SWARM OF THE LOTUS - THE SIRENS OF SILENCE [2005]

"Explosive. Mammoth. Mayhem. The absolutely crushing wall of sound that is SWARM OF THE LOTUS is a force to be reckoned with. Coupled with the band’s fiery determination and passion to pursue their art, they can only move forward in a positive direction and have no other plans but to do just that. Since the band’s inception in the city of Baltimore in the Fall of 1998, SOTL has come a long way and is still only at the beginning of their budding career. With unbridled potential and so much support behind them, the band is destined to leave their mark very permanently on the metal/rock community. And in fact, has started to already. With the release of their debut album, “When White Becomes Black”(At A Loss Recordings) in January of 2004, followed very soon after in the Spring with a 7” Picture Disc Single(Reptilian Records) featuring artwork by Carlos Batts and 3 exclusive tracks, the band received critical acclaim and has been featured in many different publications as a result. Most notably Metal Maniacs, in which their album was included in the top 10 albums of last year, Terrorizer, BW & BK, Rocksound, and most recently Hit Parader and an article in Revolver magazine, as well as a ton of positive feedback from many other online zines and such. The album also saw praise at the CMJ Music Festival last year in which it debuted in the Top 20 of their Loud Rock/Metal Catergory.
The controlled chaos that is the band’s sound has been sculpted over the band’s 7 year existence." LAST.FM

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CONVERGE - AXE TO FALL [2009]

"Converge is a prolific four-piece American band, formed in the winter of 1990 in Salem, Massachusetts. Playing a blend of extreme metal and hardcore punk, this pioneer outfit helped define a lot of the rudiments of the fast-burgeoning metalcore and mathcore genres.

They first started by playing covers of hardcore, punk and heavy metal songs, being self-confessed “hardcore kids with leftover Slayer riffs”. The band soon graduated to playing live performances in 1991 after recording some demos on a 4-track recorder.

In their latter years, Converge have enjoyed relatively high levels of popularity despite the esoteric feel of their music and the substantial lack of media attention they receive. The extreme nature of their music, particularly the atonal vocals and often complicated finger-work of the guitar riffs make it difficult for some to appreciate this brand of metal. Later records have gradually become more extensively produced largely due to the maturation of their sound.

Converge’s influences range from hardcore punk bands, such as Black Flag, Negative Approach,The Accused, and Born Against;metal bands like Black Sabbath, Godflesh,Slayer, and Entombed; and proto-mathcore bands Starkweather and Rorschach. Jacob Bannon has also discussed an appreciation for and inspiration from grindcore on Earache Records, post-hardcore on Dischord Records, thrash metal, such as Suicidal Tendencies, Vio-lence, and Death Angel, and post-punk groups, such as Depeche Mode and the Cure." LAST.FM

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