CATTLE DECAPITATION
CAVE IN
EARTHEATER
LITURGY
LEYA
TROLLER
MVTANT
Cattle Decapitation have never shied away from confronting the awfulness wrought upon the natural world by the human race, and Death Atlas is their bleakest offering to date. The cover art says it all, a stooped, skeletal Grim Reaper carrying the burnt-out husk of our planet on his back. "The core concept of this record is humanity's insignificance despite what we've convinced ourselves," explains vocalist Travis Ryan. "That's kind of why this album cover takes place in space, to remind you that 'the universe always finds a way to purge'. In the grand scheme of things, our species is merely a fleeting thought."
It's one of the most shocking and unflinching records of 2019, demanding an emotional response, and forcing people to think about their own contributions to the devastation of the planet. As intense a listening experience as it is - the word 'extremity' applying as much as it ever has when it comes to Cattle Decapitation - there is also a lot of melancholy in the melodies, which was intentional. It's also a very exploratory record, the band going places they never have before without compromising themselves at any juncture. Death metal, grindcore, black metal, sludge, doom, drone, all of these extreme styles are thrown into the melting pot alongside some more restrained elements, and Ryan's vocals are broader and more fully realized than ever before.
Twenty-six years ago, in Methuen, Massachusetts, the ethos underpinning the next two-and-a-half decades of CAVE IN distilled. Built on friendships established in the New England hardcore punk scene, the quartet best known to fans - Stephen Brodsky on lead guitar and vocals, Adam McGrath on rhythm guitar (and later vocals), Caleb Scofield on bass and vocals, and John-Robert Conners on drums - evolved rapidly, experiencing heart-palpitating highs and soul- crushing lows along the way.
The sound of CAVE IN finding its foundations - a compilation of tracks from demos and splits - was captured on Beyond Hypothermia, released by Hydra Head in 1998. That same year, CAVE IN released their debut studio album Until Your Heart Stops, nudging them out of their comfort zone and on their way to wider recognition.
In March 2018, Caleb Scofield died in a car accident, leaving behind his wife and two children. A short run of benefit shows followed, and the fruits of the late 2017 and early 2018 writing sessions transformed into 2019’s Final Transmission. Caleb’s Old Man Gloom bandmate Nate Newton took up the bass for a series of live performances, and became a full-time member of CAVE IN soon afterward.
Final Transmission marked the end of a chapter in the chronology of CAVE IN, and what would come next - if anything - was never given. This pivotal moment in the band’s history is punctuated by a new relationship with iconic heavy-music label, Relapse Records.
Becky Laverty (July 2021)
Eartheater distills a three-octave vocal range, experimental digital production and classical composition into works suspended between obsessively detailed sonic tapestries and almost recklessly gestural electronica. Her recorded output is enhanced by her viscerally emotive live performances that capture her fearless physical investment and gut-wrenching vocal sincerity.
Composed, produced, and arranged by Eartheater alone, her new album Phoenix: Flames Are Dew Upon My Skin draws a path back to the primordial lava lake from which she first emerged, as it also testifies to the reincarnating resurrections her project has undergone over its first full decade of existence. The result of a laborious revival in fire, Phoenix re-contextualizes Eartheater’s combinatorial approach to production within her most confident abstractions, adjacent to some of her most direct songs to date.
Eartheater made her debut in 2015, releasing twin albums on Hausu Mountain — Metalepsis and RIP Chrysalis — receiving widespread critical acclaim for her experimentation with pop paradigms. In 2018, Eartheater signed to experimental label PAN to release her third album, Irisiri, a shifting network of abstract songcraft laced with sudden structural upheavals and collisions of mutated tropes from numerous sonic vocabularies. Eartheater returned in 2019 with Trinity, a collaborative mixtape featuring producers like AceMo and Dadras. The same year she released a joint EP with LEYA titled Angel Lust.
