Sound Advice: Crucible with Toothgrinder, Ghost Key, 7 Years Dead, Homebound and Motions of Sin

Once upon a time, like a few weeks ago, the members of three popular and crazy-loud Detroit bands — we’re talking volume that could alter the path of low-orbit satellites — concluded that their main gigs were not affording them the opportunity to play with an acceptable degree of heaviness. Imagine a world where We Came as Romans, Taproot and Assassins aren’t heavy enough, then imagine the kind of heaviness it would require to outweigh those three. OK, don’t break a gear tooth in your brainbox with all that imagining — the actual result is contained in the first six-song EP from the freshly formed Crucible, and it is all the heavy you can imagine and so much more.

“Crucible” as a word comes frontloaded with a lot of definitional baggage. An actual crucible is where metal can be liquefied; a metaphorical crucible is a situation that produces an extreme test or where disparate elements are combined to create a new form; and The Crucible, Arthur Miller’s 1953 play based on the Salem witch trials, is one of the most powerful and draining experiences in American theater.

Detroit’s Crucible lives up to that legacy with its debut, displaying a visceral ferocity that is breathtaking for something that’s being billed as a side project. Crucible has come together with remarkable speed — vocalist Dave Stephens, bassist Andrew Glass (We Came as Romans), guitarist Lou Cotton (We Came as Romans), guitarist Todd Jansen (Assassins) and drummer Nick Fredell (ex-Taproot) announced the band’s formation in mid-October of last year and the following week teased the Nick Sampson-produced EP with the song “Death Rate,” featuring cameo vocals from Bleeding Through’s Brandan Schieppati.

The eponymous EP was released on iTunes, Spotify and other digital outlets on Nov. 7 and Crucible’s first live show was its CD release gig in Pontiac, Mich. a week later. But don’t think that “quickly made” implies “half-baked” — Crucible is Metalcore at its kiln-forged hottest and anvil-hammered hardest.