Reviews

Bitter Melody

Divine Sentence Demo ’22 EP

Absolute perfect execution. Absolute visceral destruction. Swiss vegan metalcore has never sounded…well, maybe it’s never sounded like anything before this demo leveled its corner of the internet back in 2022, but now it sounds like fucking DIVINE SENTENCE. All of the metalcore tropes are here, but this shit is so unbelievably fierce, and everything that you expect to happen? It happens, but more. The chugs, the moshes, the vocals, the guitar squeals…I didn’t know I needed this, and now I don’t know that I can go on without it.

DShK Power For Them, Pennies For You cassette

Hardcore D-beat fury from Asheville, NC, DSHK orates from the bellows of the publicly squalored and community denied. This is a project born out of the frustrations and confusion of the pandemic, where tensions in the United States are at a boiling point, and it shows. Five tracks of inspired hate for fucking pigs, patronizing politicians, and even pointing a finger at pacifism in general and its inherent snail’s pace. No offense to snails. But fuck all cops. Anyway, DSHK puts their pennies where their mouth is too, donating a generous percentage to mutual aid groups in NC with every tape sold. Also contains one HERÄTYS cover, and it’s a great one. This is a two-piece, covering guitar/vocals and drums/bass/vocals, who come across as dueling punk twins. The execution levels are similar, but they echo and support one another. Production-wise, I am reminded of CALLOUSED on the rhythm and percussion side and HOLY MOUNTAIN on the lead and vocal side, but significantly grittier. A nasty sting of a demo. Check it out.

High Cost What’s Living Worth? 12″

Heavy powerviolence out of NYC. The drums are incredible, going from blistering fast speeds to slow and low breakdowns within mere seconds. The guitars and bass follow along just as closely, and appear to borrow some tricks from black and thrash metal, a really dark tone set early on that continues through the whole record. The vocals are easily the most impressive part: raw, unwavering barking that comes off very natural and relentless. Doesn’t sound like they had to resort to studio tricks to give them that edge. Speaking of, fantastic production and tight as hell.

No Right Senescence CD

Metallic hardcore that uses a lot of technical guitar work, for lack of a better term. The first song starts out with some kind of guitar thing that sounds a lot like a drill. That shit is annoying and almost kinda ruins this from the jump. Luckily it’s not super prevalent in the rest of the songs. There’s nothing groundbreaking here, just your standard fare for this type of band. The bad? Aside from the weird guitar thing on the first song, the last song has one of those parts where there’s a sing-song-y dude that was all the rage like fifteen or so years ago. To me, that ruins a perfectly good hardcore band more often than not. The good? The vocals. While they may be pissed-sounding, the singer isn’t trying to sound to cookie-cutter metal/hardcore tough. Solid outing here, enough to have me interested in hearing more.