Mike Stack is a guy who has carved out a significant portion of extreme music history with pure, unrelenting RIFF. Based in the 518/Troy area, Mike has written, recorded and performed since 1989 with some of Troy, NY’s best. Flat Broke. Execution Style. Politics of Contraband. Withstand. Dying Breed. When Jason Bittner (of Shadows Fall fame) decided to take a break in 2007 from the NWOAHM touring/recording circuit to revive his old death metal/hardcore band Burning Human, he recruited Mike Stack along for the ride. Moving beyond the metal-influenced hardcore of his youth, Mike started Of Old in 2004 to fully flex his metal roots, a project that soon became the progressive, technical death metal of The Final Sleep and his primary focus. And on top of all of that, there’s lost recordings, bands and projects forgotten by time and documentation. “Do you still have any recordings of Harbinger? Maybe.” It’s been a storied career for Mike, from the glory days of metallic hardcore at QE2 to fights with Madball to a rare stint on the 2000’s Van’s Warped Tour to fully swinging for the progressive death metal fences in today’s saturated metal market. I recently had the opportunity to speak to Mike about his entire career, his legendary run in defining Troycore and the culture and memories of that era, his experiences and influences in metal, The Final Sleep (!), the realities of promotion and recognition, gear, fried chicken and much more. Check it all out below, pick up The Final Sleep’s debut I here and be on the lookout for their sophomore effort soon! Follow The Final Sleep on Facebook here, on Instagram here and on Bandcamp here.
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Following two collaborations, two solo full lengths and a plethora of EPs, splits and singles, Trumpeting Ecstasy sees harsh grind death pioneers Full Of Hell entering a new era in sound. Following in the direction of the band’s Amber Mote… EP and their subsequently released split with Nails, Full Of Hell’s latest effort again leans towards the band’s death metal roots, inching farther from yet still retaining the group’s core musical identity. Imbued with higher registers of sound, greater emphases on technicality and death metal atmospherics, Trumpeting Ecstasy is a progressive, exultant exercise in sound. It pummels with a forward driving, almost-upbeat swagger with a surprising sense of form and accessibility that speaks to the instrumental mastery, sub-genre knowledge and cohesion of the band as a unit. Continue Reading
The mighty Weekend Nachos are streaming their final album, Apology, over at Noisey here. Check it out along with a tight interview and the band’s remaining tour dates (Sorry, Americans). Pick up Apology on CD via Relapse Records, on vinyl via Deep Six Records (soon) and on cassette tape via Toxicbreed’s Funhouse.
Grounded in hardcore punk and merged with metal, powerviolence and grindcore, the 2007-born Nails exist to brutalize listeners on a single frequency: all hard, all heavy, all the time. With a complete lack of pretense and a singular primitive vision, Nails deal solely in scalding aggression, intentionally melding only the most vicious elements of each extreme music genre into a lean, pummeling concoction all their own. The result? An aural poisonous kool-aid unique in tone, composition and attack that has been consumed and hailed by extreme music fans and metal legends the world over. This June will bring forth You Will Never Be One Of Us, the third full length installment and Nuclear Blast Records debut from the group. I recently had the chance to chat with frontman Todd Jones about the new album, genre and identity, his career in hardcore, Slayer and more. Check it all out below. You Will Never Be One Of Us arrives on CD, cassette, vinyl and digital download this June 17th via Nuclear Blast Records. Continue Reading
If you grew up with your teenage years filtered through the horridness of the early 2000s deathcore genre, you’ve probably ended up watching or being shown a hypothetical YouTube video entitled “HARDEST DEATHCORE BREAKDOWNS OF 2008”. This hypothetical video was most likely a cacophony of monotonously rhythmic, one-note chug sections, driven out of a slew of now-dead bands that existed as a physical manifestation of that one-note monotony. Like Rats is a band that’s sort of like that video, except that their hypothetical video is entitled “HARDEST RIFFS OF 80s/90s EXTREME METAL” and it’s a chopped and screwed mash-up rather than a straight compilation. And by that charge, Like Rats do not fall into the same pit of ruin. Their one-note monotony is replaced by personal vision and ambitions and is backed by adherence to the freshness, innovation and drive of a time where a Morbid Angel did not sound like a Gorguts did not sound like an Immolation and on and on. Continue Reading
Tucson, AZ powerviolence/hardcore outfit Sex Prisoner have released “Loaded Dice”, a new single off of their upcoming Spring-expected debut LP, Tannhauser Gate. “Loaded Dice” is a prime example of Sex Prisoner formulaic perfection: stomach-churning bass, heavy sludge mixed with sharp explosions of violence for push-moshing/shoving and a modicum of comfort with straight-forwards hardcore riffage for spin-kicking your fellow member to oblivion. There’s even a “Let’s go!” mosh call.
