2013 saw a huge amount of great releases from our genres heavyweights. But, looking away from that, you will find a colossal amount of small, lesser known bands making waves of their own. Here is a playlist shining the spotlight on those for who 2014 is a pivotal year for their growth. Who’s telling what size these bands will become but their potential is huge.
15 bands in all, the playlist offers a variety of bands from all over the world.

Tracer – Wolf In Sheeps Clothes
Australian stoner rock with a little help from Kevin Shirley.

Death Ape Disco – Kingdom Of Others
Gritty rock n’ roll drawing from the likes of Clutch and Alice In Chains.

Noctum – Liberty In Death
Classic and utterly addictive metal from Sweden.

Chron Goblin – Dry Summer
Heavy stoner fuzz with a splash of classic rock.

Brutus – Big Fat Boogie
Retro rock, for fans of Graveyard and Orchid.

Revocation – Invidious
The heaviest track on the playlist, thrash metal with added banjo.

Kadavar – Fire
Damn catchy 70s-tinged rock from Germany.

Striker – Let It Burn
Insanely fun Canadian metal.

Royal Thunder – Parsonz Curse
Psychedelia topped with Mlny Parsonz massive vocals.

Fantasist – Goodnight So Long
Prog rock from my home city of Manchester.

Mammoth Mammoth – Hell’s Likely
If Motörhead were Australian. This is music to break stuff to.

Bloody Hammers – What’s Haunting You
Horror inspired doom rock band who have a fan in Phil Anselmo.

Tides From Nebula – Laughter Of Gods
Polish instrumental post-rock.

Windhand – Orchard 
Female fronted doom. Tune low, play slow.

Neuronspoiler
Catchy thrash metal bringing to mind modern Megadeth.


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Power trio and a mighty one. Rest the ones who think that death and thrash are lost causes.
If death and thrash need to be reinvented, this is the way to do it, back to its origins. USA has Revocation and the UK has Gama Bomb, two of the youngest and still greatest bands that the next decade has to offer us.
Please, but please, stop comparing. This is way much better than Megadeth and the latter Arch Enemy records. They do remind me Testament and Death, kind of a good mix of both.
Nice music in here: you have these jazzy breaks in the middle of the heavy-thrashing, classic power-solos (like the good ones from Steve Vai and - why not - Michael Ammot in Carcass) and some Petrucci-ish solos too. Lots of groove, baby!
A fan or not of death/thrash, this is a mandatory listen for 2009, as it will make you understand how almost 30 years of metal can still be reinvented and probably will sound in the next years. It may sound repetitive from me, but this is the end of a decade and the beginning of another. Bands leave something behind and start to pick up other references, other styles. There's a lot you can do now. And Relapse knows that, as it picks the best and most innovative sounds for the 00 years.
You won't need more than two listens to be convinced and know these guys have it all. It blows my mind how these kids today have so much technique and will to do something new. And thank god they do.
The instrumental ‘Across Forest and Fjords’, ‘The Brain Scramblers’ and ‘Leviathan Awaits’ are the highlights, as it is also ‘Existence is Futile’. (8/10)

António Matos Silva

Band info: www.myspace.com/revocation
Label info: www.relapse.com
Distributed in Portugal by www.majorlabelindustries.com
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