ACEPHALIX

The 2008 demo from San Francisco's ACEPHALIX. I've seen them play punk shows, and they confuse the crowd because the music they deliver is metal. I've seen them play metal shows, and they confuse the crowd because they are punks. But every time I see them they improve, and I've heard their upcoming LP and it is a fucking monster.  Since this demo, ACEPHALIX has changed line-ups a few times, most notable is the absence of the female vocalist on this recording, but the current roster is more dialed than just about any hardcore/punk/crust band I've ever seen live - these dudes fucking live in the studio and it shows. Deeply personal and bitter lyrics (read "Head Wounds," fukkn shit!) that are searching, set to plainly ferocious music that. Last year's EP on Prank was a killer, but I was floored when I heard the LP recording...perfect marriage of evil hardcore, MOTORHEAD paced metal and brutal crust and it's still totally addictive.  I pulled this tape out as soon as I got home, and yeah, it fucking rules too.

ACEPHALIX

ACEPHALIX

 

When ACEPHALIX landed in the late 20000s no one really seems to know what happened or how to react. After a couple of demos and their bulldozer debut on Prank, they seemed to migrate organically out of the DIY punk realm and when Southern Lord released Deathless Master in 2012 I honestly didn't even notice for a while...now, a decade later, this is still kicking my ass. Old school death metal churn clashes with DBeat stench and ACEPHALIX emerge from the depths as an unheralded monolith. To be held "In Arms Of Nothing" all damn day is to understand the sonic manifestation of involuntary solitude. 

DEATHLESS MASTER

ACEPHALIX

With the release of Aporia earlier this year, San Francisco's ACEPHALIX set the bar high for fans of bulldozing metalcrust dirges, but before the wax has even cooled down, they are back with a new demo and a slightly different approach. Moving even further from the crust that marked the band's early output, Interminable Night is a complete low end metal lurch, taking cues from Swedish death metal and ramping the BPMs down to a steady stoner tempo. These songs sound HUGE, and make me quite anxious to hear (and see) the next chapter. 

INTERMINABLE NIGHT

UNDERGANG

UNDERGANG are a part of the resurgence of old school death metal that some friends of mine rave about. Filthy, mid tempo churning insanity with gutteral vocals...this two song teaser for their next LP was released for their jaunt with ACEPHALIX earlier this year. Of course, I didn't see them on that tour because the night they played SF I waited in line to see KREAYSHAWN, who was just starting to blow up into a media frenzy of racially charged hipster confusion, at some nauseating 16th & South Van Ness flat hat and flavored blunt-o-rama (we didn't make it in, thankfully, and I honestly think that the two hour wait in line was more entertaining - and enlightening - than seeing the show would have been). Realizing we had skipped out on a sure thing (ACEPHALIX and UNDERGANG) for a random shot at ridiculous mainstream merriment, we jetted up to the Tenderloin just in time to miss the metal show at a tight pants,  coke in the bathroom (nah, fuck it, coke it the corner),  please somebody just fuck me before I pass out shithole popular with people younger and hornier than me. With no successes in two attempts, we went to a nondescript second story joint around the corner and strutted down the bar kicking over people's drinks, all three of us screaming karaoke "Holy Diver" while a room packed with norms got on their knees and thrust frat boy metal horns in the air. After last call, our host invited us over for BBQ on his roof (it was 2:30 am), and when we declined he promised that next time we would "do it right," and honestly that scared me a little bit. It was a good night, and I drunkenly listened to these two songs several times when I got home, wondering if seeing them live would have been as interesting as the night I had just experienced. I'm guessing probably not, but it would have been way more metal.

UNDERGANG

ABSURDIST

From the same arid concrete abyss that brought us ROTOZAZA comes ABSURDIST. Heavier on the Scandinavian and death metal influences and simply heavier on the heavy, this is a churning blast of filthy guttural stench forced through tortured guitars. HELLSHOCK and ACEPHALIX crashing headfirst into DISCLOSE.

ABSURDIST

EÄRTHDÖGS

Yes. Just....yes. I'm not quite sure if this is a functional band or a project, but I saw them once a few months ago and there are two physical manifestations of their studio evil that suggest EÄRTHDÖGS might exist in the actual realm, and this makes me happy. Devastatingly evil blackened industrial crust from ACEPHALIX, DEPRESSOR, NIGEL PEPPERCOCK members, this is some legitimately over-world insanity. And then....then you slap the 13+ minute "Inverted Sermon" piece on the flip and I'm just completely fukkd. Get on board punks...you'll thank me when the smoke clears. 

SCUM SECT MCMVI