Upcoming Metal Releases: 9/22/19 -- 9/28/19
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Here are the new (and recent) metal releases for the week of September 22nd to September 28th, 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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Opeth — In Cauda Venenum | Nuclear Blast | Progressive Rock/Metal | Sweden
With their upcoming 13th studio album In Cauda Venenum (Latin for “Poison in the Tail”), Swedish progressive stalwarts Opeth continue to explore their blend of classic 1970s prog and early heavy metal that first emerged in 2011 with Heritage. The record will be Opeth’s first to be released in two versions: an English language version and a Swedish language version. Though 2019 marks the ten-year anniversary of the departure of death metal elements from Opeth’s sound, In Cauda Venenum presents some of the heaviest, most structurally complex material since the stylistic shift, with the group more successfully locating a healthy compromise between the two approaches.
— Thomas Hinds
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Borknagar — True North | Century Media | Black Metal | Norway
From Jon Rosenthal’s interview with Borknagar founder Øystein G. Brun:
Whether it is the past or the future which guides Brun, True North shows Borknagar remaining steadfast, true to the sound they pioneered almost 25 years ago. The balanced mixture of progressive rock, black metal, and folk metal is a recipe perfected early in their discography and has no need for any flashy updates or new ingredients.
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Car Bomb — Mordial | Mathcore | United States (New York)
From Thomas Hinds’ extensive interview feature with Car Bomb founding guitarist Greg Kubacki:
In terms of translating Car Bomb’s manifold influences (musical and otherwise) into bespoke novelty, Mordial is a wild success. Above all else, it showcases the inexhaustible well of artistic experimentation that is the four-mind matrix behind its compositions — even after 20 years, it feels like Car Bomb are only just beginning to access some kind of untapped potential that hid dormant beneath the surface of their already-incredible material. The album is simultaneously melodious, voracious, intricate, psychedelic, and progressive — to a fault, even — and builds prudently upon elements from its predecessors but repeats nothing outright and makes no compromises in its unpredictability. Mordial is arguably the most “authentically Car Bomb” album, the most singular and faithful to their personally-paved path of musical invention.
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ShadowThrone — Elements’ Blackest Legacy | Non Serviam Records | Black Metal | Italy
This second full-length from ShadowThrone represents everything I love about symphonics in black metal, plus the band adds a deft touch of thrash to boot. Elements’ Blackest Legacy is heroic the way only synth-heavy black metal can be, and the band manages to remove a ton of the cheese inherent in being so epic by slicing through the mix with a raw, unabashed sense of rhythm and jam.
— Andrew Rothmund
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Hashshashin — Badakhshan | Art As Catharsis | Progressive + Drone | Australia
From Thomas Hinds’ premiere of “Sarhadd”:
With such a marked rejection of their old approach to songwriting, it is incredible how well Hashshashin’s brand of musical exploration has translated into their new material. Without abandoning the stylistic ingredients of their original recipe, they have combined essential concepts from drone, into something simultaneously traditional, naturalistic, and forward-thinking. With Badakhshan, this band has breathed the esoteric nature of their music into a figure of flesh and bone, a newly-formed hybrid between Earth and Aether.
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Bhleg — Äril | Nordvis | Black Metal + Folk Metal | Sweden
From Jon Rosenthal’s premiere of “Från eld till aska”:
Still rooted in their own take on folk metal, Bhleg leans more on the blackened end of the musical spectrum this time around. Stripped bare and exuding raw emotion, Bhleg’s own internal fires snap and pop, full of primal energy and charged with tales of old. Without the Sun, Bhleg becomes more ferocious in the dark, flickering light of their own making.
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Sempiternal Dusk — Cenotaph of Defectuous Creation | Dark Descent Records | Death Metal | United States (Oregon)
From Thomas Hinds’ premiere of “Refracted Suffering Through the Windows of Hell”:
At its contextually dialed-back length of six minutes, “Refracted” serves as a perfect hybrid of the two differing timbres presented across this record: deathly funeral doom of the longer tracks and the ravenous speed of its shorter pieces. With a sense of the occult, Cenotaph of Defectuous Creation is a statement of permanence and steadfast stoicism. Its esoteric sound seeks only to reflect the deepest inner contemplation and suffering. It carries an essential element of doom in its core, but wears the hideously gaudy garments of death metal’s rage and pummeling violence.
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Mosaic — Cloven Fires | Eisenwald | Black Metal + Dark Metal | Germany
A brief 7″ vinyl EP of what’s to come. Mosaic’s harrowing, majestic pagan black metal positions itself at the precipice, both a pinnacle and a risk in itself. Also, please note the killer Twin Peaks reference in the eponymous track. (No public streams were available at the time of this post).
— Jon Rosenthal
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DragonForce — Extreme Power Metal | Metal Blade | Power Metal | United Kingdom
Nope.
— Andrew Rothmund
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Mother’s Tomb — Absent Not Dead | Redefining Darkness | Death Metal | United States (Georgia)
The first outing from Atlanta-based extreme metal outfit Mother’s Tomb, Absent Not Dead is four ripping tracks of death-tinged thrash metal unleashed with the sole intention of melting your face. The brainchild of Jason Schwartzwalder, ex-guitarist of Tampa-based outfit Brutality, the five piece outfit pumps out jagged, technically proficient death-thrash riffs at a breakneck pace, displaying a classic songwriting style filtered through a polished modern production. With a lyrical and thematic focus on the duality between hope and despair, the record strikes a grim, ghoulish, and compelling tone throughout its entirety.
