Premonitions of War

Ohio's Premonitions of War have pumped out one great metalcore album in Left in Kowloon. This is amazingly heavy stuff; somewhere between heavy metallic hardcore and technical grindcore is where this band lurks, with a feeling of underground urgency, general anguish and pure terror overriding the whole affair. The album is structured brilliantly; the first handful of songs are short bursts of technical chaos, sure to please any fan of extreme music. Then we get two epics in the middle; one is a drawn out, oppressive doom dirge that not only provides a few minutes of breathing time, but also manages to continue the violence while it's at it. The second is throwaway electro-filler that kind of ruins the flow of the album, unfortunately. Then it's another handful of short exorcisms of carnage, and then it's over. It's short, it sounds really scary if you turn it up loud; it's metal, it's hardcore, it's grind; they're technically proficient and it's delivered with a great production and nice artwork. A damn good way to get the year in metal started.