Almost a decade vested in ATX, Colombian fivepiece Headcrusher finally follows up 2012 debut Let the Blood Run and subsequent EP Black Burning Skies by erecting a solid wall of death. Where its meat-hook predecessors basically spread a single song over a dozen combined tracks, that raw sustenance hardens into uniformity on Death Comes With Silence. Denser and environmentally livid, it’s withering (“Trails of Devastation”) and merciless (“Eter­nal Butchery”), and best contrasted by stained class guitar pieces at the bookends and old-school solos on “Black Hearted Demons” and elegiac last word “Gritos del Sur.”

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This article appears in August 18 • 2017.

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San Francisco native Raoul Hernandez crossed the border into Texas on July 2, 1992, and began writing about music for the Chronicle that fall, debuting with an album review of Keith Richards’ Main Offender. By virtue of local show previews – first “Recommendeds,” now calendar picks – his writing’s appeared in almost every issue since 1993.