— Thomas Hinds
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Pyramido — Fem | The Sign Records | Doom + Sludge | Sweden
Swedish sludgy/doomy quintet Pyramido have found a jamming groove with Fem, their latest output. The album’s spine is made of rock, through and through, but its appendages are fleshy and human. From its slow-build atmospherics to its mid-paced guitar crunch, Fem sinks in, deeply. The dash of post-metal that Pyramido build into their music is always a plus, too.
— Andrew Rothmund
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The Neptune Power Federation — Memoirs of a Rat Queen | Cruz Del Sur | Hard Rock + Heavy Metal | Australia
From Thomas Hinds’ premiere of the music video for “Watch Our Masters Bleed”:
Regardless of the straightforward hard rock influence that is present in their material, the core essence of The Neptune Power Federation is rooted in the timeless attitude of heavy metal showmanship. Despite its simplicity, “Watch Our Masters Bleed” contains infectiously catchy grooves and motifs, leaning into the band’s campy aesthetics without being lost in utter cheesiness. What keeps this track and the record as a whole afloat is a strong bond between The Neptune Power Federation’s sense of restraint and the well-rounded panache of their production and sound engineering. Demonstrating a firm understanding of what they are and what they represent, this outfit’s goofy energy belies a cultivated atmosphere that balances attention-grabbing aesthetics with solid compositional abilities.
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Mortem — Ravnsvart | Peaceville | Death Metal | Norway
Thirty years after their Slow Death demo, Sverd-led Norwegian metal troupe shifts from the death metal of their youth to a crispy, keyboard-laden black metal album of a classic character. Ravnsvart, or “black raven,” is as dark as the image to which its title eludes.
— Jon Rosenthal
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Renounced — Beauty is a Destructive Angel | Holy Roar Records | Hardcore + Metalcore | United Kingdom
I love it when the sometimes narrow gap between metalcore and one of its parents, hardcore, is narrowed even further. UK-based five-piece Renounced blur the lines between hardcore’s energetic vitality and aggression and metalcore’s more technical, riffy approach to crushing crowds for the fun of it. Beauty is a Destructive Angel riles and rouses just as much as it soothes with the smooth delivery of its groovy onslaught, plus it calls to mind metalcore’s heyday from last decade without any copycatting.
— Andrew Rothmund
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Nex Carnis — Black Eternity | Blood Harvest Records | Death Metal + Black Metal | Iran
Formed in Tehran in 2012 and with only one album to their name, blackened death metal outfit Nex Carnis have partnered with Blood Harvest to finally present new material in the form of Black Eternity, the follow-up to their 2015 debut Obscure Visions of Dark. Championing quality over quantity in every aspect of their music. the EP is dark and disgusting, hammering and dizzying with a sonic cacophony that drags the listener down into labyrinth corridors of unspeakable horrors. Despite this vile aesthetic, Nex Carnis bring a certain kind of magic catchiness that elevates their craft even further. (No public streams were available at the time of this post).
— Thomas Hinds
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Dorminn — Dorminn | Antiq Records | Ambient | France
Horrifying black ambiance — shrieking and bellowing over acoustic instrumentation and sparse percussion. Memories of the more experimental side of a specific French legion of artists comes to mind. Features a rare, artist-approved Moëvöt cover.
— Jon Rosenthal
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.gif from god — approximation_of_a_human | Prosthetic | Grindcore + Mathcore | Virginia
As purveyors of mentally stimulating (albeit taxing) grindy mathcore, .gif from god do not care whether the music they create invokes feelings of catharsis or anguish — approximation_of_a_human is an uncompromising and obtuse arrangement of breakdowns and caustic screams which cuts acutely despite the abstraction the band’s chaos involves.
— Andrew Rothmund
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Netherbird — Into the Vast Uncharted | Eisenwald | Black Metal | Sweden
Classic black metal with just enough of a modern touch, Into the Vast Uncharted is Netherbird’s fifth album in over a decade. Expect huge choruses, tight verses, and plenty of tempo variance as the band tears apart the Swedish landscape with their signature panache and fury.
— Andrew Rothmund
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Fister — Deacde of Depression | Listenable Records | (Cover Songs) | United States (Missouri)
Fister is back at it, now with a set of cover songs and a re-recorded version of “The Failure.” Artists covered include Darkthrone, Metallica, and Slayer, and Fister’s “light touch” (lol) pays honest homage to all the legendary songs they apply their sound to. Maybe the Metallica cover is the best one of the bunch, but seriously, all these are lovely.
— Andrew Rothmund
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Horror God — Cursed Seeds | Lavadome Productions | Death Metal | Russia
Cursed Seeds is mid-paced technical death metal executed with aplomb: Horror God unleash plenty of discordance here without muddying things down at all. Definitely not a tech-death album, but definitely more technically minded than most other death metal, the band finds comfort in that sliver of the subgenre which doesn’t owe anything to either sides. Cursed Seeds is brutal, and that’s that.
— Andrew Rothmund
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From The Grave (Remixes and Reissues)
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Cynic — Traced in Air | Season of Mist | Progressive | United States (California)
We generally don’t cover reissues here, but this one seemed interesting enough to cover. As Cynic’s first comeback album, Traced in Air picked up where Focus had left off: a mixture of smooth, colorful jazz fusion and classic, progressive Florida death metal. This “remix,” however, completely excises the metallic (read as: harsh vocal) elements. What happened?
— Jon Rosenthal
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