This Week Belongs to the Lifers
Plenty of ink is going to the big mainstream drops this Friday, and that’s fine. But if you care about actual playing, this week belongs to the lifers. Every one of these five is a band that’s been at it long enough to know exactly what it’s doing, and it shows.
#1 — Protest the Hero — Within (Independent) | Progressive Metalcore
Six years since Palimpsest, and this time there’s no label attached at all. They crowdfunded Volition and self-released through Spinefarm before, but Within is the first Protest the Hero record with nobody but the band behind it. It turns the lens inward instead of outward: loss, getting older in a band, Rody Walker wrestling with his own voice. The guitar work from Hoskin and Millar is somehow faster and more frenetic than anything they’ve put out, and Nolly’s mix keeps every note legible. This is the one I’ve had circled all month.
#2 — Psycroptic — The Pulse of Annihilation (Metal Blade) | Technical Death Metal
Psycroptic have been Australia’s tech-death standard-bearers for over two decades, and they’ve never made a record to coast on. The Pulse of Annihilation is the kind of precision that separates tech-death that actually rips from tech-death that just shows off. Joe Haley’s riffing is still some of the most inventive in the genre, and the rhythm section sounds inhuman in the best possible way.
#3 — Haken — in a fever dream (EP) (InsideOut) | Progressive Metal
Five tracks that punch well above their EP weight, with George Lever (Loathe, Sleep Token) on the mix and Bryan Beller and Nolly guesting on bass. Haken don’t do throwaways.
#4 — Left to Die — Initium Mortis (Relapse) | Death Metal
Rick Rozz and Terry Butler back in the Death songbook, with Matt Harvey and Gus Rios alongside them. This isn’t nostalgia bait, it’s the actual lineage playing the music they helped invent.
#5 — Black Sites — For Eternity (Independent) | Progressive Heavy Metal
Chicago’s most underrated prog-metal outfit hits album five with Dan Swanö on the mix. Voivod angularity, King’s X melody, no label push, and better than most records that get one.
Five bands with nothing left to prove and something to say anyway. Run it.
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