Gimme Radio Program Director, Brian Turner, delivers the top 5 jaw-dropping tracks on Gimme Radio.
BENIGHTED – Brutus
No mere Cannibal Corpse redux, Benighted align their horrorcore/deathgrind overload with your expected tales of slice-n-dice, oedipal issues, eating limbs and appendages, but add some contemporary twists and off-the-brand fascination musically (they cover Slipknot's "Get This" for example). Album is out April 10th on Season of Mist and should delight all psychotics.
SICARIUS – Bia
A sophomore release from a seriously sick USBM outfit out of Southern Cal, Sicarius spray the walls, a thrash tornado of misanthropy, with a March LP on M-Theory due. Supposedly pretty amazing live, look forward to checking more of this out.
THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER – Verminous
Landing a big slot on a Testament/Municipal Waste tour starting April 20th is only one sign that 2020 might be the year TBDM blows up to high volumes of recognition that previously eluded. The title track preview of their new LP definitely shows an evolution in production though thankfully one that keeps the 'verminous' element alive. Trevor Strnad's unfiltered bark still sits square front and center around the flurry of chaos this band churns out, it's pure facepunch all the way aided by some subterranean undercurrents of weird sound design. Their true fandom for deep and varied metal is indeed a driving element of their art, a band everyone can get on board with and relate to.
ÆVANGELIST: The Origin and the End of All: Pain of the Fallen
Now revamped in Finland, Matron Thorn's multi-faceted psychedelic black/death project has now recruited ex-Anorexia Nervosa throatshredder Stéphane Gerbaud, and the forthcoming 'Nightmarecatcher' (Hells Headbangers) assembles a plethora of heady ideas into one long epic journey. This 17 minute segment zones into a cosmic vaccum that builds into slow unfurling layers of tumult, undercurrents of echo-delay vocals surge from the ether over sheets of glissando, high pitch beds of noise and churning washing machine rhythms. Dense as all hell and not easy to peg, but rewarding.
PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS – Reducer
A pretty suitable video clip motif of 70s/Sabbath/Beat Club, and we'll eschew any clever pig-related puns like "they're really clean animals, this band sounds dirty" etc. But flashback imagery aside Newcastle UK's Pigs x7 speed up the formula well above the usually Orange amp-leaners/sludge heads. Raw punk spirit conjoins the swirling psychedelic maw at hand, pretty sproingy for stoner metal but still hitting the spot on the sofa just right. Get in the trough (sorry).
