Tag Archives: Metal Zenith

Fort Wayne, Indiana is the home of three-piece Stoner/Grunge/Desert outfit The Holy Nothing. With a love of bands like Red Fang, Baroness, and Queens Of The Stone Age, they bring their own mix of styles to bear, crafting a unique blend of Metal. Their shared love of horror and science fiction is imbued within every  Continue Reading »

Indiana-based DownShift is a five-piece Hard Rock band that likes to blend Rock with Blues rhythms and Groove riffs to fill the soundscape with a glorious noise. Catchy hooks and easy-to-sing choruses round out the music portion while gritty lead vocals and well-placed backing vocals bring the songs full circle, rounding out the tracks with a nice full sound.

Becoming The Lion began as a solo project and has returned to those roots. This newest EP sees the project reimagined as more of a Hard Rock/Alternative band than the previous Post-Hardcore stylings. Sometimes, you just have to change direction and see where it leads. That is exactly what Ross has done and it is quite easy to hear that he has some major influences from those two genres.

The Southern Café and Music Hall https://www.thesoutherncville.com On a cold Saturday night in Charlottesville, VA, three heavy bands hit the stage at one of the region’s best venues. There is a spot outside the music area to socialize, grab food, and speak at a normal volume. In the music hall, there is cool lighting and  Continue Reading »

Sovereign is a Norwegian Evil Death/Thrash Metal four-piece band formed in 2018. Altered Realities is their debut full-length album, following the 2020 EP, Neurotic. Thriving on both speed and technicality, they push the limits of Extreme Metal, always seeking to expand their sound. Not content to just go fast for the sake of speed, they also infuse Melodic Groove Metal to allow the mind to drift on a wide array of tempos, shifting gears like a Grand Prix driver accelerating out of a turn into a straightaway. Sit down, strap in, hold on, and get ready to have your mind blown.

Gothony is a five-piece Finnish Drama Metal band formed in 1993. They released a couple of demos in the 90s and then took an extended hiatus, re-emerging in 2019. After more than 30 years, their debut full-length album is arriving! Gothony uses vocal layering and backing voices to create a depth of vocal sounds meant to accentuate the songs in multiple ways. Meanwhile, the music is a creative mixture of different Metal disciplines, including, but not limited to, Death, Power, Thrash, and Cinematic Metals.

Disconnected Souls is a hyper-diverse blend of musical elements meant to push boundaries to limits rarely explored. Multiple vocalists weave around each other track after track, creating complex interactions that will have you constantly referring to the lyric sheet as you study this album. This is not a record you put on and walk away from. The concept is intricate and the lyrics reflect that depth, coupling with the music to deliver something you have to dig into. You will want to understand this record, not just hear it.

Virus Inhumanity is a five-piece Death/Groove Metal from Belgium. Formed in 2019, just before a global pandemic, their motif was almost a prescient prediction of what was to come only a year later. Crafted to appeal to fans of darker tones and sounds, they drew their inspiration from bands like Lamb Of God, Pantera, Deicide, and Gojira, just to name a few. Rapid rhythms and chugging guitar work wrapped around harsh vocals, mixed in with ambient undertones and intros/outros create a dazzling array of sounds that will infect the recesses of your mind, taking hold of the nervous system, causing rhythmic contractions of the head and neck while making the listener throw their hands in the air. There is no cure!

Lower 13 describes themselves as a Melodic Metal Power Trio. After listening to them, I will not be trying to argue anything different as I heartily agree with them, though I’d expand that description a bit to include some additional influences from Thrash, Death, and Power Metal. With a combination of clean and harsh vocals, powerful rhythms, and intricate lead work, Lower 13 blends multiple disciplines into a tasty feast of Heavy Metal that contains something for everyone on the Metal Spectrum.

Bloody Crackdown/Blazoner/Create & Cremate/Uga Buga – Free Metal Friday at Another Round RVA, Richmond, VA, January 5, 2024 Free Metal Friday at Another Round in Richmond, Virginia is something that should be celebrated! Local and regional acts playing for free on a Friday night, all ages welcome, with money left over to buy band merch  Continue Reading »