UNSIGNED AND UNHOLY: THE “BANDS THAT ARE ACTUALLY DOING SOMETHING ORIGINAL” EDITION

I spend a whole lotta time complaining about mediocre bands — ones that are serviceable but completely un-original — and way too little time highlighting bands that are actually trying something new. So how about a few bands that do the latter, for better or worse?

• Vestiges: The only band I can think of that I could compare to Vestiges’ brand of black metal-inflected modern American metal is Austin, TX outfit Pack of Wolves, a great band in their own right that deserve way more attention for what they’re doing. Vestiges have a really unique blend of several metal genres and they really can’t be easily pigeonholed; this band is definitely worth a listen if you crave original metal.
• Dying Sun: Spaced-out, slow doom that’s produced with a whole lotta spaced-out ambience rarely heard in this genre. This is a really cool idea and not one I’ve heard before, but I find the production to be lacking; I really wish there was some more clarity in pretty much all of the instruments instead of everything sounding so washy (I’m sure this is intentional on the band’s part — but there has to be a happy medium between clarity and washiness) and the vocals are basically inaudible. STILL, this is perfect music to put on in the background for a one-on-one hang sesh with a good friend and a bowl of your greenest green.
• Slagduster: Axl nailed it when he described these guys as “nu-tech [-death].” I have no idea whether this is a good or bad thing… pretty sure it’s a terrible thing in the general sense… but these guys at least deserve points for trying something new. If Slagduster could stick to more of the Candiria parts and less of the Korn parts this would actually be really cool.

-VN