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Upcoming Metal Releases 8/12/2018-8/18/2018

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Here are the new metal releases for the weeks of August 12 – August 18, 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

Rebel Wizard – Voluptuous Worship of Rapture and Response | Prosthetic Records | Heavy Negative Wizard Metal (Black/Heavy Metal) | Australia
Hail to the north wind, the south current, the inverted sun, and to heavy negative wizard metal. As always, mastermind Bob Nekrasov transforms the classic sounds of heavy metal into something reminiscent of black metal, but with that special sort of metal-only, engine-revving energy.

Sulaco – The Prize | Translation Loss Records | Technical Death Metal | United States
Erik Burke is a tenured master of the strange and angular. Yes, “angular” has become one of those words… words like “amazing,” “discordant,” “scary,” and so on. Sulaco, however, is a hill of sharp, broken obsidian. Technical and truly strange, Burke’s idiosyncratic style is something which dates all the way back to his tenure in Lethargy, which he shared with Mastodon’s Brann Dailor and Bill Kelliher. Somehow smooth, but incredibly, ridiculously raunchy, Sulaco does it again… even after a seven-year wait.

Innumerable Forms – Punishment In Flesh | Profound Lore Records | Death Metal | United States
Pure caveman riffing. My brow grows larger. This is death metal at its purest. Those of us in the know have waited an inordinate amount of time for this one, and Innumerable Forms’s debut LP is everything we could ever ask for. In the immortal words of our own Langdon Hickman: “I’m listening to death metal.”

molten giant

OF NOTE

Exocrine – Molten Giant | Unique Leader Records | Progressive/Technical Death Metal | France
From Andrew’s premiere of “Backdraft”:

It’s true that some tech-death has forgotten how to be heavy — perhaps this is a byproduct of the pursuit of such pure/clean levels of technicality across the board. Without sacrificing any precision, though, Exocrine offer up some hilariously heavy tech-death over Molten Giant‘s eight tracks.

Trappist – Ancient Brewing Tactics | Relapse Records | Beer Crust, I guess. | United States
DAE beer and DIY? This is perfectly fine hardcore/crust or whatever (you should know what you’re getting into), but I can’t handle “obvious gimmick jokes” like this. Also, what’s with the Coor’s hate? I get the whole “we are beer nerds” thing, I guess, but everyone grows out of their “La Fin du Monde is my favorite beer ever” phase.

Primitive Man/Unearthly TranceSplit | Relapse Records | Drone/Doom Metal / Sludge/Doom Metal | United States

FOR THE ADVENTUROUS

Austin Lucas – Immortal Americans | Cornelius Chapel Records | Alternative Country | United States
Some of you might be asking “Jon, why are you covering a [really great] country album on Invisible Oranges?” Well, why not? Austin Lucas’s talent runs deep, and his lineage even deeper. Fronting death metal bands in the late 1990s and early 2000s, his transition to Nashville alt-country was seamless and glorious. Immortal Americans is as emotive as it as creative, technically proficient, and gilded.

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