Candiria

An 18-wheeler smashing into the band’s van while on tour in 2002 could’ve easily ended Candiria’s career, but instead these Brooklyn-based metal mathematicians have released their strongest album yet, despite broken bones and bruises (check out their totalled van on the album cover). What Doesn’t Kill You… incorporates more rock-based elements than their last proper album, 2001’s 300 Percent Density, yet retains the band’s penchant for prog/hip-hop experimenting. Opener "Dead Bury The Dead” throws down their usual mathcore stylings mixed with Aghora-esque passages and jazzy spurts. The manic "Blood” revolves around Kenneth Schalk’s Neil Peart-like time-keeping, and front-man Carley Coma finds time to drop rhymes midway through the aggro-intensive "1000 Points Of Light.” Coma has a full-fledged hip-hopper in "9mm Solution” with funky backbeats, but the ready-for-mainstream "Remove Yourself” and especially "Down” are quite a departure for the band: Coma sings — not screams or raps — in a jaw-dropping turn, and he plus bassist Michael MacIvor and guitarist John LaMacchia deftly add three-part harmonies for truly unforgettable tuneage. Their harmonies in "The Nameless King” sound like a cross between Metallica and Dream Theater, while "I Am” recalls similar turns from Time In Malta. The album ends with "The Rutherford Experiment,” a prog-friendly instrumental that allows Schalk to display his formidable keyboard skills. As jacks of all genres, Candiria once again astonish fans with an exemplar of this year’s best metal.