New Weekly Column!

Daily I come across some really amazing sounding bands I've never heard of from all parts of the planet. Thanks to sites like Soundcloud and Bandcamp, these bands have an outlet to broadcast new material to fans who wouldn't necessarily have access to this stuff before. Every week I will put up some of my favorite "Fast Finds" hoping to spread the word about bands I find are accomplishing something really special.

Mindpath - From Where the Highest Mountain Came Much 

thanks to the good people at Digmetalworld for posting their 5th Label Compilation "THE DEVIL YOU KNOW" for which I was directed to several phenomenal bands. One of which is MINDPATH, a solo project by a Chilean musician Ivan Stevens. My mind was blown when I heard that one musician was able to put together such a fully realized sound. This is as tight instrumentally as any recent Black Metal cd I've heard. In more than a few occasions it transitions outside of the traditional Black Metal boundaries and into more Agalloch style atmospheric territory. Mindpath follows it's own heart, creates new musical paths and it really pays off.

Send Them Sin - Demo 2013 

Now for something completely different. A young group of guys from Cali comprise this band and they have put out an EP of some down to earth, DIY, old school death metal. It warms my heart to hear young guys like this carrying the torch. The vocals are raw and the band is set back from the mics like they recorded this in one of their parents attics. Listening to this gives me the same thrill chills I had when I first heard Six Feet Under's 4:20. HORNS UP!

Dynahead - Chordata 

Another band I came across thanks to the Devil You Don't Know compilation. This band has a really interesting sound that fluctuates between the stop start pace of Meshuggah and the Southern Trendkill era Pantera groove. The vocals are somewhere between HIM's Villo during the cleans and Skinlab during the pissed off moments. Once again a band that's influenced by bands I love and thus luckily translate into a band I really dig. Tracks Abiogenesis and Echoes of the Waves are great examples of some the melodic moments they seem to mix in to contrast the heavy stuff. it's a band I'll look forward to hearing more from.