Finally bored of spinning those Metallica, Avenged Sevenfold and Sleep Token albums from this year? Looking for something brand new and exciting to sink your teeth into? Here are four absolutely killer new metal bands that we're raving about this month. Have a read, go check out their excellent music and thank us later.
Jaaw
For some musicians, even those who play in bands with more hooks than a fisherman’s knapsack, there are times where only sheer, harsh noise can scratch that creative itch.
“It was good to do something outside the normal thing from Therapy?,” says Andy Cairns about his latest project, JAAW. Therapy? have made all manner of brilliantly melodic, clattering alt punk over the last three decades, but Andy found himself pining for the abrasive sound that inspired early Therapy? songs like Teethgrinder and Animal Bones. He's not alone in this quest, and has teamed up with the cream of the UK's underground noise scene: Adam Betts of Three Trapped Tigers, Wayne Adams of Pet Brick/Big Lad and Jason Stol of Mugstar. Jaaw's debut album, Supercluster, combines the quartet's love of everything from Lightning Bolt and Big Black to...well...just inhuman noise.
"I'm quite vocal about new music and I heard this album No You by the band Rainbow Grave, which I was eulogising about a lot," says Andy. “It came out on God Unknown Records, which is run by Jason. He got in touch out of the blue and told me he was sitting there with Wayne, and they were wondering if I would be up for making a record.”
With the demands of a three-decade veteran act to consider, Andy knew if he was going to commit to the project, it had to be something he was passionate about.
“The elevator pitch was greyscale, industrial noise rock,” smiles Andy. “Jason told me he was a big fan of Godflesh, Ministry and early Type O Negative, and he wanted to make a record like that. He basically told me it was no holds barred, and that I could make as much noise as I like. I did the vocals and guitars in two days... it was really exciting.”
Beyond Extinction
"Welcome to the pain and agony of disgusting riffs and huge drums,” grins Beyond Extinction’s guitarist Jude Bennett, proudly brandishing a copy of his band’s latest EP, Nothing More Wretched.
Taking cues from everyone from Bury Tomorrow and Parkway Drive to Black Tongue, their sludgy, beatdown- flecked deathcore is a far cry from an inauspicious start in high school playing Asking Alexandria covers. Now, with their eldest member just 23 years old, they are quite literally representative of the next generation of British extreme metal.
Formed in 2018, the band built a reputation for mixing the sheer brutality of deathcore with an ambitious creativity more in line with prog. To wit, the new EP is centred around the concept of “a colossal interdimensional being that eats planets”.
“We don’t confront the things we don’t like enough,” explains vocalist Jasper Harmer. “This band deals with undeniably bad truths, whether that’s climate change or maybe that there’s no god.”
In spite of that, the band exude a chaotic sense of fun, and played to a packed-out tent at Bloodstock 2021. As Metal Hammer went to press before this interview appeared in print, we received the sad news that guitarist Zach Scott had passed away. We reached out to the band to pass on our condolences, and they told us they were determined to carry on. “It was an absolute privilege to know Zach as a bandmate and a person”, says Jasper.“He will be missed more than we can express, and we will continue to work hard towards the vision we all shared for the band and make him proud.”
Dirge
When he was17 years old, Ashish Dharkar lost his dad to a heart attack.
“You become so numb that you can’t feel anything,” the Mumbai musician tells Metal Hammer of the emotional impact. “It’s something you’ve never expected and you’re so young that you never think it could happen. Your whole life is turned upside down.”
To grieve, the only thing the then-teenager had was music, and he turned to Candlemass and Autopsy for comfort. “All my friends got back to their lives, and I don’t blame them. I couldn’t relate to anyone and they weren’t in my [emotional] state either.” Ashish eventually escaped his doldrums by playing in bands. First it was a short-lived grunge group, then Dirge: a post-metal five-piece bridging the gap between Cult Of Luna and vintage doom metal grandeur.
Their new, self-titled album contains a quadrilogy of tracks that morph from open E-string chugs to plodding chords. It’s also, unlike 2018’s Mayan- themed debut Ah Puch, endowed with existential lyrics. Third track Grief even brings the band full circle by lamenting the death of Ashish’s dad.
“It’s very difficult being a heavy metal band in India,” Ashish explains. “You have to survive with fewer venues and in a very small community. When we started out, we just wanted to jam, write music and play some local gigs. But it’s been almost 10 years [since Dirge formed]. I think now we want to take our music to places that will really appreciate it... Europe especially."
Pest Control
Crossover is long overdue a revival. Luckily, Leeds’ Pest Control are helping give this mutant mid-80s hybrid of hardcore and thrash a modern update. Their debut album, Don’t Test The Pest, detonates 11 songs in 21 mosh-inducing minutes, evoking such old- school greats as Crumbsuckers and D.R.I.
“We get a lot of people saying, ‘This sounds like bands I used to listen to,’” says guitarist Joe K, who co-founded the band in 2020. “But we’re more than just a copy-and-paste version of the past,” adds singer Leah. “We’re bringing something fresh to the table.”
Unlike their 80s predecessors, Pest Control avoid the explicitly political on furious bangers such as Buggin’ Out, Don’t Test The Pest and Masquerade Party. “I like to have fun,” says Leah, “but all the lyrics about infestations and bugs are also metaphors for more personal themes of mental health.” All five members put in time on the local DIY hardcore and metal scenes, but they’ve also stepped up via support slots with Kreator and Obituary. “Before, it was hardcore kids two- stepping at our shows,” says Joe. “Now we’re seeing a lot more battlejackets and headbanging.”
