Left Behind - No One Goes to Heaven (2019)

Punishing, sludgy metalcore. Groove-heavy, Down-inspired riffs as filtered through beatdown chugga-lugs for husky boys. Sounds like half of them wants to smoke blunts, the other half wants to beat up the first half for polluting their body and minds. But make no mistake: No One Goes to Heaven is no joke. It's a fucking killer album, whether you wanna maximize your gains or sit around wondering where it all went wrong.

Track listing:

1. Hell Rains From Above

2. Eternity of Empty

3. Throwing Stones

4. Peeling Wax

5. Shadow of Fear

6. Staring at the Sun

7. God Calls Out

8. Smoke and Pain

9. Outside the Body

10. The Mirror

11. Prisoner of Mind

12. What Makes Your Hurt

Heaven is a place down in the fucking dirt

You should also hear:

Breach - Venom (1999)

Empire of Rats - Empire of Rats (2013)

Crestfallen - Streaks of Terror (2002)

Related:

Wildildlife - Six (2007)

Screamo/skramz from a then-thriving Delmarva scene. It's not exactly a lost classic, but my high school screamo band played a show with them, Charm City Suicides, and Dead Blue Sky on March 10, 2001 (I'm looking at the flier) and their vocalist did that thing where he was writhing around on the ground screaming without a mic, and I loved that shit back in the day, so I fucked with them heavily from that point on.

Track listing:

1. Nine to Five RSVP

2. Beyond Recognition

3. Never Say Never!

4. Scouring for Any Signs of Life

5. Seen and Not Heard

6. Pecking Order

7. Biting Your Tongue Off

8. Disappearing Act

9. Eternal Nightmare [Vio-Lence cover]

I can't hold my breath for that long

Same scene:

pg.99 - Document #5 (2000)

Majority Rule - Interviews with David Frost (2001)

Grimlock - Crusher (2003)

Starting my week by blasting out a bunch of pushups to some groove-heavy Boston metalcore/beatdown. If you want a record full of irresponsibly hard breakdowns precipitated by a yoaked-out Masshole saying stuff like "I'm a brand new man" or "I'm king of the fucking jungle" or "I will rise forever", you can't do much better than Crusher. But, statistically speaking, you probably don't.

Track listing:

1. Ritual of Steel

2. Mad Titan

3. Crusher

4. The Last Holy Fool

5. End of the Dream

6. Revolution (Return of the Power)

Yeah, I can feel it pumping in my veins

More like this:

Turmoil - The Process Of (1999)

Empire of Rats - Empire of Rats (2013)

Empire of Rats - Empire of Rats (2013)

Heavy, ridiculously pissed-off metalcore. Ignorant breakdowns, thrash-y solos, gang vocals, and a hoarse screamer going off about everything and everyone he's ever laid eyes on. I have spent so much time pumping iron to this, my muscles practically have a Pavlovian response to start aching when I put it on.

Track listing:

1. Leeches

2. Another Minute in Hell

3. Bottomless Pit

4. Untitled

5. Society's Zero

6. Rats Reign

7. Sinking

8. Little from the World (Cold as Life)

9. We're Dead

10. Exposed

11. Early Mourning

Why are you still alive?

If you like this, listen to:

Harms Way - Isolation (2011)

Benchpress - Stay Hated (2012)

Deadguy - Fixation on a Coworker (1995)

Classic early metalcore. Dissonant, gnarled, and very, very angry. The sound of frustration and stress boiling over into pure contempt.

Track listing:

1. Doom Patrol

2. Pins and Needles

3. Die with Your Mask On

4. Baby Arm

5. Makeshift Atomsmasher

6. The Extremist

7. Nine Stitches

8. Riot Stairs

9. Apparatus

10. Crazy Eddie

You can't kill yourself

You're already dead

And you'd do it again

Also listen to:

Breach - Venom (1999)

Gob - The Kill Yourself Commandment (1999)

Turmoil - The Process Of (1999)

Philly metallic hardcore. Tough and super-pissed, and with big bonehead mosh energy (BBME) but enough dissonance and compositional chops to convey something deeper than "I am very mad." If you're wondering whether or not there's a chugga-chugga breakdown over which the vocalist lists things that he absolutely WILL NOT do: you fuckin' know there is.

