Neverwake - "Vitality"

This 12 song album kicks off with "A Beginning Of The Night", it's smooth acoustic intro busts into heavy melodic thrash metal and sets the tone for the rest of the disk. Technical and catchy with clean vocals and an unforgettable chorus. There's alot of evident Metallica influence here along with some classic swedish style playing ala In Flames and Soilwork. This band even boasts modern influences via Trivium and Bullet For My Valentine, just with a way better singer and no whining, no references to relationships gone awry, no "poor me" nonsense. The songs reference darkness, monsters, killers, cemeteries, death, the basic things you would want to hear in a solid heavy metal album. Songs like "Pulse", "Widowmaker", "Unjustified", "Twisted And Wicked" and "My Darkest Divide" showcase the bands knack to mix eerie chords, memorable lyrics and unbridled musicianship to make epic songs that are worthy or radio play, but still undeniably heavy enough to keep the metal purists head banging. "Fatal Remedy" is a fist pumping anthem with a singalong chorus that deserves to be heard from the biggest stage. The guitar work is stellar, the drums are tight and the melody is infectious. Almost every song here has "Hit single" written all over it. This is the perfect example of a band that can write a huge song without losing it's pure metal integrity. How this band is not signed to a label such as Roadrunner or even Metal Blade is beyond me. "Eye Of The Killer" has a modern Iron Maiden feel, with a heavy thrashing twist reminiscent of Testament. Catchy, mosh friendly and guitar pyrotechnics that will make you snap your neck if you headbang along. "Erased" is a dark ballad fueled by acoustic guitars and piano melodies, that stands up to the best of the best ballads you have ever heard, creepy, evil and moody. If there is one thing this band proves, it's that you dont need to growl and play a thousand miles an hour to be unrelentingly heavy. You can sing clean, use a ton of melody and write big, open choruses as long as you keep the integrity in your songs and have stellar musicians playing their respective instruments. Being a guitarist myself, I cant help but glorify the riffs and solo's the band serve up in every song on this release. Neverwake showcase alot of technicality and originality, ripping apart their six strings with a barrage of twisted, melancholic riffing and searing leads. This is a very tight band, intent on taking the metal world by storm with amazing songwriting. "Vitality" is an infectious release, full of unforgettable songs, that will stick with you long after the disk ends. If only more of the big boys in the industry made music like this, a disk where you dont want to skip a track, you NEED to hear the whole thing from beginning to end, thats become a rarity in music nowadays, but Neverwake have their finger on the "Pulse". Please go find this band atfacebook.com/neverwakemusictwitter.com/neverwakemusic andreverbnation.com/neverwakemusic and go see them live if they are in your area. I can only imagine how stellar these songs are in a live setting. You Can hear cuts from this disk every Thursday night from 7pm to 10pm EST atwww.brutalexistenceradio.com

Self Inflicted - "Sweet Taste Of Emptiness"

