Pupil Slicer

Pupil Slicer a three-piece mathcore band from London, England that began in 2016. Their debut full-length Mirrors came out earlier this year on Prosthetic Records. Mirrors is undoubtedly one of the most impactful albums to come out thus far, featuring an incredible display of lasting neck-breaking riff shifts and vocals of wild cathartic release. They take the groundwork of metalcore laid by greats like Converge and The Dillinger Escape Plan and blend it with elements grindcore, death metal, and a technical prowess that makes this one of the most cacophonous releases of the year. Highly, highly recommended. Enjoy.

Pupil Slicer (2017)

1. Subterranean Suffocation

2. Aromatic Bloodshed

3. Pupil Slicer

4. Deathlust

5. Viscous Reminder

6. Visions

7. The Eternal Penance

Death Goals/Pupil Slicer (2017)

1. Death Goals - Leech

2. Pupil Slicer - Sophie

Sense Offender/Pupil Slicer (2019)

1. Sense Offender - God Complex

2. Sense Offender - Godless Complex

3. Pupil Slicer - Spectral

4. Pupil Slicer - Crusher

Mirrors (2021)

1. Martyrs

2. Stabbing Spiders

3. L'Appel Du Vide

4. Panic Defense

5. Husk

6. Vilified

7. Worthless

8. Wounds Upon My Skin

9. Interlocuter

10. Mirrors Are More Fun Than Television

11. Save The Dream, Kill Your Friends

12. Collective Unconscious

Blossom (2023)

1. Glaring Dark Of Night

2. Momentary Actuality

3. Departure In Solitude

4. Creating The Devil In Our Image

5. The Song At Creation's End

6. No Temple

7. Terminal Lucidity

8. Language Of The Stars

9. Dim Morning Light

10. Blossom

Fleshwork (2025)

1. Heather

2. Gordian

3. Sacrosanct

4. Innocence

5. Black Scrawl

6. Nomad

7. Fleshwork

8. White Noise

9. Cenote

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Caustic Wound

Caustic Wound are a five-piece grindcore/death metal band from Seattle, Washington that have been around since at least. They were formed by members of Mortiferum, Magrudergrind, and Cerebral Rot. Their debut LP came out last year on Profound Lore, and is an unabashedly brutal take on deathgrind with some incredibly heavy, guttural vocals at the forefront. I don't like to a ton of stuff in this realm anymore, but Death Posture has undoubtedly stuck like an icepick. Enjoy.

Grinding Terror (2018)

1. Alone In The Aftermath

2. Guillotine

3. Visions of Torture

4. Cabal

5. Writhe

6. Mutated Reality

7. Insolvent Blood

8. Grinding Terror

Death Posture (2020)

1. Death Posture

2. Cemetery Planet

3. Visions of Torture

4. Black Bag Asphyxiation

5. Terror Bomber

6. Blast Casualty

7. Ritual Trappings

8. Uranium Decay

9. Cabal

10. Acid Attack

11. Invisible Cell

12. Guillotine

13. Autonomous Weapons System

12. Cataclysmic Gigaton

Bandcamp 

Spotify

Apple Music

New Lows

New Lows are a four-piece hardcore band from Boston, Massachusetts that began in 2006. Started by members of Think I Care and The Prowl. Sonically, they can be loosely compared to hardcore bands such as Ringworm and take pretty strong death metal influences from Entombed and Bolt Thrower. New Lows put out a slew of heavy, aggressive and unceasing music, with their best known work (their last EP and LP) being released by Deathwish. Enjoy.

