Posts Tagged ‘Unique Leader Records’

Extermination Dismemberment – Dehumanization Protocol

Boy have I been waiting for this one. Ever since these Russians dropped the killer video for “Protonemesis” over a year ago. I’ve been salivating for this release, as it’s been 10 years since Serial Urbicide and the new song showed a bit of a direction shift into a more ambitious form of slam with […]

Last Ten Seconds of Life, The – Disquisition on an Execution EP 

What’s the fucking point? Seriously, what’s the point of deathcore anymore? When Lorna Shore raised the bar so high, yet A Wake in Providence and Angelmaker came very close to clearing it with their releases early in the year, I just wonder why any band would even try. That’s the thing about deathcore, though. It […]

Bonecarver – Carnage Funeral

There’s an old adage “You can have too much of a good thing”. And for me, that “good thing” is blackened/symphonic deathcore, and I can have as much of it as I fucking want. And Spain’s Bonecarver has delivered yet another killer addition to the genre to go with the 2022 onslaught of releases from […]

A Wake In Providence – Eternity

When you run the risk of being simply known as “the band that Will Ramos of Lorna Shore used to sing for”, you’d better deliver on your album that you recorded after Ramos’s departure  …. And Boy to A Wake in Providence respond and let the blackened deathcore world know they are NOT simply going […]

Xenobiotic – Hate Monolith EP   

This is an instance where I actually bit off far less than I can chew. Damn it, I was really looking forward to a new full-length from Xenobiotic after really enjoying 2020s Mordrake and my body was FUCKING READY. Apparently Xenobiotic weren’t and that’s kind of a problem. Anyway, this little teaser, presumably before their next […]

Carrion Vael – Abhorrent Obsessions

Here we are, well over halfway into 2022 and in my eyes, two labels are standing out. The Artisan Era is having a hell of a year, as well as the label on which the new Carrion Vael is getting released, Unique Leader. Last year, Unique Leader were known for symphonic deathcore, and while they […]

Exocrine – The Hybrid Suns

Though not quite the tech-death onslaught that 2021 was, 2022 has still had some stellar releases from the likes of Aethereus, Inanimate Existence and GreyLotus. And while GreyLotus’ Dawnfall might be my top contender right now, Exocrine’s fifth album is certainly right up there as well. France’s Exocrine got on my radar with 2020s Maelstrom, […]

Soreption – Jord

It seems like forever ago when Sweden’s Soreption was a contender for my 2014 album of the year with Engineering the Void. The perfect blend of stuttering Meshuggah syncopation and tech death wizardry as well as sudden bursts of orchestral elements just hit m perfectly. However, the 2018 follow up, Monument of the End, didn’t […]

Jungle Rot – A Call to Arms

There’s a new Jungle Rot album on the way, okay? At this point, let’s be honest with ourselves. You know what they bring to the table. You either like it or you don’t. This album is not likely to change your mind, so the real question is; Is this a good Jungle Rot album? Yeah. […]

Extinction A.D – Culture of Violence

I’ve had a Power Trip sized hole in my heart since the untimely passing of Riley Gale. Last year’s Spiritworld helped fill it temporarily (giggity), but not permanently. What I didn’t anticipate was an album on Unique Leader, the undisputed kings of deathcore, staking a claim. So, here comes Extinction AD. The title track is […]

Crown Magnetar – Alone in Death EP

It’s amazing what adding a new band member or two can do for a band. After a self-released EP, The Prophet of Disgust, in 2018, Colorado’s Crown Magnetar added vocalist Dan Tucker and guitarist Nick Scott From And Hell Followed With, a decent deathcore band who were actually on Earache Records at one point (and […]

Last Ten Seconds of Life, The – The Last Ten Seconds of Life

Deathcore is having another moment. This new wave is being led by such heavyweights from last year such as Worm Shepherd, Osiah, Mental Cruelty, Signs of the Swarm, and Bound in Fear, and looks to be off to a good start with new Worm Shepherd and Shadow of Intent due out in January along with […]

Worm Shepherd – Ritual Hymns

Symphonic or blackened deathcore blew the fuck up in 2021. Though it was certainly a thing before 2020, After the success of Lorna Shore‘s Immortal in 2020, the genre simply exploded with already established and new bands like Mental Cruelty, Shadow of Intent, Sin Deliverance, Dead World Reclamation,  Darker By Design, Carnifex, Assemble the Chariots, […]

