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With Venom Prison reminding everyone what mixing proper death and hardcore should sound like and Suicide Silence distancing themselves from the subgenre, you could surmise that the deathcore scene is in pretty poor health. But then you hear a band like A Night In Texas, who take onboard all of the clichés, and you just can’t help but be seduced by its satisfyingly pummelling, neck-snapping charm. The Aussie quintet have the same quality as countrymen Thy Art Is Murder, in that you’ll immediately be swinging your fists along to the grooving Social Serpent. Also, as if just to prove it’s not all meat’n’ potatoes mosh calls and beatdowns, Harvested rides along on an woozy, Eastern-tinged lead guitar and Death March features a sombre piano in the background. By focusing solely on staving your head in, ANIT have given deathcore a much-needed kick to the backside.

Since blagging his way onto the Hammer team a decade ago, Stephen has written countless features and reviews for the magazine, usually specialising in punk, hardcore and 90s metal, and still holds out the faint hope of one day getting his beloved U2 into the pages of the mag. He also regularly spouts his opinions on the Metal Hammer Podcast.