Hollywood Undead have returned, the masks are still firmly back on, and they are dishing out the pain with a new track that pays tribute to the greats.
It’s called ‘1×1’ and finds the band at their bold and belligerant best. Bolstered by a sample of Slayer’s iconic ‘Raining Blood’ riff, the collective feed off the heaviness, both in tone and stature, of what they are working with and deals out some of their hardest bars in years. It’s a crushing, honest, confident and sensationally catchy display of everything that the band represents. Heart, soul and brotherhood in abundance, with a hook that will be stuck in your ears for weeks.
If you know what it’s like to make it through the darkness, you will find a piece of yourself in here.
The band had this to say about the track, stating, “This song is about resilience. People are always going to doubt you or try to bring you down, but the point is getting back up every time and reminding them you’re still here, and that you can’t be replaced.”
It’s the band’s first music since last Summer when they released ‘SAVIOR’, which sounds like this:
The band will return to the UK this Summer, playing Download Festival. They join Limp Bizkit, Guns N’ Roses, Linkin Park, Halestorm, Architects, A Day To Remember, Feeder, The All-American Rejects, Scooter, Cavalera, Blood Incantation, Static-X and many MANY more.
It will be taking place between June 12-14 at the world-famous Donington Park. Tickets are available right now from right here.
Mike Silver, the Montreal-born producer better known as CFCF, is following up his cult-favorite 2021 LP Memoryland with his new album L.U.V. this June. Along with today’s announcement, Silver is sharing the record’s amped-up lead single “Let’s Kill Ourselves,” a tongue-in-cheek brain-rattler featuring Touching Ice and TECHG1RLS. While Memoryland saw Silver excavate some of his…
Monstrosity have been a death metal institution for over 30 years. They were part of the big Floridian death metal boom of the late 80s/early 90s, but were always overshadowed by the likes of Death, Morbid Angel, Deicide, and Obituary. That said, their 1992 Imperial Doom debut brought the death-thrashing thunder and introduced the world to one George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher. He and his neck left after their second album to join Cannibal Corpse, but Monstrosity soldiered on, releasing a string of good to very good albums, including their most recent, 2018s The Passage of Existence. With 2 original members remaining, the band is now rounded out with a new guitarist and vocalist. Can the infusion of fresh blood keep the Monstrosity carcass moving in the right direction for 7th album, Screams from Beneath the Surface?
For a long-time listener of the band, opener “Banished to the Skies” may cause a jolt. It’s an Amon Amarth-esque melodeath piece with a bit of an epic vibe, which is not the usual Monstrosity modality. It’s a good song with a dark, brooding mood, fluid guitar work, and moments that remind me of vintage Edge of Sanity, but it’s definitely not what I would expect from these Florida men. Things quickly revert to caveman death thrashery on “The Colossal Rage,” and the mission statement is to pummel with lead pipe savagery. New throat Ed Webb (ex-Massacre) is effectively brutal, and the riffs have touches of Cannibal Corpse and old school Deicide. It’s entirely solid, entertaining death metal and sure to get the blood moving. “The Atrophied” is even more frenetic and thrashified, with slower, more epic Viking metal segments that serve as a contrast. The solos are colorful and beautifully melodic, which makes them pop out from the caveman Viking aesthetic.
The band clearly wanted to try several different things here. Their core thrashed-up death metal sound is present, but with overlays of epic melo death and doom that add dimensions to their blue-collar thugery. “Fortunes Engraved in Blood” is an example where the band tries to bring all these elements together. It’s part Floridian death, part macho melodeath, with touches of prog in the guitar work. The fact that it works is a testament to their writing and playing. The remainder of Screams features tracks with the various elements playing a greater or lesser role, and most of them work well enough. “The Thorns” is a darker, doomy piece that feels especially sharp, and “The Dark Aura” treads the same muddy battlefield as Bolt Thrower with slower power chugs and a grinding, inevitable feeling. It’s all well done, competent death metal that tries to push the envelope creatively in small ways, but unfortunately, much of it sits in that “good but not much more” category. A few of the meaner, more violent cuts reach higher since the death-thrash approach is Monstrosity’s best weapon, and why people come to the monster yard in the first place. At just under 44 with no song feeling like filler, Screams is a pretty easy spin with plenty of raw energy. The production is crisp and clean, but wholly lacking the edge and murk I prefer in my death metal.
