Born In A Test Tube, Raised In A Cage: It's The 2025 Metal Thread

Let's open up this fuckin' pit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBfeAnef8RQ

Just got answers back from an email interview with the vocalist from Human Barbecue, a cannibalism-obsessed brutal/slam band from Belgium. The interview will run in Burning Ambulance in February. Gotta say, his first answer made me feel pretty fucking old...

How did you first get interested in this style of metal? Can you remember the first records that inspired you to want to make this kind of music yourself?
My dad has always been listening to music at home. He used to be a punk when he was a teenager. So I have been listening to all kind of music since a very early age. I remember that he was listening to bands like Guns N’ Roses, Suicidal Tendencies, Rollins Band... I guess it just grew on me. The older I got, the harder the bands were. I discovered death metal and hardcore music during my nu-metal phase when I was 12-13. I always loved the very brutal side of death metal. Even though I started being active in the hardcore scene (still am), death metal has been by my side since those days.

Here are some upcoming releases on my radar to check out:

10-Jan
Haunted Horses (Seattle industrial metal on Three One G)

24-Jan
Mogwai
Sunrot
Wardruna

25-Jan
Clamfight (Philly Prog-adjacent Stoner Metal)

31-Jan
The Hellacopters
Jaye Jayle
Pentagram
Spesimin (Philly thrash/death/punk goodness)

7-Feb
Dream Theater
Inborn Suffering (French Death/Doom)
Jinjer
Obscura
Thundermother

21-Feb
Killswitch Engage
Mean Mistreater (Austin Trad Metal)
Sacrifice (Canadian thrashers; first new album since 2009)
The Young Mothers (Austin jazz hepcats who like grindcore)

28-Feb
Cloakroom

4-Mar
Destruction

14-Mar
Coheed and Cambria

28-Mar
Arch Enemy
Dead Meadow
Savage Master

Gotta say, his first answer made me feel pretty fucking old...

I was talking with a younger acquaintance who told me she grew up listening to the proverbial "all kinds of music." Dad liked jazz, mom liked country, little brother liked "emo." "Emo" has kind of evolved in meaning over the years, so I asked her what she meant by emo, and she said, oh, you know, stuff like Slipknot.

Definitely looking forward to new Obscura, and Destruction can always be trusted. I've heard the Mean Mistreater; it's as good as the debut, which I loved. Wardruna are actually playing near me (well, 90 minutes away, which is "near" in Montana terms) this summer:

https://fitmfest.com/

One very interesting aspect of that festival:

In partnership with the community in the Blackfeet Nation, Fire in the Mountains 2025 at the Red Eagle Campground in the Blackfeet Nation, will be an event without alcohol. This decision was made with respect to the wishes of our hosts and is a decision we align with.

Our aims have always been to build an event that places value on music, nature, and connection above all else, and to have a positive impact in the community that has welcomed us. We stand behind the decision of our Blackfeet partners that all of these aims can be obtained without the presence of alcohol.

We have no interest in passing judgments or preaching any way of life over another. All walks of life are welcome at our festival. What we do stand strongly behind is respecting the land and the wishes of those whom it belongs to.

lots of good shows coming up in London i'm looking forward to; Napalm Death/Crowbar/Full Of Hell/Brat being one, another being King Diamond/Paradise Lost/Unto Others. Incineration Fest is the one i'm most hyped for though - bearing in mind as a one dayer the clashes will be torture.... lineup so far:

Triptykon Performing Celtic Frost (UK Exclusive)
Blood Incantation (UK Exclusive)
Decapitated (UK Festival Exclusive)
Batushka (UK Exclusive)
Cryptopsy
Warbringer
Blackbraid
Spectral Wound
Lamp Of Murmuur
Undergang (UK Exclusive)
Wormwitch
Bedsore (UK Debut)
Celestial Sanctuary
Carnation
Minami Deutsch
Underdark

What does "UK Exclusive" mean? That that is the only time/place they are playing the UK in 2025? I want to start seeing stuff like this more often. Oasis at Soldier Field: Chicago exclusive! Yo La Tengo Hanukkah Shows: NYC exclusive!

yeah, I guess maybe the UK is a small enough country that promoters can pay for that sort of exclusivity and use it in marketing knowing people will travel to the show rather than miss out... probably less likely to happen in bigger countries/USA?

Old Man's Child is playing their first US live show ever this summer at an outdoor festival 90 minutes from me. Why they'd choose to make their live debut in rural Montana rather than New York or San Francisco or Los Angeles, I don't know, but they have made that choice.

There's a new German band called Axetasy, and on a purely instrumental level, they live up to the name: the guitars are pretty goddamn axetatic. But the vocals are a hoarse shout, not nearly power metal enough for the music, and they're weirdly placed in the mix. I don't love it as much as I wanted to, but others may disagree.

https://dyingvictimsproductions.bandcamp.com/album/withering-tides

This Lifeless Dark album from December is apparently stenchcore, which isn't a descriptor I'm familiar with but seems like it basically came to mean a thrashier kind of crust punk? Anyway, it's really awesome.

https://lifelessdark.bandcamp.com/album/forces-of-natures-transformation

lol at stenchcore

I'm old enough to remember when Obscura were a wild, jazz-prog-fusion-y tech-death band. Unfortunately, their new album A Sonication (out 2/7) is some Dark Tranquillity-ass melodeath bullshit, with the occasional fretless bass solo to remind you of what once was.

https://obscura.bandcamp.com/album/a-sonication

fwiw the term stenchcore is as old as crust (coming up for 40 years) but seems to be enjoying a resurgence given the number of times I've seen "wtf is stenchcore" posts recently

I've always liked the term stenchcore because of the "our band smells bad" implication.

New Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJ1M2i-7gF4

Catchier than I might have thought. Album drops 4/4.

It's ridiculous power metal video time! Here's "Power Train" by Majestica, and yes, it's about a train.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBJ7L5LyAk4

Releases this Friday that I will be checking out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqiYgldW5nw

Pentagram

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ww7iDotqQ0s

The Hellacopters

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEIPPQ-5UvE

Jaye Jayle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFABZr7WPkE

Spesimin

fuck sake - i hate how much i may spend on this though also know there is little to no chance of getting tickets

https://www.instagram.com/blacksabbath/p/DFsSHb-JK-O/

yeah that lineup is pretty undeniable, even with the dubious prospects of various supergroups and Pantera playing

although somewhere Dave Mustaine is crying and i want to give him a hug?

Wonder the last time Metallica supported someone.. Maybe those Rolling Stones shows in 2005?

Out of morbid curiosity I streamed a few songs of that new Obscura and, yeah, it's terrible.

The new Century album is the first real standout for me this year. Swedish melodic heavy metal... my favourite area.

The vocal performance took me a minute to warm up to, but I like it. He has a kind of dry, stone-faced quality, which works for me, especially on short punchy tracks like "No Time For Tomorrow".

Yeah, that is good. It's an unmemorable name which is why I keep forgetting to check them out, but I've just put both their albums in my Bandcamp cart.

New Phrenelith sounding pretty great on the first go through

I interviewed Belgian brutal death metallers Human Barbecue. Plus bonus "Robert Christgau is a shithead" content!

lol at calling yourself Human Barbecue.

NEW PISSGRAVE INCOMING (finally!)

https://pissgrave.bandcamp.com/album/malignant-worthlessness

Wow, I am loving the Mean Mistreater album.

I went to see Undergang and Mephitic Corpse a week ago, and even though I caught a brutal cold at the show, it scratched a metalhead itch that was in dire need of scratching. Absolute filth.