Veil of Maya
encode a ponderous narrative at the core of their sixth full-length album, False Idol [Sumerian Records].
This time around, a captivating concept drives the quartet—Marc Okubo [guitar], Sam Applebaum
[drums], Danny Hauser [bass], and Lukas Magyar [vocals].
By channeling energy in one direction, force grows exponentially. Veil of Maya harness the individual
experiences and talents of four distinct musicians—Marc Okubo [guitar], Sam Applebaum [drums], Danny
Hauser [bass], and Lukas Magyar [vocals]—into airtight groove-laden metal accented by fits of
instrumental virtuosity and vocal catharsis. This approach has endeared them to a devout fan base with
critical acclaim and over 100 million total streams and counting (unprecedented for an outfit this
crushingly heavy). The Chicago band draw on the strength of their union on their seventh full-length
offering, [m]other [Sumerian Records].
AngelMaker levels listeners with a furious, focused, diverse, and violent extremity. Across a handful of split EPs and other releases, including two full-length albums, the Northern Vancouver seven-piece make their musical intentions clear. AngelMaker creates deathcore of the highest order, injected with blackened thrash, a smattering of power violence, and the urgent ferocity of underground hardcore.
Like genre standard-bearers Black Dahlia Murder, Despised Icon, and Whitechapel, AngelMaker summon the most brutal elements of Floridian death metal and combine it with the coldest permafrost of Scandinavian black metal, without the theatricality sometimes clouding the genres. The brand-new music unleashed by AngelMaker in 2021, crafted in recent months with producer Tim Creviston (Spiritbox, Misery Signals, Vultures), is the band’s most confident and destructive yet.
“We always strive to write music that makes people feel something emotionally intense,” explains singer Mike Greenwood, who shares vocal duties with Casey Tyson-Pearce. The triple-guitar assault of Coton Bennett, Matt Perrin, and Johnny Ciardullo, together with the rhythmic pulse of bassist Code Rideout, makes for a crushingly heavy, unforgivingly brutal, uniquely extreme metal sound.
AngelMaker reveres the old-school 2005 – 2010 era of deathcore, constantly reevaluating their own material to improve upon it with each release. The music combines with lyrics about personal struggles (fear, loss, sadness, anxiety), worldly ideas and concepts, and fantastical, cinematic themes
Reflections is a band that is constantly evolving. Every aspect of the band is filled with its own depth.
From abysmally low tuned guitars playing more notes per second than one can count, to entrancing atmospheric melodies. Fast paced technical drumming, to a steady driving force. And vocals that always deliver a message and are filled, even riddled, with meaning.
For the last decade, the band has continuously pushed their sound and genre boundaries, developing a unique style that has generated some of the most heartfelt, heavy music in the genre.
More than anything, our pain connects us. Hardship binds us as humans in one shared experience, bringing us closer together. Alluvial examine this phenomenon on their second full-length album, Sarcoma [Nuclear Blast]. The critically acclaimed Atlanta-based quartet—Kevin Muller [vocals], Wes Hauch [guitar, vocals], Tim Walker [bass], and Matt Paulazzo [drums]—plunge into a whirlwind of neck-snapping polyrhythmic riffs, a barrage of double bass, and a dynamic avalanche of screams. After amassing over 2 million total streams independently and receiving the endorsement of MetalSucks, No Clean Singing, and more, the group evolve into a focused and fiery force in 2021 with their latest body of work.
“Sarcoma is a type of cancer that grows from connective tissue in the body,” reveals Wes. “At the end of working on everything, Kevin pinpointed that each song on the record was about the different perils that happen at the hand of one man to another. These perils live in our connections to one another, so Sarcoma became an apt title.”
In 2017, Alluvial initially roared to life on their debut LP, The Deep Longing for Annihilation. “Colony” notably gathered 678K Spotify streams—unprecedented for instrumental extreme metal. Building a fan base, the group toured alongside Animals As Leaders and Veil of Maya.
On the heels of this tour, Wes traded Los Angeles for Atlanta.
“In all honesty, it was an escape,” he admits. “I knew some of my struggles would never leave me, but I felt like I’d have a better chance to reset if I got out of California. The perils of taking refuge in a bottle or the near occupational hazard of drugs in L.A. had hollowed me out and exacerbated my woes. Winston Churchill famously called depression ‘the Black Dog’. The rut with drugs and booze turns the black dog, a longtime bedfellow, into the ruler of your vessel. I’d estimate that the music for Sarcoma started
there. As strange and vulnerable as it feels to explain that, it would be dishonest to say otherwise."
As he began to write at home, he took notice of Kevin due to his time in Suffocation. After hearing his vocals on a demo, everything simply clicked, and Kevin joined the band. Fast brothers, it fulfilled a long-term goal. “The Deep Longing for Annihilation was supposed to have vocals, but I couldn’t find the right guy,” he adds. “Some people possess a rare inability to doubt themselves. Kevin can marry that into performances. The day I heard his vocals over the Sarcoma demos was a special one. We’ve become brothers.”
After writing and producing demos at home, Alluvial cut guitars, bass, and vocals with engineer John Douglass in Atlanta. The opener “Ulysses” begins with warm guitar echoes before building towards an ominous crescendo. It quickly crumbles under the weight of a thrash riff and brain-rattling growl.
“I was always in trouble in my small hometown,” he says. “After going to a county jail, I joined the military and took orders as an Equipment Operator bound for the US Naval Mobile Construction Battalions. The enlisted side of the military are all misfits of one kind or another.
