This 17th Sick Drummer Magazine – Brutal Beatings Compilation features: grind master Joe Axler and Theories out of Seattle, Doomspeak – a new project from Jason Snell (ex Pyrexia) that features Duane Timlin on drums (ex Dying Fetus, Divine Empire) and Michael Dorrian on guitar (Anatomy of I). This compilation also features Brent Phillips and Abiotic from the Metal Blade records family, as well as Michiel van der Plicht of Apophys, also from the Metal Blade family, and several other crushing tracks from bands that might just be in your list of new favorites.
Additionally, Jet from Metal Messiah Radio will be picking random tracks from our compilation for airplay on their station and picking one or two guys from each comp to interview on-air!
Our last compilation featured Ken Bedene and Aborted from the Century Media family, Philippe Boucher and Beyond Creation from Season of Mist Records, Raide Mort featuring Dirk Verbeuren of Soilwork, Tobias Schill and Symbolic Germany on Remission Records, and tons of other great death metal from many new bands to our compilation series.
We would like to thank all the bands for appearing and all associated labels for their efforts.
Be sure to share this on all your pages and thanks for the support!
If you are interested in appearing on our next compilation, please send an email to:
jason [at] sickdrummermagazine.com
ABIOTIC – www.facebook.com/Abioticfl
South Florida’s Abiotic emerged in 2010 with a flourish of riffs, solos, and technical breakdowns that culminated in the release of their debut EP in 2011. “A Universal Plague” set the stage for the band’s first few years of existence. What was immediately apparent: guitarists John Matos and Matt Mendez formed an absolutely lethal guitar duo, and bassist Alex Vasquez’s finger style bass playing provided an athletic sounding low end that helped to vault Abiotic to the forefront of the underground touring circuit. The video for “Vermosapien” (directed by Dan Drescher) immediately racked up tens of thousands of views and attracted the attention of Metal Blade Records.
Abiotic signed to Metal Blade Records and released their debut album, “Symbiosis,” which was followed by regional and national touring. Reviews for the album were predominantly positive – Terrorizer Magazine called the record “a monstrously ferocious first full-length” and Decibel Magazine claimed that Abiotic “could eventually help propel some kind of post-djent prog bandwagon.” The promotional cycle for “Symbiosis” concluded with a support tour with Dying Fetus and Exhumed. By the end of 2014, Abiotic had re-tooled their line up by adding vocalist Travis Bartosek and drummer Brent Phillips. The quintet was more than ready to record their sophomore full length, “Casuistry.”
In the late summer of 2014, Abiotic ventured to Basement Recordings with acclaimed producer Jamie King. The collaboration would prove fruitful. Guitarist John Matos elaborates: “Working with Jamie was unlike any other studio experience we’ve had before. Tracking with someone who’s produced bands like Between the Buried and Me, Wretched, and The Contortionist put our minds at ease and allowed us to put total trust in Jamie to achieve the sound we were looking for. It made the experience so comfortable and relaxed that we were really able to explore and create without boundaries. I think that’s something that can be felt with this record.”
The intent on “Casuistry” was to top anything the band had done previously. This isn’t to say they wanted to play faster, or write more challenging music. The focus was on composition, delivery, and crafting songs that would translate in a live environment. At this stage in their career, they have the live experience and hundreds of shows under their belts, and they’ve seen firsthand what can and what might not translate live. Matos continues, “We wanted to put something together that was more focused and more about composition, create something where every track would captivate listeners in a different way, and make it as dark, melodic, and punishing as possible.”
The addition of Brent Phillips and Travis Bartosek were particularly influential on the recording process. Phillip’s drumming allowed for the band to spend more time exploring tones and sounds than ever before. He brought a renewed sense of groove and feel to the process, along with being the fastest drummer the band has played with to date. Vocally, fans will notice the largest change here. Bartosek took over lyric writing duties and topics range from suicide, Middle East conflict, religion, and a bit of misanthropy. John Matos adds, “Travis did write all of his own lyrics and I think that with his catchy wording and phrasing, fans will be able to follow along to the tunes and it’ll translate really well live.” An additional note on vocals – John Gallagher of Dying Fetus can be heard lending his trademark sounds on “Cast Into the Depths.”
