Free Download: NYC Sucks, Volume 4, Featuring The Best of New York City’s Metal Scene

It’s here! After releasing Volume 3 of our completely free digital music compilation series NYC Sucks in March, Volume 4 has finally arrived. This edition features seven — count ’em, SEVEN — previously unreleased tracks that are now available to the world for the very first time. The compilation boasts thirteen songs by some of our favorite metal bands from the NYC area, running the gamut of genres from death to tech to prog to grind to black to hardcore to doom and more. We truly feel that this is a great sampling of all that New York’s thriving metal scene has to offer, and we’re beyond proud to be sharing it with you — absolutely, 100% free of charge.

You can stream, or, better yet, just download the comp below. It contains high-quality 320kbps MP3s, and as well as a PDF of digital liner notes with information about all the bands. Please help get the word out… send the comp to your friends, put it up on torrent sites, submit it to .rar Mediafire blogs… just spread the friggin’ music by any means necessary! Here’s the track list, with full descriptions of each band further down the page:

1. Extinction A.D. – “Mummified”
2. Torrential Downpour – “TKV”
3. Artificial Brain – “Absorbing Black Ignition”
4. Dead Empires – “Five Day Death”
5. Family – “Precedent”
6. Old Wounds – “It Can’t Rain All the Time”
7. Pigs – “If I’m in Luck”
8. White Widows Pact – “Collateral Damage”
9. Alekhine’s Gun – “Crown of Knives (Tsoncha Korlo)”
10. Flaming Tusk – “Thousand Year Plan”
11. Mutilation Rites – “Fogwarning”
12. Fin’Amor – “Bleed the Oceans”
13. A Pale Horse Named Death – “Shallow Grave”

Don’t forget to download Volume 1, Volume 2 and Volume 3 if you haven’t yet.

—> DOWNLOAD NYC SUCKS VOLUME 4 HERE <—
(includes 320kbps MP3 files, Album Cover, PDF Liner Notes)

1. Extinction A.D. – “Mummified”
Previously Unreleased
https://www.facebook.com/ExtinctionAD

Featuring four-fifths of This is Hell, modern thrash metal ass-kickers Extinction A.D. make such righteous racket. The Sepultura influence is apparent and unsurprising, given that the band’s name seems to be a conscious reference to Chaos A.D., but it’s the Hannemalistic guitars that will really get you. WARNING: Extinction A.D.’s music will induce headbanging at breakneck speeds.

2. Torrential Downpour – “TKV”
Previously Unreleased – From the forthcoming album Truth, Knowledge, Vision
http://www.torrentialdownpour.bandcamp.com

Torrential Downpour are on the progressive end of the metal spectrum, but they don’t sonically name-check any of the touchstones you might hastily associate with prog. They’re really all over the map in terms of metal sub-genres, but not in the way some bands haphazardly juxtapose different kinds of music against one another other just for the sake of doing so. Their own blend works insanely well, and, most importantly, feels like it’s part of one whole; though there’s a lot happening here, it all springs from a progressive core that steps far outside the box and just goes for it.

3. Artificial Brain – “Absorbing Black Ignition”
From the album Labyrinth Constellation (2014, Profound Lore)
http://artificialbrain.bandcamp.com/

This is death metal done the way death metal is supposed to be done: raw, challenging and SCARY. Breakneck, churning blasts of fury are reminiscent of Ulcerate and Nero di Marte, the technicality calls to mind Gorguts and Dysrhythmia and the sci-fi lyrical themes would give Wormed a run for their money. See where we’re going with this?

4. Dead Empires – “Five Day Load”
Previously Unreleased
https://www.facebook.com/deadempires

Dead Empires sound like what Cloudkicker could’ve been in an alternate universe in which Ben Sharp was influenced by doomy, stoney High on Fire riffs instead of atmospheric post rock and Meshuggah… with a few extra bong rips thrown in for good measure. The Hudson Valley, NY instrumental three-piece brings it hard on their latest offering Waiting in Waves, and this new, previously unreleased track offers a taste of what’s in store on their soon-to-be-released next effort.

5. Family – “Precedent”
Previously Unreleased – From the Forthcoming Album Future History
https://www.facebook.com/family.slays

In the epicenter of the Venn diagram intersecting modern prog metal, classic rock, and ’90s heavy alternative lies Brooklyn’s Family, a band that deftly controls that unlikely intersection of heavy sub-genres with stunning aplomb. Their debut album Portrait was on constant rotation at the MS Mansion for months following its 2012 release (and not just because MS scribe Kip Wingerschmidt plays guitar in the band), so it’s with great anticipation that we wait for Future History, coming later this year. Here’s a sample.

