These days, it’s pretty unusual for a metal band composed of teenagers to make any sort of impact. Generally speaking, the genre rewards performance chops that can’t be fully honed til one’s mid-20s, or, alternately, demands its practitioners toil in obscurity for years before being taken seriously. But Baltimore teenagers Noisem hearken back to an earlier era of metal, when high school-aged bands like Entombed and Obituary were vaulted to semi-stardom on the strength of their stunning debut albums, which exploded with youthful ambition and naiveté. A more accurate comparison, actually, is Slayer, whose founding members — guitarists Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King — were 19 years old when they released their debut album, 1981’s Show No Mercy. Noisem sound bit like a young Slayer, in fact — their incredible 2013 debut, Agony Defined, is thrash metal with such sharp edges and dark shadows that it feels like something blacker and harder than what we typically define as “thrash.” It feels not goofy or fun, but — bracingly — unpredictable and dangerous. – Michael

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BUY: Agony Defined is available via A389.