An Abiotic record would not be complete without space-y leads and the bands brand of breakdowns. Leads were a major focus for the album. Seven of the nine tracks contain guitar solos from both John Matos and Matt Mendez. And, of course, Alex Vasquez’s bass flourishes can be heard throughout. There’s even a drum solo on “Molecular Rematerialization.” And, as an added challenge for the band to learn to play live, guitarist Paul Waggoner from Between the Buried and Me offered a solo of his own on “The Absence of Purity.” It’s all of these elements, flourishes, and individual musical muscle-flexing that gives Abiotic their trademark sound.
Abiotic Is:
Travis Bartosek – Vocals
Johnathan Matos – Guitar
Matt Mendez – Guitar
Alex Vazquez – Bass
Brent Phillips – Drums
http://www.facebook.com/Abioticfl
http://www.youtube.com/abioticvideo
APOPHYS [ah/po/fihs] – http://www.apophys.nl
“A word derrived from Apophis, the near-Earth asteroid that caused a brief period of concern because initial observations indicated a probability that it would hit Earth on April 13, 2029. A collision of immeasurable proportions.
“The thought of our planet floating through a galactic minefield makes me think about how frail our existence really is. And where some might consider this to be a negative and demotivating thought; I used this realisation to create something truly apocalyptic. A full self sufficient Death Metal machine in which I as a person am frail, but as part of this more powerful than ever. This is Apophys. We are coming.”
-Kevin Quilligan
Netherlands based death metal act, Apophys, boasts members of renowned Dutch bands including: God Dethroned, Prostitute Disfigurement, Detonation and Toxocara. The band formed in 2012 and have since been surgically carving their path in the modern death metal scene. Apophys prioritizes song structure above technicality, and strives to become part of the new standard in death metal. Response froms fans to the 2013 demo material was completely overwhelming and with expectations quite high already for this young band, they sit poised to finally release their debut full length world wide on Metal Blade Records.
“Prime Incursion” will take you on an epic venture across the known universe and beyond. With themes ranging from transcendental travel, rapid evolutionary progression, and global epidemics, to artificial intelligence in an all out war with their maker. All inspired by modern art, media, and science. “Prime Incursion” contains nine songs of furious, sci-fi tinged death metal. The album was mixed by Kevin Quilligan and mastered by Stefano Morabito at 16th Cellar Studio (Fleshgod Apocalypse, House of Penance).
Apophys is:
Kevin Quilligan – Vocals
Sanne van Dijk – Guitars
Koen Romeijn – Guitars
Michiel van der Plicht – Drums
Mickeal Schuurman – Bass
http://www.facebook.com/apophysdeath
http://www.youtube.com/user/apophysdeath
http://www.soundcloud.com/apophysdeath
http://www.twitter.com/apophysdeath
DEADALUS – www.facebook.com/DeadalusBand
Deadalus is a band from Liège (Belgium) born from the fusion of NARTHEX (Trash/Death) and NONE (Death/Core), two bands evolving on Belgian stages during the early year 2000’s.
Deadalus was created by five musicians with the same will, shaking minds with their music. Founded in April 2010, the band starts to rehearse and compose.
December 2011, four tracks are finalized in studio and in March 2011, the first EP came out.
The second EP “The Axis Of Entropy” is available since May 2012.
2013 was the year of concerts, a lot of gigs for the band and they start to work on their next album.
2014 was a big year for Deadalus, as they signed with the Italian label Kreative Klan (www.kreativeklan.com) and they finished their first album “Remnant of Oblivion.”
The album was released May 31, 2014.
Deadalus Is:
Nico – Vocals
Seb – Guitar
Kev – Guitar
Mykke – Drums
Max – Bass
DOOMSPEAK – www.facebook.com/doomspeak
Hailing from Upstate NY, Jason Snell (Ex: Pyrexia) has created the crushing new project Doomspeak. Joining Jason in this mix of madmen on the debut self titled EP are: Duane Timlin (Ex: Divine Empire / Dying Fetus / Forrest of The Impaled) and his relentless hammers of drumming doom, and Michael Dorrian (Anatomy of I) who brings a level of guitar proficiency and mastery, while handling all leads and solos.
Doomspeak plays and bleeds what comes naturally from influences, both from here and beyond! Doomspeak serves as a vessel of summoned energies with which to express and explore any number of observations and views one can make when gazing upon this world, or any other world with truly open eyes!
Come forth and listen to these honestly expressed words and hymns of observed chaos, corruption, war, and death… Come to know the black-flame illuminated heresy known as Doomspeak.
