OUR LIST OF 2012’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: PART 8

This is Part 8 of our list of the year’s most infectious extreme metal songs. Each day until the list is finished, I’m posting two songs that made the cut. For more details about what this list is all about and how it was compiled, read the introductory post via this link. To see the selections that preceded the two we’re announcing today, click here.

Well, it’s time for some fucking death metal, also known as death fucking metal and metal of fucking death, depending on how excited you are or how much you’ve had to drink. I’m pretty excited about both of today’s bands. They’re both from the UK and both of them produced 2012 albums that vaulted them onto lots of people’s radar screens. They both churn out music that’s the aural equivalent of sticking your head in a blast furnace, and as a side note, their album covers remain among my favorites of the past year.

BLOODSHOT DAWN

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve written about this band and their self-titled 2012 album, which remains one of my favorite releases of the year (as explained in my January review). In April,we featured an official video for a track from the album called “Visions”, and in August we followed that with their video for “Godless”, which is the song I picked for this list.

It’s a massive jolt of swarming riffage, compelling groove, diseased melody, and eye-popping solos that leave no part of your face un-melted. Listening is like being kicked in the head by a pissed-off hyperkinetic mule and then begging the mule for more. This is another album from which I could easily have picked other songs for this list (I’m also especially partial to “Quantum Apocalypse”), but “Godless” wins by a nose.

http://www.facebook.com/BloodshotDawn
http://bloodshotdawn.bandcamp.com/

“GODLESS”

[audio:https://www.nocleansinging.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/04-Godless.mp3|titles=Bloodshot Dawn – Godless]

DYSCARNATE

Dyscarnate’s debut album And So It Came To Pass also got its fair share of attention here at NCS last year, and it was another album that was the source of more than one candidate for this list. This three-man wrecking crew pile it on with straight-ahead, battering ram riffs that compel attention, an excellent rhythm section, and a nice-and-nasty vocal tandem. It’s a galvanizing mix of old and new death metal styles with a palpable hardcore influence that I really enjoyed.

For the longest time, I was certain that my pick from this album would be “The Promethean”, but then after recently listening to the album one more time I had a last-minute change of heart. Again by a nose, I’ve picked “Engraving Ecstasy” as the next addition to our Most Infectious list. The drumming on this album is a genuine pleasure to hear, and this song is a good example of that aspect of the album, and I dig the way these guys have worked in some old-school, Dying Fetus-style breakdowns, too.

http://www.facebook.com/Dyscarnate

“ENGRAVING ECSTASY”

[audio:https://www.nocleansinging.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/8-Audio-Track.mp3|titles=Dyscarnate-Engraving Ecstasy]