This 3 piece sludge metal band has never made any bones about showing thier obvious influences in Crowbar, Corrosion Of Conformity, Down ect. but also add their own element of groove and heaviness, showing us they are far from a novelty or rip-off act. "Sweet Taste Of Emptiness" showcases the slow, heavy riffing we have come to love from Self Inflicted, but also adds some unexpected twists and turns, keeping the listener on their toes. While album opener "Rebirth" could be considered a Self Inflicted staple, not deviating much from their doomy formula, the following track "SYFM" comes out of left field. This track is an uptempo rager full of classic NY flavor and very reminiscent of early Biohazard. It's stomping verses give way to big open breaks and mosh-friendly riffs and the lyrics are a big middle finger to back-stabbing, gutless shit-talkers. Listen closely to the lyrics and you'll quickly find out what "SYFM" stands for. I feel the mark of a truly great band is when you hear a song and find yourself humming the riffs to yourself later on out of nowhere. Self Inflicted have a couple handfuls of songs that do this for me in their catalog, and the title track here is a fine example of that. The riffing and song structure in "Sweet Taste Of Emptiness" is infectious, this is a track you want to listen to on repeat several times over on full blast, and as I've said in the past I feel that when an albums title track is the strongest song on the album, it makes me love the rest of the songs even more. "TFE" is full of tasty chunks of stoner metal, very bluesy, catchy and one of Self Inflicted's more uptempo tracks. The verse and chorus here could easily go head to head with any C.O.C. track from the "Deliverance" album or even from Down's classic "Nola" debut. "Crossed The Line" is slow, beautiful, brutality at it's best. This is a head-hanging, funeral dirge laden with Iommi-esque riffing and eerie vocal harmonies that sound like they are emanating from an underworld cavern. "To Prey Upon The Weary" evokes some more Biohazard influence with it's, pavement stomping verses, then brings the hammer down with it's Crowbar-esque choruses and super sludgy breakdown, almost a musical clashing of New York City and Louisiana, if you will. "Silent Echoes" is a solid track that sheds some light on the bands thunderous bass and drum section. Ian and Keith are the thick, rythmic foundation of this band and here they tactfully rattle the walls while Phil lays down slick guitar lines that help smooth out the heavy punch of the bass. "Twilight Of Enlightenment" while still heavy and unmistakibly a Self Inflicted track, has a very airy feeling and a very pure rock and roll vibe. I picture the guys rocking this one out and having fun, smiling at each other while doing so, almost with a "This rocks and you know it" attitude. "Unconscious Understanding" is a dark song with really cool guitar chords and killer background effect that makes the listener feel as if they are swirling down into a black hole of helplessness while Keith's lyrics paint an ugly picture of anger and depression. "Cant Change What Hasnt Happened" is a rollercoaster ride of a song, starting out with Sabbath style riffing that keeps your head nodding and toe tapping. Then out of nowhere we are bludgeoned with a death metal attack of feverish riffing and duelling lead guitar. I detect a bit of Entombed influence here, a mice mix of doom and death n' roll. Album closer,"The Will Of Man" is very much a "Classic" Self Inflicted song, oozing with sludgy riffs that steamroll over you like a large rusty wheel. This 11 minute epic showcases, big open chords, harmonized riffs and slowly lulls out and fades away with clean guitar and some background samples. As this album ends, the first thing you want to do is press the play button again. Without a doubt "Sweet Taste Of Emptiness" is Self Inflicted's finest work yet, and in my opinion any label would be proud to release this on a worldwide scale and make this 3 piece from Oklahoma part of their family. By the time this article hits print, the band should have physical copies of the amazing disk available. You can find Self Inflicted on Facebook and reverbnation or email them at beardofdoommusic@yahoo.com and contact them there to get your copy of this sludge fueled masterpiece directly from the band.

Gut Bucket - "Shattering Your Faith"

 Gut Bucket are a 3 piece, metal-fueled punk band from Providence, Rhode Island. Their 16 track, 2012 release "Shattering Your Faith" is a face melting slab of violence and is quite a unique and wild ride indeed. Gut Bucket feature 2, yes you read that right, 2 bassist/vocalist and a drummer/vocalist, opting for a deeper, heavier sound, leaving out 6 string guitars altogether and giving the band a very original style. The snarling dual bass riffing, combined with their unrelenting drum attack, bring forth somewhat of a Misfits on death metal vibe, especially on tracks such as album opener "Castrated and Crucified", "In My Cellar", "Faceless Stomp", "Beatngu" and "Born of Shit". This 24 minute disk is filled with crusty, grimy, catchy riffs that stomp a mudhole through your speakers. Songs like "Diebrator", "Jersey Saw" and "Biter 2 (Still Biting)" are frantic blasts of manic punk rawness that all clock in at :21, :34, and :8 respectively, these tracks call to mind S.O.D. but without the sarcastic/silly theme, as you can guess by the song titles and by glaring at the disk's gory artwork, these guys are heavily into horror and showcase that influence in their lyrics and subject matter. As much as Gut Bucket showcase a huge punk/thrash metal influence musically, I also find alot of doom metal in their sound as well. The band does slow it down from time to time and shakes the ground with sludgy riffs especially in tunes like "The Creature Walks Among Us", "Solomon Grundy" and "Blue Hell". I admit, at first I didnt know what to make of this band, but after a couple spins through I became addicted to this disk and I'm glad to know the monster that is Gut Bucket. This is a brutally heavy band, that writes fresh, catchy music and truly is doing something 100% different, separating themselves from almost every other band in the underground scene. If you dig death metal, true punk rock and horror culture, Gut Bucket needs to be the next band you check out. You can find them on Facebook and reverbnation where you can listen to some songs and contact them to purchase your copy of "Shattering Your Faith". You can hear cuts from this disk on Thursday nights from 7pm to 10pm EST onwww.brutalexistenceradio.com.

