Grading the NYC metal scene with MetalSucks

If you asked your average metal head to name the best city for metal, they’d probably list Gothenburg, Stockholm or Melbourne long before they even got to the United States, let alone New York. Maybe if our shows weren’t overrun with too-cool-to-headbang onlookers and hipsters too concerned with shielding their girlfriends and expensive glasses from errant moshers we’d have a better reputation. Not that New York hasn’t produced it’s share of great metal acts over the years; once we were the unchallenged kings of death metal (Immolation, Suffocation, Incantation, etc…), and our thrash lineage is nothing to scoff at either, but there’s no denying that the centers of activity have shifted far from here in recent years.

The good boys over at NY-based metal blog Metal Sucks, are out to change that perception with NYC Sucks, Volume 1, a (FREE!) detailed and varied sampling of New York City’s underground metal scene. Do they succeed? Read on and see:

1. East of the Wall- “The Ladder”: Proggy (anti-communist?) hardcore with a cool rubber-band bass tone that never quite takes cuts all the way loose. The clean vocals belong on the cutting room floor. Fans of old Dillinger Escape Plan be advised. (B-)

2. Made Out of Babies- “Invisible Ink”: Major points for the band name. Less points for ripping off Giant Squid (“Neonate” specifically), who can pull this off this style of heavied-up indie rock much better. Let’s pick up the pace here New York. Boston is laughing at us. (C)

3. Tiger Flowers- “Cuts”: Almost a minute in here…Nothing happening…Getting pretty bored of that riff…Aha! Here we go. More hardcore set to skronky odd-time riffs. Nice to hear a little more melody injected into this style. Slow start but a strong finish. Now let’s get some frickin’ METAL going up in this ‘comp! (B)

4. Black Anvil- “The Evil of All Roots”: Not sure why these guys need to be on here since they just released a full-length on Relapse freakin’ Records, but finally, some straight up METAL! Not sure I would’ve picked Black Anvil as the flag bearer for NYC’s populous black metal movement (If I was going to pick a local act that everyone else already knew I would have gone with Krallice… Maybe the licensing was free). The production is a little clean for my taste but this is undeniably heavy. (B+)

5. Naam- “Frosted Tread”: Wow. Suddenly I’m tripping acid in the desert and lo! There sits a wizard atop the mesa and he is calling for me to join him on the plain of enlightenment. Brutal this is not, but darn if it isn’t the spaced and wandering love child of Robert E. Howard and Jimmy Hendrix. This compilation has it’s first gold catch. (A-)

6. Batillus- “The Children of the Night Make Their Music”: Ahhhh…Slow molten doom. The soundtrack to being melted alive or being drugged and kidnapped in the trunk of a car (pretty sure I can hear someone calling for help around the 5:20 mark). Either way, I like what these guys are doing. (A-)

7. Meek is Murder- “Sundowners”: Sometimes I think our whole generation is ADD-afflicted. Then I listen to stuff like this that confirms it; spazzoid-grind build ups that build and collapse into see-saw post-hardcore riffs. I’d tell the band to pick a song and stick with it if they weren’t so good at playing them all at once . (B+)

8. The Binary Code- “Encircled”: Brace yourself for this concept. Imagine an alternate world where tech-death bands DIDN’T play sweep arpeggios, where they remembered to write some neck-wrecking riffs instead of just mashing their fingers on the fretboard, where they didn’t set up the drum kit inside my freakin’ ear. The Binary Code have somehow torn a hole through space-time to bring us the sounds of this Utopian dimension. (A)

9. Castevet- “Stones”: Black metal and shoegaze have been flirting for years now. Castevet have finally got the two of them drunk and horny enough to make love. The result is one pissed and ugly, if still incomplete, fetus. (B+)

10. Hung- “Desert of Sad”: Someone had to break the winning streak. How can a band that endorses an energy drink sound so limp? Maybe it’s the violin gimmick (note: not a replacement for actual riffs) or the weak vocals, but nothing about this song feels aggressive, dangerous or evil (in other words, metal) Pass. (D+)

11. Wizardry- “Falconer”: Proto-metal with sludge-bellow-beardo vocal; the product of the culturally omnivorous bedroom stoner. Take equal parts Manilla Road, sour diesel and Mastodon. Shake, serve to taste. It’s nothing if not heavy. (B+)

12. Pyrrhon- “King of All Tears”: You’re killing me MetalSucks! Honestly, it just seems cruel to put these similarly tech-y, but ultimately faceless dudes after The Binary Code. Also, someone should tell the vocalist that trying to match the riffs phrase for phrase gets old pretty fast. (C+)

13. Mutant Supremacy- “Epitaph”: Ah, New York’s entry into the ongoing old-school death metal revival. I can’t fault them on their execution, which both surgically competent and heartfelt, but as far as need-to-hear bands go, this stuff is still far from the front of the line. Best experienced live. (B)

14. Incendiary- “Victory in Defeat”: Quite a rockin’ curve ball here at the clean-up spot. If the Beastie Boys had kept hanging out with Kerry King advice after Licenced to Ill, their next album would have sounded like this. The vocalist sounds like Mike D on 6 days of meth and no sleep. (A+)

Final Grade: With some legitimately stellar finds, there’s more than enough on here to keep the title of this compilation from being an unintentionally bad joke, but here’s to hoping that Vince and Axl can raise the bar just a little higher for Volume 2. Look for it here on February 22^nd. I know I will. (B+)

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