We’ve got to admit something. We slept on Power Trip. We didn’t cover them with their debut album ‘Manifest Decimation’ back in 2013. We thought they were a hardcore band. They are a hardcore band, in ethics, culture and history, but they’re a hardcore band that plays furious thrash a la Sacrilege, Nuclear Assault and early Megadeth. We can feel Dan Lilker tutting at us from afar.

Frontman Riley Gale says he doesn’t mind. He understands. “You look at classic albums like ‘Behind The Realms Of Madness’ by Sacrilege or ‘Best Wishes’ or ‘Age Of Quarrel’ by Cro-Mags, that’s the apex of what I like about aggressive music and the band feels that way too, but we’re very much trying to be ourselves,” he says trying to make us feel good about ourselves, but still making us still feel like idiots for sleeping on such a vital new voice in thrash metal. “Any band wants to have their own identity but our band is almost based on not having an identity so to speak. It’s an interesting place for us to be in ‘cos as we’ve got bigger, people have asked, ‘Well, what are you about? What’s your image?’ and well … Read More

The Netherlands may be small, but this scenic, friendly country has more or less got the market cornered on soul-sucking doom, mind-bending psychedelia and toke-totin’ stoner rock, thanks to the mighty riff Mecca that is Roadburn. There’s plenty of homegrown evil lurking through the tidy streets of Tilburg, Eindhoven, et al, and Groningen collective Herder are a particularly ugly example. Their latest release, the ‘Horror Vacui’ EP, came out on Reflections Records just before the new year dawned and is a nasty chunk of lumbering, miasmal doom that could’ve just as easily clambered out of a Georgia swamp, and should serve them well when they hit the stage come this year’s edition of Roadburn. The understated Southern influence bleeds through in the riffs’ occasional bluesy swagger; the rest of the time, Herder stick to their guns and hit hard, all tense chords, hardcore barks, feedback whine and near-fatal slugs of sludge.

“We are attracted to hard and extreme music, with a fucked up atmosphere. Although most Herder members come from a different musical background whether that’s black metal, death metal or hardcore, we are all attracted to the darkness and what it has to offer,” bassist Blitzer told us of their … Read More

Within ten seconds of pressing play our immediate thought was, “Damn, these dudes got some swagger.” That’s not a typical thought to bubble up when you’re confronted with the kind of grinding hardcore/desperate sludge alloy that Liverpool’s Corrupt Moral Altar have banged out on their first EP, but, there it was, just the same. “I guess a lot of that comes from our love of rock ‘n’ roll,” guitarist John shrugs. “Just trying to keep it super simple and have catchy songs. We all come from backgrounds of playing in super fast, technical bands and the whole idea of this band is simplicity, and being able to play the tracks when pissed out of our heads: playing brutal music and having fun with it!” They certainly nail the “brutal” part. ‘Luciferian Deathcult’ (out January 8 via Baitin’ The Trap Records) is positively rank, browbeating its poor listener into an absolute pulp. Ten seconds after first blush, we needed a drink – and so did they, probably. “The four members got together through their mutual love of getting fucked up and cider,” we’re told. “The band was formed in Merseyside in 2012, all members have been around for years in various other bands, some … Read More