Skullhog - "The Evil Dead"

Skullhog are a 3 piece death/sludge metal band, much in the vein of Autopsy, Mausoleum and the like. They are spawned from the ashes of oldschool death/grind band Bile (not to be confused with the cheesy industrial band of the same name). Here Skullhog serve up a brand new 7 song offering, covered in thick sludge and dripping with gore titled "The Evil Dead". "Risen To Bludgeon" kicks off this newest addition to the Redrum Records catalog and after a quick creepy intro the listener is slammed with brutal riffing and razor throated vocals. This is pure oldschool, short, sweet and to the point death metal with a nice helping of slow, creepy doom metal in the mix. The slow brooding riffs of "Savage Butchery" shake everything in the room while they emanate from the speakers. The band pushes and pulls the tempo in this song, going from a slow crawl to almost punk like verses and choruses that will have you leaving your seat and headbanging along. The morbid title track is served up next and I feel it sums up the entire offering best. Picture if you will, the death n' roll sound of Death Breath mixed with early Cathedral. Factor in the gut wrenching vocals, almost akin to "Scream Bloody Gore" era Chuck Schuldiner and mix in some really creepy samples and you got the recipe to the gory soundtrack that Skullhog dish out here. "Curse Of Dunwich" and "Deadstare" adhere to the gory gameplan and offer up more grimy death metal goodness, relentlessly punishing the listener with Skullhog's low tuned, buzzsaw brutality. "Cannibal Frenzy" is 49 seconds of frantic, evil fury that leads into this disks closing track, the almost 7 minute "Tusks Of Gore". Here Skullhog really gets to show off how slow and ominous they can be with their riffing. This track plods along with a super heavy stomp, the notes bleed from their instruments and slowly ooze from the speakers. Right around the 4 minute mark, the pace kicks up and we are bludgeoned with neck snapping rythms until Skullhog pull us back into the murky depths with more dirge like death-doom. With "The Evil Dead", Skullhog simultaneously satisfy the death metal fan, the doom fan who loves it low and slow and the gory horror fanatic that resides within us all. This is a very solid release and I look forward to what Skullhog has in store for us next. I'd love to see this band tour the united states, put Skullhog on a bill with Mausoleum, Mortician and Deceased and you'd have one hell of a show!!! You can find this release at www.redrumrecords.net along with lots of other great cd's, vinyl, t-shirts, patches and more. X-mas is right around the corner so help out an amazing underground distro/label and give the metalhead in your life the gift of some awesome music for the holidays.

Down - "Diary Of A Mad Band"

