RECALCITRANT ROUNDUP: REDUX (Part 2)

(NCS contributor Austin Weber has delivered unto us a three-part introduction to new and forthcoming releases by 7 bands. In this second part, he focuses on Beaten To Death and Inanimate Existence. Part 1 can be found here.)

The end of the year is usually a slower time for new music releases, a time when much alcohol is consumed and countless amounts of money are wasted on bullshit soon forgotten. But fortunately I’ve got plenty of releases and new songs to catch up on and spread the word about.

BEATEN TO DEATH

I first heard about Beaten To Death in the way I have for many a band, by scanning the always handy Metal-Archives.com. I was re-visiting She Said Destroy’s page and noticed that their vocalist Anders was in this group. Intrigued, I bought their 2011 debut, Xes and Strokes. What I got was a no-frills grind record that was killer from start to finish, even if they weren’t doing anything anyone else wasn’t. They just recently dropped their second album, Dødsfest!, and like their last record, it sonically benefits from the raw intensity gained from being recorded live in their practice space.

I also am highly amused by the song titles this time around, with some of the best sporting titles such as: “True Norwegian Internet Metal Warrior”, “Cat Olympics”, “The Flesh Prince With Swell Hair”, and “Nazi Slippers”. The atypical-for-metal, cartoony and colorful artwork adds yet another awesome facet to this release.

In the Mike Judge film Extract, a character wearing a Cephalic Carnage shirt talks about playing in a melodic grindcore band. Which is a funny in-joke for metalheads, and yet that concept came to mind as I listened to Dødsfest!, since it does have a melodic component uncommon in grind. This inclusion not only takes Beaten To Death to new heights, but puts them in their own grindcore class, doing something others aren’t. If you need a quality grind fix, this is an album to seek out.

http://beatentodeath.bandcamp.com/album/d-dsfest
https://www.facebook.com/beatentodeath

 

INANIMATE EXISTENCE

I placed Inanimate Existence’s debut, entitled Liberation Through Hearing, on my NCS 2012 “best of” list for good reason. Liberation Through Hearing is a phenomenal album of transcendent technical brutal death metal but with an experimental side graced by acoustic playing, with flamenco and Latin ideas, and rounded out by devoting half the album to instrumental pieces. Now, only a year later, they’ve dropped a new track and announced that their follow-up will be released in 2014.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gX_DUcMNmo

This new track, “The Rune Of Destruction”, offers much in the vein of what they played on their last record, while expanding the scope of their sound significantly. While it may not be indicative of the whole album, this new song sports a pronounced melodic side that ups the epicness of the tune. The other big shift is the inclusion of singing in their music, which is not something you would normally ever hear in brutal death metal. But thankfully, they make it fit expertly. This beautiful singing comes courtesy of guest Kaitlyn Kehl.

Inanimate Existence showed on their debut that they weren’t afraid to experiment, and from the looks of this new song, that trend will carry over in new and exciting ways in their follow-up.

https://www.facebook.com/TheInanimateExistence