READERS CHOICE: THE MELTING POT EDITION

As long as you all keep sending in bands to check out I’ll keep writing about ’em. This edition of Readers’ Choice focuses on bands who combine influences from all over the metal micro-genre map. Incidentally, all these entries also came from the band members themselves (or an associated friend/helper). Check it:

• Dystrophy: Tech-thrash? Thrashified tech-death? Deathified tech-thrash? I don’t know… but you get the point. If Machine Head made love to Atheist and popped out a Dying Fetus, it might sound like these Dirty Jer-Z-ers. For this type of music, though, the performance needs to be tighter and the mix cleaner than it is on their new album Chains of Hypocrisy — there’s lots of cool stuff happening that’s getting buried and lost.
• Arkhum: The band emailed us a couple of times, but I’m thick-headed and it took writeups on No Clean Singing and Reign in Blonde to get me to really pay attention. Arkhum just signed with Vendlus Records, who’ve put out releases by Agalloch and Wolves in the Throne Room, and fittingly their new album Anno Universum was mixed by Agalloch’s own Jason Walton. I’d describe their sound as some kind of blackened version of progressive death metal with just the right touch of technicality. Take a listen here.
• Pestifer: For people who like proggy, kinda death-y metal bands with good bassists and bouts of dissonance. Think: Dysrythmia, Intronaut, Cynic, Obscura, etc. Really, really good stuff from these Belgians!

-VN