From Robotic Empire: Two groups of hellbent hessian heathens have joined forces for this mighty split EP. Richmond, Virginia is home to a lot of metal bands, but arguably two of the finest up-and-comers have paired up for this killer platter of 7" wax. BATTLEMASTER and INTER ARMA both debut on vinyl for the first time with this new offering; two choice cuts on side A and one lengthy bruiser on the flipside. Shredding guitar players, inhuman hummingbird drummers, scathing burning-witch vocalists...there's not much more you can ask for. First press, limited to 500 copies.

Not ones to let the younger experimental scene hog all the industrial-music influence, Chicago spooks Defcon bring it back to the earnest desperation that characterized the genre's '90s boom in popularity. Brooding metal riffs, blastbeats, and jittery electronics combine in what the band's bio claims is "a crushing ode to man's exhausted struggle to live in a world that's only visible purpose is to kill him." (In short, now the party can really start!) Defcon plays here behind its most recent fusion of dark danceability and black-metal suffering, the 2010 full-length Flat Black Philosophy.
- A.V. Club Chicago 01/03/2011