It's nothing new for heavy-metal acts to "pretty up" established subgenres by stretching them into new spaces. Death metal sprouted a melodic branch in the early 1990s, and more recently, bands have been pushing both doom and black metal into lighter, more accessible versions of themselves. But it takes a special band to make nasty, gnarly grindcore sound pretty. So here we have Immortal Bird, a Chicago-based trio whose outstanding 2015 album Empress/Abscess sets singer Rae Amitay's horrifying howls against a mix of hardcore, death metal, and hard rock that sounds like the sweet song an angel sings after you take a brick to the face. Okay, maybe that's overstating it a bit, but the way Immortal Bird uses traditionally catchy sounds to complement its harrowing noise is very impressive, indeed. BEN SALMON