Upcoming Metal Releases: 7/28/19 -- 8/3/19

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Here are the new (and recent) metal releases for the week of July 28th to August 3rd, 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.

Send us your promos (streaming links preferred) to: [email protected]. Do not send us promo material via social media.

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Surprise Releases + Things We Missed

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Daxma — Ruins Upon Ruins | Blues Funeral Recordings | Post-Metal + Doom Metal | United States (California)

Daxma write long-form post-metal with deep tinges of doom metal, and the combination is a sure winner under their delicate but powerful touch. Ruins Upon Ruins is a two-track destroyer of minds, achieving both triumph and defeat within swells of emotion which then melt away like ice in a blast furnace. While the tenets of both post- and doom metal are apparent here, Daxma channel that “night music” feeling that I try to point out when I hear it: music which simply does not work when contrasted by the sun’s life-giving warmth.

— Andrew Rothmund

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Offenbarung — Manifestus | Black Metal | Argentina

If monstrously dense black metal albums don’t bother you — that is, if you don’t mind settling in for the long haul and stomaching any turbulence — then Offenbarung has something just for you. The Argentenian one-man project has assembled his latest sounds of blackened death in two absolutely gigantic tracks to comprise Manifestus, an album which reaches for the cosmos and definitely has enough rocket fuel to get there. Sometimes spacey black metal gets far too abstract (or lost within itself); here, though, those heavily atmospheric elements are present but well-balanced. Also, plenty of void-screaming. Plenty.

— Andrew Rothmund

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HWWAUOCH — Into the Labyrinth of Consciousness | Amor Fati Productions | Black Metal

HWWAUOCH is a mysterious project part of the “Prava Kollektiv,” along with Mahr (featured below) and a couple other outfits, and Into the Labyrinth of Consciousness is their second full-length. Abstraction, both here and with Mahr, is absolutely key: from the production’s flatness to the absolute chaos of HWWAUOCH’s noise, this album is for sinking deep into… and maybe never returning. Into the Labyrinth of Consciousness seems to blast and blast under layers of sound, characterized by an especially over-the-top vocal performance, until time itself begins to fade away.

— Andrew Rothmund

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Mahr — Soulmare I + Soulmare II | Black Metal

Enter Soulmare I and Soulmare II, a pair of approximately 20-minute long tracks that comprise the latest from Prava Kollektiv member Mahr. Like HWWAUOCH (featured above), abstraction plays a key role in honing Mahr’s edge, but it’s the cacophonous lo-fi assault (paired with some caustic vocals, no less) which carry these two songs home. Also like its peer, Mahr’s music is best ingested in full, eyes closed, for maximum impact on your mind.

— Andrew Rothmund

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Lanayah — Forever in May | Doomgaze | United States (California)

Cutting-edge and postmodern doomgaze which digests like high-end post-metal but leaves a somber, doom-laden taste in its wake. Forever in May is the second release from California-based quartet Lanayah, and it sure as hell maximizes their sound and intensity. Ascents sometimes give way to false cliffs on this album, lending a touch of surprise and intrigue, and descents sometimes lead to the pits, or back toward another ascent. Forever in May feels very modular in this way, but still coheres nicely as one solid work. Don’t be led one way or the other by the serenity and simplicity of the album art, Forever in May is packing some evocative power.

— Andrew Rothmund

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Upcoming Releases

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Grogus — Four Kings | Tridroid Records | Sludge + Hardcoe | United States (Minnesota)

From JJ’s full album premiere of Four Kings:

Chalk it up to the long winters and accompanying reality of spending too much time indoors, but metal in Minneapolis lovingly embraces odd-timings, syncopation, and a general pro-math sensibility (you might as well get really good at playing music if you have to stay inside all the time. Grogus follows suit as Four Kings rarely allows listeners to get comfortable with any one riff or section. Much like Coalesce, Grogus likes to toy with people, creating a false sense that the music will settle into a groove but bucking that expectation every time.

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Bauda — Brvjo | Progressive Rock | Chile

Brvjo is the fourth full-length from this Chilean outfit who intermix proggy tendencies with folky songwriting to arrive at an effervescent and varied sound. The songs on this release have easily chartable progressions — whether heading, up, down, or sideways — which relinquishes your attention to focus on finer details. Miniscule samples and noises, delicate instrumentation, and a gentle lilt all keep Brvjo together.

— Andrew Rothmund

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Russian Circles — Blood Year | Sargent House | Instrumental + Post-Rock | United States (Illinois)

Celebrated Chicago post-metal trio Russian Circles have returned after a three-year gap with their seventh studio album Blood Year, the intrepid follow-up to 2016’s Guidance. Faithful to the group’s crushing instrumental sound, this latest record pulsates with thick meditative sludge tones and ethereally stoic ambience, smothering the listener in a warbling aural experience. Continuing to outdo themselves with ever-grander compositions and soundscapes, Blood Year stands yet another enthralling entry into the band’s discography and pedigree.

