Upcoming Metal Releases: 3/8/20 -- 3/14/20
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Here are the new (and recent) metal releases for the week of March 8th to March 14th, 2020. Releases reflect proposed North American scheduling, if available. Expect to see most of these albums on shelves or distros on Fridays.
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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Spectral Lore + Mare Cognitum — Wanderers: Astrology of the Nine | I, Voidhanger | Atmospheric Black Metal | Greece + United States (Oregon)
From Jon Rosenthal and Andrew Rothmund’s dual premiere of “Mars (The Warrior)” and “Earth (The Mother)”:
Mars: the Red Giant. A crimson beacon in the night sky. Mars has been “the next frontier” for global spacefaring culture — close(ish), but just out of reach. We’ve never been to another planet yet, and Mars taunts us: close, but so far. Representing our neighboring planet is space pioneer Mare Cognitum, whose “Mars (The Warrior)” illustrates the feral spirit of the unknown landscape that comprises Mars. Named for the Roman god of war, this track features an unexpectedly aggressive side to the oft-atmospheric Jacob “Shrek” Buczarski — something chugging, hateful, and full of ire.
— Jon Rosenthal
Earth: the Pale Blue Dot. A speck among specks in a cloud of specks among other clouds of specks, forming an entire universe of specks each individually pointless but collectively, everything. But we, here on the Pale Blue Dot, give it meaning just by existing, decrying the cosmic pointlessness for something a bit less… deflating. But that alone doesn’t revert the universal constant: that of instant annihilation’s chances at any given moment. It’s a harsh reality, one that we conveniently cover up to either save face or maintain brain, but a reality nonetheless. How meaningful must everything and anything be if it can be swatted out of existence in a microsecond? Will a lucky gamma ray burst end the misery/joy duality we so often spend our time navigating on this watery rock?
— Andrew Rothmund
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Code Orange — Underneath | Roadrunner Records | Hardcore + Nu-Metal | United States (Pennsylvania)
Code Orange coming in hot with their fourth full-length. No fancy words needed here; you know the drill already. This Grammy-nominated band doesn’t settle for anything less than the best.
— Andrew Rothmund
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Bone Church — Acid Communion | Ripple Music | Stoner Rock | USA (Connecticut)
This album riffs so hard that I’m concerned there was some soul-selling involved, but I’m not one to question the blessings bestowed on us by this high-volume ossuary. Marrying heartfelt bluesy vocals to enormous riffs played with humongous tones is a hell of a combo, and the up-tempo drums and thematic approach elevate the result to stoner rock heaven.
— Ted Nubel
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Sutrah — Aletheia EP | Technical Death Metal | Canada
From Andrew Rothmund’s premiere of “Lethe”:
Whereas a lot of death metal (and especially tech-death) is angular and staccato and mechanical, Sutrah is more like a perfectly-executed pirouette: deadly silent executional gorgeousness. When most every other band of this ilk is upping aggression, distortion, and volume, Sutrah is meticulously weaving a carbon-fiber tapestry that may appear brittle but is actually stronger than steel. It’s a risky move — Sutrah doesn’t gung-ho slice and dice the world to pieces with divebomb riffs like some tech-death does (and there’s legitimate appeal for that insanity, too) — but in return, they acquire perhaps the most important element any band in this category could want: savage beauty.
— Andrew Rothmund
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Huntsmen — Mandala of Fear | Prosthetic Records | Post-Metal/Rock | United States (Illinois)
From Ted Nubel’s video interview feature with Huntsmen:
[Huntsmen’s] upcoming album Mandala of Fear certainly is something to saddle up for: a double LP that opens with the Yes-channeling “Ride Out” and goes, musically, in a hundred different directions after that point while still maintaining conceptual adherence and sublime coherency. Spanning progressive stoner rock, death-doom-ish post-metal, and any number of fleeting micro-genres, all in all you’re facing a sound that’s really just their own: I’ll call it Huntsmen, and be done with it.
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Saltas — Mors Salis: Opus I | Nuclear War Now! Productions | Death/Doom Metal | Sweden
A minimal, pounding mix of death and doom metal of a droning, skeletal variety. Featuring members of Runemagick, The Funeral Orchestra (wait for their new one on NWN later this year), and Irkallian Oracle, Saltas’s mastery of the obscure and difficult is manifested here in Saltas.
— Jon Rosenthal
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Aronious — Perspicacity | The Artisan Era | Technical Death Metal | United States (Wisconsin)
Lovely tech-death that intertwines and weaves throughout your mind during its runtime — Perspicacity actually feels more death metal than its technical variant as Aronious are keen on burying any flashy technicality under waves of thick bombast.
