Were you missing the 2025 Mathcore Madness list? Miss no MOAR!
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Punk
Karloff – Revered by Death Review
“As a musician, sometimes you just want to blow off some steam with a fun, low-stakes side project, free from the genre trappings or expectations of your main gig. Karloff is a band born of such an impulse, serving as the vehicle for Graveyard Ghoul’s Tom “Tyrantör” Horrified to deliver some vintage metal/punk. The band’s last full-length, 2021’s The Appearing, was an enjoyable but unimpressive throwback to the halcyon days of punky heavy metal with a blackened twist. Now Mr. Horrified and his team storm back from the grave with another fist-swinging slab of tight, nostalgia-soaked riffage, built to crack open some beers and rattle your damn crypt to rubble.” Universal monsters.
Backengrillen – Backengrillen Review
“As this new year has gotten off to a right proper, lunacy-fueled start, I scoured the sump pit in search of something to pen my first review of 2026 on. As I poked through the pickens, slim as they were, I spied one of my favorite tags: ‘Steel says review,’ sitting unclaimed. Self-described as ‘free form death-jazz,’ Umeå, Sweden’s Backengrillen play music that is a paean to chaos and destruction. The basic idea is to take a death/doom metal, or noiserock riff and play it until it loses meaning and then break it apart like a ravenous cat would a tiny forest mouse. Okay, I thought, I’ll bite.” Business in the front, grillen in the back.
Moon Wisdom – Let Water Flow Review
“Metal Fatigue is not a moral failing: it is a physiological phenomenon, befalling even the most honorable of headbangers. Though traditional metal can tire in its own way, Metal Fatigue mostly lurks on the severe side of the genre. Too often, extreme metal exhausts by coupling sonic monotony with album lengths more appropriate for episodes of prestige television. Given my own struggles with Metal Fatigue, I was intrigued to see Let Water Flow—a 28-minute black metal record from Moon Wisdom—sitting in the sump.” Waterborn or waterlogged?
Cam Girl – Flesh & Chrome Review
“Every once in a blue moon, reviewing a local band—especially a largely DIY band like Asheville, North Carolina’s Cam Girl—comes with a few extra perks. Because of our proximity, I secured promo months in advance in the form of a sick translucent cyan vinyl and a digital mp3, and gleaned additional insight into how this record was made. Having that much more exposure and access to the band by the grace of locality helped contextualize exactly what Cam Girl aspire to be.” Think brutally, shop locally.
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.
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Dear Hollow’s Mathcore Madness [Things You Might Have Missed 2024]
Here’s a special look back at all the best mathcore madness you might have missed in 2024. We do this because we care about math.
Stuck in the Filter: August and September 2024
Look at that! We did double duty on the Filters, covering August and September. We really only cleaned them once but billed double. Don’t narc on us!
Deathrite – Flames Licking Fever Review
“Sometimes it’s not about the brutality or the speed, it’s about the pizzazz. German band Deathrite began life as OSDM worship in 2010, before attempting to make their own mark by incorporating more punk riff simplicity and black metal atmospheres into one vile brew. Now, they stand poised to deliver their fifth outing, the oddly titled Flames Licking Fever, and the idea of such a trifecta of sounds certainly tickles the earballs. Do the ingredients come together in a potable stew, or should these flavors remain separated from each other for good?” Lick the Devil.
Defiled – Horror beyond Horror Review
“Defiled is a grizzled veteran of the death metal scene having released its first demo 31 years ago. As usual, there’s an extensive paper trail here at AMG that provides context for Defiled’s oeuvre (as well as evidence for any future litigation). Over their storied career, they’ve been reviewed on this site three times by three different writers, and the results have been inconsistent. While their 2011 effort In Crisis received a glowing review from the AMG himself, followups struggled with issues from production quality to humdrum songwriting.” But what do Felagund’s Elf ears hear?