Check out “Loaded Dice” over at CVLT Nation here, check out Sex Prisoner live (dates and details below) and look out for Tannhauser Gate via Deep Six Records (US) and RSRec (Europe). “Loaded Dice” will be available as an exclusive flexi only at Sex Prisoner’s Los Angeles show later this month. Continue Reading
Baltimore hardcore supergroup Angel Du$t (members of Turnstile, Trapped Under Ice, Mindset) have released “Upside Down”, the second single off of their upcoming sophomore record Rock The Fuck On Forever. “Upside Down” is a Ramones-inspired fun, melodic track that follows in the pop punk direction of the record’s first single. If the two singles released so far are any indication of what’s to come, Angel Du$t are poised to be one of the chillest sounds for this upcoming summer. Stream “Upside Down” and read more about the origins of the track via The Fader here and pre-order Upside Down via Grave Mistake Records here.
Rock The Fuck On Forever comes out on May 29th via Pop Wig Records. Sign up here to be notified when pre-orders for RTFOF drop.
Chicago hardcore unit Weekend Nachos have released “Writhe”, the first single off of their swansong record Apology, due for release on CD and digital formats on May 20th via Relapse Records. Recorded again by the band’s very own Andy Nelson at Bricktop Studios, Apology will close out the band’s decade long presence with a triumphant thirteen tracks of self-described “utter punishment… sounding more dangerous and urgent than ever before”.
Vocalist John Hoffman said this about the album,
“Honestly, it’s a really really good record. I was nervous the whole time we were writing it, because it was like ‘This is it…this is our swansong. I hope we aren’t scraping the bottom of the barrel here.’ Truth is, we did scrape the bottom of the barrel, and it was the very last of the great material we’re capable of.”
Stream “Writhe” below courtesy of Metalsucks and pre-order Apology on CD here and digital formats here. A separate tape release for Apology will emerge concurrently in May via Toxicbreed’s Funhouse and a vinyl release will come via Deep Six Records at a later date. Be sure to catch Weekend Nachos on their last tour dates with peers Primitive Man, Wormrot and The Afternoon Gentlemen, dates and details below. Continue Reading
Long Island metallic hardcore act King Nine have released “The Art Of War”, the title track off of an upcoming single to be released on Closed Casket Activities later this year. The Art Of War will bide time for the band’s sophomore record (following 2013’s pummeling Scared To Death), which is slated for recording later this summer. Check out “The Art Of War” below courtesy of Lambgoat and follow King Nine on Facebook here for further updates. Continue Reading
Metallic hardcore legends Merauder (who recently announced that they will hang up their boots earlier this year) and the active-once-more Detroit heavy hardcore outfit Cold As Life will be headlining Kentucky’s Summer Brawl 2016 Festival later this August. The festival will also feature the reformation of Grand Rapids, MI hardcore outfit Snakes, Drowning, No Victory, Detain, Lowered AD and more of contemporary hardcore’s new blood. Check out the full day by day lineup below and pick up tickets for Summer Brawl 2016 here. Continue Reading