Midnight, Militia, Skeleton, Black Mercy

Filthy/vile/sleazy remains the adjectival trident spearing one-man threshing machine Midnight. As Athenar, Ohio’s Jameson Walters detonates a blackened speed metal splaying Bathory, Motörhead, Slayer, and especially Venom. October’s third LP Sweet Death & Ecstasy gushes a torrent of sleazy riffs and vile wordplay whose tamest talisman might well be the scissor sisters cover art. As filthy as that sounds, it barely registers compared to the live show’s circle pit hysteria. – Raoul Hernandez