HUMAN SCULPTURE – OUR WORLD TORN DOWN

With only one year of existence, Finland’s Human Sculpture already shows a strong level of maturity in songwriting and execution on their first effort “Our World Torn Down”.

Influenced by groups like The Black Dahlia Murder, At the Gates and Decapitated, the Finn’s sound can be enclosed in this new wave of bands that mix of death-metal brutality and technicality with heavy metal harmonies, along with some pummelling breakdowns. Yet not once they sound like a cheap and mundane imitation of these other acts, Human Sculpture grind along with total command of their craft, without having the need to resort to the same shameless plagiarism that affects a good percentage of similar acts. Although they don’t offer anything new on these three themes, Human Sculpture’s synthesis of technical breakdowns, furious riffs, staggering harmonies and throaty growls really kicks some serious ass and is reason enough for us to keep an eye on this promising and talented act. Check them out at: http://www.facebook.com/HumanSculpture

EAK – MUZEAK

If Converge and Mastodon had a bastard love child, EAK would definitely be that ugly and wicked creature. Brilliantly savage and scandalous vile, the band’s first full-length release “MuzEAk” is the perfect amalgam of Converge’s nihilistic and crusty riffs, Mastodon’s wickedly jagged rhythms and whole piss and vinegar attitude of their early records. “MuzEAK” is truly a pulverising experience, it’s filthy, it’s ragged and absolutely vile and when it’s over you feel the need to take a bath in clean and warm water. Get dirty at: http://www.facebook.com/muzeak 

WE ARE KILLING OURSELVES – THE ROAD OF AWARENESS

Portugal’s We Are Killing Ourselves are back with The Road of Awareness, their second album and follow-up to their acclaimed debut “Deconstructive Essence”. One of the best things about The Road of Awareness is the band's fusion of Meshuggah technical and mind-shattering rhythms with the pounding groove of someone like Lamb of God.

“Extispicium” smacks heavily of that Meshuggah's influence crossed with Lamb of God’s pummelling attitude, with intricate chord progressions, machinegun-like kick drums and a groovy and infectious chorus.

The band has definitely written a monster record that will surely break a bone or two wherever it spins. Get bruised at: http://www.facebook.com/We-Are-Killing-Ourselves

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The Ripe Harvest is a new rubric where we intend to collect the finest crop of musical projects within a more extreme, alternative and heavier spectrum and without any bonds to record labels.
To inaugurate this new space we have picked an interesting Portuguese band named Zella, whose formation includes members of the extinct group Slamo. The sound of Zella however gravitates in a completely different stratosphere from the Post-Hardcore/Nu-Metal hybrid that Slamo inhabited. Their recently released promotional work marks a new turn in the quintet’s career since following the departure of vocalist Tobel, Zella opted not to replace him and decided to embrace the instrumental path, an experimental and progressive rock with some leanings towards Russian Circles, Red Sparowes and Pelican. Themes like “Crisalida”, “2 Acto”, “Cubo Mágico” and “4Grau” reveal a great maturity in song writing with the band constantly projecting clever dynamics and memorable riffs that contributes greatly to increase the interest.
For more information please consult: www.myspace.com/zellaband
Next we head towards Denmark to meet Slow Death Factory, a group of seasoned musicians that include in their ranks former members of well-known Danish acts like Barcode, Panzerchrist and Illdisposed. So, we aren’t exactly dealing with the kind of fledging musicians that are giving their first steps in this business and that’s perfectly audible while listening to their self-released debut album "From the Gutter to Your Ears" ‘cause in the business of Death and Thrash-Metal they act like those shark executives without a single drop of benevolence or pity. Mixed by famed producer Tue Madsen, "From the Gutter to Your Ears" packs some ferocious and aggressive riffs capable of separating heads from torsos. Don’t just take my word for it! Download their work freely from their website to suffer the injuries yourself. I’m tempted to bet my left testicle if these guys don’t get signed to a relevant label in the following months, but won’t ‘cause we’ll know how cruel and ungrateful the music industry can be. More info at: www.myspace.com/slowdeathfactory
To finalize our first harvest, we bring you directly from Germany The Hand of Glory. Behind their somehow good-spirited band name lurks a collective of five individuals that have assembled the severity of Death-Metal and the fury of Hardcore into a menacing whole. In some circuits, the blend of Death-Metal with Hardcore is synonymous with Metalcore and although the tag isn’t totally awkward when applied to the German’s sonority, The Hand of Glory clearly gives bands like Bleeding Through a run for their money. The band is currently preparing their debut so stay tuned to www.myspace.com/thehandofglory for more details.

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