Blood Incantation is an American death metal band from Denver, Colorado, formed in 2011. The band consists of vocalist and guitarist Paul Riedl, guitarist Morris Kolontyrsky, drummer Isaac Faulk and bassist Jeff Barrett.

Listening to Primitive Man is a devastating experience of Doom as performed by just three members. Their discography of agonizing personal and universal hell is spread across three albums, two EPs and a raft of splits released over more than 10 years. 2020 saw the release of the groups most recent full length album ‘Immersion’ (Relapse Records), a terrifying and confrontational record that expressed resentment and the unbearable during uncertain times. The tension through out the record is palpable. McCarthy’s foul roar feels wrenched from a cavern so deep that it defied language itself. The riffs are vast slabs – edifices dragged and erected to stand tall against the outrages of ‘humanity rotten on the vine’ (‘Consumption’). With 2013’s Scorn and 2017’s Caustic, Primitive Man raged against religious dogma, elitism, capitalism and the creature within, desperate to burst out. They keep the animal inside at bay with a rancorous and cerebral blend of the heaviest sounds. Splits with Hell and Unearthly Trance, and a host of others, have seen the band branch out into experimental noise. Other projects from members of the band – Black Curse, Vermin Womb and Many Blessings – show how they are bursting at the seams to express their outrage at the state of things, in different mutations. 2022 brings the release of the groups latest album, Insurmountable. Four new suffocating tracks totaling over 38 minutes of Primitive Man in their strongest and most crushing artistic display to date. Mixed and mastered by Arthur Rizk and featuring the artwork of Ethan McCarthy (Hell Simulation).  -Dan Franklin

INTER ARMA's music resists generalization and categorization, but one thing that's consistently true, is that the VA quintetpossesses an unparalleled sense of scope. Few artists convey the complexity that INTER ARMA (Latin for "in times of war") does. The band creates terrible and often hauntingly beautiful portraits of humanity through music that is deeply organic yet still mystical and modern.

East Coast Noise Rock

From its inception, WITHERED has been an outlier, a perplexing charge of extremity which the metal scene has never been able to put its finger on. “We want to compound new elements into every album,” posits guitarist/vocalist Mike Thompson, “and we’re definitely a band for metal nerds. Our audience seems to be the old-schoolers who are absorbed by this stuff every day and jaded folks of a certain age. Industry types and peers tend to get it, but that’s about it.” Thompson’s self deprecating assessment of his creative output might be part gentlemanly humility talking or a harshly realistic take on WITHERED’s cult status, or somewhere in between, but with an impressive body of work fanned out over the course of 18 years and five albums which have weathered as many trends, the Atlanta quartet continues to confound and refuses to compromise. New album, Verloren is the band’s most daring and iconoclastic work yet, one that spits in the eye of complacency and exists as a contrarian masterstroke.

Many Blessings is the experimental outlet created by Ethan Lee McCarthy (Primitive Man & Vermin Womb)

NEQUIENT is a metallic hardcore band from Chicago. Building on a foundation of thrashing d-beat, they draw influences from a broad spectrum of aggressive styles including grindcore, crust, sludge, death metal, black metal, and noise rock. The result is a uniquely punishing sound that emphasizes percussive intensity and razor-sharp hooks. Formed in 2014, NEQUIENT’s first official release was 2015’s Infinite Regress EP, the start of a longstanding collaboration with producer Pete Grossmann (Immortal Bird, Warforged) at Bricktop Recording in Chicago. Following a few personnel shifts, the group settled on its four-piece configuration and forged a debut full-length, Wolves at the Door, issued in 2018 by Nefarious Industries. On their second album, Darker Than Death or Night, NEQUIENT set out to embrace even more diverse sounds than before without sacrificing their tightly honed focus or capacity for vicious sensory assault. This is a singular breed of heavy music: tightly controlled yet satisfyingly grimy, attuned to the anxieties of an uneasy era and unconcerned about fitting into the preconceived boundaries of subgenre. Produced by Grossmann, mixed by Sanford Parker (Voivod, Yob, Eyehategod) and mastered by Collin Jordan (Harm’s Way, Windhand), the album features artwork and design by Scott Shellhamer as well as a guest vocal turn from Eddie Gobbo of Something is Waiting.