The 2007 Demo (2007)

1. New Lows

2. Lowest Depths

3. Lucifer Crucified

4. Loathe

New Lows (2008)

1. Hatchethead

2. Lowest Depths

3. Hung Up On The Crossroads

4. Lucifer Crucified

5. Compulsive Repulsion (It Never Ends)

Live On WERS (2008)

1. Hatchethead

2. Lowest Depths

3. Hung Up On The Crossroads

4. Loathe

5. Lucifer Crucified

6. Compulsive Repulsion (It Never Ends)

Paincave Session Vol. 1 (2009)

1. Intro/Born And Razed

2. Plague Grounds

3. Compulsion Repulsion (It Never Ends)

4. Raise The Curtain

Harvest Of The Carcass (2010)

1. Stagnant Strides

2. Born And Razed

3. Plaguegrounds

4. Last Of The Rats

5. Harvest of The Carcass

6. The Horrible & The Miserable

7. Blinding Grief

8. Anguish

9. New Lows

10. The Pounding & The Hollering

Abhorrent Endings (2014)

1. Abhorrent Endings

2. There's No Roses In The Rubble

3. Osaka Sun

4. Carving Crosses

5. Shelter Shard

Bandcamp

Gulch

Gulch are a five-piece hardcore band from Santa Cruz, California that have been around since at least 2016, thought its members have been active in tons of local bands prior. They came together to create some of the most unhinged and unpredictable hardcore in recent years, taking on a blend of metallic hardcore and death metal influence to create chaos in its purest form. Burning Desire To Draw Last Breath is a virtually perfect EP, and a good jumping off point to get into one of the most explosive bands around. From the looks of their live shows, they are front runners in setting the bar for hardcore this decade, so I am more than pumped to see what they do next. Enjoy.

Demolition Of Human Construct (2017)

1. Lie, Deny, Sanctify

2. Eco-terror

3. Monolith

Burning Desire To Draw Last Breath (2018)

1. Contemplate/Enact

2. Flesh Pursuit

3. Burning Desire To Draw Last Breath

4. R.S.A.

5. E.P.T.S.

6. Gruel For The Beast

2019 Promo (2019)

1. Cries of Pleasure, Heavenly Pain

2. Self-Inflicted Mental Terror

Impenetrable Cerebral Fortress (2020)

1. Impenetrable Cerebral Fortress

2. Cries Of Pleasure, Heavenly Pain

3. Self-Inflicted Mental Terror

4. Lie, Deny, Sanctify

5. Fucking Towards Salvation

6. All Falls Down The Well

7. Shallow Reflective Pools of Guilt

8. Sin In My Heart

Sunami/Gulch (2021)

1. Sunami - Step Up

2. Sunami - Die Slow

3. Gulch - Bolt Swallower

4. Gulch - Accelerator

Bandcamp

Spurn

Spurn are a four-piece hardcore/grindcore band from Calgary, Alberta that have been around since 2015. Their debut LP, Comfort In Nothing, was released in 2016, and absolutely rips. The band play this noisy blend of grindcore and metallic hardcore, with elements of death metal in the mix. They utilize very technical, chunky riffs, blast beats, and some guttural, throat-shredding vocals. Lyrically, they tend to focus on sociopolitical subjects. If early Dillinger Escape Plan were really into grind, this would be it. It's a fantastic full-length spanning a ton of extreme genres, and I highly recommend it. Apparently there is a follow-up in the works, which is something to look forward to. Enjoy.

Demo (2015)

1. Spoiled Failures

2. Newsfeed

Comfort In Nothing (2016)

1. Spoiled Failures

2. Comfort In Nothing

3. News Feed

4. Reproduction

5. Obsolete

6. Quota To Meet

7. No Next Time

8. Old Man

9. No Safety

10. Refugees

At The Precipice Of Excitation (2019)

1. Clapping Seals

2. Gioblastoma

3. Lepa Radic

4. Confusing Ignorance For Innocence

5. Eating The Rich For Self Defense

6. The Eleventh Hour

7. Looking Past Your Own Nose

8. Pushing The Flat Earthers Off The Earth

9. Hoist That Rag (Tom Waits cover)

Bandcamp

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Gatecreeper

Gatecreeper are a four-piece death metal band from various parts of Arizona that formed in 2013. They haveve been putting out a steady slew of material ever since, with their fantastic debut full-length coming out last year on Relapse. Stylistically, they take influence from old school death metal essentials such as Entombed and Dismember, with a modern take on that classic sound that fans of bands like Black Breath and Mammoth Grinder will undoubtedly dig. Enjoy.

