After the Burial is yet another example of the prime progressive death metal that the Twin Cities is home to these days, and even though 99% of Minneapolitans probably don’t know who they are, there are legions of fans that wait for them to play shows around the globe. With the support of Sumerian Records and a fervent underground of young “deathcore” fans (and, yes, Myspace), After The Burial is one of the few Twin Cities metal bands that have garnered enough acclaim to transition into full-blown 24/7 touring status in the last 10 years. Though they still are kind enough to grace us with a local show every now and again, these days they are proud to be rubbing elbows with names such as Machine Head, Necrophagist, Suffocation, and Dying Fetus and count rising acts such as Suicide Silence and Emmure as good friends. Whatever way you look at it, it seems like After the Burial is poised to be landing some very big tours over the next few years; in unofficial terms, I think you could unofficially christen them as this generation’s ambassadors of MN metal. Better yet, Minnesota’s ambassadors of the breakdown!
If you’ve yet to hear After the Burial and their technical-yet-catchy death metal/hardcore punk hybrid, watch this video of “Cursing Akenaten” they recorded last month at Station 4 in St. Paul to get acquainted.The dualing guitars on foreign-sounding 8-string lead are undeniably cool, and the young band has an arsenal of twisted breakdowns that were guaranteed to make the hometown crowd move. It’s nearly impossible to get good footage out of Station 4, so I’ll give them big kudos for shooting a high quality (seemingly pro) live video there either way! It gives you an accurate picture of what it’s like to see a show at this venue, and it’s a great representation of their powerful live set. Cheers to the future, guys..
(sorry for the lack of photos because of this). Even as the openers, their technical death metal commanded the attention of the already fully packed venue and their skills especially shined on some of the heaviest tracks from their newest Cosmogenesis. French-Canadian hardcore/tech-death mainstays in Neuraxis followed suit with an incredibly tight set, despite the fact that their bassist was still held back in Canada due to a visa dispute. The band were probably pretty excited to be opening for Corpse either way, and just turned the distortion a bit higher to compensate for the lack of low-end. Personally, I was most impressed with the opening set from the young technical death metal band The Faceless on Friday; having spent the last half of a year on the road opening for some of the best death metal bands in the world, the band seems to be operating on another plateau of confidence these days and it shows. Their set was perfect, and I’ve got nothing else to say besides that. Cannibal Corpse came out on stage to the kind of maniacal, rabid crowd that only the most extreme cult bands can be proud to call their own. This is a band is still referenced as one of the most overtly violent and sexual bands in history; they pioneered a style that a million death metal bands have tried to emulate, and their set that night was as vulgar, vicious, and violent as they could make possible. During their performance, Corpse proved their still on top of theirgame and had the crowd going crazy for songs from all eras, from Tomb of the Mutilated and Butchered at Birth on to the newest Evisceration Plague. It was an impressive performance that had the crowd and band band feeding off each other in a celebration of the sickest side of metal .
(Cannibal Corpse)
(Cannibal Corpse)
(Cannibal Corpse)
(Cannibal Corpse)
(Cannibal Corpse)
(The Faceless)
(The Faceless)
(The Faceless)
(The Faceless)
(Neuraxis)
(Neuraxis)
(Neuraxis)
they sound about a million times more intense (and relevant!) than most of the “reunions” taking place in the world of music these days. The band is now hosting a high quality stream of their new album, Evolution Through Revolution, over at 
easily grown tired of ANB’s cybergrind in the past, but had to go pick this one up yesterday as soon as I could after weening myself on the “Agorapocalypse Now” track that they posted online last month. Scott Hull and co. begin the album with “Agorapocalypse Now”, a song which jumps right in the middle of the battlefield with a grunt and a blood-curdling squeal before breaking free into blastbeat driven madness. Agorapocalypse is an album that still festers with the unhinged madness that ANB is known for, but this time around the insanisty is anchored to a devastating, steamrolling groove that continues to build and bang beneath the guitar thrash and vocal onslaught. Hull and his trio of vocalists have outdone themselves on this one, with an grind that sounds so fresh and thus appropriate for an introduction at this time of year (Spring, duh!). Stream it 
officially unveil their new album of ferocious, grating, thrash and grind. Destination Time Today is the band’s third release in a trilogy of grindcore albums that have already shown the band to be carrying the torche of angry grindcore into the future as high as anyone. The band tends towards noise rock a bit more than their strictly-metal brethren in BT and ANB, but their blastbeats are no less brutal and their riffs no less headband inducing. It’s a great thing when you can literally feel the blood, sweat, and emotion reverbrating from an album, and I can feel it from every second of this album.
band was on point that night and ready to impress their ecelectic audience. With everyone from heavily bearded metalheads to formally dressed females in attendance, Dredg had to know that their opening acts and their dynamic catalog would be sure to attract a such a undefinable mix of people – which probably is why the band chose to spend fair amounts of time playing songs from all of their albums, including several songs from their forthcoming album The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion. Songs from the recent Catch Without Arms and El Cielo were sounding more impassioned and intimate this time around, and against the back drop of the Varsity their performance was even grander. Even Leitmotif got acknowledged with a performance of “Yatahaze” (video below) that ended with the band proclaiming, “whoa that felt good! We need to do that more often.” Throughout their performance, the entire crowd often sang above the band, and as anyone there would likely agree, we all agreed it was an amazing return.
(Dredg)
(Dredg)
(Dredg)
(Dredg)
(Dredg)
(Torche)
(Torche)
(Torche)
(Torche)
(From Monument to Masses)
(From Monument to Masses)
(From Monument to Masses)
MIND INVERSION 