Zealotry - The Charnel Expanse (2013)

Genre: Death Metal

Country: United States

This blog has been pretty quiet as of late, although with news of the fifth Gorguts full length coming out in September, perhaps other bands will get their rears in gear and head to the studio. Regardless, Boston's Zealotry here have released one of my favorite albums of the year with The Charnel Expanse. Strange, Demilich-esque melodies permeate the album's guitar work, with a vocalist that reminds one of none other than Ross Dolan (Immolation appears to be another strong influence, with off-kilter time signatures and drumwork). This is all combined with some excellent bass work that is clearly audible at times given the nicely developed production, which combines enough old-school crunch and modern clarity to fit the album's sound perfectly. Get this.

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Nuclear Death - Bride of Insect (1990)

Genre: Deathgrind
Country: USA

All you really have to do is look at that album cover and imagine exactly what that would sound like if it were music and that works pretty well to describe Nuclear Death.  Probably one of the most unintentionally strange death metal bands to ever exist, Nuclear Death hailed from the sweltering heat of Arizona, sported a female vocalist/bassist, and made some of the most savage, fucked up grinding death metal that's ever been put on an album.  The vocal performance, provided by the now legendary Lori Bravo, is enough to warrant listening to this album alone, but the accompanying savage thrashing, grinding, death metal attack makes Bride of Insect more than just a novelty from a time when no one gave a fuck about how you were supposed to sound and just made evil music in the name of evil music.  Truly an album that must be heard.

bride of insect

Mold - Cremated Alive (2013)

Genre: Death Metal
Country: Denmark

Imagine if Antedeluvian and Portal sounded less like themselves and more like Incantation and you might be able to imagine what Mold's second demo sounds like.  Cremated Alive is a twisting, cavernous (see: caverncore), murky, filthy 4 tracks of pure vile Incantation worship sprinkled with just enough new riffs and little enticing nuances to make even the most seasoned old school death metaller a little wet in the pant seat.  Definitely worth you're time considering how 2013 kind of died as far as death metal goes recently.

CAVERNCORE 2013