Glass Casket

The Swedish style of increasingly melodic death metal, combining the post-hardcore aggression and guttural vocal style of black metal with the more technically proficient and comparatively melodic guitar lines at the heart of most European metal acts, has become so popular among bands in the United States that yet another subgenre name, "Swedecore" (that is, Scandinavian-style metal as played by non-Nordic dudes), could be coined for American bands like From Autumn to Ashes and Shadows Fall. North Carolina's Glass Casket adds even more melody to their grindcore than most, which combined with their atypically (for metal) clean-cut good looks makes Glass Casket the closest "Swedecore" has yet come to an act along the lines of Good Charlotte or blink-182: a potential bridge to the commercial mainstream for a musical style that prides itself on its cultishness. Glass Casket formed in Winston-Salem, NC, in 2001, comprised of singer Adam Cody, guitarists Dustie Waring and Ian Tuten, bassist Sid Menon, and drummer Blake Richardson. Gigging around the same college scene that spawned Between the Buried and Me, Glass Casket joined with that band's producer, Jamie King, to record their debut album, 2004's We Are Gathered Here Today. Regular touring and good reviews raised the band's profile through 2005, and a video for the album's single "In Between the Sheets" appeared on one of MTV's more indie-minded outlets. Building on the growing attention, Abacus Records reissued We Are Gathered Here Today with all-new artwork and an uncensored version of that video in March 2006. Glass Casket's second album, A Desperate Man's Diaries, was released in June 2006.