MAKE

I only just got into these guys, so there's not an awful lot I can say about them without simply rehashing recent press releases. Which frankly still seems like a lot of effort to me. Fuck it, if you're that interested you can Google it all for yourself.

The important thing is that their debut full length Trephine (available here) manages to combine huge sludgey stoner riffs with psychedelic ambience and creeping end-of-the-world doom, sounding at any given time like early High On Fire, Black Math Horseman, Mouth Of The Architect and This Will Destroy You at their most ethereally swirly. It sounds as though it should make for a slightly confused and inconsistent mess; but in practice it creates depth and variety, and prevents the record from getting turgid and samey.

It's awesome. Go and dedicate your life to it.

Website: http://thebandmake.blogspot.co.uk/

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/thebandmake

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/thebandmake

Wikipedia: nope

Every Time I Die

Partly because their songwriting is so good that it has almost convinced the Pixie that Southern fried hardcore could be worth listening to.

To illustrate this point (and because I'm far to lazy to produce any words of my own), here are the lyrics to early hit song The Logic of Crocodiles.

i am a very important person.
i've acquired a genetically altered handshake capable of speeds up to 30 mph.
hair arranged by the most advanced landscape surveillance operators our
company can afford.
i have a very expensive pen.
i use big words quite often in substitution for semantically equivalent words.
i attribute this success to my professional demeanor and my strong stock
portfolio.
though it may not appear so, i am quite comfortable in my surroundings.
i have everything, let me show you around.
smile you fucker, it's not often you get this chance.
love is just an exchange of corporate documents.
i've reviewed your rapport and i feel you're a prospect for mechanical
salvation.
this is a joint venture that will be mutually advantageous to both parties
involved.
technically this is just a business merger.
a consolidation of liquid assets.
we are respectively geared towards customer service.
there is a great possibility for corporate sponsorship if you're willing,
i am sure we could synchronize agendas.
swift, and efficient satisfaction.
through innovative planning,
we could form a strong strategic partnership capable of overcoming sensitive
and adverse predicaments which will be discussed at the next goals assessment
meeting.
promotion possibility and additional benefits are diagrammed in my
preliminary objective outline.
raises are granted based on performance.

But the main reason that ETID are the greatest band in the world ever is that the new record Ex Lives is so good it might cure cancer. It's got a banjo in it, for fucks sake.

Website: http://everytimeidie.net/

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/everytimeidie

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/everytimeidie

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Every_Time_I_Die

Bastions

Thanks to my appalling short attention span, the Greatest Band in the World Ever is frequently chosen based on whoever I might have seen play live most recently. Thing is, I've seen a lot of bands in the last week or so; so picking one was always going to be a bit tricky.

Or maybe not. On Tuesday I met up with an old friend and caught an evening of chest-beating hardcore-by-numbers. The stench of testosterone hung heavy in the air, and kids with suspiciously clean trainers charged about the place to the tune of breakdown after breakdown after breakdown.

I've nothing against a bit of mindless thuggery from time to time. But with all the posing and posturing and demands for the crowd to go crazy and start circle pits, it felt more than a little forced; and I frequently found myself wishing for something with a little more honesty, more integrity, more passion... and I started thinking back to the previous night, when I had seen Bastions (along with No Omega, BatsAboutBats and The Break Out - all very freaking excellent too) play to a handful of people in the grubby little front room of The Croft.

And they just fucking killed it.

Website: http://bastions.tumblr.com/

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/bstns

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/bstns

Wikipedia: nope

Decapitated

Generally speaking, I don't like death metal that much. Partly because it tends to be a bit samey, but mainly because it's just silly.

And yet.

On the strength of one song I heard on a label sampler some nine or ten years ago, I decided to buy a ticket to see Decapitated play last week. And it was fucking brutal. I awoke the next morning with many aches and pains and bruises and an unshakeable need to listen to Decapitated all the time for ever.

Being a only a very recent convert, pretty much everything I know about this band I learned from a random stranger at the gig. Decapitated are from Poland; they are one of the most renowned and respected technical death metal bands in the world; they reformed a few years ago with a new drummer and singer, their former drummer and singer having respectively been put into a coma and killed when their tour bus crashed towards the end of 2007; and the current line-up was in a plane crash last year.

Maybe that's why they sound so fucking angry about everything.

Website: http://www.decapitatedband.net/

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/decapitated

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/decapitated

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decapitated_(band)