Hailing from the confluence of infectious disease, arbitrary violence, and rivers of industrial filth that is St. Louis MO, FISTER have been sublimating their brutally toxic environment into a deliberate and belligerent challenge to the eardrums since 2009. Comprised of drummer Kirk Gatterer, guitarist/vocalist Marcus Newstead, and Kenny Snarzyk on bass and vocals, this trio converts an eclectic swarm of extreme metal influences into the sonic analogue of trench warfare. Concussive, bloody, exhausting. Honed to grisly sharpness through years of performance, they have shared countless stages with countless musicians, including supporting sludge icons Eyehategod and Crowbar and appearances at the SXSW, Psycho Las Vegas, and Roadburn festivals. Pairing their seismic live offerings with more than a dozen releases, they have literally poured their blood into the work along the way - for their 2012 EP ‘Violence’, the band members had blood drawn and mixed with the ink used to print the liner notes.    From the hazy bulldozer bongripping of debut LP ‘Bronsonic’ to 2015’s impossibly dismal ‘IV’, a gruesome and lysergic 44 minute long single track that tests the limits of adjectives like heavy or bleak, their sound is continually (d)evolving. Consistently finding new ways to hit bottom in a sequence of splits with fellow underground juggernauts Dopethrone, Primitive Man, and Teeth among others, FISTER has emerged as one of the nastiest strains of doom metal, adept at fusing the narcotic tension of drowning in misery with the planet-splitting intensity of devout amplifier worship. Producing metal so poisonous, polluted, and nihilistic that sludge-doom-funeral-death are the only labels that can hang, the midwestern outfit are overpowering and relentless at city-leveling volume like a Sisyphean artillery brigade cursed to push two hundred tons of speaker cabinets uphill forever.

The old and oft quoted adage about “the music speaking for itself” is not a callous or casual statement when applied to the Sacramento, California based doom quintet Chrch, who have been hard at work crafting their particular brew of sound since late 2013. There is no image or campy gimmick to uphold, only the humble continuation and glorification of those fundamental musical elements that first built and then sustained the genre and it’s offshoots over the course of decades.    This purity and honesty comes across in a striking manner on the band’s debut ‘Unanswered Hymns’, a sprawling roller coaster of an album that plumbs the heights and depths of emotion, whether be it sorrow, loss, or redemption. Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Patrick Hills at Earthtone Studios in Rocklin, CA, the recording exudes a warm, organic tone that draws the listener in to music heavily influenced by traditional doom, psych rock, drone, and ambience. Chrch cannily wields dynamic songwriting, musicianship, and raw power to spin a spellbinding tale of occult darkness that clashes with illuminating melodies and riffs drenched in grimy reverb. Minimalistic, indulgent, or straightforward, the music of Chrch is simply whatever the listener wants it to be.   During the second half of 2015, Chrch will be performing additional live shows and ‘Unanswered Hymns’ will be unveiled to a wider audience as the album is released on cassette via Transylvanian Tapes on June 4th and vinyl through Battleground Records in the fall.  

Anno MMXIII, a gathering took place in Antwerp. Inspired by the slow, heavy breaths of the sewers and everything gnawing in there, Throatsnapper was formed. Their quest is to let the listeners experience the loud, trancelike and heavy sound of the underground beneath them. Once you get bitten by this, there is no escape!