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Upcoming Metal Releases 3/1/2015 - 3/7/2015

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Well, it seems like week #1 was successful. My HTML kung fu seems to be coming back to me and I listened to a metric shit-ton of new music over the past two weeks. I was still getting my legs under me last week, so I was remiss in thanking Ian Chainey for the patience and guidance in mapping out everything I needed to know for a quick and smooth transition. Thanks Ian!

Here are the new metal releases for the week of 3/1/2015 to 3/7/2015. 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 Tuesday unless otherwise noted. Blurbs and designations are based on available promotional material and perceived buzz.

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

Anticipated Releases:

Acherontas – Ma IoN (Formulas of Reptilian Unification) | WTC | Greece | Black Metal
Album number 5 and they just keep cranking out savage mastery of the art. All hail.

A Forest Of Stars – Beware The Sword You Cannot See | Prophecy Productions | UK | Psyche | Black Metal
Highly respected outfit continue to hone their blades. This one ought to raise a few eyebrows. AFOS are not afraid to draw progressive black metal styles into dramatic new realms.

Helrunar – Niederkunfft | Lupus Lounge | Germany | Pagan Black Metal
Helrunar have been a solid force in the pagan black metal tradition since 2001. Neiderkunfft is certainly as massive, majestic and teutonic as it should be.

Leviathan – Scar Sighted | Profound Lore | Portland, USA | Black Metal | Suicide | Cvte babies of Instagram
No one has done more to raise the profile of USBM than Wrest, and he continues to be just as iconoclastic and inimitable as ever. It is refreshing to see Jef Whitehead so excited for fatherhood… and still putting out records just as unique, gnarly and twisted as ever. If you are already a fan, surely you have listened to this. if you are not yet a fan, you are about to be.

Negura Bunget – Tau | Lupus Lounge /Prophecy | Romania | Black Metal | Psyche | Prog
Three big Prophecy Productions releases on the same day? And you thought you had a lot to do last week. Negura Bunget have always worked to stretch boundaries and Tau is no exception. Dig some ACTUAL Transylvanian Hunger right here:

Sannhet – Revisionist | The Flenser | Brooklyn, USA | Black Metal | Instrumental | Prog | Black Gaze
Black Gaze is the worst term ever. It’s just in front of Djent though in terms of “micro genre names that will turn a metalhead off faster than saying Cold Lake” so it’s kinda sad when I have to use it for a group that I really enjoy, despite the little box they are going to get put into. Don’t be “that guy” that hates something just because of what someone else referred to it as. Sannhet use delay, reverb and unorthodox compositional techniques sans vocals as well as speed and drones to make their point, and they do it well.

Terveet Kädet – Lapin Helvetti | Svart | D-Beat Forefathers | Hardcore | Suomi Finland Perkele
If you like 80’s European hardcore and are not familiar with the legendary 1982 Aäretön Joulu EP from Terveet Kädet, or anything else in their discography, you best get hip. TK deserve your undivided attention and a new album from them is a gift from the gods of old school Scandi-thrash. Läjä is still to this day one of the most brutal vocalists alive. Click this link and skate rad.

Viking – No Child Left behind | Self Released | Classic Thrash | USA
Viking released possibly one of the fastest, fiercest and most face-ripping US thrash albums of all time with 1986’s Do Or Die, then took a religious turn with the 1989 follow up, Man Of Straw before being harvested of their guitarist so he could replace Jim Durkin in Dark Angel. Viking got back together a few years ago and have now recorded a new album with none other than Gene “The Atomic Clock” Hoglan on drums… and here it is.

Of Note:

Apostate – Time of Terror | Ferrrum | Ukraine | Death Doom
Apostate keeps it simple and brutal in the early Anathema/Hooded Menace tradition.

Death Engine – Mud | Throatruiner | France | Noise | Indie Metal
Abrasive hardcore in the Deadguy tradition.

Devathorn – Vritra | WTC | Greece | Black Metal
Assisted in it’s creation by many current Greek black metal luminaries, Devathorn is further pronouncement that Greece, like France is absolutely OWNING the black metal game lately.
Related To: Acherontas, Serpent Noir, Temple Of Baal

Embrional – The Devil Inside | Hellthrasher | Poland | Death Metal | Black Metal


Sophisticated and measured sounding blackened death metal from Poland.

Glaciation – Sur les Falaises de Marbre | Osmose | France | Black Metal
French black metal killing it. Would you have expected any less? French black metal has been on a creative role since everyone figured out that Deathspell Omega was probably from France.

Hiram-Maxim – Hiram-Maxim | Aqualamb | Doom | Experimental | Cleveland, USA
Quasi-improvisational Cleveland future doom-stars climbing out of the swamp. You can actually order the 100-page book with a digital download of the album.

Imperial Triumphant – Abyssal Gods | Code 666 | Discordant | Black Metal | NYC, USA
Imperial Triumphant are about to fuck up the grading curve again the same way Gorguts did with Obscura in 1998. Don’t sleep on it the way the metal world slept on Obscura for 10 years.

Kjeld – Skym | Hammerheart | Black Metal | Netherlands
‘Frisian’ Black metal. It’s intense and it is worthy of consideration. Hammerheart isn’t known for steering people wrong.

