Extreme music is in great health as new tunes from Brujeria, Baroness, Chamber, Crown Magnetar and Dååth make this week’s shortlist.
Another great week of new music has landed. Rounding up a concise, focused list of the goods, Knotfest has sourced some of the best singles that deserve some extra shine and a definite addition to your summer jams playlist.
With a strong lean in to the more extreme side of the heavy music spectrum, this week’s picks all stoke the fire with gasoline – delivering hard-hitting heft that ranges from classic death metal to the current, continued resurgence of deathcore.
From crafty veterans to exciting, emerging prospects, this week’s Mandatory Jams covers generations, speaking to the enduring health of extreme music.
Here are this week’s Mandatory Jams.
BRUJERIA – “MOCHADO” (NUCLEAR BLAST RECORDS)
Mexico’s deathgrind champs Brujeria have announced their fifth full length album with the release of the first single and proper return to form. The band is currently trekking across Europe celebrating the 30th anniversary of Matando Güeros, an album long banned in several corners of the world for it’s gruesome imagery and unflinching depiction of narco culture. Extremity on a completely different level, Brujeria make it clear that on their forthcoming Esto Es Brujeria full length, they are not fucking around.
DÃÅTH – “WHERE THE SLIME LIVE” (METAL BLADE RECORDS)
The ATL’s progressive death dealers in Dååth continue their historic comeback with the another classic cover, this time taking on the Morbid Angel essential with a spot on rendition of “Where the Slime Live” from the 1995 opus, Domination. Adding some additional muscle to the track, the band recruited Dave Davidson of Revocation to level up the heft and pay proper tribute.
The cover follows the band’s return after more than a decade earlier this year. Resurfacing with definitive singles including “No Rest No End” and “Purified by Vengeance” featuring Mark Holcomb of Periphery and composer Mick Gordon of the DOOM franchise, Dååth continue to build a groundswell of momentum in building what will be one of the heaviest releases of 2024.
CHAMBER – “RETRIBUTION” (PURE NOISE RECORDS)
With the arrival of the band’s sophomore full length, A Love to Kill For, Nashville aggressors Chamber have become one of metallic hardcore’s most promising outfits. Propelled by the effectiveness of pummeling singles like “Hopeless Portrait,” “Devoured” and “Tremble” the most recent offering in “Retribution” underscores the band’s dynamic brand of destruction. Hitting both hard and precise, Chamber harness the kind of technicality that speak to special kind of well-honed heft that position them for longevity.
Get familiar.
BARONESS – “BENEATH THE ROSE” (ABRAXAN HYMNS)
En route to the September 15th of their full length, Stone, Baroness unveiled their second serving from the highly-anticipated studio album with a track that actually had it’s earliest inception during their Gold & Grey sessions some six years ago. “Beneath the Rose” establishes the more aggressive, assertive spectrum of Baroness, emphasized by dazzling performance from John Baizley that includes stellar fretwork and an outstanding vocal showcase. Twenty years in, Baroness continues to defy expectation.
CROWN MAGNETAR – “NAIL FUNERAL” (UNIQUE LEADER RECORDS)
Progressing from a lumbering, hulking show of heft into musical maelstrom of deathcore domination, Crown Magnetar back their hype with the latest single from their recently release full length, Everything Bleeds. When a track is titled, “Nail Funeral”, there is a general assumption that brutality is baseline, but Crown Magnetar go well beyond to execute a hellacious assault on the senses. Anchored by crushing guitars, relentless percussion and a hellacious delivery from vocalist Dan Tucker, the resurgence of deathcore is in good health because of bands like this.
