Inhuman Condition
When Taylor Nordberg (Deicide) and Jeramie Kling (Venom Inc/Ex Deo) abruptly departed Florida death metal crew Massacre in 2020, they were in possession of an entire new album’s worth of neck-wrecking songs that no longer had a home. Determined not to waste perfectly good brutality, they joined forces with another former Massacre member, legendary bassist Terry Butler (Obituary/ex-Death), and formed Inhuman Condition: a band named after a Massacre EP from the 90s. Simple.
“We didn’t want any confusion about why this band sounded like Massacre,” Jeramie explains. “We figured, let’s eliminate that thought right out of the gate. When we told Terry about the name he loved it and said, ‘I actually wrote that song so this is perfect!’”
Much less nice are the barbarous riffs and broken-glass bellowing that await listeners on Inhuman Condition’s second album, Fearsick. Arriving only a year after the trio’s Rat°God debut, it combines the last of the songs Jeramie and Taylor wrote for their previous band with a bunch of equally vicious, bone-chilling new shit.
“I kept thinking of the term ‘dopesick’ and what that means, and how debilitating that can be,” explains Jeramie. “Then I considered how many people are literally crippled with fear. Fear of being alive, fear of bugs, fear of anything your heart desires. I put those two things together and it tied the entire album’s lyrical content together with a nice bow. Fear makes us do lots of wacky stuff. It makes us feel lots of different things. It makes ghosts real.”
Despite all being involved with multiple projects, Inhuman Condition seem to have sprouted the necessary legs to make this spontaneous union a longer-term concern. Death metal: still the best time ever.
“We just play the music we like,” Jeramie concludes. “Plans for next year are being made as we speak. We’re having way too much fun!” Dom Lawson
Sounds like: Balls-out, old-school death metal, played by experts
For fans of: Massacre, Benediction, Cancer
Out now: Fearsick (Listenable Insanity)
Graywave
“I want to make music that other people can find solace in, without there being a defined message.” Graywave, aka Birmingham’s Jess Webberley, sees her music as consoling, but open to interpretation. Straddling the line between swirling shoegaze and dreampop, she folds in elements from Slowdive to Cocteau Twins.
Graywave released her debut EP, Planetary Shift, back in April 2021, but her second, Rebirth, is something of a departure from her previous work. “It’s about changing directions,” she tells us. “The red and orange [of the artwork] represents the phoenix, and the ghostly figures are morphing into something new.”
Inner turmoil is a key theme in her music. She explains: “It’s reflected in a lot of my material, light versus dark and good versus evil,” but it also reflects an “indecision of who I am and who I want to be”.
Such multi-faceted music has caught the eye of underground tastemakers Church Road Records and will see her play shows with labelmates Zetra and Heriot (Debbie Gough, Heriot’s guitarist/vocalist, recommended Church Road to her). Although her music is serene on the surface, she feels it’s a natural bedfellow for the hardcore bands she grew up playing in and enjoying, and with shoegaze cropping up in bands from Deftones to Loathe, she’s got a good point. Will Marshall
Sounds like: A dip into an ethereal, shimmering dream realm
For Fans Of: Cocteau Twins, Loathe, Slowdive
Out Now: Rebirth (Church Road)
Infanteria
When South African prog-thrash alchemists Infanteria recorded their second album, Where Serpents Conquer, in 2015, they were a in a mad rush to make a record after storming Wacken and supporting Killswitch and Trivium. “We nearly killed ourselves doing the last one so quickly,” reveals singer/guitarist Chris Hall. “This time we thought, let’s be more meticulous.”
The refinement is evident in the elegant, expansive arrangements of third album Patriarch. The cerebral concept unifying lyrics and aesthetic - of “family legacies of the past that hang over the present” – confirms Infanteria’s direction of travel.
“We went more progressive,” affirms Chris. “I love the way Mastodon and Opeth take you on a journey. I wanted to add a bit of Architects’ and While She Sleeps’ ethereal wall of noise thing too.”
“I’m a lot more relaxed, not as busy,” ponders drummer Adrian Langeveld. “Less crazy, but still big, and not over- played. I could compare it to going from …And Justice For All to The Black Album.”
“As your tastes broaden you want to incorporate more of the things you connect with and make them your own,” says bassist Tim Leibbrandt. “I think we’ve done that successfully.” Chris Chantler
Sounds like: Spotty 80s thrash boys becoming sexy modern prog men
For Fans Of: Metallica, Mastodon, Architects
Listen To: Patriarch (Bandcamp)
ANIIMALIA
ANIIMALIA – deliberately misspelt Latin for ‘animals’ – formed in Somerset, England in 2020, intent on challenging the notion that a band can’t be both idiosyncratic and have mass appeal. Their sound is a yin- yang amalgamation of the heavier tendencies of acts like Royal Blood and Biffy Clyro, and the quirky eccentricity of bands like Marmozets or Yonaka.
“We don’t fit into a box,” vocalist Kira Beckett admits. “We’ve been told to simplify what we do to find our place in the industry, but that completely goes against the feeling of our band.”
Their instincts proved to be correct when they won the Marshall x Kerrang! Radio ‘The Deal’ competition earlier this year. They landed a record deal with Marshall, as well as radio airplay and a slot at this year’s Download festival (“the best experience we’ve had so far”). The competition certainly gave them a leg up, and they aren’t taking it for granted.
“We’ve been so busy, sometimes it genuinely doesn’t hit us what an insane opportunity this has been,” Kira says. “We couldn’t be more grateful for the people around us.”
With new EP Pressure Points highlighting the polarity in their sound – just listen to the nimble guitar-work of False Enemy or the enormous chorus of Silver Linings – Aniimalia have set their sights on the future. “We’re in this for the long run,” Kira asserts. “We want to push ourselves as far as we can go.” Liz Scarlett
Sounds Like: Kate Bush-style eccentricity colliding with radio rock riff-raff
For Fans Of: Biffy Clyro, Marmozets, Vukovi
Out now: Pressure Points (Marshall)
Psychonaut
Psychonaut defy every genre tag you could come up with. The Belgian trio are among the most maximalist bands in extreme music, and balancing post-metal’s lead-heavy breakdowns with ambient sci-fi interludes and drawn-out vocal howls. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
On their new second album Violate Consensus Reality, Psychonaut perplex with all manner of techniques and song structures. A Pacificist’s Guide To Violence is a three-minute pummelling, armed with grunts and lightspeed guitar taps, while the title track seems imported from another universe. Amenra vocalist Colin H Van Eeckhout and Brutus drummer/singer Stefanie Mannaerts lend their voices to an odyssey of alien wails and gentle percussion.
“We’ve meditated together, had long discussions about the nature of life, and we share a common vision,” De Graef says of his band’s creative process, which is almost as weird as their music.
Lyrically, Violate… explores a unified, utopian Planet Earth. “We embrace the vision of a new civilisation that is rooted in the idea that we are part of a living, sacred universe,” De Graef explains. If it sounds confusing, good: your mind will be just as blown when you actually give their songs a spin. Matt Mills
Sounds like: Post-metal on the moon, with breakdowns and space rock atmospherics galore
For fans of: The Ocean, Hippotraktor, Pink Floyd
Out soon: Violate Consensus Reality (October 18 via Pelagic)
