One month down, 11 to go! January 2024 might have felt like a death-trudge to the finish, but at least we had plenty of brilliant new bands to listen to, and some early contenders for 2024's album of the year in the form of all-star ensemble team-up Bright & Black.
But as we enter February, some of metal's big names are gearing up for new releases - there's a reason Bruce Dickinson is on the cover of this month's Hammer after all - and as ever, we've hunted high and low to find you the most exciting new sounds around. We've stayed largely in extreme territories this month with Middle Eastern blackened death metallers Trivax, crusty DM from Fuming Mouth and Canadian thrashers Hyperia, but there's also some immense emotional weight from Dundee's post-hardcore mob To Kill Achilles.
You'll find all those records in a handy playlist right below, and can learn more about those bands by carrying on down. Happy listening - and have a good February!
Trivax
Trivax inject blackened death metal’s darkness with Middle Eastern melodies, incorporating traditional instruments like the Saz –a lute-like instrument – alongside neck-breaking blastbeats. For vocalist Shayan, who formed the band in Iran in 2009, these elements are not just part of his band’s sound but a link to a home he was forced to leave.
“There was no future for me there,” he admits. “We were playing in a basement with eggshells and cement on the walls to keep the noise in, so that the neighbours wouldn’t complain to the police and get us arrested.”
Moving to the UK in 2011, Shayan reformed Trivax from scratch. But while the band – made up of Shayan, Syrian bassist Sully and British drummer Matt Croton – are now based out of Birmingham, they still embrace uniquely Middle Eastern worldviews. With their second record, Eloah Burns Out, songs like Against All Opposition even draw on the teachings of Zoroastrianism, an ancient Persian religion.
“It’s probably one of the healthiest and most humanitarian philosophies that ever existed in religious ideology,” Shayan enthuses, drawing parallels between what Trivax are doing with Zoroastrianism and how Scandinavian bands have embraced paganism in the face of Christianity.
“We’re not targeting groups of people, but rather criticising ideology itself in an artistic way, presenting a contorted and twisted version of it.”
In that way, Shayan sees Trivax as a tool to draw out negativity, like lancing pus from a wound. “It’s been a healthy form of meditation to dig deep and find exactly where all those wounds are,” he admits. “So many people have connected with that exact same darkness, yet there’s still a positive experience. We’re united by passion – not just for music, but for freedom and liberation. Freedom is everything – it’s a matter of life and death." Jack Press
Eloah Burns Out is out now via Cult Never Dies
Sounds Like: A blackened death metal cocktail shaking up ancient religion, Middle-Eastern melodies and Nordic darkness
For Fans Of: Asagraum, Melechesh, Watain
Listen To: Alpha Predator
Fuming Mouth
Fuming Mouth seemed unstoppable. Merging early 90s death metal with late 90s metalcore to deadly effect, the Massachusetts act cratered the earth with a series of monstrous early releases. Three weeks before they were due to record their second album, however, everything changed when singer, guitarist and mastermind Mark Whelan was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia. “The first thing I said was that I just wanted to play one more show,” says Mark.
The band entered “battle stations”, with Mark viewing each milestone - chemo, remission, finding a bone-marrow donor - as a campaign victory. And while the process was painful, exhausting and uncertain, it also gave him the opportunity to rewrite expansive new album Last Day Of Sun, musically and conceptually.
“I was going crazy stuck in a room all day and the doctors and nurses encouraged me to play guitar,” he remembers. “It was a way to occupy my time while I was really high on drugs.”
For someone so ensconced in death metal’s gruesome, purulent ways, though, did this situation give him pause? After all, this was real life, not an Autopsy or Carcass song.
“I actually became more morbid, disgusting and putrid,” Mark smiles. “I wrote things like Rest In Piss or Burial Practices because that’s what I was seeing. I’d walk down the hospital hallway to try to build my strength and see someone die on a stretcher. Our mortality is something we all have to come to terms with. Death can happen peacefully and it can happen in absolutely horrible ways.” Alex Deller
Last Day Of Sun is out now via Nuclear Blast
Sounds Like: A chest-crushing mix of death metal and hardcore that isn’t afraid to push boundaries
For Fans Of: Bolt Thrower, Turmoil, Dismember
Listen To: Burial Practices
To Kill Achilles
Dundee based post-hardcore outfit To Kill Achilles have come a long way since their formation in 2010. With their first two albums they successfully carved their own niche, combining emotionally charged narratives with captivating atmospherics. But their third fulllength, Recovery, is an especially intimate affair that delves deeper into their personal experiences than ever before, navigating hard-hitting, relatable subjects including loss, anxiety and addiction.
“It’s a kind of therapy for me,” explains frontman Mark Tindal. “If you can say something out loud and listen back to it, it allows you to normalise and make sense of everything. We say that if our listeners ‘get it’, that we wish they didn’t, as a lot of the topics are quite harrowing. We do hope, however, that our stories will help people feel less alone and feel seen.”
Mark admits that balancing an anxious mindset with the commitments of being a performing musician isn’t an ideal scenario. Despite this, it isn’t an obstacle he is willing to let impede him. “I find shows to be a safe space,” he says. “When I’m shouting at the top of my lungs, I have little time to think about anything else. To see someone singing the words back when I’m talking about specific days in my calendar is one of the best feelings. I feel like if you put your true feelings in a song, people accept them more and you can vent without fear.” Dan McHugh
Sounds Like: A bleeding heart sewing itself back together
For Fans Of: Counterparts, La Dispute, The Devil Wears Prada
Listen To: The Cave
Hyperia
It's hard to believe that Hyperia’s frenzied shredding and breakneck drum-blasts are the product of an extended honeymoon. But it’s true: when Marlee and Colin Ryley travelled for a year following their wedding, it was nomadic strumming on a tiny acoustic guitar that ignited ahunger for bigger sounds.
“We’ve been trying to blend old-school thrash from the 80s with more modern and neoclassical elements,” explains guitarist Colin.
Based in Vancouver, Hyperia’s third full-length, The Serpent’s Cycle, represents their most ambitious vision yet. Whether it’s the noodling prog of Prophet Of Deceit giving way to crossover thrash, the homage to Municipal Waste-style party headbangers on Automatic Thrash Machine or the tongue-in-cheek closer Crazy On You – originally by Heart – it’s impossible to pigeonhole them.
“I never thought about trying to be thrash in a classical sense,” Marlee admits. “I was just trying to write from what I knew, what I was going through or fun things I came up with on the fly.”
Hyperia plan to bring their audacious take on modern thrash to Europe and the USA for the first time in 2024. “It’s crunch time,” Marlee says eagerly. Tamlin Magee
Sounds Like: A high-octane power-thrash variety show with technical flair
For Fans Of: Crisix, Exmortus, Havok
Listen To: Automatic Thrash Machine
