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Emerging from the scorched desert wasteland in 2014, the Phoenix, Arizona-based death metal quintet, Atoll, has been aggressively serving up their unique style for nearly the last decade. Brilliantly blending groove-based slamming brutal death with more traditional death metal elements, grind, and at times even a sprinkle of ‘core, funk, and thrash. Their composition favors a “riff piling” approach rather than the more common and simplistic verse-chorus-verse arrangement, giving the music something of a progressive element with very few repeated riffs, and less predictable movements. Atoll has remained a staple in the metal fest scene, and you may have caught them live playing with the likes of Skinless, Gorgasm, Ingested, and Aborted. Their love of the tour bus life and an importance placed on always having the highest quality, high-energy performances have gained them a reputation for being a consistent, unrelenting live force.
April 2014 birthed this bulbous abomination that has grown into the mighty Atoll when they conspired to create percussive, not frills, chugging brutality. The band immediately shot up in the local AZ scene and very quickly began to expand their live performances throughout the southwest United States, building up momentum for their 2016 debut album, and straight up slammer, The Gathering Swarm. Produced by the late Griffin “The Father” Kolinski (Knights Of The Abyss) and Jamie King (Between The Buried And Me) the album was quickly picked up and released by Amputated Vein subsidiary, Ghastly Music.
The initial success of their debut album caught the eye of Gorehouse Productions who went on to release the 2017 sophomore album, Fallout Frenzy. The vocals on this album show significant expanse in dynamic range, incorporating highs, mids, and some of the most nasty gutterals you’ll ever hear. Lyrically Fallout Frenzy expanded further on the origins of the band name, embracing themes of the atom bomb tests of Bikini Atoll in the 1950’s, and the subsequent radioactive fallout and mutations that occurred after the bombings.
The critically acclaimed album, Zoopocalypse is released in 2019 through Gorehouse Productions. This album is in-your-face aggression from front to back. A departure from the more rudimentary slams of their earlier works, Zoo implements more technicality, more tremolo and scaling, mathier leads, and a generally more advanced death metal sound that would represent the direction of the band moving forward. The mix/master was completed by Miguel Tereso of Demigod Recordings (Analepsy, Organectomy), and features a guest vocal spot from Matti Way (Disgorge, Abominable Putridity, Pathology)
During the global limbo of lockdown Atoll was able to strike a deal with the legendary Unique Leader Records, and in 2022 put out the Prepuce EP. The mini-release serves as a taster of things to come as Atoll has completed the production of two upcoming full-length albums, scheduled to drop through Unique Leader in 2023 and 2024. This two-part release will be the most technically ambitious to date. Keep your eyes peeled on the tour front, and ears open because, like an atomic tsunami, Atoll is primed to decimate the masses.
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