"Taste the Sin"-Black Tusk

Southern metal has yet another gem. Black Tusk, sounding the best combination of sludge, crust, and good ol' metal, are another Savannah band that is gaining lots of ground in the metal scene. They're more straight forward and consistent than a lot of their contemporaries who may travel to outerspace or Valhalla when they get a little too stoned. Black Tusk is down to earth and in your face, pissed off and not trying to sound pretty in any way. Saucy's Picks: "Embrace the Madness", "Red Eyes, Black Skies", "Unleash the Wrath", "Twist the Knife", and "The Crash". For fans of Kylesa, Eyehategod, Baroness, and High on Fire. See Black Tusk play with Eyehategod June 9th at Alley Katz in Richmond.

1349-"Demonoir"

1349 is Norweigan black metal at its best. You can hear the dark woods and wolves and ridiculously large swords in their music, which is black metal honed to deadly perfection. The drums are probably the most impressive part of this band, I'm pretty sure the drummer is a cyborg with robotic wrists. Or at least is going to have real bad arthritis later on in his life. Saucy's picks: "Atomic Chapel" (and not just for the real cool name and Gregorian choir epic finish), "Pandemonium War Bells", and "The Devil of the Desert" which occasionally crosses over into a sort of blackened crust song. This album is for black metal bands, plain and simple.

"Of Death and Ritual"-Culted

Had never heard of these guys but glad Relapse sent'em my way. They're like a bottomless pit of despair, like drowning in a tar pit, and really good music (I'm guessing, I gotta pass a drug test so I can't check) to get stoned to. This music is evil as shit, the vocals sound like Satan's bedroom dirty talk and the guitarist sounds like he's trying to play metal but he can only play at 60 bpm because his arms are weighed down by snakes and flesh-eating scarabs. It is oddly sexy, but maybe that's just my unfulfilled wish to fuck someone while doom metal is playing in the background. Well I could expound upon my sexual fantasies or I could give you Saucy's picks: all the songs are good but immediately listen to the epic masterpiece "Black Cough. Black Coffin," I really hope they got this title track from the pun made by Alkaline Trio in the song "Blue in the Face" (about as likely as Appalachian Terror Unit doing a Skrewdriver cover). For fans of: Sleep.

"Napalm"-Rotten Sound

Rotten Sound are veterans of the grindcore scene, starting their epic battle against all that is conventionally music in 1993, but they recognize that even they have their roots in this new EP, which not only features new tracks from them but covers of the Napalm Death classics "Mindkill" and "Missing Link." Basically I think they went into it thinking "How can we do covers of Napalm Death? Well will make the vocals less muddy so it sounds like us and then to pay tribute to our favorite band...we'll make it louder." Also they're Finnish, which makes me wonder what shows in their hometown are like (are there hxc douche bags who throw judo kicks in parkas?). Saucy's Picks: "Mindkill", "Dead Remains", "Missing Link", and "Suffer the Children." For fans of: Napalm Death (suprised?!?!), Magrudergrind, and Agorapocalypse-era Agoraphobic Nosebleed.

"Heirs to Thievery"-Misery Index

If you're not familiar with Misery Index, this album is a perfect way to get introduced. First impressions are everything they say, and if this is your first impression of Misery Index, it is someone showing up to your party, punching you in the face, drinking all your beer, stealing your boy/girlfriend, and shaving "GRIND-FUCKING-CORE" into the right side of your dog. The band keeps it interesting, basically apply the concept of what Converge is doing to hardcore to grindcore. As in the guitarist decided power chords were not enough anymore. This is more succesful than I would think it to be and does not take away from the "grind-iness?". Something I found odd was that just listening straight though it sounds like a stereotypical grindcore album with 10 bajillion (give or take) minute long cluster fucks and then when I looked at the tracks I realized what I thought was 3 songs was just one. Anywho Saucy's picks: "The Carrion Call", "Heirs to Thievery", "The Iluminaught", "The Seventh Cavalry", the epicly starting "You Lose", and the fuck-you-in-the-ass-with-a-baseball-bat-sideways "Day of the Dead." For fans of Pig Destroyer, Soilent Green, and Infanticide. Warning: if you have never listened to grindcore, not a good album to start with.

"Full of Hell"-HowL

First time I've ever listened to this band, but I like what I'm hearing. Mean but clean hardcore, a band that knows what it wants to do and that is sound evil as shit. Either that or Relapse Records decided they needed their own Trash Talk, which is fine by me because we could use more Trash Talks in the world. Another great part about this promo is it is clean, so blast this shit at 10 AM and make those seniors cringe. Saucy's picks: "Horns of Steel", "You Jackals Beware", the short and sweet "Asherah", "Heavenless", and the epic but deceivingly named "Day of Rest." For fans of Trash Talk and pre-metal Converge.