July Filters get sticky from the heat. It takes time to cool em down and unstickify those rascals. We did it though, for YOU.
Hardcore
No Shelter. – Remission/Resolve Review
“No Shelter. is a five-piece from Münster that peddles in D-beat brutalization with a heaping helping of Boss HM-2 pedal worship. Its latest, Remission/Resolve, is a bass-driven freight train of Swedish-coded blackened death metal, crust punk, and hardcore, conjuring direct comparisons to genre stalwarts like Nails, Rotten Sound, and Trap Them. Can No Shelter. stand in the spotlight with some of the most vicious rippers around, or is it flying too close to the sun, wax wings ready to send it to hell with the rest of the copycats?” Entombing the unsheltered masses.
Cruel Bomb – Cruel Bomb Review
“Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, is home to self-proclaimed ‘thrash metal titans,’ Cruel Bomb. Since forming in 2018, Cruel Bomb has released three EPs—2019’s Manhattan Mischief, 2020’s Trinity Terror, and 2022’s Man Made—while touring extensively along the East Coast. Now, wrapped in an energetically bright and nuclearly holocaustic package courtesy of artist Ed Repka, Cruel Bomb prepares to drop their eponymous, independent debut album. Crafting your debut as a nod to the Big 4, while not entirely original, does come with certain expectations, at least for this reviewer” Lots of bombs in the air.
Ba’al – The Fine Line between Heaven and Here Review
“Post-anything is a tough genre to pin down. Does the music eschew genre trappings, rightfully identifying as post in the way it challenges previous norms? Or does it draw from the well that identifies as post, infusing itself with spacey tremolo riffs, heavy atmosphere, and lengthy, non-traditional tracks? If the Sheffield UK post-metallers Ba’al have anything to say, it is the latter.”
Stuck in the Filter: May 2025’s Angry Misses
May Filters bring August off-kilters. Find your passion amongst the flotsam.
Stuck in the Filter: April 2025’s Angry Misses
The April Filters are now fully de-scuzzified. You can approach and examine the scuzz flotsam.
Stuck in the Filter: March 2025’s Angry Misses
March Filters bring summer bewilders when missed, so come see what we found in the iron scrapings.
Tonguecutter – Minnow Review
“Are the ’90s played out yet? If you ask the metal world, or rather, the metal-leaning world of -cored and rocky sounds, we’re just getting started in the retro movement of three-decades past explorations. From the dreamy prog-leaning radioscapes of Lizzard to The Jesus Lizard-drenched grinding lurch of Full of Hell to the nostalgic Deftones-alt-castings of Bleed, the ’90s finds itself emblazoned in cut-n-scanned posters across guitar-led machinations in our current age. In a guise more Hole-y and riot grrrl, Michigan’s Tonguecutter wears close that AmRep, early Melvins, Unsane-y aesthetic with their quick-n-dirty debut Minnow.” Tongue chum.
Meatwound – Macho Review
“I was shocked when my helmet light sputtered out while spelunking some of the sump pit’s darker, less-traveled caverns recently. As I waited for my eyes to adjust to the gloom, I noticed something bright and pink glimmering in a recess of mossy rock. That ‘something’ was Macho, the fourth album from Tampa, Florida’s hardcore sludge noise-mongers Meatwound, and I used its luminescent shimmer to help guide me back to headquarters. Outside of the great band name and cover art giving me strong Warhol meets Boris vibes.” El Macho Borracho.
Coffin Feeder – Big Trouble Review
“Sometimes you can judge a book by its cover. The intellectual property rights-busting album artwork of Big Trouble by Coffin Feeder pays tribute to the silliest action movies of the 80s and 90s, just like the music within. This album represents the band’s full-length debut after a pair of EPs that tickled our very own Kenstrosity. Though the core members may be Belgian, the bands through which these guys ordinarily peddle their wares (Aborted, Leng Tch’e) are fused with a steaming smorgasbord of high-profile guest spots (Benighted, Cattle Decapitation, Archspire). The result is an energetic fusion of various cores, from death to grind to hard.” Get to the chugga!