Track listing:

1. Playing Dead

2. The Discipline of Self Loathing

3. The Locust

4. Killing Today for a Better Tomorrow

5. Impending Doom Theory

6. Dear Jon

7. Let It Die

8. Fear of Falling Down

9. Ever Man My Enemy

10. Six Demon Bag

11. Staring Back

12. Throwing Stones

I've yet to see

This war you wage

Follower

More great hardcore from the same year:

Breach - Venom (1999)

Buried Alive - The Death of Your Perfect World (1999)

The End - Elementary (2007)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:

The End - Transfer Trachea Reverberations from Point: False Omniscient (2001)

Years before Tesseract, Periphery, and their legions of disciples were fusing heady, math-y heaviness with dark, melodic alt metal, there was Elementary. It kinda sounds like if hardcore-Cave In and alt-Cave In made a record together. Unfortunately, fans of The End never stopped pining for the Calculating Infinity-worship of their debut EP, and they never really found a new audience to replace the old one. Thus, both of the band's excellent Relapse albums were largely either ignored or hated on, and they broke up shortly after the second one (Elementary) was released. Frowny-face.

Track listing:

1. Dangerous

2. The Never Ever Aftermath

3. Animals

4. The Moth and I

5. Throwing Stones

6. My Abyss

7. Awake?

8. A Fell Wind

9. In Distress

10. And Always...

When it seems like all you're made to do is suffer

You'll be pleased to know that miracles do occur

Also listen to:

Eryn Non Dae - Hydra Lernaïa (2009)

The Contortionist - Intrinsic (2012)

Buried Inside - Chronoclast (2005)

A perfect fusion of Celestial-style post-metal and melodic metalcore, Chronoclast blew the minds of pretty much everyone who heard it when it first came out, but never quite made the crossover into full-blown classic, possibly because they didn't quite stick the landing with the follow-up record. I saw them open for Isis shortly after this came out, and the vocalist had a gong front and center that he would positively fucking wild out on during instrumental bits.

Track listing:

1. Introduction

2. Time as Ideology

3. Time as Methodology

4. Time as Surrogate Religion

5. Time as Imperialism

6. Reintroduction

7. Time as Abjection

8. Time as Automation

9. Time as Commodity

10. Time as Resistance

The violent revolt of being

If you like this, you'll probably also like:

Curl Up and Die - Unfortunately We're Not Robots (2002)

Bloodiest - Descent (2011)

Swarm of the Lotus - When White Becomes Black (2004)

Extremely heavy Baltimore metalcore/sludge. Dissonant, apocalyptic riffs and shrieking, paranoid vocals. My old band did a brief tour with Swarm of the Lotus and Magrudergrind (and at least one other band whose name I forget) the year that this came out, and it was kinda just OK, as at the time SOTL was the only band on the bill that anyone gave a shit about. But their vocalist/guitarist did give me a picture disc 7" on the last day despite our having never spoken so that was pretty cool.

Track listing:
1. Cherry Chocolate Salamander
2. Committed to Ash
3. Strength of Inner Eyes
4. Volatile
5. From Embers
6. Seeing Truth
7. Serpent Within
8. An Ocean of Fire
9. Episode Infinity
10. Burn Autumn Burn
11. Stained Glass Oubliette

Not a speck of life

You should also listen to:

Breach -
Venom (1999)

Majority Rule -
Interviews with David Frost (2001)

Catharsis - Passion (1999)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Catharsis - Samsara (1997)

Second and final LP by the great Catharsis. An absolute masterpiece of fiery, dramatic, psych-tinged metallic hardcore. Hearing the one-two punch of "Into the Eyeless Sockets of the Night" into "The Witch's Heart" for the first time as a very, very stoned 17-year old remains one of the greatest music-listening experiences of my life.

As great as Passion is, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the penultimate track, "Deserts Without Mirages", an ambitious but probably misguided attempt stab at reggae that's been the subject of many a debate around the DEAR SPIRIT household over the years. I will say, I'm closer now to liking it than I've ever been. Regardless, it does set the listener up for "Sabbat (Dervish Dance)", the album's awe-inspiring climax and one of my absolute favorite pieces of heavy music.

Track listing:
1. Passion...
2. ...Obsession
3. Panoptikon
4. Into the Eyeless Sockets of the Night
5. The Witch's Heart (Live's Lost Too Soon - Or Too Late)
6. Threshold (To Enter, the Heart Must Break)
7. Duende (The Soil Is Closer Than the Sky)
8. Deserts Without Mirages
9. Sabbat (Dervish Dance)

This weapon will replace my tongue.
I will learn to speak through it.
And my poetry will now be written with blood.

