It’s a beautiful thing when a curse is finally broken. Um, most of the time.

Up the (digital) decibels for free!

With three rock-solid releases preceding it (one of which is an undeniable first-ballot classic) and two, shall we say, polarizing releases following it, Arise is the sound of Sepultura finding their sweet spot. Ranking the songs from “worst to best” is borderline insane as they all completely rip, but we did it anyway.

Mastodon/Baroness-esque prog-metallers Moon Tooth just dropped dizzying full-length Chromaparagon, and axeman extraordinaire Nick Lee (also of ’80s metallers Riot) breaks down 10 riffs that tempt him to do just what the headline promises. Take it away, Nick!

Jonesing for some cave-galloping, sludgy-toned, fuzzy hate-spittle metal?  Feel like you haven’t gotten your rocks off properly for the past several years?  Then you’re probably already a Black Cobra fan.  If you weren’t already a fan, you can get in on the, eh, fifth floor right now with the Cali band’s forthcoming record, Imperium Sumulacra.

Ride Forth
Not too young to drink and to shred
dB Rating: 9/10

Philly-based crossover heroes Incisor just released six-song EP  Imminent Destruction this weekend, and we’re psyched to bring you the title track below. 

Danzig covering bands in 2016: not so cool. Other bands covering Danzig (in this case the Misfits) in 2016: still very cool.

This month, we talked to every last damn member of 2015 eye-wideners Publicist UK about their inspired, curious choice of cover contribution.  We’ll leave the details up to Zack Lipez (vocals), Brett Bamberger (bass) and the Davids (Obuchowski and Witte, guitar and drums respectively), but we were certainly as positively surprised and amazed at their work on Tori Amos’s “Precious Things” as we were about last year’s Forgive Yourself.

Going back to Into the Grave, Sweden’s terribly heavy death metal outfit Grave had few peers. Now, some many moons later, the Stockholmites still have few peers on new album, Out Of Respect For The Dead. Built on solid death metal foundation (no question), Grave’s new album pummels, punishes, and putrefies, with tracks such as “Mass Grave Mass”, “Flesh Before My Eyes”, and “Trail of Ungodly Trades” feeling freshly peeled off the skin of a recently-dead corpse. We tracked down frontman and original member Ola Lindgren to see what makes Grave tick after decades of cemetery work and mausoleum repair.