Liturgy is the project of Hunter Hunt-Hendrix, whose yearning, energetic “transcendental black metal” exists in the space between metal, art music and sacred ritual. Its current lineup includes Mario Miron (guitar), Tia Vincent-Clark (bass) and Leo Didkovsky (drums). Celebrated for their fusion of sincere emotion, compositional complexity, stylistic daring and intense live energy, the band is simultaneously a medium and platform for drama and theology. It was founded in the context of Brooklyn DIY as a solo project by Hunt-Hendrix in 2005 while she was studying philosophy and classical composition at Columbia. After expanding to a quartet they made waves globally with their 2011 sophomore album Aesthethica for introducing the style of Scandinavian black metal into the world of experimental art rock. Their ambitious 2015 album The Ark Work was controversial for its incorporation of IDM and trap production into their musical language. In fall 2019 released their highly acclaimed fourth studio album H.A.Q.Q., which is tied to an ongoing philosophical YouTube lecture series. Their fifth studio album Origin of the Alimonies was released in November 2020 in advance of the forthcoming eponymous video opera directed by and starring Hunt-Hendrix
Harpist Marilu Donovan and violinist/vocalist Adam Markiewicz are NYC-based duo LEYA. The group works with and against the grain of tradition, mining intensity through alternate tunings, strange harmonies, and dream-state operatic-like vocals. Beauty underlies their sound but mixes with a sense of unease. LEYA has released a steady volume of work in several years. Their two albums via NNA Tapes, The Fool (2018) and its critically acclaimed follow-up Flood Dream (2020), exist alongside a range of collaborations. In 2018, the group wrote and performed a full-length soundtrack to I Love You, an erotic film directed by Brooke Candy and produced by PornHub that also features the duo as actors. 2019's Angel Lust, a collaborative EP with Eartheater, followed courtesy of legendary experimental label PAN. In 2022, LEYA released the fully-collaborative Eyeline, a mixtape featuring contributions from Julie Byrne, Eartheater, Okay Kaya, Actress, Claire Rousay, James K, Deli Girls, Sunk Heaven, and Martha Skye Murphy. Additional singles and remixes have seen the group paired with Liturgy, Drew McDowall, and Christina Vantzou, among others.
Reemerging from a long and self-defining stint in the studio, Austin’s darkwave metal trio Troller returns with their pleasurably harsh second LP, Graphic. Despite the underground success of the critically acclaimed 2012 self-titled debut, Graphic manages to eclipse the broad appeal of the first record’s addictively ominous pop anthems. Troller’s focus on layered composition and biting sound design has resulted in a highly developed work that embodies the band’s unique raw form while raising the benchmark on fidelity and experimentation. Graphic arrives perfectly unhinged and hideously sophisticated, reinterpreting familiar elements from their debut LP, and propelling the trio’s provocative sensibilities explicitly further.
Troller formed in 2010 out of Austin’s dense electronic and experimental scene and played a key role in the founding of Holodeck Records. The trio’s synthesizer and drum machine half-time rhythms impeccably complement bassist and vocalist Amber Goers’ heavy riffing and charismatically tortured voice. From the onset, Troller‘s compelling live performances immediately distinguished them as a promising up-and-coming project yet to reach its peak. After touring extensively and selling out of multiple pressings of LPs, CDs and cassettes of the self-titled, Troller wholly poured themselves into studio sessions for Graphic, crafting a professional and fully realized final piece.
Aspects of Graphic are often alien and cold, most notably epitomized by the atonal chord progressions and walls of impenetrable feedback on the album’s title track and the song “Sundowner.” Although “Storm Maker” soothes the emotional palette with its soft tones and bittersweet melodies, the natural tension of Goers’ captivating vocal delivery is never completely forgiving.
This internal duality is a recurring trope throughout all ten of Graphic‘s gorgeously dark tracks, unapologetically oscillating between irresistible hooks and unmitigated chaos. Troller’s guttural bass tones, warm synthesizer arpeggios, and booming sub hits are catchy yet gritty, asserting a balanced and individual take on modern synth pop. Haunting and loosely structured interludes are scattered throughout the track list, making this collection of songs a complete work. Graphic‘s harmony and clarity are in large part due to the amazing work of Holodeck’s in-house production master and solo artist Dylan Cameron, who spearheaded the recording process at Stassney Studios in Austin with additional assistance from S U R V I V E’s Michael Stein and Silk Rodeo’s Michael McCay.
Electronic Body Horror. Long Live The New Flesh.
Combining elements of Techno, Dark Ambient, Body music, and dub, Private Service channels her anxiety into sonic form. Multiple forms of synthesis, samples, and field recordings are manipulated to create a dance soundtrack for our alienated world.”