Currently Doomspeak is working on material for a full-length album and filling out a live lineup to bring the assault to the masses in it’s most pure and energetic form!
http://www.facebook.com/doomspeak
http://www.reverbnation.com/doomspeak
http://www.youtube.com/user/doomspeakband
https://soundcloud.com/doomspeakband
DREADETH – www.facebook.com/dreadeth
Dreadeth was formed in the spring of 2012, releasing our first EP titled “Evil Enthroned” in spring 2013. The band experienced a drastic line-up change in January of 2014 as well as a change in style with a focus towards more traditional black metal.
We began working immediately on producing the next EP and after about five months with our new line-up, we began to play local shows while putting the finishing touches on the new EP. We finally released the EP titled “Helheim,” in July of 2014. The CD features artwork by metal artist Mark Riddick (RIDDICKART) and four new songs that focus heavily on traditional melodic black metal while incorporating elements of classic and new age death metal to create a sound that pays tribute to its roots, and yet creates an identity all its own.
We strive to continue perfecting that sound and growing with our music to make Dreadeth into the band we know it has the potential to be.
Song: Malevolent Queen
Album: Helheim
LIEVEIL – www.facebook.com/lieVeilband
The “lieVeil” band was founded in 2010 at the Bulgarian sea-side capital – Varna. In the beginning it was only a musical experiment conducted by two friends – Temelko Temelkov – Tomy (lead guitar) and Alexander Vasilev (drums). These two had met some years ago as a part of a famous Bulgarian band – “Akaga”. When they left this group, Tomy and Alexander had some other ideas of developing their careers but finally their paths crossed and once again discovered that working together is the best way to move forward. Creating music became serious matter for the band at the middle of the same year when “lieVeil” gradually acquired more definite appearance.
This is close to the time when Temelko and Alexander start searching for the best choice for a vocal of the band and this is how they met Georgi Dimov. Although he was then singing only as an amateur, the vocals of Georgi brought more metal sound into the tracks and the solidity of the songs was accomplished by Konstantin Dobrev (bass). lieVeil’s first life show was in 2012 and since then has been performing in different cities and festivals in Bulgaria and Romania some of them are : Core Night Bucharest, Rockstadt Extreme Fest, Fete de la music Varna, East noise attack.
In the early 2014, the band’s debut album – Instigator – was released and enjoyed a great interest from the fans of metal music. The band is now working on their second album which is expected in the autumn of 2015. By now, lieVeil has given interviews for the most of Bulgaria’s TV and radio metal shows, and numerous websites and magazines, including Metal Hammer Bulgaria and Pro-rock.
Find lieVeil on the Web:
DropBox – lieVeil – Instigator 2014 (Full album) https://www.dropbox.com/s/xi5o7kypidhd06p/lieVeil-Instigator.rar?dl=0
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/lieVeilband
YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/user/lieVeilbg
Reverbnation – http://www.reverbnation.com/lieveil
MISANTHROPE MONARCH – www.misanthrope-monarch.com
A symbiosis of Death and Thrash Metal is what creates a new German machine called Misanthrope Monarch. Formed in spring 2014, the band has released it’s debut MCD only a few month later.
Aiming at the goal to create extreme metal with a distinct level of brutality and a unique sinister atmosphere, the band was able to work with exceptional drummers Mike Smith and Kevin Talley
for the first releases.
www.facebook.com/misanthropemonarchband
www.misanthropemonarch.bandcamp.com/
www.youtube.com/channel/UC-6jwuJhBfLSPaFzY7AlTsQ
RAPHEUMET’S WELL – www.rapheumetswell.org
A complex mix of classical orchestration, cosmic synths, and brutal metal, portraying the epics of parallel worlds.
Rapheumet’s Well was formed in Hickory, N.C., in March of 2008. Formerly known as Blue Man’s God, Rapheumet’s well experimented with many variations and genre’s of music including classical, ambience, (and of course) metal. The first full-length, final-production album was released on October 31st, 2014, and is entitled, “Dimensions”. The album was recorded by Rapheumets Well and mixed/mastered by the drummer Joshua Ward (Elders Realm Studio). “Dimensions” features 10 songs which (from first song to the last song) progressively tells it’s own section of a larger story portrayed in the style of an epic. Our album “Dimensions” summarizes the complex saga of the Atai (ancient architects) who aid in the propagation of sentient life throughout the multi-verse. From the birth of organic matter to great wars that tear the fabric of space/time, the story of our music serves to immerse you into a world of oddities.
