UNSIGNED AND UNHOLY: A GOOD START TO 2011

I predict that 2011 will be even better for unsigned bands than 2010. As technology gets better and cheaper and it becomes easier and easier to get your wares out there, sure, we’ll be flooded with more crap bands than ever before. But the law of percentages should hold firm and we’ll get more great bands too, each no less worthy of success than their signed brethren. And as the power and scope of the Internet grows those bands will have an even greater chance of success without the help of a label.

Here are a few of my favorite picks from bands that have contacted us during the first week of 2011 and the last couple of weeks of 2010.

• Dan Dankmeyer: Solo instrumentalist Dan Dankmeyer promised us that his Arcologies project doesn’t suck, and he’s right. Dankmeyer’s “mixture of melodic stuff, metal stuff and chuggy/djent stuff” (recorded with 8-string guitars, natch) isn’t the most original on the block but it’s insanely well-executed, especially from a songs and hooks standpoint. If you’re fapping your junk over Cloudkicker or Keith Merrow, both of which seem to be common masturbation material these days, there’s no reason you won’t like Dankmeyer. Stream Arcologies in its entirety at Bandcamp.
• Malignant Tumor: This band sounds so much like latter day Goatwhore that Axl and I actually had to check to make sure the band didn’t include members of Goatwhore, but it turns out they’re from “Hellgate Ostrava, Please select your region., Czech Republic” so that’s highly unlikely. Normally I’d slag a band that sounds so much like another way-more-well-known band, but I’m not aware of any bands that ape Goatwhore this closely and, frankly, the world could probably use another Goatwhore if it knows what’s right for itself. Reader Brandon Mickman, who sends us ten emails a day each with the extremely creative subject heading “metal” containing links to mostly crap bands, sent this in.
• Swallow or It’s Going In Your Eye: Because you know you wanna check out a grind band whose MySpace address is “/somuchjizz” and whose song titles include “I Jizzed In Your Nachos” and “Creed Fucks Dolphins.” For no other reason than ’cause you’re curious what such a band would sound like.

-VN