace that defines the band's signature.
TEENAGE WRIST FT. SOFTCULT - "STILL LOVE" (EPITAPH RECORDS)
The union of Marshall Gallagher on guitars and vocals with Anthony Salazar behind the drums as Teenage Wrist makes for songwriting prowess at the very top tier. The title track from the band's third full length, "Still Love" offers testament to that very fact. A competent mesh of sleek shoegaze with pangs of 90's era alternative, the collaboration with spacey grunge duo Softcult makes for a Siamese Dream-esque vibe that feels classic and contemporary all in one.