Gatecreeper (2014)

1. Void Below

2. Force Fed

3. Overdose

4. Slave

Take Over & Destroy/Gatecreeper (2015)

2. Gatecreeper - Poisoned Mind

Note: Gatecreeper track only

Gatecreeper/Young And In The Way (2016)

1. Gatecreeper - All Your Sins

2. Young And In The Way - Solitude

4-Way Split (2016)

1. Gatecreeper - Carved Into Stone

2. Homewrecker - Perpetrators Of Annihilation

3. Outer Heaven - Death Worship

4. Scorched - Autopsy Incomplete

Sonoran Depravation (2016)
1. Craving Flesh
2. Sterilized
3. Desperation
4. Rotting As One
5. Stronghold
6. Patriarchal Grip
7. Lost Forever
8. Flamethrower
9. Grotesque Operations

Unleashed In The Middle East (Live) (2016)
1. Craving Flesh
2. Sterilized
3. Desperation
4. Flamethrower
5. Patriarchal Grip
6. Rotting As One
7. Stronghold

Sweltering Madness (2017)
1. Sweltering Madness
2. Mastery Of Power

Iron Reagan/Gatecreeper (2018)

1. Iron Reagan - Warning

2. Iron Reagan - Paper Shredder

3. Iron Reagan - Take The Fall

4. Iron Reagan - Proudly Unaccountable

5. Iron Reagan - Burn For This

6. Gatecreeper - Daybreak

7. Gatecreeper - Dead Inside

8. Gatecreeper - War Has Begun

Deserted (2019)

1. Deserted

2. Puncture Wounds

3. From The Ashes

4. Ruthless

5. Everlasting

6. Barbaric Pleasures

7. Sweltering Madness

8. Boiled Over

9. In Chains

10. Absence Of Light

11. Anxiety (Bonus Track)

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WVRM

WVRM are a four-piece grindcore band from Greenville, South Carolina who have been around since 2013. They play an intensive, pummelling, feedback-laden brand of hardcore featuring heavy blast beats and some crust/death metal influence thrown in the ring. They've been incredibly consistent in putting out fantastic releases, and their latest offering Can You Hear The Wind Howl is definitely one of the most assaulting grind releases you'll hear all year. Fans of Young And In The Way, Trap Them, and Full of Hell shouldn't pass this up. Enjoy.

Despair (2013)

1. Angel Crusher

2. Funeral Heart

3. Appleseed

4. Haunted

5. Coffin Dragger

6. The Rotted

7. Cry Baby

8. Old Boy

9. Downpour

Where All Light Dies (2014)

1. Smell Ov Old Graves

2. Worse Than Alone

3. Carolina

4. Assisted Suicide

5. Noose Man

6. XIIIXIII

7. Wounded Dog

8. A Casket To Call Home

Swarm Sound (2014)

1. Demoness

2. Grim Rose

3. Dimly Left Atop Her Grave

4. Coffin Dragger Part II

5. Funeral Heart

6. Sewn Limbs

7. Cry Baby

8. Dear Parasite

9. Swarm Sound

10. Embrace The Noose

11. Home Is Where The Hornets Rest

12. Bone Tower

13. Appleseed

14. Blastphemous

15. Eulogist

16. As The Light Dies...

WVRM (2015)

1. Slug Lord

2. Wasp Lord

Self Harm/WVRM (2016)

1. Self Harm - Marionette

2. Self Harm - Keyboard Warrior

3. Self Harm - Leech

4. Self Harm - Fremveksten Av Den Morke Herre

5. WVRM - Goth Girl

6. WVRM - Grave Bloom

7. WVRM - Vermin Thirst

8. WVRM - Torture Porn

Heartache (2016)

