small merCies

Where EP is short for ‘Epic Potential’

BEARFIST

smile You son Of A Bitch

sELF-RELEAsED It’s fairly one-paced, completely unoriginal, technically unremarkable, but this Essex quartet’s third EP of grooving modern metal will knock you on your arse regardless. Work on songwriting and we’re in business, lads.

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STEPHEN HILL

JINJER

Micro

nApALM With maniacal grooves, intoxicating melodic flashes and djent-fuelled twists married to gritty metalcore blasts, these Ukrainians continue to impress. These five tracks of relentless, shit-kicking fury leave you wanting more.

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SOPHIE MAUGHAN

MASTER’S CALL

Morbid Black Trinity Ep

sELF-RELEAsED Bulldozing their way through the gruffer end of black metal but generating a touch of the epic from their barbed whorls, this UK-based, Iranian-fronted outfit are driven by elbow grease rather than any sense of otherness.

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JONATHAN SELZER

MYRKUR

Juniper Ep

RELApsE This immaculately produced two-song teaser showcases lush, popinfused metal (Juniper) and the spectral solemnity of medieval Danish folk

(Bonden & Kagen). Gorgeous in its execution and infuriating in its brevity.

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JOE DALY

TUSKAR

The Tide, Beneath, The Wall

RIFF ROcK This Milton Keynes sludge duo get even heavier on their second EP, sandwiching the nononsense Beneath between two 12-minute odysseys, bolstering thick riffs with genuinely inventive powerhouse drumming.

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KEZ WHELAN

WOVEN MAN

Revelry (In Our Arms)

UnDERGROOVE Helmed by ex-Acrimony guitarist Lee Roy Davies, this debut five-track lashes Prong-style grooves and Smashing Pumpkins melody to its motorrevving, blues-bruised riffs and rough’n’tumble odes to their Welsh home base.

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JONATHAN SELZER