METALHEADS OFTEN SPROUT IN YOUR YARD'S HARD TO REACH NOOKS AND CRANNIES. Defenestrator.

The first time I came across the word “defenestration” was 15 years ago, on the opening track to Cryptopsy’s awesome Blasphemy Made Flesh. I immediately consulted my Webster’s to learn it was the act of throwing a person through a window.

I remember thinking that the word would make a cool band name. Surprisingly, after a quick check on the Encyclopedia Metallum, no metal band had staked a claim … until now.

Eau Claire’s Defenestrator has released a four-track, 12-minute lightning strike to your soft parts. Culling the best from such metal/punk crossover acts as Nuclear Assault, DRI, and Cryptic Slaughter, eschewing the retro wagon jumping of a Municipal Waste, and fogging over the entire work with the crepuscular air of a late October in Wisconsin, you have here the foulest, most convincing local act of their ilk since Desolatevoid’s debut in 2006.

Seriously. I haven’t been this excited about an EC demo of extreme music since Contagion’s final (and godly) release back in 1991. Highlights? The dual vocals of guitarist NaPalmer and bassist Joe Larkin appropriately abrade. Riffs groove (0:46 ) and surge (1:41 Fear to Change), move (0:41), and purge (3:00 Parasites). Like your body weight on Jupiter, the opening of Judgment is heavy and a storm of red darkness concludes it. Then there’s the tribal foreboding of drummer Bryan’s beats on Maze of Death, the stenciled-on recycled beer-case packaging for the disc, and the fact it was recorded in Zack Colvin’s basement.

So enjoy the altitude buzz, the tickle of gravity in your bowels, the glimmer of shards mistaken for stars, and plummet with Defenestrator.

Defenestrator + do it yourself DaIsY • Saturday, July 31 • Bottle & Barrel, 208 S Barstow St • 9pm • ages 21+ • www.MySpace.com/defenestratorWI