1. Death Erection

2. Night Collector

3. Fucked

4. Slow Strangle

5. Low Life

6. Only Suffering

7. Sleep Paralysis

8. As Below

Can You Hear The Wind Howl (2017)

1. Swollen Belly

2. Bag Of Blades

3. Distinguished

4. Suffer Ritual

5. Can You Hear The Wind Howl

6. Mountain Of Dead Pigs

The Blood Of The Coven Is Thicker Than Water Of The Womb (2018)

1. Withered On The Vein

2. Utopia Seized

3. Tourniquet Blues

4. Sea Of Trees

Colony Collapse (2020)

1. Walled Slum City

2. War Promise//Secessionville

3. Shining Path

4. Anti-Democracy//Locust Breath

5. Black Flags Toward Sodom (Me Ne Frego)

6. Tank Reaper

7. Hands That Bear The Hive

8. Thorn Palace

9. My Fucking Dixie (The New South)

10. Years Of Lead

11. Violet Nuclear

12. Furious Movement//The Burning Tower

13. Colony Collapse

14. Angel Of Assassination

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Repulsion

Repulsion are one of the most noteworthy grindcore bands to have ever existed, partially because they were crucial in its formation. They were formed in 1984 in Flint, Michigan, and led a brief four-year existence before breaking up in 1988, reforming again in 1990, and then breaking up in 1993 (though have been active again since 2003). Out of their initial four-year timeframe comes a handful of demos, and one very important record: Horrified.

Though released in 1989, it was recorded in 1986, and is often heralded as being the first "grindcore" album ever. Keep in mind these recordings pre-date Napalm Death's Scum by a year. In a very bastardized description, grindcore came together as a natural fusion of hardcore punk and thrash metal. The result is the blast-beat pounding, chainsaw guitar revving, minute-long song sound and formula we know today. This album is widely regarded as being immensely influential, and still holds up today as an incredible album. The band's contributions to the history and development of genres like grindcore and death metal are undoubted, and that is all thanks to this fantastic chunk of brutality here. Enjoy.

Horrified (1989)

1. The Stench of Burning Death

2. Eaten Alive

3. Acid Bath

4. Slaughter of the Innocent

5. Decomposed

6. Radiation Sickness

7. Splattered Cadavers

8. Festering Boils

9. Pestilent Decay

10. Crematorium

11. Driven To Insanity

12. Six Feet Under

13. Bodily Dismemberment

14. Repulsion

15. The Lurking Fear

16. Black Breath

17. Maggots In Your Coffin

18. Horrified

Nihilist

Nihilist were a five-piece death metal band from Stockholm, Sweden that were around from 1987 to 1989. Nihilist are perhaps best known as being the band that would eventually change their name and become known as the legendary Entombed. However, in the first few years of their existence, up until Entombed's debut Left Hand Path, most of these guys recorded a handful of demos and one 7" under the moniker Nihilist. Though the production here isn't near as sharp as it would later become, the band's roots definitely show through. For one, their recordings are usually the ones used to pinpoint the origins of the "buzzsaw" guitar tone. A ton of hardcore and metal bands have come to make this distinct sound, or as I like to call it, HM-2-core. The influence this band and their counterpart had is clearly apparent here. Not to mention the music here is pretty decent, keeping in mind that these are just demos from a band just getting its start. Enjoy.

Nihilist (1987-1989) (2005)

1. Sentenced To Death

2. Supposed To Rot

3. Carnal Leftovers

4. Abnormally Deceased

5. Revel In Flesh

6. Face Of Evil

7. Severe Burns

8. When Life Has Ceased

9. Morbid Devourment

10. Radiation Sickness

11. Face Of Evil

12. But Life Goes On

13. Shreds Of Flesh

14. The Truth Beyond