This week's new heavy metal releases include lots of fun metal, glitchy prog with a 9-string bass, spooky stuff, and more! To the metals…
ALSO! Today, Bandcamp is doing one of their days of giving 100% of what you pay directly to the labels and artists as Covid-19 Pandemic relief. So if you can get stuff from Bandcamp, please do.
Blood Ceremony – The Old Ways Remain
Genre: Psychedelic rock/doom
Origin: Toronto, Ontario
Label: Rise Above
Buy now on Amazon
It's been seven years since these Canadian psych rockers have sent us on a trip via a full record. Now they're back and the flute is in tow once more. The production on this is rather old school so the "doom" may not hit hard enough for some listeners, but it's still fun and spooky.
Burning Witches – The Dark Tower
Genre: Heavy/power metal
Origin: Brugg, Switzerland
Label: Napalm
Buy now on Bandcamp
Speaking of fun, this album is full of it. Ripping guitars, metal as fuck vocals, and just all around bad ass…ness? This is clearly an homage to old school metal, but it sounds fresh.
Enforcer – Nostalgia
Genre: Heavy/speed metal
Origin: Avika, Sweden
Label: Nuclear Blast
Buy now on Bandcamp
Tis the week for fun, epic heavy metal, I guess. Keep the throwback good times going with the new Enforcer, why don't you? Really, a lot of what I said for Burning Witches can be said here. These guys turn up the tempo and vocal range though. Olof REALLY hits those highs.
Galactic Empire – Special Edition
Genre: Star Wars/progressive metal
Origin: Pennsylvania? Space?
Label: Pure Noise Records
Buy now on Bandcamp
I'll be honest. I thought this back ran its course with the last record. There are really only so many iconic Star Wars themes that you can do a metal take on. Well, I'm happy to be proven wrong on Special Edition. The band are dipping into deeper cuts and some non-John Williams scores with takes on songs from The Mandalorian, Rogue One, The Bad batch, and more. Even if your Star Wars love doesn't go that deep, you can appreciate the shredding here.
Dave Lombardo – Rites Of Percussion
Genre: Experimental metal/percussion
Origin: Havana, Cuba
Label: Ipecac
Buy now on Amazon
This one is rather niche. Dave is of course known for his work with Slayer, Mr. Bungle, Fantomas, and so many more. This sounds nothing like those. MAYBE moments in Fantomas…maybe. It's really drum/percussion solos paired with experimental backdrops. It's compelling, but you gotta be a fan of drum-forward jams.
Nightmarer – Deformity Adrift
Genre: Technical death metal
Origin: Portland, Oregon
Label: Total Dissonance Worship
Buy now on Bandcamp
We've had a lot of fun this week. That ends now. The new Nightmarer sounds like a dissonant death metal nightmare. Rhythms shift constantly while off-putting guitars mix with haunting atmosphere to create a unified feeling of unease. It's great.
Unearth – The Wretched; The Ruinous
Genre: Metalcore
Origin: Boston, Massachusetts
Label: Century Media
Buy now on Amazon
Oh shit! Here come the breakdowns and harmonized guitars. Unearth's first record in half a decade sees them reuniting with drummer Mike Justain and it feels like classic Unearth. This is catchy as hell and really brings this mid-00's metalcore dork back. J. Andrew's full review is here.
Vintersea – Woven Into Ashes
Genre: Melodic/progressive extreme metal
Origin: Portland, Oregon
Label: M-Theory
Buy now on Bandcamp
Woven Into Ashes is a masterclass of dynamics. Musically you're getting blackened moments, epic goth metal sections, catchy melodies, and tons of shredding. Then vocally, just wow. Avienne Low is a star who can shift between sounding like a siren and a demon effortlessly.
