Manslaughter and Elma…

Manslaughter is the impressive Los Angeles-based duo of Elizabeth Schall (guitars, bass, and vocals) and Mike Caffell (drums and backing vocals), whose debut EP, "Through the Eyes of Insanity", cranks out a raging four tracks and 21 minutes of death/thrash that walks the line between the two genres better than much of what I've encountered from such realms in quite some time. I'd say the true roots of the songwriting rest in late-80's/early-90's thrash, with a more contemporary sense of speed and dissonance lending a more "modern" angle to the material—even flirting with some black metal-esque blasts and dense chord phrasings on rare occasion—though the meat of the riffing sort of has a classic death metal vibe, just delivered with a thrashy feel to the picking patterns and the guitar tone itself. They utilize just the right amount of technicality and melody to keep things interesting (the latter of which occasionally creeps in via clean passages or lead breaks), adding in some creative discordance and unique note choices here and there to add unexpected twists to the riffs and arrangements. I've probably listened to this thing 10 times in the last week, and I don't do that very often these days, so I'd be psyched as hell to see these two get signed and drop a full-length with a bit more of a budget behind it. This is a great debut, and one that's certainly indicative of better things to come...

Manslaughter "Cursed"

This fucker's just $7ppd in the US, so grab one from the band's MySpace page and get in touch for pricing if you live elsewhere. Good stuff. Keep an eye on this band for sure...