Spotlight on Metal

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Ask a thousand people to give an example of heavy metal and you’ll get a thousand answers. We have three answers: [mp3com-artist]Vektor[/mp3com-artist], [mp3com-artist]Immolation[/mp3com-artist] and [mp3com-artist]Threat Signal[/mp3com-artist].

Ask a thousand people to give an example of heavy metal and you’ll get a thousand answers. We have three answers: [mp3com-artist]Vektor[/mp3com-artist], [mp3com-artist]Immolation[/mp3com-artist] and [mp3com-artist]Threat Signal[/mp3com-artist].

Vektor

Saying they refuse to be pigeonholed into any one sub-genre of metal, Arizona-based band Vektor emply “an array of intricacy, virtuosity and a wholly unique sound that sets them clearly apart from the growing legions of color-by-numbers thrash bands.”

Born in 2004, the band spent four years playing in and around Phoenix, at the same time cutting a CD called Demolition (2006) and a two track EP, Hunger, in 2007. The next year they started touring with national acts like [mp3com-artist]Testament[/mp3com-artist] and, in 2009 and 2010, joined [mp3com-artist]Exmortus[/mp3com-artist] on a two-month nationwide trek in support of their first long player, Black Future. A few months ago, the band released Outer Isolation on Heavy Artillery.

This one, the title cut from Black Future, supports their claims: though [mp3com-artist]Rush[/mp3com-artist] is a long way from metal these days, you can hear the influence of Neil Peart on drummer Blake Anderson and singer David DiSanto reminds a lot of the classic growlers from the 70s (though we won’t mention any names.)

@heavyartillery

[mp3com-download url=”http://freedownloads.last.fm/download/331988947/Black%2BFuture.mp3″ artist=”Vektor” song=”Black Future” email=”none” label=”Vektor”/]

Immolation

Immolation lays claim to “riffs written in dissonant harmonic patterns, often dueling between the two guitars, to progress songs, typically over an complex rhythm and complex drum patterns.” That’s cool but, when all is said and done, they’re best described as Death Metal.

Born in Yonkers, NY in May ’86 as Rigor Mortis, the band have undergone several label and personnel changes over the past dozen-plus years. Their most recent records include a long player on Nuclear Blast called Majesty and Decay and an EP on Scion A/V called Providence (which is where you’ll find this cut called “What They Bring”).

@immolationband

[mp3com-download url=”http://freedownloads.last.fm/download/536867040/What%2BThey%2BBring.mp3″ artist=”Immolation” song=”What They Bring” email=”none” year=”2011″ label=”Scion A/V”/]

Threat Signal

In the running for fastest and filthiest of them all, Threat Signal are the band formed in late 2003 by Hamilton,ON cousins Jon and Rich Howard. With Adam Matthews on drums and Kyle McKnight thrashing the six strings, the band have released a trio of studio albums and toured with [mp3com-artist]Epica[/mp3com-artist] and [mp3com-artist]Darkest Hour[/mp3com-artist]. “Fallen Disciples” is a single they release this past year on Nuclear Blast.

Threat Signal call themselves a “detuned, syncopated, melodic metal machine” that “combines the complexity of Bay Area and European thrash, with a more contemporary groove metal sound involving technical rhythms, and musical passages.”

That, friends, is metal defined.

@threat_signal

[mp3com-download url=”http://freedownloads.last.fm/download/498642800/Fallen%2BDisciples.mp3″ artist=”Threat Signal” song=”Fallen Disciples” email=”none” year=”2011″ label=”Nuclear Blast”/]