Vvon Dogma I – The Kvlt Of Glitch
Genre: Progressive metal
Origin: Montreal, Québec
Label: Self-released
Buy now on Bandcamp
I'm going to wrap with something wildly different. Vvon Dogma I are an act I praised many, many moons ago and I'm stoked to do so again. The band lead by ex-uneXpect bassist Frédérick Filiatrault is mixing electronics, progressive metal, vocoder, grooves and more. This one is for prog nerds and bass geeks alike. Also, there's a wild cover of Radiohead's "2 + 2 =5" and you won't hear anything like it anywhere else.
Also dropping this week…
- Ancient Settlers – Transition (Crusader Records/Golden Robot Records) – Melodic death metal/metalcore
- Cemetery Moon – Cemetery Moon (Self-released) – Black metal
- Countless Skies – Resonance (Willowtip Records) – Melodic death/progressive metal
- Currents – The Death We Seek (SharpTone) – Metalcore
- Curse Of Cain – Curse Of Cain (Atomic Fire) – Sci-fi metal
- Dawn of Existence – Ancient Arts (Self-released) – Blackened death metal
- Death Goals – A Garden Of Dead Flowers (Prosthetic) – Hardcore/metalcore
- Deathstars – Everything Destroys You (Nuclear Blast) – Industrial
- Die Humane – The Grotesque (WURMgroup) – Experimental hard rock/doom
- Draconian Reign – Tragedy Eternal (Seek And Strike) – Symphonic deathcore
- Drain – Living Proof (Epitaph) – Thrash/hardcore
- Extermination Dismemberment – Dehumanization Protocol (Unique Leader Records) – Brutal death metal
- Fauns – Surcease (Self-released) – Post-doom
- Finality – Technocracy (Self-released) – Melodic death/power metal
- Champlin Williams Friestedt – Carrie (Sound Pollution) – Rock
- Godslut – Procreation Of God (Selfmadegod Records) – Death metal
- Haunt – Golden Arm (Iron Grip Records/Church Recordings) – Heavy metal
- Heimland – Forfedrenes Taarer (Edged Circle Productions) – Black metal
- Herod – The Iconoclast (Pelagic) – Progressive/sludge
- The Hip Priests – Roden House Blues (The Sign Records) – Hard rock
- Hyeena – Freedom From The Default (Innerstrength Records) – Metalcore/thrash
- Intercourse – Halo Castration Institute (Learning Curve Records) – Sludge/noise rock
- Intöxicated – Sadistic Nightmares (MDD Records) – Speed metal/thrash
- Jerome's Dream – The Gray In Between (Iodine) – Hardcore
- Kanaan – Downpour (Jansen Records) – Desert/stoner rock
- Leprous – Live 2022 (InsideOutMusic) – Progressive rock/metal
- The Modern Age Slavery – 1901 | The First Mother (Fireflash) – Deathcore/death metal
- Muskeg Charnel – Decomposition Part 3: Rigor Mortis (Horror Pain Gore Death Productions) – Black/death metal
- Nadir – Extinction Rituals (Self-released) – Death/extreme metal
- Neolia – Neolia (Self-released) – Experimental/progressive
- Smokey Mirror – Smokey Mirror (Rise Above) – "Boogie rock"
- Sovereign Council – World On Fire (Dark Moon Productions) – Symphonic metal
- Spinebreaker – Cavern Of Inoculated Cognition (Creator-Destructor Records) – Death metal/hardcore
- Statues Black – Arcs Rising (Lövely Records) – Alternative rock
- Teeth – A Biblical Worship Of Violence (Nuclear Blast) – Metalcore
- Tygers Of Pan Tang – Bloodlines (Mighty) – Heavy metal/hard rock
- Therapy? – Hard Cold Fire (Marshall) – Alternative rock/metal
- Tumble – Lady Cadaver (Self-released) – Psychedelic hard rock
- Ugly – Autograph (Satanik Royalty Records) – Sludge/doom
- The Unresolved – Convalescence (Self-released) – Heavy metal/hard rock
- Weathers – Are We Having Fun? (Sumerian) – Alternative rock
- Winger – Seven (Frontiers) – Rock
