Upcoming Metal Releases 8/19/2018-8/25/2018

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Here are the new metal releases for the weeks of August 19 – August 25, 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. This Week: Dauþuz – Des Zwerges Fluch and Furze – The Presence….

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ANTICIPATED RELEASES

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Ancestors – Suspended in Reflections | Pelagic Records | Progressive Stoner/Doom Metal | United States
Ian Cory says:

Doom metal for the Xanax generation, and I mean that in the most positive sense. That is to say, that while most doom metal typically frames the encroaching void of mortality as terrifying and destructive, Ancestors make dying sound pleasurable, almost euphoric. Suspended in Reflections is an immaculately arranged record that uses its sprawling format to pack melody into each passage. By weaving a handful of key phrases through multiple songs, Ancestors give the album a dreamlike quality where the listener is encouraged to drift in a state of musical sedation. Achingly gorgeous stuff.

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OF NOTE

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Mantar – The Modern Art Of Setting Ablaze | Nuclear Blast | Sludge Metal | Germany
I don’t really understand Mantar. Yes, there are riffs, but there is a lot of that “lost” feeling which Baroness experienced after Blue found in here. Too many ideas, not enough glue to hold them together. Luckily, The Modern Art Of Setting Ablaze is buried in enough fuzz that this doesn’t really manifest itself at first.

Lord – Desperation Finds Hunger In All Men | Heavy Hound | Stoner/Doom Metal | United States
From Jenna’s premiere of “Whispering Snakes”:

Taking a nod from neighbor to the north, Clutch, this five-piece manages to counterbalance hard-hitting subject matter with a musical style that’s just as hard but still brings the fun. Steven Kerchner’s belt-out vocals (and “moist noise” practitioning) slaps against the groove of the main riff. Steadily climbing the summit before being knocked back down, instrumentals embody the such-is-life resilience on which sludge formed. It’s perhaps the aura of Southern greenery shrouded by night that prompts insight into the artificial lives we live within four white walls.

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FOR THE ADVENTUROUS

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Manes – Slow Motion Death Sequence | Debemur Morti Productions | Experimental Trip-Hop/Electronica | Norway
Manes is weird. Manes has always been weird. This is a bizarre trip-hop/atmospheric rock album for the ages.

Jesus Piece – Only Self | Southern Lord Recordings | Sludge/Metalcore | United States
A lot of people will call this a lot of things, but I hear a lot of jumping da fuck up. There is certainly the whole “intensity” thing going on which would lump it in with metalcore, but in all seriousness, Jesus Piece feels like wanting to don some oversized cargo shorts and revisit Slipknot’s IOWA. Is that a good thing? Eh, not really, but it fits with this new age of everyone suddenly feeling a strange nostalgia for the not-so-great era of nu-metal.

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FROM THE GRAVE

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Esoteric – The Pernicious Enigma | Aesthetic Death | Funeral Doom/Death Metal | England
From my retrospective:

At this point, funeral doom metal was more defined. Thergothon’s Stream to the Heavens had surfaced in Finland, Shape of Despair had released their first demo, and small rumblings from Poland’s Gallileous had already arisen and ceased, among many others in a global scene. Now was a chance to sharpen the style out of its early stages and develop a sense of individual personality, which is something Esoteric held close since their 1993 debut.

Expounding upon its immense presence and dark matter density, The Pernicious Enigma was both something entirely new and a greater fruition for Esoteric themselves. Instead of an ambitious balancing act like the album’s predecessors, this sophomore effort enfolded itself with its dual identities, melding ambient swathes of sound with death and doom metal’s hyperborean disgust. It was this album which truly defined Esoteric’s career, the band finding themselves after recording hours and hours of enterprising music of unique and dualistic character.

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Become an Invisible Oranges patron .

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