Survival depends on evolution. As conditions change and tides turn, we must change with them in order to stay one step ahead of the coming challenges. It’s clear that Fit For An Autopsy have embraced that mantra as they continue to perpetually evolve with each subsequent body of work. Not just blurring, but eradicating the lines between technical metal virtuosity, death metal menace, hardcore intensity, melodic insidiousness, and abstract approaches, the New Jersey band embody an uncompromising vision of their own.  The six-piece—Joseph Badolato [vocals], Patrick Sheridan [guitar], Timothy Howley [guitar], Will Putney [guitar], Peter Blue Spinazola [bass], and Josean Orta Martinez [drums]—perfect this approach on their sixth full-length offering, Oh What The Future Holds [Nuclear Blast Records]. “It’s clear we don’t sound like we did when we started the band,” observes founding guitarist and main songwriter Putney. “Obviously, we’re taking the music in different directions. We’ve drifted into other styles, and our tastes have changed. So, it’s natural. But we’re definitely the most satisfied we’ve ever been with our music. If you were there from the beginning, there will always be something for you. However, it’s moving forward.” Fit For An Autopsy have never stopped moving forward though. Following their caustic 2011 debut The Process of Human Extermination, the group quietly carved out a place among extreme metal’s modern vanguard with their second LP Hellbound. Revolver cited 2015’s Absolute Hope Absolute Hell among “15 Essential Deathcore Albums.” And In the wake of The Great Collapse two years later, the band had truly created their own space in the realm of what could be described as “post-deathcore”. This ascent reached another level on the 2019 opus The Sea of Tragic Beasts. Widespread praise from the fans and press alike is all but too common for their refreshing approach to modern aggressive music both on record and in concert.  When the Global Pandemic changed everyone’s tour plans, Fit For An Autopsy dove into writing in spring 2020 and made the most of their time off the road. “We had no real timeline, so we didn’t feel much pressure,” says Putney. “Once we realized touring wasn’t opening up, we decided to have fun with the process. I got to spend more time than I usually do on records. We definitely took some of the songs into new places because of that. It’s our longest album. We composed more than we ever have and it was a rewarding feeling to put real work into all these ideas.” In early 2021, Fit For An Autopsy congregated in-person at Putney’s Graphic Nature Audio and recorded Oh What The Future Holds. Now, they introduce the album with the single “Far From Heaven.” Swirling as a perfect storm, airy guitar cuts through a pummeling percussive groove as melodic vocals slip into a guttural groan offset by neck-snapping riffs and powerful dynamics.  “The world we exist in is clearly “far from heaven”. Institutions are exploited, and people are taken advantage of. There’s a power struggle between those in control and those who aren’t.  This is a fairly literal reflection on the world today.” “I always like it when aggressive music makes people think,” he leaves off. “Having a message is important to us. Maybe you’ll reflect on what we’re saying, see how it applies to you, and question some things. Or…maybe it’s just soundtrack to let some anger out. I’m fine with that too.” In the end, Fit For An Autopsy haven’t just personally evolved on Oh What The Future Holds; they’ve brought heavy music with them.

For thousands of years the word EXODUS has been used to describe a massive human migration; embarking upon an epic journey and change filled with such power that the earth itself shakes upon its commencement. All such grand exploits begin with a soft awareness for what truly lies beyond, yet 4 decades ago EXODUS had no way of knowing the extent to which their band would rise, conquer, trip up, and rise again. The formation of the beast we now call EXODUS began in Richmond California 1979, and although many started their journey as fans a few years down the line, there is no debating that the early 80’s was a time for major growth in the world of Thrash Metal, especially in the Bay Area of California. Being only kids at the time, all just learning to use their instruments, Tom Hunting, Kirk Hammett, Tim Agnello, and Keith Stewart began covering classic rock, punk rock, and Iron Maiden songs at backyard birthday parties. The less technologically inclined, music sharing, tape trading ways of the 70’s were still in full force and it was this striving for the acquisition of new sound that fiercely fueled the band’s tenacity to learn, play, and eventually write. Although Kirk Hammett famously left the band before their genre defining debut, “BONDED BY BLOOD,” Guitarist and lead writer Gary Holt had become a deep rooted foundation in the band, in 1982 EXODUS added the unparalleled, and infamous voice of the now tragically deceased Paul Baloff, solidifying their sound and putting what would become one of the most infamous Thrash albums of all time, on the map. “We were living for heavy metal, it was rad. It was a great time to be alive” remembers Gary Holt. With a new and semi-solid line up of Hunting, Holt, Baloff, Hunolt, and McKillop, “BONDED BY BLOOD” was finally released to the world in 1985. The importance of this album, and its influence on all the heavy metal composers that we have grown to love and respect today, can never be understated for both fans, and the guys in the band. “A lot of bands hit their peak a couple albums in, we busted right out the gates with this face melting, thrash masterpiece,” Holt recalls, “that first time when the shipment came in, and I opened the box, and I was holding that BONDED BY BLOOD vinyl in my hands... that’s a feeling you’ll never replicate. That’s pretty amazing.” In 1987, the release of their second full length album “Pleasures Of The Flesh” was preceded by Baloff leaving, and current lead vocalist Steve Zetro Souza joining the band and solidifying his place as the voice of EXODUS. 