Nightkin

Possessed of a significant pedigree and a seemingly endless reservoir of killer riffs, the mostly Michigan-based Nightkin can be a death steel band that shaped in 2012. The bandmembers — vocalist Mike “Gunface” McKenzie from the Crimson Chord, former Dark Dahlia Murder guitarist Dave Lock and drummer Zach Gibson, and previous Incisor and Supercontinent (which also highlighted Lock) guitarist Matt Gauntlett and Matt Western world — are no strangers to crushing, sonic heaviness. The band’s audio can be rooted in the crunching brutality of melodic loss of life steel, with epic electric guitar riffs and guttural vocals merging to make a audio that’s as theoretically dazzling since it is usually viscerally terrifying. Nightkin debuted their punishing audio on the self-released EP, Nox Æterna, in 2013.