Lamentations of the Ashen – Libertine Cyst | Fragile Branch | Doom | Black Metal | USA
More with the psychedelic, long form, blackened doom. My favorite kind. This should not slip your attention.

Night – Soldiers Of Time | Gaphals | Sweden | Classic Heavy Metal | Hard Rock
A video of kinda-shitty looking cardboard robots and stuff in the grand tradition of other Swedish bands (Autograph) featuring robots in heavy metal videos. Party time, excellent.

Sabertooth Zombie – Human Performance IV | Twelve Gauge | USA | Weird | Hard Rock
Noisy metallic punk, and not too unlike My War-era Black Flag.

Subversion – Animi | Rogue | UK | Prog | Tech | Death
Tech metal bands count to 4 the same way you and I do, they just make it sound like they are not.

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Things We Missed:

Blind Idiot God – Before Ever After | Indivisible | Avant Garde | Sludge Metal | Chaos | NYC, USA
The heaviest band you have never heard of. Their history stretches back to 1981 and this is their first new music in 23 years, BUT they have Tim Wyskida from Khanate in the band, so that oughta perk up a few ears. The core sound of the group was definitely metallic, but back in the early 90’s, they had a bizarre mix of avant garde AmRep Records chaos as well as Bill Laswell dub. This is definitely the heaviest material I have heard from them and I missed it’s release last week.

Massive apologies to Nordvis/Bindrune for missing two pretty important (and very strong) releases of theirs. I really enjoyed them both and totally dropped the ball. Ahamkara are the more “woodsy” of the two. Izah are more on the “post-metal” end of things.

Ahamkara – Embers Of The Stars | Nordvis/Bindrune | Atmospheric Black Metal

Izah – Sistere | Nordvis | Post Metal | Atmospheric Doom | Netherlands

>>>BOSS REISSUES<<<

This should TECHNICALLY be for next week, but since nothing really smashing looks to be coming out this week I’ll point these out now. Century Media has put up the preorder links for LP reissues of the first two Demolition Hammer LP’s, 1991’s Tortured Existence and 1993’s Epidemic Of Violence. For my money, the thrash game was absolutely perfected by 1990 or so and while the most BORING thrash albums of all time were coming out around then (due to over saturation) by that same token, the bands that were putting out really good albums were putting out albums that were head-and-shoulders above many of the established classics. Demolition Hammer put out two particularly taut and intense releases early on in the Century Media catalog, which already had established an unusually high bar for that time. If you want to fuck around, don’t listen to these. CM released a 2CD discography a few years back that went out of print pretty quickly and now commands some actual bread on Ebay when it comes up, so you are not going to want to sleep on these. I already pre-ordered my copies actually, along with the ones I am going to crow about next week.

Also, if there are any fans of early, crucial hardcore recordings that you are just not going to find anywhere any time soon, the Necros have their early discography available for download on a bandcamp site for purchase at a reasonable price for a limited time. A twofer CD of the later albums Tangled Up and Live turned up a few years ago, but people have been howling for Conquest For Death and the early EP’s to be reissued for decades now to no avail. Necros material has been considered some of the most collectible hardcore vinyl on the market. The Sex Drive 7″ actually holds the record for the most expensive punk record ever sold. Some sites value it in NM condition as between $2,500-$4,000. Even the most cursory perusal of the history of the Necros is a history lesson of hardcore itself. Following the release of Sex Drive, they teamed with another fledgling punk team of MacKaye/Nelson in Washington DC to co-release the IQ32 EP as a cooperative effort between Dischord records and Touch And Go Records, then they were off to the races to complete a legendary US tour with the Misfits, you have probably seen their name on shirts that depicted show flyers. You know the oft-noted footage of FEAR playing on Saturday Night Live? That was at John Belushi’s behest. He also insisted that there be an authentic punk “audience” so the producers were ordered to assemble one. Just as luck would have it, the Necros may or may not have been playing in NYC and the crew from Washington DC was up with them, so everyone wound up on-set and hardcore punk and slamdancing had it’s prime-time debut. The first stage dive was Necros drummer Todd Swalla (right into the heart of America). Somewhere around this time, another group of punks about 60 miles north of the Necros hometown of Maumee, Ohio formed (possibly the greatest USHC band of all time) Negative Approach. Their first show was held in a basement not 5 miles from where I sit and type this. (Yes, I am proud. I wish I was there, but I was in kindergarten.) About 1985 or so, they started to grow their hair and soak it in the MC5-sweat and muscle-car fumes from spending too much time in Detroit and eventually landed an opening tour slot with Overkill and Megadeth. Astute observers might note Chuck Beehler’s Necros t-shirt on Megadeth’s publicity photos for So Far So Good So What. Anyways, if you haven’t heard these recordings, they were definitely onto something here, and if it’s not metal enough for you, then you can make an appointment with your advisor to drop this class. Comparable to Minor Threat and Void for pure energy and snotty indignation. These were records that launched a thousand bands and you can finally, legally purchase and download them all in their purest glory for a limited time, and a very nominal fee, along with the MP3’s of a live show from 1985 that recently hit the record racks.

Get rad: