Canadian Grand Slams

When people think of the Canadian music scene, slam death metal is probably the last thing on their minds. When it comes to hardcore or death metal the names that'll likely come to mind are more likely to be bands like Alexisonfire, Cancer Bats, or DOA, and on the metal side probably bands like Gorguts, Cryptopsy, or Kataklysm. So today I figured I would do a write up on some sweet slam/brutal death metal bands that have popped up over the years.

Alright, lets start with Intestinal Rot from Heidelberg, Ontario. Their most current EP "Re-Inventing Mankind" serves up 4 tracks of pure filth. From the opening moments of the title track to the last seconds of the album closer "Japanese Dolphin Slaughter" Intestinal Rot prove they can hang with the heavy hitters like Kraanium and Devourment.

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Up next we have Cuff from Oshawa, Ontario. This is their full length from 2014 called "Transient Suffering Through The Ergosphere". This is easily one of the heaviest slam albums I've heard over the years, and this album features guest spots from Larry Wang (Coprocephalic & Gorepot), Chris Williams (Upon Your Corpse) and Anthony Davis (Swine Overlord & Gutfucked).

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Cuff on Bandcamp
Transient Suffering on Bandcamp

And last but certainly not least we have Gravitational Distortion from Toronto. This was my personal favorite slam album from last year. Every riff and slam on this album is perfection, they hit hard enough to drag you to a shallow grave. The vocals are also some of the dirtiest gutturals I've ever heard. Don't miss out on this one.

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Prison

Prison are a 4 piece hardcore band hailing from Barrie, Ontario who play a brand of hardcore similar to bands like Code Orange, Harms Way, and Desolated. On their newest release"Beast Of Burden" they offer up 5 tracks of doomy, sludgey hardcore heavy enough to kick your door down and beat you senseless. The two tracks I found to be most interesting were the title track and the song "Prison" , the latter of which features guest vocals from Andrew Kramer of Iron Golem.

Overall I found this to be a great release, and a huge improvement over the demo (which is also available on their bandcamp) although the demo had some sweet jams on it too.

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Big Evil

Big Evil is a 2 piece chaotic hardcore band from Toronto, I found these guys by accident one day and was very glad I did.  For fans of Norma Jean, Retox or Botch their debut release "Empty" is short (2:13 total runtime), noisy and (as stated above) chaotic as all hell.  They are recording/recorded their next batch of tunes and I'm really interested to see what they'll do next.

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Guiltfeeder

Guiltfeeder are a four piece hardcore band hailing from Toronto, ON. Their newest EP came out last June, and features 5 tracks of chaotic fret work, throat shredding vocals, and a rhythm section so tight no way baby come out of there. I highly recommend checking these guys out, and if possible catch them at a show, their next show is March 12th @ Silence in Guelph with Mirrors & Tides and Teleportoise.

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Lungless

Hailing from Pickering, Ontario, Lungless play a brand of hardcore all their own. With their newest 5 track EP "Exhale" they continue to expand upon the sound they began to develop with last years "Inhale" EP, albeit in a far darker fashion. Songs like "Proxy" and "Ark" are pretty heavy and hardhitting tracks that come out fast and don't relent.

Overall, "Exhale" manages to pull you in and keep you interested enough to hit the replay button over and over again, and if you can, I suggest you check out one of the dates their playing (dates below) because their live show is just as great as the stuff they've recorded.

Exhale comes out March 11th

Stream "Exhale" Via Heavy Press
Exhale On Bandcamp
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March 12th Ajax, ON @ Top Shelf (EP Release Show)
March 13th London, ON
March 14th Windsor, ON @ The Beer Exchange
March 15th Hamilton, ON @ The Doors Pub
March 17th Quebec City, QC @ La Source De La Martiniere
March 19th Montreal, QC @ Hemisphere Guache

Petrify

Feedback ✔

Dissonance ✔

Getting my hopes up ✔

Petrify, a hardcore band from Alberta is off to a good start with their self-titled debut but just seem to fail to deliver (maybe the album is a grower).

Taking on a full-length as a debut release would be a grueling task for any band and like most bands who attempt it Petrify fall a little flat. Tracks such as My Own, Havens, and Room 446 are highlights off of the album, but these guys should have trimmed the fat and released a solid ep, 5 good songs is always better than 10 OK songs.

Holding everything together through the albums 10 ups and downs is drummer Jake Friedrich. Friedrich crashes, smashes, and bashes his way through the album and will be one of the few thing keeping you involved throughout the listen.

This band definitely deserves some attention and seems to be taking their art seriously, getting their album mastered by Brad Boatright who mastered some of last year's biggest releases (Harms Way, Full Of Hell/Merzbow, and Twitching Tongues) was another saving grace for this band.

All in all this is an OK release so I'll give it an OK score of 5/10

---Russ Walsh---

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Speaker - Grow And Decay (Re-release)

Speaker recently re-released their debut EP "Grow And Decay". Drums and bass we're rerecorded for this and it's definatly beefed up the sound on it, check it out.

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Grow And Decay

Failgiver

Here's another band I had up on the previous site, Failgiver play a brand of dirty, chaotic hardcore with the perfect mix of metal thrown in. Their most recent release "Death Pose" came out last June, check it out.

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Erosion

I did a write up on these guys back when the previous site was up so I'll keep it short and sweet.
Erosion are a crust/d-beat/hardcore band from Vancouver who play some of the dirtiest punk jams you'll ever hear, so stop reading and check this shit out ASAP.

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Hellbent

Hell bent is 4 piece hardcore punk band coming out of Hamilton whom my band was got to share the stage with last month.  In a scene that seems dominated by crazy beatdown bands it's awesome to find a crew with the old school hardcore sound.  Check out both of their self titled EP'S.

-Sean Noble

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