After years of self-releases and DIY work-horsing, DoC friends Buckshot Facelift are set to make a splash with their 5th full-length. Ulcer Island will keep listeners on their toes with its bouillabaisse of grind, groove, blackened melodies and sampled interludes. I haven't heard a grind album this adventurous and entertaining since Brutal Truth called it a day. [$9.99]
There are few albums released this year that I've been looking forward to as much as the new Azarath. In Extremis refines the band's blast-centric style: Teeth-rattling speed tempered with the occasional lurching, Immolation-style break. This is as tight and vicious as the band has ever sounded; for fans of "the true brutal daeth matel", this is where "FUCK" meets "YES". [$7.90]
Given the eclecticism of its members' other bands (Vastum, Cretin, and Agalloch among them), Extremity sounds like an excuse to keep things simple and have some old school fun. Extremely Fucking Dead is a throwback to the early days of the genre, but not as tediously derivative as most OSDM revival albums. It's not going to replace Symphonies of Sickness or Severed Survival, but it'll get the head banging and the toe tapping. [$6.66]