Figures that one of the few good / non-BS bands on Solid State Records would go and break up. Right after they released a really good album, no less.

But so it is for The Famine, whose album The Architects of Guilt — released earlier this year — was a solid slab of chunky, riffy, complex death metal that I finally checked out at the urging of many readers and was very glad I did. Here’s vocalist Nick Nowell, as relayed by MS reader Ryan Benjamin, on the split of the band:

The Famine never should have existed.  I don’t mean that like when a jealous brother screams “I wish you were never born!” at his little sister.  What I mean is that we came together as a group of married thirty-somethings with kids and small businesses.  Our singer lived on the other side of the country.  It was a cumbersome proposition, but we made it work.  Most of you are familiar with the fire that claimed most of our equipment and the departure of our vocalist about a year ago.  We should have never been able to make our last record, but we did.  This brings us to the present day.

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It must be that time of year, because new metal is seemingly streaming from every orifice of the Internet. So much music, in fact, that it’s increasingly difficult to keep up with it all (first world problems, we know)… so I’ve decided to pool ‘em all together in one handy-dandy post.

Québécois avant-garde metallers Unexpect have a freakishly fervent cult following; within minutes of new song “Orange Vigilantes” going live on Unexpect’s website earlier this week we had a swarm of emails from excited readers. It’s been nearly five years since Unexpect’s last album In a Flesh Aquarium dropped on The End Records, so I can understand why folks are so excited. And then there’s that other thing: this band is awesome. They’re kind of like extreme metal’s answer to Mr. Bungle, but nerdier, or as reader Chris Dávila calls them, “crazy circus metal.” Look for a release date for Unexpect’s new still-untitled album to be announced soon.

The March 29th release of Surtur Rising draws ever closer, but you don’t have to wait any longer to hear another new song by Swedish viking cock-metallers Amon Amarth.

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New releases by Deicide, Neuraxis and Total Fucking Destruction top this week’s list of new metal albums available in the States. While the new one from Emmure is guaranteed to outsell them all (combined!), we can take solace in the fact that there a smattering of other great new releases too from the likes of Ava Inferi, Darkest Era, Rabbits, The Famine, and a whole lot more. Vic Vaughn breaks ‘em all down after the fold.

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When I last wrote about this ripping new[-ish] death metal band The Famine I lazily compared them to Dying Fetus, which I realized even then didn’t quite capture their sound. In light of last week’s stream, a much more apt comparison would be Abysmal Dawn; these dudes play fast and brutal death metal with a dose of Morbid Angel-style technicality and a hint of Slayer. This is shit to headbang too — HARD — no breakdowns, no bullshit, no “weedily-weedily.”

Oh, you’re hesitant to give them a shot because they’re on Solid State and you’re afraid they’ll ram Christ down your throat? Maybe this quote from vocalist Nick Nowell about the subject matter of “The Crown and the Holy See” — now streaming at Noisecreep — will put things into perspective for you:

The crown’ representing the state, and ‘the holy see’ representing the church. This song is about the latent racist, middle-aged guy who votes a straight party ticket because he slurps down his doctrine from AM radio and drives a $40,000 truck with a faded bumper sticker on it that has an American flag and says, ‘These colors don’t run!‘

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We’ve gotten quite a few emails about a newish band called The Famine over the past couple of weeks. I ignored the first couple of emails because I saw the words “Solid State” and “Records” in close proximity to the band’s name, so it took an unprompted but impassioned plea from Josh Childers of The Showdown — one of the only other Solid State bands that doesn’t blow donkey balls — to get me to give a serious listen. Here’s what he sent me:

Yo… legit… right? Underoath / August Burns Red / Gwen Stacy / normal Solid State fare this is not. No bullshit, no breakdowns, no -core suffix; just pure death metal. The Famine might not be shattering any molds, but what they do they do quite well; these guys could hang with Dying Fetus any day. I’m not sure whether The Famine’s lyrical content is Christian, but I honestly don’t care; good music is good music, and I never listen to metal lyrics anyway.

The Architects of Guilt, The Famine’s sophomore Solid State release, will hit stores on February 15th; pre-order it here.

One more tune to stream after the jump:

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