Upcoming Metal Releases

Upcoming Metal Releases: 5/5/19 -- 5/11/19

Upcoming Metal Releases

Here are the new (and recent) metal releases for the week of May 5th to May 11th, 2019, 2019. Release 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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WarforgedI: Voice | The Artisan Era | Death Metal | United States (Illinois)

I try to reserve how many times I say this (and so far this year I’ve been successful in restraining myself), but sometimes it just must be said: this album is a year-end list contender for sure. With I: Voice, Warforged aim to explode away from obscurity with perhaps the most unpretentiously progressive death metal releases of recent times, taking inspiration from deathcore to tech-death and beyond. Stay tuned tomorrow for an extensive discussion I had with the entire band about their influences, challenges, and goals — we had a shitton of fun, but covered some great ground regarding what it takes to create heavy art in an age of so much… heavy art.

ZaumDivination | Listenable Records | Doom Metal | Canada

Canadian outfit Zaum, the undisputed masters of spiritual, esoteric doom, have at long last unleashed Divination, their third full-length record and the follow-up to 2016’s utterly cosmic Eidolon. With only three monolithic tracks clocking in at a combined 44 minutes, Divination launches listeners into a deeply psychedelic and meditative state with the droning ambience of Zaum’s uniquely termed “mantra doom” aesthetic. With the addition of world music instrumentation such as jaw harp, didgeridoo, dilruba, brass bowl, and saz, this album is a novel work that sees the group exploring exciting and fascinating new sonic territory.

— Thomas Hinds

Mental CrueltyInferis | Unique Leader | Deathcore | Germany

Super-technical deathcore with a blackened twist. Mental Cruelty aren’t doing anything we haven’t heard before, but they’re doing what we’ve heard before quite well. There’s always value in execution, and Inferis is water-tight. But, if you don’t like deathcore, you will not like this, so there’s that too.

AbnormalitySociopathic Constructs | Metal Blade | Death Metal + Grindcore | United States (Massachusetts)

The crossover between death metal and grindcore makes sense from many angles, and Abnormality’s Sociopathic Constructs likewise coheres as a representative of the best of both worlds. Steering away from “brutal death metal,” too, has allowed for impressive levels of clarity in both songwriting and technicality, something this album can show for above the rest. Abnormality have been blasting for almost a decade and a half, but this is their third full-length overall — patience breeds excellence, of course.

Big|BraveA Gaze Among Them | Southern Lord | Post-Metal | Canada

In some ways, A Gaze Among Them is the most accessible album yet from the post-rock trio. Although Big|Brave are still slaves to the drone, still showing kinship with fellow Montrealers Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Thee Silver Mt Zion (and once again borrowing Thierry Amar from both bands to lend haunting contrabass to the proceedings), the songs on the trio’s fourth album often approximate actual song structure. “Muted Shifting of Space” could be a blues jam, one that is slowly drawn out like a funeral dirge, and “Holding Pattern” is minimalistic feedbacking psychedelia that simmers but never completely boils over. All of it is a vehicle for Robin Wattie’s distinctive, plaintive wail that makes her simultaneously seem vulnerable, yet someone not to be trifled with. She adds a very human element that much art metal is sorely lacking.

— Brian O’Neill

Bonus: Stay tuned later this week for a full review by Langdon.

Call of the VoidBuried in Light | Translation Lost Records | Blackened Grindcore | United States (Colorado)

If it was tough to figure out Buried in Light when they were repping a Denver scene steeped in suds-and-bud while on death (and grind) homestead Relapse Records, Buried in Light proves to be even tougher to pigeonhole. The attitude and riffs courtesy of Patrick Alberts and Nathan Siegrist grind (and a couple guys from Pig Destroyer guest on the appropriately-titled album-closer “So It Ends”), but Gordon Koch employs a steady mid-paced d-beat rather than speedy blast beats more often than not. It lends preternatural-level heaviness to the proceedings, especially when coupled with Alex Pace’s Godfleshed-out bass and screaming multi-tracked vocals that remind of overwrought industrial music after Al Jourgensen discovered the joy of thrash. They call it Metallic Sludgepunk; I say just call it loud.

— Brian O’Neill

PossessedRevelations of Oblivion | Nuclear Blast | Death Metal | United States (California)

Formed in the early 1980s, Possessed has gone through some reformation since then, and have only released two full-length albums (both back in the 1980s). Now, though, we’re gearing up for their third full-length, the first in over 30 years. You can bet Revelations of Oblivion rips through space and time in every old-school way imaginable (it does), but there’s also modern twists which show that Possessed have been paying attention, lately, too. This is a fully featured, cataclysmic work which honors past success and sows the seeds for new success on the horizon.

MartyrdödHexhammaren | Southern Lord | Crust + Punk | Sweden

The viscosity of sludge with the veracity of crust-punk, this Swedish scene staple returns with their seventh full-length album (and their first in three years) as pissed-off as ever. You know what you’re getting with Martyrdöd, so Hexhammaren fulfills its promise of being straight-up as fuck, heavily distilled without any filler. Words are useless here, so just let this one rip you in half — “Cashless Society” is the track to listen to if you’re only going to listen to one (but trust me, you’ll be listening to more than that).

Spirit AdriftDivided by Darkness | 20 Buck Spin | Metal + Doom | United States (Arizona)

Having risen from the sweltering sands of Phoenix in 2015, epic doom group Spirit Adrift has swiftly risen to prominence as one of the most renowned modern bands playing in the classic style. Hearkening back to the anthemic nostalgia of vintage 1970s and 1980s metal, their third full-length album Divided by Darkness presents an interpretation of the group’s distinct sound that is simultaneously heavier and yet more accessible than ever before. Brimming with soaring vocals, introspective lyrics, and fiery, impassioned riffs, this album is undoubtedly a major step forward for Spirit Adrift, and yet again elevate them to the forefront of the scene in the months to come.

— Thomas Hinds

Bonus: Stay tuned later this week for an interview with the band plus more thoughts on the album by Brian O’Neill.

DreadnoughtEmergence | Profound Lore | Progressive Metal | United States (Colorado)

Denver’s widely eclectic prog outfit Dreadnought returns this year with Emergence, their fourth full-length offering of intrepid and texturally lush material. Presenting the same idiosyncratic mix of blackened folk, doom, and stoic post metal as the group’s previous record A Wake in Sacred Waves, Emergence expands upon Dreadnought’s already diverse sound with a thematic focus upon the element of fire. Marking the band’s first release with Profound Lore, this record stands as a testament to their enduring creativity and truly unique stylistic blend.

— Thomas Hinds

Bonus: Stay tuned later this week for Thomas’s third installment of Progspot, a feature column in which he dives into the best of the best progressive metal around the world.

LiceWoe Betide You | Season of Mist | Black Metal | Spain

Evocative black metal from Spain with an avant-garde twist (but with a name that causes cringe for anyone deathly afraid of the hair-infesting insects) — Woe Betide You lurches forward with blasting intensity but also enough off-kilter, abstract songwriting to keep things interesting. Woe Betide You is heavy to stomach sometimes, but the band swings into high gear at the most opportune moments to smooth things out with sky-high screaming and ascending tremolo riffage.

SuspiralChasm | Sentient Ruin | Blackened Death Metal | Spain

Suspiral writes death metal from the deepest chasm imaginable — even the production of Chasm represents this, not to mention the album’s title of course. We often call death metal “crushing,” but that tag works here especially well: this album is totally suffocating, and intoxicatingly so. Under its weight, you feel like you can barely move, either locked in place by cosmic death metal chains or simply flabbergasted to disbelief at how thick and churning these wicked tracks become in your mind.

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