8 more studio albums would follow, and through more member switches, time off, family illness, and even death would try to interfere with the progression of the band, they still exist, write music, and garner respect as true royalty in today’s kingdom of heavy metal. Now celebrating 40 years as a band, truly looking back and reflecting upon the massive history of EXODUS can reignite some wildly significant memories. “What stands out most to me was getting to play our first tour with Venom in 1985, and then going to Europe with them afterwards,” reflects founder and drummer Tom Hunting. “Being 19-20 years old with a double decker bus, traveling the world with no real concept of time or budget, we were just like ‘wow, this is awesome.’” This small town California band saw an entirely new world when they began networking and globetrotting with their idols. They came into opportunity and experience that would forever catapult their career. “Over in Europe, playing the Dynamo Festival for the first time in 1989 in front of what must have been 20,000 people watching us... that was life changing,” says Hunting. Currently, the EXODUS lineup is comprised of: Tom Hunting on Drums, Gary Holt on Guitar, Lee Altus on Guitar, Jack Gibson on Bass, and Steve “Zetro” Souza as lead vocalist. All these years and EXODUS still boast a similar writing process to what they started out with. Although technology has made it so that the recording and mixing processes are less time consuming, the main change is really just that “[they] respect what [they] do a lot more,” states Hunting. “We’ve humbled ourselves to the journey and consider ourselves lucky to do what we do, but our creative process is still the same. Basically drums, guitar concepts; those are the starting point. After the music begins to take place we all process it and write together. When we were kids it was about the party. Now that we’re men, we’re in it more for the journey.” “To this day I still write a riff the way I did in the beginning,” explains Holt. “I write to make myself happy and I’m still always looking for that sick, brutal ass riff; it hasn’t changed. I kinda stick with my guns on how I do things.” With Holt just finishing up his world famous final run with SLAYER, the supportive network of friends and musicians that is EXODUS patiently await fully re-submerging themselves into a new record. With new ideas and riffs already in the works, not only can these masters of metal assure us upcoming new music, but an abundance of world-wide touring is inevitable. “I can’t tell you how long it’ll go on,” says Hunting, “the fuse is definitely shorter. We’re obviously closer to where it ends than where it started... but we’ll take it one record at a time. As long as we feel good about what we’re doing, there’s good things happening right now in this genre of music, and we want to be a part of that. A lot of bands want to retire but that’s not us. The potential for our next record could be career defining. We’re taking our time and not rushing any songs.” Regardless of how us metalheads may see it, Heavy Metal will forever be one of the more niche genres in the music industry. Longevity is the key here; to have reigned for over 40 years and created 10 unique, game changing, full length albums amidst the even smaller bailiwick of Thrash Metal. EXODUS not only remain unwavering in their delivery, but in their strength and progression as a successful and unique sonic endeavour that make your every bone rattle and your blood churn in the best of ways. Gary Holt – guitars Steve “Zetro” Souza – vocals Tom Hunting – drums Lee Altus – guitars Jack Gibson – bass

A bastard child born of the mid 90s punk/metal/hardcore movement, Washington, DC’s DARKEST HOUR combine the passion, energy, and soul of punk/hardcore with the style, speed, vengeance and fury of melodic speed/thrash/death metal. DARKEST HOUR have helped defined the entire New Wave of American Metal sound as one of the pioneers of modern metal/core. A sound that gave the metal and hardcore/punk world the revitalization it surely needed. This style blended the raw, hardcore punk of the 80s, with the Scandinavian death metal of the 90s and forged a sound that would later become the template for modern metal. Since their inception 23 years ago, Darkest Hour has released 9 studio full lengths (via 11 different record labels), appeared in major motion pictures, US television shows, video games, and have toured the world extensively covering 6 of the 7 continents. Darkest Hour is: Mike Schleibaum - Guitar John Henry - Vocals Michael "Lonestar" Carrigan - Guitar Aaron Deal - Bass Travis Orbin - Drums

