This quick-and-to-the-point first taster from their forthcoming album New Junk Aesthetic is not a great departure from their previous offering The Big Dirty. This frantic southern hardcore rock-out includes (somewhat muted) backing vocals from none other than The Dillinger Escape Plan’s Greg Puciato. Does this add anything to the recording? Other than aiding the ability for it to shift more copies, no. However, if the new album is all like this, it can’t be a bad thing.

I’m not generally a big fan of Black Metal, in the same way that I’m not a fan of rattling a Quality Street tin full of pebbles next to my ear. However, lately a few bands have been creeping into my into my unwilling conciousness. These seem to be of a slightly less traditional Black Metal form and of a more progressive ilk (for example Enslaved’s Monumension and bits and peices of Anaal Nathrakh).

This track by ‘Avant Garde’ black metallers <code> really stands out. Haunting vocal harmonies wash over eerie guitars punctuated by agressive black metal noise. This is not just your average black metal creepy posturing – there’s real songwriting ability here. These guys seem to treat black metal as a playground in the same way that Opeth do with death. I’m not really familar with their back catalogue (although the track The Cotton Optic is also excellent), but if this is anything to go by, they are going to be very popular indeed.

Manchester’s genre busting musicologists Oceansize could broadly be classified as post rock. Their atmospheric and unpredictable music is frequently beautiful and always challenging. Boasting 3 guitarists, Oceansize create soundscapes that flow effortlessly between ambient and aggressive and produce a depth of sound few other bands can achieve.

Few songs have the ability to make me feel so emotionally charged as the immersive Women Who Love Men Who Love Drugs from their startling debut album Effloresce. This surging epic begins with the subtly murmured lyrics suggesting the vagaries of drug abuse, before slow building into gigantic storm of frantic Jonny Greenwood style guitars. We are then soothed again by the song’s final coda of echoing guitars and washes of ambient sound. Perfect.

Chuck Schuldiner may have triggered the Death Metal genre with his band Death, but he took it in new, uncharted directions with the album The Sound Of Perseverance. This progressive metal masterwork almost never happened (Schuldiner intended to release an album with his new project Control Denied after disbanding Death in 1996, but instead opted for a further release via his original band), and is still underrated against a stellar back catalogue of work.

Frantic and complex riffs and frequent time changes compliment a change to his tried and tested vocal style into a Black Metal snarl.  Standout track Spirit Crusher lurches and stutters between frenetic thrash, melodic death and angular prog. The complex instrumental midsection contains some prodigious guitar solos and the whole song is underpinned by some of the best drumming you’ll hear provided by Richard Christy.

In the end, this album proved to be Schuldiner and consequently Death‘s swansong.  RIP Chuck, you are missed.