From Salt Lake City, Gaza play a dark, glooming and frantic breed of hardcore and metal mixed with grind. Combining the sludgy, droney elements of Crowbar or Soilent Green with the absolute blasting force of Pig Destroyer, adjectives like abrasive and devastating, do not even begin to touch the full extremes of this group. I Don't Care Where I Go When I Die was an absolutely bleak & terrifying experience and follow up He Is Never Coming Back took the band to new extreme heights and has won all sorts of critical acclaim.

Formed in 2008, Earthen Grave is a six-piece Chicago metal band that marries the sounds of metal past and future with a sweaty, pummeling live show. Bassist Ron Holzner served a 15-year sentence with Chicago doom legends Trouble and Rachel Barton Pine brings her frightening classical chops to a relatively new instrument, the Viper. Finding groups like Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Saint Vitus, Trouble, Pentagram, Candlemass and Slayer to be common influences, the band wrote and played shows around Chicago for the first half of 2009, culminating in the release of the“Dismal Times” EP in June. Featuring three original songs that meld classic, crunchy doom and NWOBHM vibes with a solid dose of thrashy bludgeoning alongside covers of two choice doom classics by Pentagram and Witchfinder General, the EP was hailed by critics as “astounding,” and “pure, head-banging bliss” (MaximumMetal.com) and prompted Doommantia.com to write, “Can’t wait till the band gives us a full length with all originals...they have all the songwriting capabilities to make one of the best albums ever.”