Upcoming Metal Releases: 10/27/19 -- 11/2/19
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Here are the new (and recent) metal releases for the week of October 27th to November 2nd, 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.
Oh, and Happy Halloween.
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Nile — Vile Nilotic Rites | Nuclear Blast | Death Metal | United States (South Carolina)
In a shocking twist of fate, the upcoming ninth album by Floridian tech-death progenitors Nile sounds exactly like a Nile album. All joking aside, Vile Nilotic Rites is a fearsome, virtuosic demonstration of the craft that Karl Sanders and Nile have been honing for almost three decades. Pummeling double bass and barbed-wire guitars writhe and thrash their way from atonal madness to neoclassical arpeggios while rasping yowls narrate tales of forbidden arcane wisdom. Complete with anti-societal ancient Egyptian lyrical themes, Vile Nilotic Rites may not offer any major innovations to Nile’s classic sound but rather confirms the outfit’s well-deserved seat within the highest order of the death metal pantheon.
— Thomas Hinds
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dai-ichi — dai-ichi | Folkvangr Records | Black Metal
From Jon Rosenthal’s premiere of dai-ichi:
To sum dai-ichi up in one word, it would be uncompromising, both in sound and execution. This is not entry-level black metal, and yet the duo of vocaliet yūrei and multi-instrumentalist han kirisuto still manage to craft monstrous compositions in a completely monochromatic palette. Of course, this is not impenetrable — dai-ichi’s approach is melodic, if even catchy at times, but still presents itself as a being of hatred and obscurity. This is raw black metal, that is for sure, but this is of a higher tier: one of compositional prowess and an intriguing melodic sense. To set themselves apart, even bass can be heard, which is apparently the hardest thing in the universe for a raw black metal band, but dai-ichi are fearless and know no boundaries within their little niche of black metal. For those who want to delve deeper into black metal’s true core, dai-ichi awaits.
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Cannabis Corpse — Nug So Vile | Season of Mist | Weed-Smokin’ Music | United States (Virginia)
Cannabis Corpse, everyone’s favorite Richmond-based marijuana-themed death metal outfit, are back at it once again with Nug So Vile, their sixth full-length slab of putrid, festering, hilarious death metal. Staying true to their modus operandi of repurposing old death metal song titles into weed-related parodies (see “Cylinders of Madness”), Cannabis Corpse continue to impress with surprisingly masterful songwriting and meticulously performed demonstrations of extreme speed and precision. Despite their undeniably silly subject material, Nug So Vile is yet another example of why Cannabis Corpse is not to be overlooked by any serious devotee of the finely-crafted vintage death metal sound.
— Thomas Hinds
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Novembers Doom — Nephilim Grove | Prophecy Productions | Death/Doom Metal | United States (Illinois)
Longtime death/doom metal masters Novembers Doom have done it again. Though I’ve kind of fallen off the train post-The Pale Haunt Departure (who remembers that album? Listen to it.), Novembers Doom have never paled in quality, and the massive, emotive Nephilim Grove shows that these veterans have no intentions of slowing down. Well, “slowing down.”
— Jon Rosenthal
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Blind Guardian — Twilight Orchestra: Legacy of the Dark Lands | Nuclear Blast | Heavy Metal | Gemany
The fruition of a project over two decades in the making, Twilight Orchestra: Legacy of the Dark Lands is legendary power-prog outfit Blind Guardian’s first ever all orchestral opus, and the group’s 11th studio album overall. The result of an idea formulated in the mid-1990s by guitarist André Olbrich and singer Hansi Kürsch, the record is an epic cascade of strings, horns, and of course the classic guitars and percussion which the band typically utilize. Lyrically, the record is a sequel to “Die Dunklen Lande,” a fantasy novel released earlier this year as a collaboration by German author Markus Heitz. Musically, Twilight Orchestra: Legacy of the Dark Lands presents much of the same grandiose, slightly campy yet always charming anthemic power metal that we have come to expect from Blind Guardian.