— Andrew Rothmund
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Rotting Kingdom — A Deeper Shade of Sorrow | Boris Records/Godz ov War Productions | Death/Doom Metal | United States (Kentucky)
From Andrew Rothmund’s premiere of “A Deeper Shade of Sorrow”:
It’s funny how distinct doom and death metal are, yet, under the right treatment, they fit together beautifully. Rotting Kingdom have figured out that treatment, and they’ve applied it to their debut release A Deeper Shade of Sorrow — it’s a monolith of death-doom both churning with pissed-off energy and undulating slowly with a devilishly methodical burn. It feels neither entirely human nor machine, some kind of cyborgian blend of hard-hitting mechanical groove with flesh-and-bone riffage.
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5 R V L N 5 — The Black Mark | End of All Hope Records | Industrial Metal | United States (Illinois)
5 R V L N 5 is a cryptic industrial metal project with a focus on the dystopian, perverse future ahead of us — it’s pronounced “surveillance,” by the way. All at the same time, it’s creepy but danceable, melodic but dissonant, harsh but strangely soothing: there’s schisms presented in the music itself that aim to tear apart your cognition and give you a new look at the world and all of its stains.
— Ted Nubel
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Invent Animate — Greview | Tragic Hero Records | Metalcore | United States (Texas)
There’s something I love and hate about this new Invent Animate album: 1) it’s metalcore from its heyday over a decade ago but brought current, 2) it’s metalcore from its heyday over a decade ago but brought current. I loved this sort of shit back in the day, and to be honest, I still love it now. Greyview is delicious, epic, and heavy all the same, and it captures metalcore’s edgy but smooth spirit. I just can’t help but think, though, that maybe this style of metal has been past its pique for so long now. Who knows, and honestly, who cares, because if it rocks, it rocks. And it does.
— Andrew Rothmund
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Zelienople — Hold You Up | Miasmah | Psych Rock/Slowcore/Drone | United States (Illinois)
Ah Zelienople, my favorite Chicago-local band. There is something so magical about their droning, eclectic minimal take on folk music and slowcore. Hold You Up follows in the footsteps of predecessor The World is a House on Fire in the sense that Zelienople plays a little more with dynamics, though all never rises above a coarse whisper.
— Jon Rosenthal
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Ruin Lust — Choir of Babel | 20 Buck Spin | Black/Death Metal | United States (New York)
From Jon Rosenthal’s premiere of “Bestial Magnetism”:
Sonically aligning themselves with the bestial and war metal classics, actually taking the time to compare Ruin Lust to anything like Archgoat or Revenge truly does them a disservice. Arming themselves with an arsenal of mean, putrid riffs and enough ardor to level a city, Ruin Lust’s clear sound and hammered precision sets them apart from the war metal miasma. There is no need for atmospheric blurring or eight-bar drum fills to pass time here: these New Yorkers make compact odes to hate and discomfort.
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Smoulder — Dream Quest Ends | Cruz del Sur Records | Heavy/Doom Metal | Canada
Here’s a strong argument to check this out — it’s new Smoulder music. Another one, perhaps, would be its inclusion of a Manilla Road cover, but getting even a small dose of new anthems from the Canadian doom n’ traditional metal warriors is worthy of celebration. Essentially concluding the Times of Obscene Evil and Wild Daring writing and release cycle, the two new originals were older songs written by the band’s drummer, Kevin Hester, before being “Smoulderized” in preparation for the LP. These two songs feel a bit different than the album for me and pair well together, giving some interesting dual vocals and clean bits in addition to classic steel-slinging heaviness.
— Ted Nubel
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Vaisseau — Horrors Waiting In Line | Totem Cat Records | “Synth Doom” | France
Synth doom — not two words you see together often. A quick listen to the embed should prove the combination’s worth, I’d say, and the themes employed here are just perfect — from the album title to tracks with names such as “Force Macabre : From Deep Space, Down To The Styx,” it’s hard to resist this spooky, groovy instrumental ride.
Keep an eye out for more Vaisseau goodness later this morning.
— Ted Nubel
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Lychgate — Also sprach Futura | Debemur Morti Productions | Avant-Garde Black Metal | United Kingdom
Rip-roaring black metal from these masters of unusual, angular, and eccentric sounds from beyond the grave. Stay tuned later this morning for some of the highest caliber tunage I’ve heard all year.
— Andrew Rothmund
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Satan — Toutes Ces Horreurs | Throatruiner Records | Insanity (Blackened Hardcore) | France
It’s (French) Satan. This band sounds like hell’s maw opening up to swallow humanity in one fell gulp. Toutes Ces Horreurs is blackened to the core alright, but there’s a harsh and hardcore devestation which permates through the atmosphere. All told, this album slaps, and Satan himself would approve of its unholy triumphancy.
— Andrew Rothmund
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