 When I hear the word "Supergroup" the absolute first thing that comes to my mind is NOLA's own Sabbath-worshipping, sludge masters : Down. Comprised of Pantera vocalist and bassist, Phillip H. Anselmo and Rex Brown, Corrosion of Conformity frontman Pepper Keenan, Crowbar frontman Kirk Windstein, and Eyehategod's Jimmy Bower on the drums, Down have finally unleashed their long-awaited live package titled "Diary Of A Mad Band". The 2 CD and 1 DVD release is a collection of live performances recorded during their 2006 European tour. I'm not really a huge fan of live recordings in general, but I do buy the live albums from my favorites, and I couldnt be happier with "Diary Of A Mad Band". If there is one thing I love about live performances, it's the spontaneity and the feel of the band in it's most raw of elements. Most "Bigger" bands will bring their live album into the recording studio and overdub alot. They will re-record guitar parts to fix screw-ups, they will re-record vocals to eliminate sour notes and fumbled lyrics, and most of all polish the thing so much that it sounds just like the studio recording with crowd noise thrown in(ex. Kiss "Alive", Ozzy Osbourne "Live and Loud", Slayer "Live Undead" ect.). "Diary Of A Mad Band" couldnt be any further from that, this live package keeps the raw live feel 100%. Sour notes, fumbled guitar solo's and lyrical screw up's are all present and accounted for. At times a guitar will be slightly out of tune, Phil may come in too early or late with a vocal line, and I wont even get into how the vocal harmonies in "Jail" make me cringe a bit, but that's the whole beauty of this live package. With "Diary..." Down are giving you a straight-up no frills, unpolished representation of the band in a live setting, if your gonna sit and be a stickler and pick out every fickle little piece of the performances that are wrong or out of tune, then just leave this on the shelf and go pick up a copy of the new Linkin Park album. If you wanna enjoy some real, exciting, raw sludge metal done right by the masters, and if you can appreciate knowing that, YES even the masters screw up once in a blue, then you definitely want to add "Diary Of A Mad Band" to your collection. If I could compare this to any other recording, it would be Black Sabbath's classic "Live At Last" album for sure. All of your favorites from the first 2 releases are presented here in live format, "Lifer", "Stone The Crow", "Ghosts Along The Mississippi", "The Seed", "Bury Me In Smoke", "Losing All" and "Lysergic Funeral Procession" are amongst the 16 songs on both audio disks and 17 songs on the DVD(The addition of "There's Something On My Side" is the only song separating the DVD from the CD's). The DVD is the true focal point here as Down have been promising to release it to the fans since 2006, and the quality is amazing, great footage and editing, and the music is raw just the same as the audio disks. Those of you looking for a DVD full of hilarity and assinine moments akin to the Pantera home videos may be a bit dissappointed as the "Diary..." DVD keeps it's focus on the music and live performance, dont get me wrong the dudes in Down are hilarious guys and there are a couple funny moments to be had, but this DVD is entirely about the music, and this reviewer couldnt be happier about that. Diary Of A Mad Band is a perfect representation of what Down is exactly all about, unbelievably heavy, punishing and thunderous at times, and yet not afraid to show their mellow side and throw a southern-fried ballad at you that could only be best described as a molotov cocktail made up of equal parts Lynyrd Skynyrd and Led Zeppelin. If your a Down fan, you should have this already, if your new to the band and have somehow never heard them before, I believe "Diary Of A Mad Band" would be a great starting point for you as it is in a sense a "Live Greatest Hits" of sorts. An amazing release by one of Metal's best bands of all time...this release hasnt left my CD and DVD players in weeks, and I promise it'll be just as addictive for you, so get off your arse and go get a copy of "Diary Of A Mad Band".

Interview with Generation Kill bassist Rob Moschetti

Jaymz : How did Generation Kill form?
Rob Moschetti : Our current drummer Jim DiMaria, it was basically his idea to team us up, me and Rob Dukes, 2 guys from Rockland county, well known in the underground.
We knew of each other but we were never close friends. Jim thought it would be a good idea to team us up. Dukes contacted me, expecting maybe Jim would be the drummer at the time. Jim owned a businesss so he didnt want to commit to something at the time. So I would write the music, Dukes would write the lyrics. Dukes was watching band of brothers and had that war theme in his head. So we just started there. Originally i was playing guitar on the stuff, but i wasnt sure what my role would be yet. When it started taking more of a metal turn, I realized we needed shredders, cause I'm not really a shredder. So in come Jay and Lou, 2 guys i knew from high school. just 20 years later. For Lou, he just coudnt get his personal life together, and it started getting in the way. For Sam our drummer on the album, it was more creative differences. He was expecting more of a Reign in blood record than a ride the lightning. I always wanted to do stuff that I couldnt do with M.O.D. or Pro-Pain. Rob always wanted to do stuff he couldn't do with Exodus. When Dukes is screaming, i'm believing every word he's saying. You never know when its going to be your last show. I've bit the bullet many times on the road. I want every show to be important to these kids that come to see us. I want them to be blown away.


