READERS’ CHOICE RANDOMS!

Will you people stop sending us really good bands? There are too damned many to keep up with. Jeez.

• Sentinel: Deliciously tasty death metal that’s equal parts Morbid Angel / Gojira-style rhythmic DM and Dying Fetus / Suffocation-style groove/stomp DM. But with a sense for great riffs that’s close to something like Decapitated or even Lamb of God. The crisp, punchy, heavy production comes from Cannae’s Shane Frisby. I’m loving the two new songs they have posted!
• Raw In Sect: Really solid American death metal-inspired thrash (from Greece!) with a blatantly raging boner for Machine Head. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
• Viraemia (pictured) This is pretty much the epitomy of what Ziltoid would call “weedily weedily” tech-death. In more musical terms: it’s really fast, technical death metal with a ton of sweep-picking matched up with tight bass and razor-sharp drums via clean, pristine production for that super-precise tech-death feel. If you enjoy bands like Origin this is a surefire hit for you, but if you’re not into tech-death you’re just gonna think this is a bunch of wank. Count me in the former category… this is extremely well-done! [Thanks: “slowmotion” via comment. See? we do read ’em (sometimes).] Apparently last year I posted a video of Viraemia’s bass player showing off — sweet.
• Enabler: It’d be easy to call this beard metal, but it’s more than that; it’s beard metal with balls. Big, fat, giant, droopy balls that swing to and fro between a bulldog’s legs. Big, powerful, fuzzed-out guitar riffs mix with hard-hitting drums to match and are punctuated by a couple of other influences. This is music to drink a lot of beer to in a dark, damp basement. [Thanks: Dan Burton]

-VN