— Thomas Hinds

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Humanity’s Last Breath — Abyssal | Unique Leader | Deathcore | Sweden

A hilarious deathcore album: both hilariously heavy, and hilariously bad (not just because it’s deathcore, but actually bad deathcore). From piercing tones to moments of flaccidity — though Abyssal sure can be heavy as fuck — Humanity’s Last Breath went too deep into themselves here instead of trying something a bit more expansive. It is pretty cool the band offers an instrumental version, which is much more stomachable, but as a long-time deathcore fan and someone who was indeed excited by the music video from two years ago (the song now appears on Abyssal but lacks viscerality without the visuals unfortunately), I just can’t get into this one.

— Andrew Rothmund

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Hulder — Embraced by Darkness Mysts EP | Stygian Black Hand | Black Metal | United States (Oregon)

Here is 13 minutes of mystical black metal from purveyors of pain Hulder. The Embraced by Darkness Mysts EP relishes in its second-wave throwback vibe but doesn’t succumb to brash repeats of anything worn. The EP starts and ends furiously, bookending the dismal moods Hulder seem to summon from thin air.

— Andrew Rothmund

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Mylingar — Döda Själar | 20 Buck Spin | Blackened Death Metal | Sweden
The ravenous, infernal culmination to Swedish outfit Mylingar’s hellish trilogy of releases thus far, Döda Själar is a strikingly claustrophobic offering of blackened death metal with near-animalistic tendencies, dripping with an atmosphere of utter dread. With material bordering on total sonic annihilation, the album rips flesh from bone at frantic, maddening pace, a metaphor for the forces of malevolence and villainy that plague our world. Pushing the intensity of their sound to its logical extreme, Mylingar have proven yet again that there is no upper limit to the primal savagery of which they are capable.

— Thomas Hinds

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Ordeals — Choose Death | Stygian Black Hand | Blackened Death Metal | United States (New York)

What happens when you take a cross between black and death metal and inject it with a dose of doom? New York duo Ordeals explores this possibility thoroughly on their upcoming third release, the Choose Death EP, a follow-up to their 2018 split with French black metal outfit Daethorn. With “Ordealsplaga I” and “Ordealsplaga II” serving as cavernous, guttural introductory tracks to side A and side B of the record, respectively, the EP’s material alternates between passages of thematic, dungeon-crawling slime and the straightforward mid-tempo savagery of old school extreme metal. Packing a wealth of motifs and concepts into just 11 minutes of jagged, grisly blackened death/doom, this EP sees Ordeals stepping forward with another formidable release imbued with their unmistakable DIY aesthetic.

— Thomas Hinds

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Grima — Will of the Primordial | Naturmacht Productions | Black Metal | Russia

Frosty cold black metal as the third full-length from Russian duo Grima. I enjoyed the prior two Grima releases, and this one as well, for many of the same reasons: well-timed climaxes, big choruses, and a razor’s edge on the production never failed to sell an otherwise icy narrative smoothly and without interruption. Will of the Primordial sees the project as nimble and diverse as ever, maturing now into a potential mainstay of the extra-atmospheric wing of black metal.

— Andrew Rothmund

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Deceitome — Flux of Ruin | Redefining Darkness | Death Metal | Estonia

A relatively underground OSDM act based in Tallinn, Deceitome emerged quietly with their 2016 debut album Death is Called Ethos. Heavily influenced by legendary bands from the 1990s Stockholm death metal movement, the group’s latest release, the Flux of Ruin EP, delivers much of the same fiery, meticulously chaotic brutality as their debut, but with an even greater violence and intensity. Creatively weaving in elements of blackened ambience and moments of nightmarish atmosphere, Deceitome have crafted five brief but hard-hitting tracks of savage, old-school death metal, further honing the pummeling physicality of their material.

— Thomas Hinds

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Finsterforst — Zerfall | Napalm Records | Pagan Metal | Germany

From Jon’s premiere of “Zerfall” from Zerfall:

Finsterforst are back, but know that this band’s brand of pagan metal is a far cry from the Paganfest school of drunken, arms-linked-and-swinging folk dancing fodder. The tragic, punishing music found on their upcoming album Zerfall finds the band regaining their footing after a recent stylistic departure. This is the music of old stories and people gathered around fires.

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Swarn — Black Flame Order | Redefining Darkness | Death Metal + Crust

The debut release from extreme metal purveyors Swarn, Black Flame Order is a surprisingly eclectic concoction of styles and genres, a mind-boggling alloy that lies at the intersection of blackened death metal, crust, d-beat, and even doom. With a venomous aural texture throughout, the group charges through ten tracks of serpentine ferocity at fluctuating tempos, ranging from breakneck speed metal tremolo to dirge-like doom breakdowns. With Black Flame Order, Swarn triumphantly blend this variance into a singular, sacrilegiously potent mix, demonstrating an incredible sense of mastery rare in up-and-coming bands.

— Thomas Hinds

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From the Grave: Re-Releases

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In Somnis — The Memory You’ve Become | GS Productions | Doom Metal | Russia

A re-release from 2003 when The Memory You’ve Become was launched via CD-R. This moderately tempoed doom metal with folk influences stretches its progressive legs without pretense and serves now as a time capsule on this revamped CD release.

— Andrew Rothmund

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