(NCS reader and commenter Black Shuck provides this guest post as an introduction to two Midwest metal bands who are worth getting to know.)

In the bygone days of old (last year), when I was a foolish young college student in Galesburg, Illinois, full of hopes and dreams and enough coffee to kill a small child if that child were a pansy, I was introduced to the area’s local metal scene. Two bands who I became familiar with there have already been covered here at No Clean Singing: The Horde and A Hill to Die Upon. But there are two more local gems from the several-states-wide corn maze that is the Midwest who I feel people need to know about: Ashes of Avarice and Awaking Leviathan. So I have decided to take a break from trampling flowerbeds and relaxing with my favorite drink (bourbon mixed with several shots of bourbon) to enlighten you about them.

I’ve never been sure how to classify either of the bands. Ashes of Avarice remind me of Black Anvil in the sense that their music seems at its heart based in black metal, but is influenced by so many other things as to be a different genre entirely. It’s dark, yet it’s a heavy kind of dark, rather than an evil one. It makes you want to headbang and put your fist in the air, to rock the fuck out and have a good time, as opposed to, say, making you want to prance around in the forest and drink the blood of koalas, or whatever it is Satanic Tyrant Werewolf does these days.

The riffs tend toward thrash mixed with traditional heavy metal, yet they don’t really fit into either of these genres, nor are they black metal riffs. They’re inventive, they keep the music interesting without being experimental, they lend it atmosphere. The vocals stay mid-range for the most part (a notable exception being the slow, menacing “Our Hangman’s Sweet Embrace,” where they venture into death metal territory at points), yet still have just enough rawness and power to complement the heaviness of the music and lend it a rough edge. Continue reading »