Our first official video “Vile Oddities of Bio-Genesis”, like our album “Dimensions”, was self- produced by members Joshua Ward and Aaron Rogers and published on March 4th, 2015. We have shared the stage with acts such as Black Crown Initiate, Enfold Darkness,and Abysmal Dawn. Some of our members have opened for acts such as The Faceless, Job for a Cowboy, Devil Driver, and Fleshgod Apocolypse. Rapheumet’s Well is a growing symphonic metal act, seeking to push the boundaries of our genre with each opportunity.
Rapheumet’s Well Is:
Tripp King – Vocals
Joshua Ward (Nassaru) – Drums/Clean Vocals
Ralph Barnette – Rhythm/Lead Guitar
Daniel Presnell – Rhythm/Lead Guitar
Jon Finney – Bass
Aaron Rogers – Keys/Synths
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQ_P-nGnu14 (official Video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iy5OCEby_dA
www.facebook.com/rapheumetswell
http://www.reverbnation.com/rapheumetswell
https://twitter.com/rapheumetswell
SCARSIN – www.reverbnation.com/scarsin
ScarsiN currently consists of 2 members. Rick “Rocket” Valley on drums/bass, along with Felipe “SkasH” Alvarez on guitars and vocals.
The band was formed in the summer of 2011. The two started to rehearse in the Chicago-land area writing songs and searching for other members. The two have gone on to record their debut album “SHADOWBEAST” which was released independently in the summer of 2014.
SPINECROWN – www.facebook.com/spinecrownpage
SPINE CROWN was created in December of 2013 by former members of Brutal and Horror Chamber, Rodrigo Marchetti, vocals and Peterson Martins, guitars.
Willing to play an old school death metal, they began the writing process based on their favorite death metal bands.
A few months later Iuri Martins, bass and former drummer of Forest of Demons, Thiago Hertel have joined the band.
In August 2014 the band recorded at Studio Hurricane, with renowned uruguayan producer, Sebastian Carsin, the EP titled “The Evil Next Door,” which features cover signed by the Brazilian designer John Duarte (Almah, Torture Squad).
Currently the band is working on the release and in new songs for their upcoming gigs.
https://spinecrown.bandcamp.com/releases
THEORIES – www.metalblade.com/theories
Seattle, WA based grind act Theories has been sowing the seeds of bleak, dark, and generally pissed off grind/metal in the pacific northwest since their inception in 2011. The band, comprised of current and former members Samothrace, Skarp, and Book of Black Earth, released their debut EP that same year. Their touring campaign followed shortly thereafter, and has taken them all over the US on nearly a dozen tours and to festivals including Maryland Death Fest, Chaos in Tejas, Southwest Terror Fest, and their most recent tour with new label mates, Cattle Decapitation. Vocalist Rick Powell, guitarist Lee McGlothlen, bassists Kush Karimi, and drummer Joe Axler are of a singular focus to tour as much as possible and to write hyper speed, violent music.
Enter 2014 and a new record deal with Metal Blade Records. Theories tracked Regression at The Red room and The Boiler Room with producer/engineer Derek Moree. Mixing and mastering was handled by Visceral Sound’s Scott Hull. The result is one of the most belligerent releases from Metal Blade in recent memory – this is not grind for the weak of heart. At its core, Regression is about the downfall of one’s own nation and all that it might encompass. Social unrest, economic uncertainty, mental anguish, environmental disasters – those left alive are lost and in ruins. Peace has solved nothing. Musically, the album reflects these themes, and on top of grind’s prototypical hyper speed blasts, listeners will find moments of dissonant groove and clarity, as well guitar leads that are not often heard within the genre. As the LA Weekly recently observed, Theories are “bringing something new to the deathgrind table.”
Regression was released worldwide on Metal Blade Records on March 24, 2015.
“Theories take the innovations of bands like Misery Index and Kill the Client and add a little Northwestern crust flavor” Noisey.vice.com
“I’m no expert, but the way Theories mixed tempos and let their drummer occasionally cut loose on an impressive array of tuned cymbals suggested that they were bringing something new to the deathgrind table.” LA Weekly
Lee McGlothlen – Guitar/Vocals
Joe Axler – Drums
Kush Karimi – Bass/Vocals
Rick Powell – Vocals
Leave a Reply