In the world of progressive metal, few prospects are as exciting as Boston's Astronoid. On their eponymous second outing, the Boston band layers shoegazing guitars and dream pop vocals on a bedrock of thrashing drums, and the results are strangely uplifting. Eyes to the skies. [Name your price.]
The Louisiana-based trio A Novelist is bound to rub more conservative heshers the wrong way. Over a preponderance of blastbeats, their second album Folie shows the band is not afraid to mix things up with clean vocals, an accordion and every woodwind left behind at their practice space. A metal mardi gras parade. $5]
I've been told that there's not much to do during Canadian winters except rehearse, which explains Anomalism's technical prowess. Following in the fine footsteps of Cryptopsy, their debut EP Parasitic Spawn never lets fretboard gymnastics get in the way of rip-roaring speed. Brutally direct. [$5]
Canadian duo Samskaras play with an eye on the pit. Their second EP Lithification assimilates Meshuggah and Lamb of God without getting too djenty or groovy about it - there's plenty of blast here to keep genre purists in their seats. A product of modern times as merciless as anything Charlie Chaplin dreamt up. [Name your price.]
