Rivers of Nihil + Fallujah

Rivers of Nihil from the US managed to impress us greatly with their 2018 album “Where Owls Know My Name”, an album that found its way into many of that year’s shortlists. The sound of this band is ambitious and steers close to the technical, progressive wave within death metal. New work is on the way and we cannot wait.

Archspire offers one surprise after another. What these Canadians have to offer on albums like “The Lucid Collective” and “Relentless Mutation” is simply breath-taking: fast-paced yet varied and catchy techdeath of the highest quality. It’s impressive to see them combine catchy melodies and energetic, highly skilled sections without ever losing sight of the actual song. They are also working on a new album.

The Americans of Allegaeon are just as full of talent as the aforementioned bands, but is a bit more melodic sound-wise. Their songs have a clear head and tail, a real blend of fast riffs and drums, technical skills, melodic sections, and a gorgeous acoustic section every now and then.

Black Crown Initiate released one of the best metal records of 2020 with “Violent Portraits of Doomed Escape”. The album starts off in a subdued manner, yet explodes into action soon thereafter. This is excellently played progressive death metal with a bombastic streak as we know from a band like Behemoth. Every now and then the hyper blasts take a backseat and melodic sections with gorgeous clean vocals come to the fore. Impressive. We are very curious to see what these Americans have to offer live on stage.

This heavy night will be kicked off by To the Grave from Australia. Terrific deathcore that is bound to knock your socks off. A great opener.