A Forest Of Stars – Grave Mounds And Grave Mistakes – album cover

Upcoming Metal Releases 9/23/2018-9/29/2018

A Forest Of Stars - Grave Mounds And Grave Mistakes - album cover

Here are the new metal releases for the weeks of September 23 – September 29, 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 the coming Fridays unless otherwise noted or if labels and artists get impatient. Blurbs and designations are based on whether or not I have a lot to say about it.

See something we missed? Goofs? Let us know in the comments. Plus, as always, feel free to post your own shopping lists. Happy digging.

As a little bit of a challenge, include your own opinion about anything you want to add. Make me want to listen to it!

Please note: this is a review column and is not speculative. Any announced albums without preview material will not be covered. Additionally, any surprise releases which are uploaded or released after this column is published will be excluded.

send Jon your promos at [email protected]. Do not bother him on social media.

ANTICIPATED RELEASES

A Forest of Stars – Grave Mounds & Grave Mistakes | Prophecy Productions | Psychedelic Black Metal | England
Pure, maddening Victorian black metal psychedelia. Check back later this week to hear the whole thing.

Helrunar – Vanitas Vanitatvm | Prophecy Productions | Black Metal | Germany
“Germanic black metal” is synonymous with volume, ferocity, and ancient spirits. Helrunar is Germanic black metal. Vanitas Vanitatvm is all of the above. This is an album with teeth, sinew, and a timeless, legends-fueled rage.

Horrendous – Idol | Season of Mist | Progressive Death Metal | United States

It might be hard to hear, but the new Horrendous album has a tamer (but more complicated) edge than Anareta or Ecdysis. No doubt, the vocals are as bone-dry and eviscerating as ever, maybe now with increased dynamics even. What’s evolved are songwriting and arrangement: Idol features loads more “moving around” than prior work as transitions abound themselves and songs meander about unpredictably. Maybe we call it the less standard approach, but for a band like Horrendous who have all the talent and grit in the world, they make it work with aplomb.

010034

OF NOTE

Turia/FluisteraarsDe Oord | Eisenwald | Black Metal | Netherlands
Two very different sides of what is ultimately the same atmospheric coin. Fluisteraars somehow finds a middle point between alternative rock’s jangling joyousness and the crushing emotional weight of slow, deliberate atmospheric black metal. Turia, on the other hand, revels in minimalism, repeating ideas for lengthy periods of time to create suffocating, difficult drones.

farsot./ColdWorldToteninsel | Prophecy Productions | Black Metal | Germany
An interesting pairing on the surface, but not so unsurprising after a little research (G. Borner of ColdWorld has performed violin on prior Farsot releases). A chance for the two acts to flex the more expressionist leanings of their work, Farsot chases down a minimal, folk-fueled drone whereas the recently adventurous ColdWorld’s dark depression finds itself in the middle of a dark, raging ocean of blue hues.

Gevurah – Sulphur Soul | Profound Lore Records | Black Metal | Canada
If you recall, Hallelujah! was lengthy, impenetrable in both the period of time it occupied and the density of the content held within. Gevurah took the crazed mania of “orthodox black metal” and plunged it into deep, blackened psychedelia. Instead of attempting to take things further into the potentiality of incoherence, new album Sulphur Soul pleasantly dials it back a bit, offering a slight lifting of the veil which covers Gevurah’s intense, pitch black metal.

All My Sins – Pra Sila — Vukov Totem | Saturnal Records | Black Metal | Serbia
From Ivan’s premiere of “Vukov Totem”:

“Vukov Totem” functions as a sampler platter of all the delicacies one can anticipate on the album, each of the track’s movements showcasing one of All My Sins’ many competencies as songwriters. Despite the song’s generous runtime, the minutes blur together due to the band’s adeptness at assembling the many passages into a coherent, self-propelling journey.

Un – Sentiment | Translation Loss | Funeral Sludge/Doom Metal | United States

No two ways about it: Sentiment is for late, lonely nights only. Gargantuan in scope, the album’s four beastly tracks aim for the deepest-cutting moods possible. With such a reach, whether they succeed depends largely on posture and poise: it seems Un has it. While the album itself cultivates a mood of its own, part of it is up to you as well: are you willing to close your eyes and sink in? Or, do you fight it?

— Andrew Rothmund

FOR THE ADVENTUROUS

Marissa Nadler – For My Crimes | Sacred Bones | Singer/Songwriter | United States
The ultimate in sad, introspective singer/songwriter music. Keep your eyes peeled for an interview soon.

This Will Destroy You – New Others Part One | Dark Operative | Post-Rock | United States

“Go Away Closer” is an ode to what the quartet does best, namely constructing meandering journeys that are anchored by the tug of your heartstrings. The engineering of this six-and-a-half minute track consists of a play on a couple of key melodies. While the coolness of alt rock is ultimately allowed to enter a realm of ethereal divinity, the tone remains one of a band who’s very much down to earth.

— Jenna DePasquale

OTHER RELEASES

Burial Shrine – Labyrinth of Bridges | Saturnal Records | Black Metal | Canada
Get ready to get chaotic and primitive, because this is pure, indecipherable caveman black metal. Exercise patience and be rewarded with what are actually… fucking awesome riffs.

Revocation – The Outer Ones | Metal Blade Records | Technical Death/Thrash Metal | United States

Immediately noticeable: Revocation has blackened their sound and amped up the crushing (versus eviscerating) aggression on The Outer Ones. Fans of Revocation’s thrashier output might step aback at this — no fear, though, because this album is nothing other than Revocation with Dave Davidson’s lightning riffs and, now, gruntier/lower vocal performance. This is surely an example of a band who’ve found a working formula and have stuck to it, with tweaks here and there as time progresses. Live, the formula works too, and these new tracks are sure to churn the masses just like the old ones did.

— Andrew Rothmund

Anaal Nathrakh – A New Kind of Horror | Metal Blade | Industrial Black Metal | Grindcore | England
There was a time in which I really loved Anaal Nathrakh, but their decade-long descent into becoming what could be considered a mediocre industrial metalcore band has left me with a big, big frown. Honestly, they could have stopped at Eschaton and left me (and a whole host of other people) much happier.

Solar Temple – Fertile | Eisenwald | Atmospheric Black Metal | Netherlands
Black metal for pure meditation. Grab your favorite mind-altering substance, close your eyes, and try to find your center to this one.

Vreid – Lifehunger | Season of Mist | Melodic Black Metal | Norway
Vreid was founded as a means of following in the folkloric footsteps of Windir’s fallen mastermind Valfar. There is still a bit of that, if even a bit of the oddity of their old band Ulcus behind the muscly Vreid. Is it as great as Windir? No, Vreid never was, but that’s like comparing a pretty decent hamburger to a meal at Chicago’s Alinea. Is Vreid good? Absolutely, and this is wonderful melodic black metal, to boot.

Support Invisible Oranges on Patreon.