Jaymz : You already touched on my next question. Why did Sam Inzerra (Mortician/Funerus) part with the band?
Rob : Sam is a great guy and a killer drummer. He was expecting something super extreme like Reign In Blood and we gave him Ride the Lightning. Me and Rob just didn't wanna be submitting our material for anyone's approval. I'm done with that. I had to do that with MOD and Pro-Pain.
This is the first record, in 6 or 7 records that i've done, that I'm not diverting from what i'm doing and if you don't like it i'm not going to change it for you. A lot of times the songs that don't get the recognition they deserve, they become my misfit songs and go off to Ashes Of Fire. Sam's replacement is Jim DiMaria. Jim had already filled in for Sam at some shows while Sam was busy with Mortician and Funerus, we didn't have to audition him or teach him the songs. Jim just jumped in and was just a better fit for what we're going for. Lou just stopped showing up to practice. To me, when you stop coming, you quit. He blew off the 3 practices before of a show we had with God Forbid. In walks Jay Velez, who knew the material, wanted to be with this band from the beginning. He had filled in other times. Two rehearsals and he's with us on stage opening for God Forbid.


Jaymz : What are your biggest Musical influences?
Rob : My 2 favorites are the first 4 Metallica albums and the first 5 Sabbath Records. I'm from that power chord background - Metallica and Sabbath were the 2 bands that really innovated that style. For some reason my material, the faster stuff comes out sounding like Punk or hardcore. Which i'm not really a fan of. But my style just comes off as hardcore or punk. Hardcore guys are all about the attitude. That's what I love. I'm not the hugest hardcore fan, but its unintentional. I try to incorporate the Geezer Butler bass style, and the Hetfield chunk style when I'm writing guitar parts. Jason is pure old school metal, Slayer, Exodus, early Metallica. Dukes likes Rush, Pink Floyd, and a lot of really obscure punk bands like the Exploited and Discharge. He's ADD, OCD, everywhere with the music, He's wants to try everything and be all over the place. Musically he's open to anything. And it's really fun to work with a guy like that. Velez is more into Kreator, old school Metal. He has played in a hardcore band, but he just wants to play and create. Jim, a true metalhead, huge Slayer fan. We're playing with Dave Lombardo and his side project next week. Jim used to be a drum tech for Exodus. None of us really listen to any current metal. There's stuff going on right now. As long as it's passionate and original, I'm not anti anything really. As long as it's genuine i respect it.


Jaymz : How Long Did it take to write & record "Red, White & Blood"?
Rob : We recorded in spurts because of Rob's schedule. Within one year we had half a record recorded. We didn't work on it 24/7 365. When Dukes wasn't around I would write. Probably within a 2 year period the songs were written and recorded. Then when Rob had another break, we worked on it a little more. It was recorded in 3 different locations.  Some in my house, some in a studio in New City, some in Pomona. We tried to make it all sound uniform.  But each song completely has it's own mix and own idenity. You don't want it to sound redundant. Each song has a different vibe. But it wasn't too diverse where it was all over the place. The order of the songs created a concept. We didn't go into it trying to create a "war" concept. I read the lyrics as I was going along and realized that it tells the story of a soldier going to war, wondering why he's there, getting into drugs, coming home, going into the looney bin, and the only way to escape was to blow his brains out. It was very creepy and bizarre and we just said "Roll With It". An unintentional concept album. The song "Self Medicating" is very personal about your demons inside of you are yelling back and forth at each other. My Dad died in '84 and there's lines from "Dark Days" that I've been wanting to put into a song since then. "Self Medicating" and "Dark Days" had nothing to do with war,  They were just about the human condition. Walking dead had nothing to do with the war theme, But put into the context of the ghosts of people this soldier killed coming back to haunt him, it made sense.


