The underground following of slam metal has sky rocketed, as much as an extreme form of metal can sky rocket, in the past couple of years. Its influence is felt all over the underground metal scene with deathcore, death metal and even beatdown bands injecting elements of the genre into their sound. This is probably the heaviest genre of music around. The sheer heaviness is enough to blow the brain of even the most metal of metalheads straight out the top of their head.
Slam is commonly identified by the slams (of course), belly churning gutturals, rusty tin pot snares and a putrid or raw production. There is also a lot of graphic depictions of the nastiest things you can think of in the lyrics, album artwork and music videos. It’s is all part of the slam metals charm. It’s so over the top you know not to take it literally or too seriously, sort of like the splatter films of the 70s, 80s and 90s. It’s nasty but very tongue and cheek about it. If you think regular old metal is heavy wait till you check out some of these bands.
5) Disconformity
Everyone always talks about the wonderful slam scenes around the world but many often forget about the Asian scene. This scene has some of the most brutal and aggressive slam metal I have ever heard. Disconformity are a personal favourite of mine. The band emerged out of Japan’s death metal scene in 2002 and have nailed the tone of slam metal. The demo Penetrated Unseen Suppression has the chunkiest guitar tone, deepest belly churning gutturals and a snare that sounds like a rusty pan that has been pulled out of a swamp after several years under water. If you want to know what the perfect example of slam in terms of tone and sound then look no further than Disconformity.
4) No One Gets Out Alive
If you haven’t heard this solo slam project then you need to stop reading this and give No One Gets Out Alive a listen. Andreas Schüßler has been flying the “Hillbilly Meat Free One Man Brutality” flag for over ten years and I haven’t found a unique sounding slam metal band in that decade. No One Gets Out Alive blends the groove, gutturals and slams of the genre with bluegrass banjos and country twang in a way that just works. You know in a Texas Chainsaw Massacre kind of way. It is a combination of genres that shouldn’t work but No One Gets Out Alive have successful been releasing some of the most devastating, hammer pounding slams around. It is like one big cannibalistic hoe down.
3) Dehumanized
New York just seems to ooze incredible unique takes on music. You have New York’s take on punk / hardcore, hip hop and of course the states very own brand of death metal. Of course, bands like Cannibal Corpse, Suffocation, and Immolation are well know in the scene but it is those smaller slam band that I think about when I think about the New York death metal sound. The likes of Pyrexia and the criminally under rated Dehumanized mix that old school death metal sound with some nail hammering slams and grooves. The band focuses more on creating that infectious bounce with devasting efficiency rather than over the top technicality, guitar solos or filler. It is just premium New York slam or death metal.
2) Devourment
Devourment are often cited as the forerunners of the entire slam metal genre. You may agree or disagree with this statement. However, we can’t deny just how big, well for slam, of a hit their 2005 album Butcher The Weak was. The song Babykiller became a staple of any slam or brutal death metal playlist. Devourment set the standard for just how heavy and brutal music can get whilst maintaining that catchy groove that stopped the band’s sound veering to close to the noise or anti music territory. Even though the band has disbanded several times and reformed with countless line up changes, they have still managed to keep a constant quality when it comes to releasing slamming destruction.
1) Analepsy
This is where I reveal I may not be in the slam closet as others in the scene as one of my favourite slam bands isn’t an OG slam band and veer close to the brutal death metal territory. However, I always come around to putting on a tonne of Analepsy when I binge on a mad slam session. Before we go any further though, it is pronounced ‘uh-nuh-leh-psy’ not ‘anal-epsy’. I’m sure we all had a good laugh at that every time we read the band name or had to type it out. I have been championing the need for super raw production quality from the worlds of slam metal and hardcore for many years now. ‘Clean’, to the grid production doesn’t necessarily make music sound good. It is all about the tone or atmosphere of the music not how crisp and minty perfect it is. This is where Analepsy kind of divert from the classic, unrefined sound of slams humble beginning by having some of the ‘best’ sounding production in the genre. Every riff, blast beat, slam and guttural outcry in Dehumanization by Supremacy and Atrocities from Beyond sounds huge. It really adds to the sci-fi, cosmic destruction vibe the themes and concepts the band is going for.
I did an earlier top list for slam bands, back when I was a slam noobie, which I have renamed My Top 5 Slam Influenced Bands. Check it out for more bands that are leaning towards the slamcore, slamming beatdown, or brutal death metal angle.
My Top 5 Slam Influenced Bands
Other Bands to Check Out:
Cerebral Incubation, Internal Bleeding, Kraanium, Guttural Slug, Defeated Sanity, Extermination Dismemberment, Epicardiectomy, Gutrectomy, Vomit the Soul, Pathology, Pyrexia, Katalepsy, Cephalotripsy, Cerebral Effusion, Putridity, Guttural Secrete, Vulvectomy, Inherit The Disease, Abominable Putridity
Everything Heavy 
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