With the Bay Area’s history as a breeding ground for heavy metal, it’s probably not a surprise that emerging local bands are continuing to find new and compelling ways to cross-pollinate metal’s many strains.
Succumb and Funeral Chant, for example, are contorting black metal and death metal into unpredictable new sounds. The former band’s first LP, arriving on reliable local label The Flenser, debuted to widespread critical acclaim; the latter group’s murky, lo-fi demo tape, with its warped, unsettling sound, marks the band as one to watch.
Other local heavy groups, Brume and Body Void, offer contrasting approaches to atmospheric doom metal. Brume fuses doom’s heaviness to sprawling, psychedelic compositions, while Body Void layers its songs with abrasive noise. Perhaps the most high-concept of the doom-influenced bands included here is Squalus. Formed by members of Giant Squid, the group’s first LP is a musical re-imagining of the film Jaws.
This mixtape collects new and recent music from ten local metal bands, but it really only scratches the surface of the wealth of metal talents in the Bay Area. If you like what you hear in this mix, be sure to check out the label Transylvanian Tapes, which has released works from a number of the bands included here and whole bunch of others worth digging into.
Listen to the mixtape to learn more about all ten included bands.