Also of interest:

Damad -
Burning Cold (2000)

Majority Rule -
Interviews with David Frost (2001)

Breach - Venom (1999)

Heavy, pissed-off, yet weirdly hypnotic metallic hardcore. Some of the best metalcore I've ever heard. Would not be at all surprised to learn that this band was a source of inspiration for the great Celeste.

Track listing:
1. Helldrivers
2. Murder
3. Gheeá
4. Heroine
5. Diablo
6. Common Day
7. Path of Conscience
8. Game in Vein
9. Pleasuredome
10. Black Sabbath
11. Hell Is My Witness
12. Penetration

Half-empty

If you like this, listen to:

Buried Alive -
The Death of Your Perfect World (1999)

Gaza - I Don't Care Where
I Go When I Die (2006)

Old Man Gloom - Meditations in B (1999)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Old Man Gloom - Seminar III: Zozobra (2001)

Chaotic blasts of raging, dissonant post-sludge separated by long stretches of cavernous drone and dark ambient. The first time I heard this I was 17 or 18 and stoned out of my mind, riding in the backseat of a car with two older, cooler metal kids up front, and it blew my fucking head off.

Track listing:
1. Afraid Of
2. Flood I
3. Simian Alien Technology: Message Received
4. Sonic Wave of Bees
5. Sonar Enlightenment Program
6. Rotten Primate
7. The Exploder Whale
8. Poisoner
9. An Evening at the Gentlemen's Club for Apes
10. Vipers
11. Test Result: Alien Ape Distress Signal
12. Flood II
13. Resolving the De-Evolution Concept
14. Scraps Theatre Presents: Confusion in Five Movements

Clenched tight in the fist of God

Also listen to:

Curl Up and Die -
Unfortunately We're Not Robots (2002)

Bloodiest -
Descent (2011)

pg.99 - Document #5 (2000)

Not that I'm an expert or anything, but I feel like I know enough about screamo to confidently assert that Document #5 is the greatest record that the subgenre ever produced. Gnarly riffs, fucked-up time signatures, raw vocals, art-damaged noise, and little flashes of melody that keep you in touch with how brutal all the other parts are. To top it off, there's an album-ending epic to end all album-ending epics about an alien abduction that, supposedly, the lead vocalist sincerely believed had happened to him.

Track listing:
1. Ruiner of Life
2. Comedy of Christ
3. Skinpack
4. My Application to Heaven
5. Hotel Nevada 1982
6. Humans with Forked Tongues
7. Murder, Conductor
8. (...)
9. Sounds of Gravesiter
10. By the Fireplace in White

I wish you did exist because I'd part your ass like the red fuckin' sea, and fuck you until you bleed

If you're into this, you should hear:

Love Lost But Not Forgotten -
Love Lost But Not Forgotten (2000)

Majority Rule -
Interviews with David Frost (2001)

The End - Transfer Trachea Reverberations from Point: False Omniscient (2001)

Some of the best mathcore I've ever heard. Chaotic, dense, and heavy, with a screamo (that's the old definition, mind you) edge, and a few moments of strange, woozy beauty.

Track listing:
1. Her (Inamorta)
2. Opalescence.I
3. Opalescence.II
4. The Asphyxiation of Lisa-Claire
5. For Mankind, Limited Renewal
6. Sonnet
7. Entirety in Infancy

To never be shown in the open world

If you like this, try:

Love Lost But Not Forgotten -
Love Lost But Not Forgotten (2000)

Majority Rule -
Interviews with David Frost (2001)

Pariso - Consanguinity (2013)

I'm not sure why it happened - maybe it's because I've been hitting up the gym 2-3 times a week in order to crunch-squat my guacs via some klankosaurus reps - but I've been jamming a bunch of hyper-produced metallic hardcore. So since my highly refined readership probably isn't ready for the cheesy, overwrought sounds of The Ghost Inside or newer Liferuiner (watch that big ol' emotional butterball bounce!), here's Pariso. While there's a certain prettiness to this record, it's fully in line with 'true' metallic hardcore standards, meaning that there are blastbeats, weird chords, and gnarly riffs, and the singer keeps things in a nice, raspy midrange (i.e. no meaningful nasally hooks.) I dig. Free/name your price via bandcamp.

Track listing:
1. The Separation
2. Maniai
3. Pigs
4. Methuselah
5. Tower of Genus
6. Equivocation
7. Montserrat
8. Trolljegeren
9. Dead Blockade

GO NOW