Watch Them Die

The five members of Oakland’s Watch Them Die eat metalcore bands for breakfast — their sound is that ferocious. They look tough, too — two of them are wearing Goatwhore shirts in a photo on their home page — and they’re not just poseurs. Formed out of the ashes of several influential bands — Buzzov-En, OjoRojo, Grimple, and Eldopa/1332 — Watch Them Die is angry, violent and dynamic. Its latest effort, Bastard Son, has a definite doom feel, but there is also a strong crust punk fierceness. Particularly notable are the towering guitars that have a wild, early ’80s flavor — you’d never mistake them for any ’80s hair band, but guitarists Jase Reinhardt and Greg Valencia clearly know that the best metal comes from creativity and not a set structure. The dark, relentlessly heavy Bastard Son gives the metal scene a good beating without sounding like every other metal-meets-crust band.