The dead walk again! New York-based Undeath have returned from their mutilated tomb to horrify and dominate death metal’s insatiable masses once again. Their blessedly sick new album, It’s Time... To Rise from the Grave, shows the reconfigured quintet—Kyle Beam (guitars), Alexander Jones (vocals), Tommy Wall (bass), Jared Welch (guitars) and Matt Browning (drums)—have retained their mind-infecting sonic savagery but weren’t satisfied in their pursuit to improve it through wicked (yet studied) reformulation. Certainly, Undeath’s 2021 Decibel flexi, Diemented Dissection, paved the way, but it’s tracks like “Fiend for Corpses,” “Rise from the Grave,” and “The Funeral Within” that display Undeath’s terrifyingly insane trajectory. It’s Time... To Rise from the Grave isn’t just an early contender for death metal album of 2022—it’s destined to be a modern-day classic. “Thanks to the pandemic, we had a lot of time to figure out what we were going to do,” says vocalist Alexander Jones. “We had a lot of opportunity to luxuriate in the writing process. We wanted to make the songs tighter. We wanted a more traditional approach to the songs—a verse/chorus/verse/chorus/bridge/chorus-kind of thing; like the title track to Lesions of a Different Kind. We didn’t just want one song to be that way, but all of them to have that approach. Every song needed to have a big chorus. We wanted infinite replay value. I’d like to believe we achieved that.” Undeath formed in Rochester, New York in 2018, and eager to show their devotion (and chops) to the elder death metal gods, original trio—Beam, Jones, and Browning—charted a course out of the proverbial cemetery the following year with their first offering Demo ‘19. The same year, the ever-quick songwriters dropped their second demo, Sentient Autolysis, in conjunction with Tampa-based indie Caligari Records. Word spread quickly that Undeath were rolling out of the Empire State strong, much like their forefathers in Cannibal Corpse, Immolation, and Mortician infamously had decades earlier. Stoked on Undeath’s bludgeoning yet song-first creativity, Los Angeles-based Prosthetic Records inked the New Yorkers in 2019. The group’s debut album, Lesions of a Different Kind, pyosisified fans and ossified critics mere months later. Pitchfork complimented Lesions of a Different Kind by saying it was “vicious and nauseating,” while Bandcamp were caught up in the album’s “catchy, hard-hitting” songs. Clearly, Undeath’s tightly-wrought, skull-crushing death metal had struck a chord. “We are all excited about making music,” Jones says. “We’re stoked to be writing together. That’s why when we write, we do it early and often. We’re all students of Autopsy, Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse, and Bolt Thrower, to name a few. These bands are our north star. We love the way they approached their songwriting—it was always very hooky. We love classic, essential death metal, but we’re also into the more recent stuff, too. Bands like Fetid and Cerebral Rot. We sit in the middle ground, I think. We take inspiration from the past, the present, and make it our own. We want to serve the genre we love so much.” Musically, It’s Time... To Rise from the Grave was predominantly written by Beam, with bassist Tommy Wall contributing “Bone Wrought.” Astute listeners will hear vestiges of Morbid Angel, Carcass, Cannibal Corpse and more throughout. This isn’t appropriation though. This is homage. Undeath are resurrecting, re-arranging, and reanimating the aesthetics of death metal’s formative years, suffusing it with a contemporary take on memorability and efficiency. Tracks like “Defiled Again,” “Necrobionics,” “Head Splattered in Seven Ways,” and “Human Chandelier” are quick to kill. Guitarists Beam and Welch waste no time in establishing the knife’s edge, while drummer Browning and bassist Wall hammer-smash faces with brutal proficiency. Beam’s carnage-prone lyrics—as ferociously vociferated by frontman Jones—and Matt Browning’s gruesome cover art provide a profane platform from which Undeath launch. Every short-timed burst of song—they average three and a half minutes—from It’s Time... To Rise from the Grave is a tried and true deathly delight. “We thought about the things that make a really good record,” says guitarist Kyle Beam. “We knew we wanted songs that were good and were different from one another. Those two things were first and foremost. There’s different moods conveyed, too. I was listening to a lot of Judas Priest, traditional heavy metal really. There was a lot of what we were looking for in that, actually. That was hugely influential to the writing process on It’s Time... To Rise from the Grave. The songwriting was more refined this time, I think. Don’t get me wrong though. This record is absolutely death metal. There’s no denying that.” Undeath traveled to Philadelphia to record It’s Time... To Rise from the Grave with Scoops Dardaris at Headroom Studios in March-April 2021. The group spent two weeks tracking—a song a day almost. Dardaris rough-mixed on the fly during the recording sessions, and then required two more weeks after to finalize the mix. Not ones to sacrifice a working team, they brought on Arthur Rizk (Creeping Death, Enforced) to master. The sonic goal was to get a frenetic, nearly off-the-rails production, but with a discernible, if slightly lived-in line through it. Think: Cannibal Corpse’s Vile (Scott Burns) mixed with Carcass’ Necroticism – Descanting the Insalubrious (Colin Richardson). “Scoops recorded Lesions,” Jones says. “He’s a stable, reliable, and talented engineer. He’s great at what he does. We were super-satisfied with the sounds he got on Lesions. When it was time to record It’s Time..., we knew we wanted Scoops again. It was awesome working with him. I’m a vocalist who likes to go over everything line by line. I wanted everything to pop. He was so patient with us. Scoops is amazing! We also knew all along that we wanted Arthur to master the record. We’re big fans of everything he does.” In four years, Undeath have done the unlikely. They have two celebrated, oft-streamed demos, a coveted Decibel flexi disc, two brutish videos (“Acidic Twilight Visions,” “Entranced by the Pendulum”), completed a riotous 30-date American tour mid-pandemic with The Black Dahlia Murder, and released a fan-obsessed full-length in Lesions of a Different Kind. To stop now would be contrary to Undeath’s diehard, work-hardened ethos. Indeed, they’re forging ahead. It’s Time... To Rise from the Grave undoubtedly levels up Undeath. The New Yorkers are the vanguard of the next wave of hard-hearted American death metal. Join the undead army now…march or die completely!