I scrolled across Afraid to Die through a cool Instagram account a while back and was quite impressed by the accompanying audio clip. The U.K. outfit contains current/former members of a slew of other bands (all of which my old ass is unfamiliar with) and performs an interestingly blended form of metalcore that fuses H8000-styled riffing and aggression with dashes of impassioned melodic attributes (musically, not vocally) and even some blackened post-metal atmospherics from time to time. All of this gets packed into well-harnessed two- to three-and-a-half-minute tracks that tend to focus on chugging force and searing energy.
Afraid to Die will be opening for Shai Hulud's U.K. tour this summer, so hopefully that means they're already starting to gain some much-deserved attention. This is a rather promising debut EP, indeed.
Hell is a Place in My Mind (I love that title) will be out on 12" EP—100 on splatter, 100 on marble, 50 with a screenprinted cover, all with a screenprinted B-side—slated to ship this month via The Coming Strife, which tends to be a sign of quality. Physical and digital are also up for grabs on Bandcamp. If you stream, hit Apple Music, Spotify, or whatever else...
