After being familiar with The Word Alive for so long, it’s feels strange to say that they have finally come out with a debut album.  Empire EP was anything but lacking, and the band made a point that there were great things in the works as they easily found themselves touring alongside well-known bands on big festivals.  Deceiver shows some improvement and maturity, as one should expect.  There are well written slow parts that many probably didn’t expect to hear much of, and “Battle Royal” still packs its punch, though it has been tweaked to perfection through minor changes.  It’s hard to find parts of this album where harmonies and layered screams aren’t present, and I think it goes to show that there was a lot of time, thought, and effort put into the writing of the album. Read More »

What do you do when you’re weeks away from releasing your debut album, a freshly departed front man, and have a half finished album without vocals? You man the fuck up. That is exactly what Indianapolis-based band, The Contortionist, did. With two self-released EP’s, Good-Fight Music finally took notice of the band, signed them and sent them to the studio. A few months and one new vocalist later, The Contortionist emerge with an epic that is Exoplanet. Read More »

With Monument, Miss May I has attempted to refine their sound and pull things together a bit more.  Great vocals, both clean and screamed, are present.  With Levi Benton’s wide range being used in layers at times, they have found a strength they can rely on.  From the first track, “Our Kings,” it becomes apparent that there are going to be far more clean vocals than those in Apologies Are For The Weak.  I remember first listening to “Relentless Chaos” upon its early release, crossing my fingers that the rest of the album would be different.  I should’ve known there was not much hope. Read More »

St. Louis natives In the Midst of Lions have come up with some great work for their sophomore release, The Heart of Man. Greatness is expected of any band that signs to Facedown Records, and ITMOL don’t let the label down by any means. Read More »

At the beginning of summer the Canadian based 5-piece Structures released their debut EP All Of  The Above (which we reviewed here). Drummer Andrew McEnaney was kind enough to speak with us and let us know what the band is up to. Make sure to catch them on their upcoming tour in August with The Holly Springs Disaster and Architects.

Mind Equals Blown: Would you care to give some insight on the writing for the new album?

Structures: We havent technically started “writing” yet. Spee Brendon and I will usually get together and write sections then tie them together to make the songs feel and sound like a whole. For the new album though, we will be writing songs as a whole instead of sections like we did on our EP. Right now were just touring as much as we can and trying to meet as many people as possible so writing has taken the back seat for now. Read More »

The first thoughts that came to mind when I listened to Impending Doom’s new album were that it’s hard and fast. Add harsh yelling and eerie whispers to that, and you have the essence of There Will Be Violence.

With three full-lenghts under their belt, There Will Be Violence as a whole is most similar to their previous release, The Serpent Servant. Impending Doom originally started more in the death metal genre with their EP, The Sin and Doom of Godless Men and full-length, Nailed. Dead. Risen. But for their last, The Serpant Servant, and most recent, There Will Be Violence, Impending Doom has seem to have found their sweet spot in the deathcore genre. Read More »

One of my most anticipated albums dropped lately. That’s right, the new The Eyes Of A Traitor album Breathless was just released via Listenable Records. Now, this band is probably not in many people’s iTunes library, but this five piece UK hardcore entourage blew my mind the second I heard them, and they have yet to disappoint. Read More »

From loyal fans to haters, beefs with bands considered to be similar, and a naturally angered attitude toward the everyday world, The Acacia Strain have been bringing listeners heaviness for quite some time.  The recent release, Wormwood, has been hyped for months by studio updates, comedic videos, and small teasers in order to keep fans on their toes.  These videos were pretty extraordinary, seemingly scripted at many points, and also unique in the sense that front man Vincent Bennett is seen as the receiving end of many jokes- much different from his shredding of bands and just about everything else during live performances. Read More »

I’ll never forget being impressed after seeing Norma Jean for the first time at Ozzfest ’06.  They’re a substantially heavy band with an easily recognized sound; unique, emotional vocals with plenty of heat, and in-your-face guitar tones, panic chords and riffing that do more than hold their own.  Norma Jean is a band many have come to love and have followed throughout tours and member changes, and as both a positive and a negative, their newest release, Meridional, brings fans the same Norma Jean they have known from The Anti Mother.  Quite unfortunately for me, as I’m sure many will agree, I was anticipating something more from the band. Read More »

With two albums down, it was time for A Plea For Purging to either sink or swim. Both A Critique of Mind and Thought and Depravity received positive feedback, and as it turns out, APFP continues to please their fans with The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Read More »