Jaymz : Have you ever thought of contacting the people from Walking Dead to see if they would use the song in the show?
Rob : Actually the guys wife or daughter hit us up on Facebook, the creator. Rob got the idea from the book. We were a little nervous about it - them giving us shit about using the name. But they are cool about it, and the series is done now. We're actually in a mafia movie called "Goat" that comes out in 2013. "Slow Burn" opens this mafia movie with Armand Asante. Ice T and Ja Rule from the rap world are also in it. From what I see from the trailer it's about a mafia guy who gets out of jail and immediately gets pulled back into that life. It's really powerful, Its a revenge movie. Slow Burn was written about a pyromaniac. But it actually fits into the movie,  in the theme of burning in hell.


Jaymz : What bass gear did you use on the album?
Right now I'm endorsed by Halo Guitars from california. They were cool enough to give me a few basses. But that was after we were recording the album. But prior to Halo I was using ESP. I used an old SWR head and cabinet. I rely a lot more on the clean signal direct when recording. Which allows you to split the signal. A lot of guys take their clean signal and alter it, and you lose that clean sound. A lot of new metal bands, theres really no bass guitar cutting through because they're so focused on compression. My trick is I want the Bass to stand out. I don't want it to sound like "And Justice For All". One good thing about the Black album is that the bass is huge. The bass is such a pure signal that I feel why corrupt it?People think my bass cuts through a lot. Maybe it's because I produce it. But The bass is the balls of the album. People think bass is an unimportant instrument. But tell that to Steve Harris, Geezer Butler and Cliff Burton. Those are the people I look up to.


Jaymz : How do you feel about the current metal scene?
Rob : I'm just not really exposed to a lot of the newer metal bands out there.
They hear our stuff and theyre probably not impressed. I think our live show defines us more than the record. One song on a record can't define us. You have to put on the entire record and listen to the full thing. Like when you listen to Master Of Puppets, after "Battery" is over, you know what song is next. Even with Sabbath.
The song after each one completes the song before it. I used to lay in my room with the headphones on and you just know what song comes next. The order of the songs on the album is so important. It's gotta flow. It's hard with these new bands. Some people don't understand. They think our record "dies" halfway through because some of the songs get melodic and have acoustic guitars. That's intentional. There can't be a heaven without a hell. You cant have heavy without soft. We don't want just one flavor throughout. One song alone might not make sense, but in the context of the two songs on either side of it, it makes sense. I don't think a lot of bands are doing that nowadays. They just want that processed crunch guitar sound. There's no personality in the drum playing. Bill Ward and Lars are incredible and under-rated drummers.


Jaymz : What are your Favorite Venues to play?
Rob : I'm gonna give the "Lemmy" answer on that one. As long as theyre going hooray and hoorah, it doesn't matter where you're playing. I've had equally as much fun at a festival opening for Motorhead for thousands of people, as I've had in a 200 capacity club with kids just going crazy. One of my favorite clubs was the Alrosa Villa, and then Dime gets killed there. The owner, the fans were all cool. Pro-Pain used to play there several times a year. Everyone knew us there. That place is completely ruined forever now. That was one of my favorite places. The load in doors were right on the stage. The back doors could be right open during the show because there's train tracks back there. That was my favorite place, but I haven't been back there since. I wouldnt want to step foot in the place again.


