(In this column our Denver-based friend Gonzo brings forward five albums of varied kinds of heaviness for your consideration, all of them released in February.)
Well, February came and went, and I’m still catching up on the absolute onslaught of heavy music that emerged from it – hence the noticeable delay in putting this column together.
Alas, shit happens. I’m still recovering from last night’s Cavalera show here in Denver, in which the eponymous brothers Max and Igor led their band through a crushingly heavy Schizophrenia set that was played at breakneck speed. Even the Chaos A.D. encore cranked up the BPM. And just before they were ready to call it a night, they hauled none other than Jello Biafra on stage for a downright cathartic cover of “Nazi Punks Fuck Off,” except “Punks” was replaced with “Trumps.”
In place of a politically charged tirade of my own, I’ll just lazily approve the above with a “fuck yes” stamp of approval and carry on.
Anyway, here’s some music you should listen to that came out last month.
CHEMICIDE, VIOLENCE PREVAILS
Costa Rica’s Chemicide just dropped a new album that’s an appropriate soundtrack to moshing around a bonfire of charred billionaires.
It’s almost impossible to listen to the blistering crossover thrash from this band and not picture some kind of civil unrest. The new album Violence Prevails packs the kind of Municipal Waste-ish energy that can instantly turn a peaceful living room into a moshing warzone. The song titles give a pretty obvious sign of what’s in store, including “Parasite,” “Systemic Decay,” and “Do as I say, Not as I Do.” Meanwhile, “Red Giant” boasts scorching leads and frenetic pacing on top of lyrics that beg to be shouted in the face of a Russian oligarch.
Despite all the go-for-the-throat, burn-it-all-down aesthetic of this band (which works very fucking well, I might add), they’ve still got that unhinged sense of self-awareness. Take the minute-long outburst of “That’s Right, We’re That Spic Band!!” for all the evidence you need that you can still root for societal collapse and have fun.
https://listenable-records.bandcamp.com/album/violence-prevails
https://www.facebook.com/chemicide/
WREN, BLACK RAIN FALLS
When perusing new releases on Metal Archives, the category “atmospheric sludge” always gets my attention. Maybe it’s my lifelong membership in what I like to call the Cult of Neurisis.
And while the UK’s Wren bear some similarities to all three bands in that stupid smattering of words I use to describe this subgenre, Black Rain Falls is strong enough to cement this band’s unique identity.
Wren takes their time in building up the momentum in each song, calculating exactly the right time to pulverize and when to pull back. This formula has been done before – you might hear opening track “Flowers of Earth” and think of The Moth Gatherer, for example – but tracks like “Toil in the Undergrowth” are rooted in a slab of post-hardcore that’s tougher than a ten-foot concrete wall. Vocalist/guitarist Owen Jones boasts the kind of atonal bark that pairs perfectly with the brooding, menacing melodies found on this album. Album highlight “Metric of Grief” was one of my favorite songs of the month.
https://disciplesofwren.bandcamp.com/album/black-rain-falls
https://www.facebook.com/disciplesofwren
YEAR OF THE COBRA, S/T
Musically, it’s already been a hell of a fortuitous year for the Seattle-based psych-doom duo in Year of the Cobra. Not only is their new self-titled record some of their best work, but bassist/vocalist Amy Tung Barrysmith is also lending her fretwork talents to Amenra.
What’s always struck me about Cobra is how they make you forget they don’t have a guitar player. It probably shouldn’t work as well as it does, but the mix on this album – as with the rest of the duo’s output – sounds fucking great. The bass tone purrs beautifully under a layer of fuzz that often evokes Fu Manchu or Monolord.
The catchiness of the songwriting is what made me throw this album on repeat since it came out. “War Drop” is powered beautifully by Amy’s soaring vocals, a great opening groove, and the steady and precise kit work of Jon Barrysmith (also Amy’s husband.) The face-melting heaviness of “The Darkness” is an album highlight; the kind of song that makes you want to catch your breath long enough to bang your head after a bong rip.
https://yearofthecobra.bandcamp.com/album/year-of-the-cobra
https://www.facebook.com/yearofthecobraband
XENOTRONE, Into the Void
I didn’t know much about Ukraine’s Xenotrone before I listened to their full-length debut album Into the Void, but one thing was very fucking clear from the first few seconds of it:
It’s definitely not a Black Sabbath cover album.
I say this without exaggeration: In another reality, this band would be eastern Europe’s Death.
Their insanely complex tech-death songwriting instantly makes you think “where the hell have these guys been hiding?” (And in all seriousness, I hope the answer to that question isn’t “hiding in a basement from literal artillery shells.”)
Xenotrone might wear their influences on their tatted-up sleeves, but when the music is this good, that’s perfectly fine. The G-force produced by their sudden time changes and furious blasting could liquify organs. See the mind-blowing “I Have No Mouth But I Must Scream” for proof. Frankly, is there a better song title for the first few months of 2025? Kill me.
My mind was even further blown when I looked up this band on Metal Archives and discovered that this powerhouse consists of only three very talented dudes. Songs that are this dense aren’t easy to pull off, and Void is an incredible achievement for a debut album.
https://xenotronethrash.bandcamp.com/album/into-the-void
MORAST, FENTANYL
“Holy shit,” I remember saying out loud when I first finished listening to the new album from Germany’s Morast.
This is an album that’s colder than a Bavarian forest in wintertime and twice as dark. Driven by unsettling, nasty riffs, the album reverberates with smoldering anger. The band’s DNA is clearly rooted in black metal, but it trades in blast beats in favor of massively brooding mid-tempo menace. Track 2, “Aratron,” could shake whole buildings to their foundations if played loudly enough.
Slower tempos suit this band’s approach to songwriting incredibly well, though. The plodding stomp of “Walls Come Closer” is nothing short of suffocating. When I was listening to it just now, while typing this, I felt like my speaker was sucking the air out of the room. It’s not often I stumble on a chunk of filthy-ass blackened doom metal that evokes all these feelings in one record.
There’s hardly a forgettable moment throughout the six tracks here, and I really can’t recommend this beast enough to anyone reading this.
https://morast-vanrecords.bandcamp.com/album/fentanyl
https://www.facebook.com/OfficialMorast
Like what you’ve heard? Follow my best-of-2025 playlist for selections from everything you’ve just read, and a whole helluva lot more.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7zWqE685GVpuB5M3qRDvog?si=08d80939b43e4d89