This week’s new heavy metal releases include lots of hardcore fury, an honorary metal band taking us on a boat ride, and more!
Agnostic Front – Echoes In Eternity
Genre: Hardcore/crossover
Origin: New York, New York
Label: Reigning Phoenix
Buy now on Amazon
Starting us off with album number thirteen from these hardcore legends. It comes six years after their last record and with a new drummer behind the kit. As always this is a sonic fury. In an unexpected collab, DMC makes an appearance.
Astronoid – Stargod
Genre: Black metal/shoegaze
Origin: Lowell, Massachusetts
Label: 3DOT
Buy/stream now here
This album comes after a time of change for Astronoid. The personal stuff is reflected in the lyrics, but they also come roaring back as a trio. Vocalist/guitarist Brett Boland is also on drums this time. If you’ve heard his work with Kataan, you know he can kill it, and does here too. This new record is infused with some 80’s bombast and that is an ingredient I didn’t realize these guys would benefit so well from.
Drain – …Is Your Friend
Genre: Hardcore/crossover
Origin: Santa Cruz, California
Label: Epitaph
Buy now on Bandcamp
If Agnostic Front was too old school for you, then I can direct you towards the latest from Drain. This is a modern hardcore pummel fest. The aggression is unrelenting here, and yet, the Santa Cruz of it all comes through. It’s an oddly good time.
The Mountain Goats – Through This Fire Across from Peter Balkan
Genre: Folk/indie rock
Origin: Claremont, California
Label: Cadmean Dawn)
Buy now Bandcamp
Honorary metal band The Mountain Goats are going full musical on their new album. It tells the story of the surviving members of a shipwrecked crew and the captain falling apart. John Darnielle’s are darker and heavier than a lot of heavy bands here.
Omnium Gatherum – May The Bridges We Burn Light The Way
Genre: Melodic death metal
Origin: Karhula, Finland
Label: Century Media
Buy now on Bandcamp
Man, I feel like there hasn’t been a melodic death metal album that hit this well in a while. Their tenth album has all the hallmarks of the genre, but something special is clicking. Maybe the return of Jope on rhythm guitar? Whatever, shit’s rad.
Novembre – Words Of Indigo
Genre: Gothic/death metal
Origin: Catania, Sicily, Italy
Label: Peaceville
Buy now on Bandcamp
After nine long years, Novembre have returned with their beautiful bummer metal. They’re back with a mostly new lineup leaving Carmelo Orlando as the sole original member. The new folks all mesh nicely into the band’s established sound as does guest vocalist Ann-Mari Edvardsen (The 3rd & the Mortal) in the track below.
Pupil Slicer – Fleshwork
Genre: Mathcore
Origin: London, England
Label: Prosthetic
Buy now on Bandcamp
Wrapping this week with modern mathcore greatness. With a new bassist holding down the low-end, they seem to taking a more straight-forward approach to their dark sound. Experimentation is still everywhere as they dabble in noise, industrial, black metal, and more. Just less slap bass than before.
Also dropping this week…
- 37 Houses – Strangers (Self-released) – Rock
- Adorn – Adorn (Northern Silence Productions) – Atmospheric/”romantic” black metal
- Alcatrazz – Prior Convictions (BraveWord Records) – Hard rock/heavy metal
- Armor For Sleep – There Is No Memory (Equal Vision) – Post-hardcore
- Beastwars – The Ship // The Sea (Destroy) – Stoner/sludge
- Bliss Of Flesh – Metempsychosis (Black Lion Records) – Black/death metal
- Bogwife – From Ashes (Majestic Mountain) – Stoner/psychedelic metal
- Burning Sister – Ghosts (Self-released) – Stoner/hard rock
- Casket Rats – Rat City Rockers (Tee Pee Records) – hard rock
- Caskets – The Only Heaven You’ll Know (SharpTone) – Post-hardcore
- Centinex – With Guts And Glory (Black Lion Records) – Death metal
- Cepheidae Variable – Primordial Reverie (Self-released) – Progressive metal
- Cold Steel – Discipline & Punish (Spinefarm) – Thrash/hardcore
- Cremate – Ready To Fight (Wormholedeath Records) – Death metal/thrash
- Cuttermess – Lie/Sense (Self-released) – Crossover/thrash
- Deconstructing Sequence – Tenebris Cosmicis Tempora (Black Lion Records) – Black metal
- Denial Of Life – Witness The Power (Creator-Destructor Records) – Thrash/crossover
- Descape – As We All Wither (Seek & Strike) – Post-hardcore
- The Devil’s Trade – Nincs Szennyezetlen Szép (Pelagic) – Doom/folk
- Dropout Kings – Yokai (Napalm Records) – Rap metal
- Drowned In Silver – Mothers (Pagan Records) – Occult rock/doom
- Dysentery – Dejection Chrysalis (Comatose Music) – Slam/brutal death metal
- Finger Eleven – Last Night On Earth (Better Noise) – Rock
- Glorious Depravity – Death Never Sleeps (Transcending Obscurity Records) – Death metal
- Godark – Omniscience (Self-released) – Melodic death metal
- Haimad – When Night Rode Across The North (Northern Silence Productions) – Melodic black metal
- Hell In The Club – Joker In The Pack (Frontiers) – Hard rock/heavy metal
- Insidius – Vulgus Illustrata (Black Lion Records) – Technical/blackened death metal
- Ildaruni – Divinum Sanguinem (Black Lion Records) – Black metal
- The Judge The Juror – Primitive Minds (Self Released) – Technical/progressive death metal
- Kostnatění – Prílišnost (Willowtip) – Black metal
- Malepeste – Ex Nihilo (Les Acteurs de l’Ombre Productions) – Black metal
- Morpheus – In The Arms Of (Vicrecords) – Death metal
- Mourniaty – Musta maa (Inverse Records) – Black metal
- Murmur – Red Hill (Self-released) – Progressive death metal
- My Darkest Hate – Rust And Bones (Massacre) – Death metal
- Night Resident – Total Obscurity (Self-released) – Post-punk/hard rock
- Norilsk – Gigantes Mortui (Hypnotic Dirge Records) – Post-metal/doom
- N.Y.C. – Built to Destroy (Adrenalizing Media) – Heavy metal
- Primordial – Live In New York City (Metal Blade) – Folk/black metal
- Ptolemea – Kali (Raging Planet Records) – Dark alternative
- Revis – Killing Time (Self-released) – Rock
- Recurrence – Art Of Survival (YYMBR Records) – Groove/death metal
- Rituals – Hope In Hatred (Self-released) – Modern metal
- Selias – Killkarma (Wormholedeath) – Modern metal/metalcore
- Signs Of Extinction – The Post-Human Manifesto (Signs Of Extinction) – Blackened deathcore
- Slash – Live At The S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Festival (earMusic) – Rock
- Stellvris – Shatter And Bloom (Self-released) – Modern metal/metalcore
- Temple of Love – Songs of Love and Despair (The Reptile House) – Dark wave/rock
- Tenebris – Kochanowski (Pagan Records) – Progressive metal
- Unwell – Allegoria (Pure Noise) – Post-hardcore/metalcore
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