6. Old Wounds – “It Can’t Rain All the Time”
Previously Unreleased
https://www.facebook.com/oldwoundsnj

New Jersey’s Old Wounds first caught our ear with Terror Eyes, their 2011 EP that paid heavy tribute to the nasty, vitriolic post-hardcore bands of yore and injected a small shot of metal to liven things up for the present day. The melodic force is strong with this one, so you won’t have to try too hard to let it get stuck in your head.

7. Pigs – “If I’m in Luck”
From the album Gaffe (2013)
http://www.pigsnyc.com/

This is what happens when you mix producer Andrew Schneider (Cave In, Converge, Made out of Babies, Keelhaul, etc etc etc), Unsane bassist Dave Curran and Freshkills drummer Jim Paradise, a motley allegiance of East Coast hardcore and metal vets. Pigs are just as nasty and visceral as you’d expect; driving, powerful rhythms with dirty, gnarly tones and vitriolic rage spewing from every orifice, but not without the kind of hooky guitar lines you’d expect from this cast of characters.

8. White Widows Pact – “Collateral Damage”
From the album White Widows Pact (2013)
https://www.facebook.com/WhiteWidowsPact

What happens when members of Primitive Weapons, The Destro, Goes Cube and Grudges get together to form a new band in the whiskey and beer-infested bowels of Brooklyn metal hotspot Saint Vitus Bar? Aside from the requisite drunken arguments about which Pantera album is the best, what happens is White Widows, a band that blends NYC-style metallic hardcore and southern sludge in all the right ways. Never before have power groove, sludge and hardcore-style vocals meshed so well together; it’s like if Vinnie Paul sat in with Crowbar and asked Jacob Bannon to get up on stage and sing. Expect the follow-up to 2013’s self-titled to be released later this year.

9. Alekhine’s Gun– “Crown of Knives (Tsoncha Korlo)”
Previously Unreleased
https://www.facebook.com/AlekhinesGun

Alekhine’s Gun fall more into the American heavy metal grouping – both old-school and new wave of – than any other sub-genre. Sure, there’s a remotely Swedish sounding riff here and there, but for the most part you’ll find yourself thrashing like [early] Metallica, power-grooving like Pantera or brutalizing like Lamb of God. When you bring it as hard as these guys and gal, that’s really all you need: see Alekhine’s Gun live and you’ll be sold instantly.

10. Flaming Tusk – “Thousand Year Plan”
Previously Unreleased – From the Forthcoming Album Inquisitor
http://www.flamingtusk.com/

We’ve got a one thousand year plan for you — get baked and CRANK this shit, then do it again, and again, and again… Flaming Tusk’s muddy brand of blackened death metal is perfect for a good smoke sesh. It’s also perfect for breaking into a stranger’s home and terrorizing their family, Funny Games-style. But we can’t endorse that kind of behavior.

11. Mutilation Rites – “Fogwarning”
From the Album Empyrean (Prosthetic, 2012)
http://mutilationrites.com/

Mutilation Rites’ brand of covered-in-blood, filthy, charcoal-black metal is as violent and terrifying as their name would suggest; indeed, “Fogwarning” feels like it may actually be useful in occult rituals intended to honor The Prince of Darkness. Very much in the same vein as Goatwhore and early Nachtmystium, Mutilation Rites’ music presents a strong argument that, yes, Americans most certainly can make black metal, fuck you very much.

12. Fin’amor – “Bleed the Oceans”
Previously Unreleased
http://www.facebook.com/finamorbandj

Is it cold and rainy outside, and you’re sitting home, alone, crying your eyes out into a soggy tissue, unable to see any light in the world? No? Well you’ll feel that way after listening to this new track from Fin’amor, whose music sounds like it comes from the upper reaches of Scandinavia but in fact originates in the not-so-grim South Brooklyn neighborhood of Kensington.

13. A Pale Horse Named Death – “Shallow Grave”
From the Album Lay My Soul to Waste (2013, Steamhammer/SPV)
http://www.apalehorsenameddeath.com/

Former Type O Negative/Life of Agony drummer Sal Abruscato singing and playing guitar? WTF? We can’t blame you for being skeptical, but rest assured — this shit is TIGHT. Given Abruscato’s pedigree, it’s not surprising A Pale Horse Named Death borrow sonically from Type O, but the pacing and tonality are much more akin to Alice in Chains at their darkest and sludgiest. A Pale Horse Named Death’s memorable songs will get stuck in your head from listen one.