Jaymz : Where can people get CD's and merch?
Rob : Merch you can get when we play live. The label is in France, Seasons of Mist, They take care of merch. CDs are available at Bestbuy.com You can order the hard copy cd there. Nuclear blast licenses the record. You can get it on iTunes. Also Amazon will have it. Right from the 2 labels - Nuclear Blast and Seasons of Mist Or from BestBuy.com

Jaymz : What shows do you have coming up?
Rob : Tomorrow in Brooklyn with Slam One Down. Sunday with Straight Line Stitch up in Poughkeepsie. Our street team is out of Florida, They hook us up with a lot of shows. The week after that 2 shows in NJ at Dingbatz and Champs in Nj with Dave Lombardo's side project Philm. Also we're playing with Diecast up in Albany. DRI in December. After Christmas we're really gonna get knuckle down with this new record. We have about 20 tunes written, musically (for the new record)
We're shopping for producers now. Peter Tagtgren from Hypocrisy is one we're thinking about. But we'd have to fly to Sweden and our budget doesn't really allow for that right now. We're talking with Zeuss, he worked with Hatebreed and Crowbar so I'm sold on him. We'll see, I mean it's all about timing and money, and finding someone who's passionate about it.We have to take our own path, it's a little bit different than most bands. We gotta be careful about how we present ourselves.


Jaymz : Last question, what are your Top 5 Albums of all time?
Rob : Well, if you say Metal,it's hard to even give a straight answer.
Metallica - Ride the lightning
Metallica - Master of Puppets
Pantera - Vulgar Display of Power
Megadeth - Peace Sells...But Who's Buying?
Slayer - Reign in Blood
Vulgar Display is a perfect blance of groovy and heavy. Just like Master of Puppets, heavy and eerie at the same time.
Peace Sells is like a staple in Metal. And Reign In Blood is just classic.

Cross Up Yours - "Holy Shit"

After a 90 second intro filled with eerie keys and bible quotes read in a demonic tone, Cross Up Yours kick into the namesake track from their debut EP "Holy Shit". It's slow, doomy opening riffs flows with tons of lead guitar solo's, then bursts into a flurry of tremolo riffery colliding with relentless double bass drumming provided by Kevin Talley(Dying Fetus, Chimaira, Daath, Six Feet Under). This tune bridges the gap from slamming classic death metal, to symphonic black metal evoking images of Vital Remains and early Cradle Of Filth. Cross Up Yours frontman Greg Bukinus(also the guitarist of NYDM Bronx veterans Demized) shows us here his songwriting prowess and pure musicianship as he performs vocals, guitar, bass and keys on all 3 of these brutal tracks. "Unforbidden Sin" pummels the listener with 4 minutes of machine-gun drumming, non stop riff-fest and unholy vocals that sound as if they are being vomited forth from the fiery underworld. Every few bars a different riff pops up in a different tempo and always keeps the listener on their toes not knowing what musical insanity to expect next. "Son Of A..." closes out this monstrous effort with stomping, headbanging evil death metal, that recalls glimpses of classic Morbid Angel and Behemoth. A thick slab of guitar wizardry, and spellbinding, mystical key patterns that satisfy your hunger for brutality, techinality and atmospheric melody as well. Cross Up Yours pummels and pounds sonically and they are relentless about it from start to finish. At 13 minutes total this short, but amazing effort from Cross Up Yours has pretty much everything the extreme metal fan could want. If this is just the beginning for Cross Up Yours than trust me, the future bodes well and holds big things for this band. This is basically a one man project, but dont let that deter you in any way, these songs were obviously worked on very hard, polished and honed and Mr. Talley throws down some of the best and fasest drumming I've heard him produce yet! And let's face it, Greg has a vision here, and sometimes the best way to get something done right, is to do it yourself rather than have other throw a wrench into what you want your output to be. I hope to see Cross Up Yours put together a live outfit and witness them slay the stages of the live scene. You can keep up with the band at www.facebook.com/crossupyours and you can also visit the website at http://www.crossupyours.com/ where you can purchase physical CD copies of "Holy Shit" as well as t-shirts. If your into brutal death and black metal at all, this EP deserves to be a part of your music library. You can hear cuts from this disk Thursday nights from 7pm to 10pm EST at www.brutalexistenceradio.com.