Couch Slut, No Way, Bardus, GRIZZLOR

Couch Slut are a noise/punk/metal quintet who have been active almost exclusively in NYC since January, playing a dozen shows and horrifying countless innocent individuals who just happen to be waiting to see Marissa Nadler play at Saint Vitus, for example. Their debut album My Life As A Woman has been picked up for release by Handshake Inc., who already put out one of this year’s best grindcore records, Gridlink’s swansong album Longhena. If you’re into song titles such as “Rape Kit” and “Split Urethra Castle” (posted below) then you should check these guys out ASAP.

"The slick, slimy nature of the stink steaming from No Way's four-track "Sing Praises" is fully self-aware. This four-track EP is equal parts sludge-metal, noise-rock, NYC hardcore and every blister in-between. Sweating through eighteen all-too brief minutes, this Brooklyn quartet introduces angst-ridden clinic on shifting blame and gnawing caked dirt. These guys know what they're doing.

For fans of Whores, Unsane and Helmet" - Heavy Planet

If the Melvins, Eyehategod, Unsane, and Queens of the Stone Age all somehow co-fathered some ungodly offspring, that ungodly offspring would, no doubt, sound an awful lot like Bardus.

The Philly trio's 2013 release, Solus, is by turns scratchy, scathing, and swinging; these dudes manages to hit that sweet spot between catchy and crushing again and again and again, a seemingly endless supply of cool (and often elphants-marching-tastic!) riffs at their fingertips – so even the most dissonant sections somehow retain jjjjussssttttt enough melody to prevent the music from being uninviting. Their sound is both momentous and hazy, like a giant who has just awoken from a thousand-year slumber in a swamp and is realllllllly pissed: the guitars are so fuzzy they practically need a shave, the bass is ball-rattling, and the drums hit so hard they might give you a concussion. All of these elements make Solus addictively listenable.

"As a long time fan of metal and grunge, I'm always excited by something new. Grizzlor come from New Haven, Connecticut and their music is full of pure aggression and youthful energy. This is a band I'd go out of my way to see - the energy here needs to be heard." - Thom Green of Alt-J, NME Magazine, UK