Upcoming Metal Releases: 11/25/18 -- 12/1/18
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Here are the new metal releases for the week of November 25th – December 1st, 2018. Release dates are formatted according to proposed North American scheduling, if available. Expect to see the bulk of these records on shelves or distros on coming Fridays unless otherwise noted, or if labels and artists get impatient.
See something we missed or have any thoughts? Let us know in the comments. Plus, as always, feel free to post your own shopping lists. Happy digging.
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ANTICIPATED RELEASES
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Cantique Lépreux — Paysages Polaires | Eisenwald | Atmospheric Black Metal | Canada
Paysages Polaires is thoroughly emotive Quebecois black metal, and probably the group’s strongest offering to date. This album has all the harrowing ascents and devastating descents you’d expect from the genre, but also a raw brutality (delivered primarily through the vocals at their most guttural) which offsets the smoothness of the music’s wavelength. This means that transitions are ever-fluid as interconnecting segments feel seamlessly woven. Production-wise, the band have opted for a the-louder-it-is-the-better-it-sounds approach, which suits this blast beat-saturated black metal well.
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OF NOTE
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Stilla — Synviljor | Nordvis | Atmospheric Black Metal | Sweden
Icy cold, and just at the right time. From the surface bleakness to the richness of Synviljor‘s atmosphere, we’re greeted with top-notch atmospheric black metal which attacks on all fronts, perfect for the bite of the air outside (unless you’re closer to the equator than we are). Whereas most black metal breeds solitude and confinement, Stilla puts forth the urge for the great expanse of the outdoors. Nature, here, is honored for its grandiose power to both create the environment of our existence and to stuff out our existence as it sees fit. Get out there and experience it with Synviljor pumping into your ears.
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Ayyur — The Lunatic Creature | Vendetta Records | Black Metal | Tunisia
Featuring drumming by former Deathspell Omega vocalist Shaxul, you’d immediately expect a Deathspell Omega clone band, just like the many others out there. Ayyur offers more, though, than a repeat of another’s sound — in fact, The Lunatic Creature thrives not in the twisty turns of technical, tumultuous black metal. Rather, it adopts a more straightforward, less-dense approach which turns out to be much more digestible, and downright pretty for that matter. Songs like the title track get lost in their own solemn atmospherics, urging forward beautifully toward an ever-present end, never foregoing the perfect moment to blast. Despite being clearly black metal, doom overtones lurch throughout, solidifying The Lunatic Creature as one of the bleakest gems on shelves this year. Check back later this week to hear the whole thing.
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FOR THE ADVENTUROUS
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Sarah Longfield — Disparity | Season of Mist | Progressive, Electronic | United States (Wisconsin)
Though different in many ways, Animals as Leaders can help situate the guideposts around Sarah Longfield’s latest output Disparity. A few of those guideposts are broken though, of course, by the gentle playfulness of this album, and its willingness to go “off course” mid-song for serene (and very atmospheric) asides which only add more color to the already gleaming songwriting and production. Don’t expect anything aggressive here (and the “djent” tag does not apply); rather, Disparity functions best as moody tool for emotional exploration and understanding.
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Wulkanaz — Wulkanaz | Helter Skelter | Weird Black Metal | Sweden
At the surface level, Wulkanaz seems like every new super raw black metal band, but holy hell is there an incredibly bizarre undercurrent. Mastermind Wagner Ödegård’s strange, creative songwriting style — jangling and off-kilter — spits in the face of black metal’s orthodoxy. A true creative spirit hiding in a sea of normalcy.
— Jon Rosenthal
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Virgin Black — Requiem — Pianissimo | Independent | Chamber Music, Romantic Classical, Darkwave | Australia
One decade after its predecessor, the third and closing chapter to gothic doom metal legends Virgin Black’s Requiem triptych is finally unveiled. The gorgeous, classically inclined, chambered music found within Pianissimo (very quiet) is the perfect foil to Mezzo Forte‘s balance of gothic gloom and death/doom crush and Fortissimo‘s death metal aggression.
— Jon Rosenthal
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FROM THE GRAVE
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A Canorous Quintet — The Only Pure Hate -MMXVIII- | Black Lodge Records | Melodic Death Metal | Sweden
Reissuing their classic The Only Pure Hate on its 20th anniversary, A Canorous Quintet are poised to make a mark on a scene inundated with both old flair and new ideas. There’s much about The Only Pure Hate -MMXVIII- which feels like old school melodic death metal (because it is); that’s not to say, however, that the album isn’t still fresh at the same time. In fact, this album drives so hard and rides on such soaring melodies that it would put most modern genre kin to shame. Obviously, production value does not impact the band’s technicality or musicality, but it does influence the listener’s perception of the music: here, the modern re-treatment has fared quite well.
“This is a rough mix and will not be the final version.”
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Scald — Will of the Gods is a Great Power | Ordo MCM | Doom Metal | Russia
Unsung epic doom metal from beyond the Iron Curtain — legendary to those who know and an instant addiction for those on their first discovery. This is the first definitive reissue of their 1995 debut and sole album. Check back later this week for a retrospective.
— Jon Rosenthal
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Blind Guardian — Nightfall in Middle Earth | Nuclear Blast | Progressive Power Metal | Germany
One of the absolute strongest metal albums to ever grace this planet finally, finally gets a proper vinyl reissue, having only been on the format as a hyper-limited picture disc. Read Langdon’s retrospective on the album’s 20th anniversary here. Never trust the Northern Wind. Never turn your back on friends!
— Jon Rosenthal
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