Shadow of Intent is an American metal band based in New England originally formed by Ben Duerr and Chris Wiseman in 2014. The band has released five albums independently since inception, including Primordial (2016), Reclaimer (2017), Melancholy (2019) and Elegy (2022), which charted on Billboard at #4 Top New Artist Albums, #6 Current Hard Music Albums, and #16 on Current Rock Albums and Current Digital Albums. 2025 brings with it the band’s newest effort, Imperium Delirium, the most diverse and ambitious album yet.

The band’s music and subject matter centers on the many evils in the world, whether myth or real-life events, and the future it may lead to. Different genres of metal including death metal, black metal, symphonic metal, progressive metal, and metalcore are blended masterfully to create the unique sound that is Shadow of Intent. Since their first live show at the end of 2017, Shadow of Intent have toured consistently with bands such as Lorna Shore, Cannibal Corpse, The Black Dahlia Murder, Whitechapel, Chelsea Grin, Cattle Decapitation and more. The band's lineup today consists of Ben Duerr (Vocals), Chris Wiseman (Guitar, Vocals, Keyboards), Bryce Butler (Drums) and Andrew Monias (Bass).

Facebook

Instagram

Spotify

AngelMaker levels listeners with a furious, diverse, and violent extremity. Across a handful of split EPs and other releases, including two full-length albums, the North Vancouver six-piece make their musical intentions clear. AngelMaker creates deathcore of the highest order, injected with blackened thrash, a smattering of power violence, and the urgent ferocity of underground hardcore. Like genre standard-bearers Black Dahlia Murder, Despised Icon, and Whitechapel, AngelMaker summon the most brutal elements of death metal and combine it with the coldest permafrost of black metal, without the theatricality sometimes clouding the genres. The brand-new music unleashed by AngelMaker in 2021, crafted in recent months with producer Tim Creviston (Spiritbox, Misery Signals), and mixed and mastered by Will Putney (Thy Art Is Murder, Knocked Loose), is the band’s most confident and destructive yet. The band’s dual-vocal and triple-guitar composition allows for new and diverse explorations of extremity, setting AngelMaker both inside and apart from the traditions of the deathcore subgenre. Beyond mere technicality and devastation, AngelMaker trade in emotion, eliciting unique feelings of sorrow, regret, anger, fear, and depression, taking listeners on immersive journeys within the songs. As the British Columbian ensemble’s first new material in roughly two years seeps out from the underground in 2021, diehards and newcomers alike discover new revelations in their music.

Facebook

Instagram

Spotify

Mental Cruelty is a German deathcore band formed in 2014 in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg. The band's lineup currently consists of vocalist Lukas Nicolai, guitarists Marvin Kessler and Nahuel Lozano, bassist Viktor Dick and drummer Jonathan Koltun. The band have released four studio albums with their latest being Zwielicht, released on 23 June 2023 through Century Media Records. They have also released one EP and one demo. Mental Cruelty are currently signed to Century Media Records.

Facebook

Instagram

Spotify

Synestia is an American deathcore band from Minneapolis, consisting of vocalist Ryan Vail, bassist Grant Robinson, drummer Byron London and Sam Melchior on guitars and orchestrations. The band has released four EPs and one studio album as of 2025, with Sam Melchior being the only member featured in all.

Facebook

Instagram

Spotify