Sometimes we end up on press email lists for like, some underground hip-hop promoter or indie rock publicist who’s obviously never checked out our website. It’s super annoying (first world problems!). But lots of MS readers send us tips of new bands we should check out, and for the most part you guys have pretty good taste / know what we like; shocker! Here are a few that’ve impressed me the most lately.

Black Sun Aeon: In the Swallow the Sun / Agalloch / Daylight Dies / Moonsorrow school of dark, aching, melancholic metal, but, ya know, slightly different. [Sent in by Alexander S.]

White Arms of Athena – This band sent us a message on MySpace rife with faulty grammar and spelling mistakes which is usually a surefire sign for “suck.” But good God, this band fucking rules. They’re like a hardcore version of the myriad tech-death bands on the market right now… so I guess that makes them tech-core. Or is that just “mathcore”? I don’t fucking know… to me it’s good-core.

Outcast: Call it “The Gojira Effect,” but France seems to be pumping out quality metal bands at a phenomenal rate — or maybe they’ve been there all along and we just started noticing. MS Maniac “JTquake” describes Outcast as “full of musical bad-assery and [they] sound like the best parts of Neuraxis and Beneath the Massacre mixed up and twisted together.” I would’ve said Meshuggah and Machine Head, but I guess that just shows my (and his) age.

The Arusha Accord: Taking the Sikth torch and running with it, adding perhaps a touch more melody. Sent in by “J.”

Keep sending in those tips to news [at] metalsucks [dot] net.

-VN