Ed Webb is a well-traveled, extra-seasoned death vet, and his vocals are a good anchor for what Monstrosity do here. He’s got a classically big, burly death roar and can pull out effective blackened screams when called upon, though he can feel like a standard-issue croaker at times. Guitarist Matt Barnes and new axe Justin Walker show all kinds of talent and skill, forging nasty death riffs, ragged thrash leads, and some highly impressive, nearly neo-classical solo work. Some moments take me back to the glory days of 90s James Murphy, and that’s a great thing. This is a very talented crew, and they have the ambition to go beyond the usual caveman fare, which I respect.
Screams from Beneath the Surface is a solid death metal platter with a few barn burners and some interesting twists and surprises. It likely won’t make many end-of-year lists, but Monstrosity are still alive, capable, and trying new things. Not every death metal act with 30-plus years in the game can claim the same. Worth a listen. Hail, Florida men!
photos by Lauren Racioppi Decibel Magazine is hosting an exclusive stream of the entire third album by Boston, Massachusetts-based instrumental post-metal outfit LESOTHO, A Flashing On Plain Glass, ahead of its release this Friday. The […]
Nu metal fans, start your engines. Korn frontman Jonathan Davis is doing one of the most non nu-metal things you could ever do and serving as the grand marshal for this weekend’s NASCAR Pennzoil 400 race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. That seems more of a butt rock kinda thing…
For those that don’t know what that means, a grand marshal is typically a celebrity that starts the race by saying the classic “gentlemen, start your engines” line. That’s pretty much all it is, along with other more fan-facing responsibilities.
The yearly race will happen this Sunday, March 15. The announcement of Davis’ involvement came out in an announcement on Instagram yesterday, featuring a video where we’re led to believe that he took a lap on the track in a Sick New World-branded car. I doubt he was actually behind the wheel, but it’s pretty cool if there’s going to be a car representing the festival in the race.
As we’ve reported in the past, Korn are going to be co-headlining Sick New World with System of a Down when the fest hits the Las Vegas Festival Grounds on April 25. For more information about who else is playing, ticketing info, and other shit you might want to know about the fest, head over to Sick New World’s site.
It’s only been two years since Kacey Musgraves released the smooth, pretty, wellness-oriented Deeper Well, but I could have sworn it was three or four. I guess it feels longer because that album glided past me, whereas prior Musgraves full-lengths took over my life for a while. Maybe this new one will get its hooks…
Photo by Jack Webb Watch/stream SIX FEET UNDERâs âUnmistakable Smell Of Deathâ HERE. American death metal pioneers SIX FEET UNDER will unleash their Next To Die full-length on April 24th through Metal Blade Records. Next […]
Boston instrumental collective Lesotho are highly adept at telling stories without using any words, as you’ll hear on A Flashing on Plain Glass, the band’s third album. Coming three years after their previous effort, A Flashing on Plain Glass uses the music to explore themes of impermanence and the fact that all things change eventually.
Bearing those ideas in mind while listening, it’s easy to connect with the message Lesothoset out to communicate. Songs like “Marigold” and “Frail Weapon” deal with a loud/quiet dynamic, subduing themselves until the time to employ big riffs and hard-hitting percussion. Other songs, like “Fetch Quest,” have a palpable sense of anxiety in the way they unfold, the loud and quiet sections teeming with energy and small movement.
Everything comes to a head on the title, final track. Lesotho take all of the tension created on each track and unleash it in a two-minute crescendo that comes in the second half of “A Flashing on Plain Glass” before quietly ending the record.
“As a band we processed a lot of our emotions around the despair and chaos happening in the modern world through this group of songs,” Lesotho reflect to Decibel. “We dug deeper into our personal influences and explored a more diverse approach to the songwriting, including incorporating elements of classical and pop and blending that with our post rock foundation. The result is an album that we feel stands on its own as a reflection of the times we’re in and how we’re coping with it. Many of the more thoughtful and serene moments on the record ended up becoming some of the heaviest music we’ve ever written.”
A Flashing on Plain Glass is out on March 13 via the band.
Monstrosity have been a death metal institution for over 30 years. They were part of the big Floridian death metal boom of the late 80s/early 90s, but were always overshadowed by the likes of Death, Morbid Angel, Deicide, and Obituary. That said,
