Article By: Pat ‘Riot’ Whitaker ‡ Edited By: Leanne Ridgeway
Always on the lookout for something that contains some of the most brutally fatalistic sonic contents known to man, I have found something worthy of inspection.
Chico, California’s ARMED FOR APOCALYPSE recently unleashed the four-song ‘Palm Reader‘ EP, a precursor of sorts, for the band’s anxiously anticipated new album. Yet, based on what you will hear on this EP, it may be safe to say that we may never get to that point in time.
I say that because the ‘Palm Reader‘ EP seems more than capable of helping to usher in the end of all things, in actually lighting the fuse on the final conflict, Armageddon. The weapons of this quartet’s warfare are manufactured with lethality in their every molecule, from sludge, hardcore, and thrash metal; to deathcore and abjectly extreme metal, the very embodiment of life-threatening audio.
The four-headed, monstrous juggernaut providing the end-time soundtrack as ARMED FOR APOCALYPSE are Cayle Hunter (guitar, vocals), Nate Burman (guitar, vocals), Corey Vaspra (bass, vocals), and Nick Harris (drums). In the span of these four compositions – “Mass Oblations“, “Worlds Beneath“, “Forced To An End“, and the title track, “Palm Reader” – they deliver a severely malevolent symphony of destruction.
Flesh mutilating guitars strike with soul smashing riffs, all as vicious rhythms also rip and tear away at you. No flesh shall be spared either, for if you are somehow still able to stand at this point, the skull smashing drumming discharges will finish the job. While it all goes down, the inhumanly bestial vocals split the atmosphere with their acidic, ferocious savagery.
Deafening and devoid of a single second of anything lighthearted, the ‘Palm Reader‘ EP from ARMED FOR APOCALYPSE will indeed tell you your future… you don’t have one once you hit “play”.
You have been warned, continue at your own risk by streaming the EP here in the review or take the corpse-ridden route to Bandcamp [HERE], where it’s also streaming and available to purchase.
On a related note, ARMED FOR APOCALYPSE will embark upon a campaign of music-based destruction in the UK and Europe next month, with select dates supported by URNE. Here’s the itinerary:
ARMED FOR APOCALYPSE UK & EU. Tour 2018
(w/ URNE on select dates)
Nov 14. Temple Of Boom – Leeds, UK*
Nov 15. The Anvil – Bournemouth, UK*
Nov 16. The Dev – London, UK*
Nov 17. Market Vaults – Stafford, UK*
Nov 18. The Wheatsheaf – Oxford, UK
Nov 19. Trillians – Newcastle, UK
Nov 20. TBA
Nov 21. Full Moon – Cardiff, UK
Nov 22. Mulberry Tavern – Sheffield, UK
Nov 23. Rebellion – Manchester, UK
Nov 24. Rockcafe De Engel – Den Helder, NL
Nov 25. The Cave – Amsterdam, NL
Nov 26. TBA
Nov 27. Chemiefabrik – Dresden, DE
*Dates with URNE