Pyrexia – Gravitas Maximus

Late last year, NYDM brutal death metal veterans Pyrexia returned with their sixth full-length album, Gravitas Maximus.  They had recently announced the new album and honestly, it came out of nowhere-I was not expecting them to release a Covid album.  I guess since their last album Unholy Requiem, was released in 2018, they wanted to […]

Bound In Fear – Penance

Osiah, Lorna Shore, Signs of the Swarm, Crown Magnetar, Worm Shepherd, Lieweaver, Distant, Slaughter to Prevail, Mental Cruelty, Dead/Awake, and others, : “We released the heaviest deathcore releases of 2021!” Bound in Fear: “…Hold my beer”. The UKs Bound In Fear snuck onto my 2019 year-end list with The Hand of Violence (“Stigmata” and “Hate […]

Vulvodynia – Praenuntius Infiniti

Vulvodynia from South Africa are one of the heavy hitters in the brutal death metal/deathcore scene and in their short 7 year existence, have garnered quite a nice following, as well as releasing 3 prior full lengths and ep’s.  Just like Korpse, Vulvodynia, were another free agent Unique Leader picked up and this year has […]

First Fragment – Gloire éternelle

Stop me if you’ve heard this before – the best technical death metal album of the year is Ominous Ruin, no wait! it’s Hannes Grossman, oh no, shit it’s Ophidian I.  That’s it! PHEW.  I hope nothing else comes out that will change that…. Obscura , Archspire, and First Fragment “Oh, Hai!” Shit. Listen, there’s a […]

Breathing Process, The – Labyrinthian

“Breathe in through your nose and out through your vagina.” This is the breathing process. At least that’s what I told a former friend who was getting a particular painful wrist tattoo. There’s also a band with the name The Breathing Process, and they may beg to differ. MAY. Anyway, I’ve never heard these blackened […]

Signs Of The Swarm – Absolvere

Like it or not, deathcore is having a pretty solid comeback over the last couple or years, and it appears to be peaking in 2021 with Unique Leader Records leading the charge with releases from the likes of Distant, Osiah, To The Grave, Humanity’s Last Breath, Mental Cruelty, Worm Shepherd, Bound In Fear, (a few […]

Cognitive – Malevolent Thoughts of a Hastened Extinction

You are starting to hear and feel the impact of covid and the chaotic final year of Trump’s administration on some albums being put out now. Albums that were written in seclusion, online, in depressive states, in rage. I think we are seeing a real creative burst in the metal scene, that might be one […]

Distant – Aeons of Oblivion

I rather enjoyed 2019s Tyrannotophia, from this Dutch downtempo band, as it ended up being one of the better deathcore/ downtempo releases I have still heard. Then I found the follow-up EP, Dawn of Curruption a bit boring, and the band got surpassed by label mates Bound In Fear as the best band in the […]

Osiah – Loss

Every time I’m ready to signal the death knell for deathcore, along comes a release that kinda gets me excited about the genre again, whether it’s a veteran band like Despised Icon coming back from the dead or a newcomer like Anime Terror. Right now it happens to be the Unique Leader duo of Mental […]

Mental Cruelty – A Hill To Die Upon

In the promo materials, Mental Cruelty is described as “haunting death metal.” As I’ve yet to be visited by any ghostly apparitions, I call shenanigans! However, when it comes to what style of music these dudes play, it’s more along the lines of symphonic brutal blackened deathcore. Think somewhere along the lines of Lorna Shore, […]

Humanity’s Last Breath – Välde

Like many, I’ve been waiting on a new Vildhjarta album for almost a decade now as the band has yet to release anything other than a few teasers and track or an EP since 2011’s, Masstaden. But little did I know there has been a perfectly good (and more productive) stand-in band lurking in the […]

Bound in Fear – Eternal EP

Unique Leader has been heavy on the deathcore/downtempo so far in early 2021 with 2 conceptual EPs from Distant (both a bit underwhelming), Australia’s to To The Grave and their debut, Humanity’s Last Breath,  and this the second release from the UKs Bound In Fear, and boy it is  a doozy. Distant might have been […]