Southern Lord is proud to present the new opus from The Bay Area’s devastating duo BLACK COBRA. Formed by drummer Rafa Martinez (ex-16, ex-Acid King) and guitarist/vocalist Jason Landrian (ex-Cavity), BLACK COBRA catapulted themselves onto the scene in 2001 with their ravenous, upbeat and ultimately unique style of punk/hardcore-fueled sludge metal. They were picked up almost immediately by indie At A Loss Recordings becoming the band’s label home for the release of their debut full-length, Bestial, and follow-up album, Feather And Stone. By 2009, with the band then virtually a household name to the tens of thousands of fans who’ve seen their flooring live performances over the years, BLACK COBRA signed with juggernaut Southern Lord Recordings for the release of Chronomega, the band’s most diverse material to date.

For the recording of this, the band’s second release for Southern Lord Recordings, BLACK COBRA recently ventured across the continent to pound out their anticipated new album, the follow-up to 2009’s massively well-received Chronomega. This time around the outfit enlisted the talents of Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou and his God City Studio in Salem, Massachusetts. After a brutal week-and-a-half in the notorious lair, ‘COBRA hammered out what will soon be known to the world as their almighty fourth full-length album, “Invernal”. This is BLACK COBRA’s most honed and diversified material to date, and will definitely tear your face off completely. By the time you read this Black Cobra will have already decimated the fiends at the Power of the Riff Fest that their label put on in August. They also showcased songs from this album at the Music Fest Northwest festival in Portland and supporting High on Fire in Oakland. A rigorous amount of touring will continually be announced through the rest of 2011.

From Salt Lake City, Gaza play a dark, glooming and frantic breed of hardcore and metal mixed with grind. Combining the sludgy, droney elements of Crowbar or Soilent Green with the absolute blasting force of Pig Destroyer, adjectives like abrasive and devastating, do not even begin to touch the full extremes of this group. I Don’t Care Where I Go When I Die was an absolutely bleak & terrifying experience and follow up He Is Never Coming Back took the band to new extreme heights and has won all sorts of critical acclaim.

Formed in 2008, Earthen Grave is a six-piece Chicago metal band that marries the sounds of metal past and future with a sweaty, pummeling live show. Bassist Ron Holzner served a 15-year sentence with Chicago doom legends Trouble and Rachel Barton Pine brings her frightening classical chops to a relatively new instrument, the Viper. Finding groups like Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Saint Vitus, Trouble, Pentagram, Candlemass and Slayer to be common influences, the band wrote and played shows around Chicago for the first half of 2009, culminating in the release of the “Dismal Times” EP in June. Featuring three original songs that meld classic, crunchy doom and NWOBHM vibes with a solid dose of thrashy bludgeoning alongside covers of two choice doom classics by Pentagram and Witchfinder General, the EP was hailed by critics as “astounding, ” and “pure, head-banging bliss” (MaximumMetal.com).