Deafheaven

It’s practically impossible to discuss the current state of heavy music without talking about Deafheaven. The San Francisco-based black metal quintet ushered in a new era for metalheads and indie rockers alike with 2013’s groundbreaking LP “Sunbather,” an album that wove together hazy shoegaze, black metal and triumphant post-rock in what many deemed to be an instant classic. It currently stands as Metacritic’s 7th-highest rated album of all time, full stop. Many bands followed in their path, fusing reverb-soaked guitars with the insistent pummeling of black metal blast beats. Their next LP, “New Bermuda,” despite consisting of solely 10-minute black metal tracks, charted 63rd on the Billboard Top 100. “Canary Yellow,” a single from their newest record “Ordinary Corrupt Human Love,” is a manifestation of Deafheaven’s continual success and innovation as trailblazers in both heavy music and beyond.

Wormrot

Wormrot, a Jakarta-based grindcore outfit, burst onto the heavy music scene with their stunning 2016 LP “Voices.” In addition to being one of the only Southeast Asian bands to gain a large international following in an extreme genre of music (or really any genre for that matter), Wormrot turned heads with their surprisingly melodic blend of grindcore, powerviolence and crust punk. Nowhere is this more evident than on their stellar “Voices” cut, “Hollow Roots.” Without ever slowing down the tempo, Wormrot shoehorns legitimately strong and catchy songwriting into the otherwise blisteringly abrasive genre of music popularized by Napalm Death in the late 1980s. In this way, they aren’t too different from Deafheaven. Although Wormrot stands on the shoulders of other recent, boundary-pushing grindcore acts like Full of Hell, Nails and Gridlink, their brand of heavy music is indicative of a synthesis of styles that’s becoming more and more pervasive in contemporary heavy and experimental music.

Power Trip

Power Trip is a thrash metal band out of Dallas. Thrash, for the longest time, has been mostly delegated to the archives of heavy music history, as its forbearers—namely Metallica, Slayer and Megadeth—are long past their heyday. Power Trip, however, is representative of a new wave of bands exhuming thrash from its grave, a movement that has aptly been dubbed “thrash revival.” Taking influence from East Coast hardcore punk, crossover thrash and old-school thrash metal, these bands are uniting punk kids and metalheads with a sound and energy that incorporates the best elements of these genres. Along with bands like Iron Reagan, Vektor and St. Louis’ own Black Fast, Power Trip is making cut-off denim, cheap beer and good, old-fashioned mosh pits cool again.

Amenra

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTCoW1mDvlU

Amenra is a Belgian, atmospheric, sludge-metal group that has firmly established itself as one of the most consistent and revered bands in the slower side of contemporary heavy music. They found their niche by taking the heavy, long-form crescendos of bands like Neurosis and Cult of Luna and injecting them with one of the most passionate, agonizing vocal performances in modern music. Their songs rumble along slowly and then crash down like tidal waves, destroying everything in their path. The backdrop during their live performance is a writhing, shifting wall of gray; and when the music hits, the crowd sways and pulses in way unlike anything I’ve ever witnessed. Lead singer Colin H. van Eeckhout is known to engage in self-flagellation and piercing onstage during particularly powerful moments in their music. These immense, emotionally-shattering moments in their music are interspersed with subdued interludes of ambient indie rock that borrows much from slow-core bands like Low. “Plus Pres de Toi,” from their latest LP “MASS VI,” is a testament to their energy, dynamics and songwriting chops.

The Body

The Body holds a truly special place in my heart as one of the greatest heavy-music acts to grace the contemporary music scene. The experimental sludge metal band out of Providence, R.I. has been pushing boundaries in heavy music for nearly two decades. While their modus operandi is crushing riffs, hellish sonic landscapes and blood-curdling lead vocals courtesy of Chip King, they’re equally as well-known for their extensive collaborative work and stylistic ventures into industrial, power electronics, grindcore, choral music (they frequently work with a Connecticut-based women’s choir), dance and even dancehall. While their sound can take some time to get used to, their fan base, especially among musicians themselves, is devoted and widespread. “Nothing Stirs” is the lead single of off their newest album “I Have Fought Against It, But I Can’t Any Longer,” and features guest vocals from Lingua Ignota aka Kristin Hayter, another incredible artist who blends noise music with classically trained operatic vocals. The Body’s complete disregard for traditional heavy music tropes is fully apparent here—sequenced drums trod methodically over a ghoulish soundscape, and the linear structure of the song climaxes with Hayter’s excruciating scream of “march on, march on” over tense strings. The Body excels at distilling the sickening dread and energy of the most extreme heavy acts into a form completely apart. Because of this, they routinely function as torchbearers for innovation in heavy music, and hopefully will continue to do so well into the future.