— Thomas Hinds
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Caїna — Gentle Illness | Apocalyptic Witchcraft | Black Metal + Noise | United Kingdom
Caїna has always stood out as one of the more creative (read as: weird, always weird) entities in black metal. One of the first trailblazers in the “post-rock mixed with black metal” style, sole musician ACB continues down the path to imaginative glory. Gentle Illness‘s bizarre character and ethereal spirit prove that this on-again/off-again project is something special, something to go down in the annals of black metal history.
— Jon Rosenthal
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Year of the Cobra — Ash and Dust | Prophecy Productions | Doom Metal | United States (Washington)
One of the sludgiest, most righteously chunky stoner outfits making their mark on the scene today, Seattle duo Year of the Cobra return with Ash and Dust, their sophomore record and the follow-up to 2017’s Bury Your Dead EP. With a hyper-raw, stripped-down bass and percussion assault, the group juxtapose howling, guttural riffs against Amy Tung’s lilting melodic vocals, giving the entire record an undeniable catchiness and an almost pop-like sensibility without abandoning the stoner-doom heaviness at their core.
UPDATE: listen to the full album a day early.
— Thomas Hinds
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Sarke — Gastwerso | Indie Recordings | Black Metal | Norway
Listen to Sarke. Please.
But seriously, this “supergroup” (literally fronted by Darkthrone’s Nocturno Culto) make some of the heaviest black metal around. This is no joke. Even then, there is a cleverness to Sarke, something progressive and forward-thinking. For all the classicism found within Gastwerso, it is undeniably modern.
— Jon Rosenthal
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Les Chants du Hasard — Livre Second | I, Voidhanger | Blackened Orchestral Music | France
The project of sole member Hazard, France’s Les Chants Du Hasard (translating to “songs of chance”) has made a powerfully individualistic statement with his debut self-titled record, which consists solely of classical instrumentation and lacks the presence of guitars, bass, or drums throughout the recording. An experimental work, the album stylistically analyzes 1800s classical music through the lens of frigid black metal, with abrasive harsh vocals juxtaposed against the dramatic aura of romantic composers such as Strauss, Mussorgsky, and Prokofiev. Graceful and grotesque all at once, Livre Second puts forth a fascinating conjecture in experimental metal, one that could be hosted by none other than I, Voidhanger.
— Thomas Hinds
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Lifvsleda — Manifest MMXIX | Helter Skelter Productions | Black Metal | Sweden
Apparently comprised of Swedish black metal deities, Lifvsleda’s debut demo is some ripping, cold, magnificent black metal.
— Jon Rosenthal
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Carcinoid — Metastatic Declination | Blood Harvest Records | Death Metal | Australia
Hailing from Melbourne, death-doom upstarts Carcinoid pull no punches on their debut full-length Metastatic Declination, an ode to all things odorous, pugnacious, and gore-soaked. With a mix of grinding death metal and the plodding breakdowns of death-doom, Carcinoid take influence from such blasphemous names as Napalm Death, Obituary, Autopsy, and Carcass, among others. With its unabashedly old-school approach, Metastatic Declination sees these Aussies viscerally pound their way through eight extensive tracks of delicious OSDM worship.
— Thomas Hinds
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Tides Cult — Your Memory Has Tarnished This Beautiful Place | Blackened Hardcore | United States (Illinois)
From Andrew Rothmund’s premiere of “Athame”:
Tides Cult’s potent and particular blend banks heavily on the feeling of movement, something which exists in all music but substantially so in the blackened hardcore realm. Both the ground and the air of the music, so to speak, must be in constant flux to sustain momentum — “Athame” characterizes well both the tumultuous winds of the sky and the grounds they are slowly but unceasingly polishing flat. The difference here is that while erosion is excruciatingly slow and boring, Tides Cult is most certainly not. It’s down to frequent tempo shifts, a dynamic guitar/bass interplay, and the vicious vocal performance which keep this band’s blade extremely sharp but dangerously unpredictable. Abstraction, here, is a derivative of fear, itself exacerbated by aggression (of which there’s plenty), all wrapped up under under a night-cloak not “spooky” but actually downright sinister. Halloween, please come sooner (and stay longer).
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Satan’s Basement — Accused of Human Decency | Death Metal | United States (Illinois)
Ignorantly heavy bedroom death metal, the kind which just beats you within an inch of your life.
— Jon Rosenthal
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