Upcoming Metal Releases 8/6/2017-8/12/2017

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Here are the new metal releases for the week of August 6, 2017 – August 12, 2017. 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 Friday 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.

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ANTICIPATED RELEASES

Pyrrhon – What Passes For Survival | Willowtip/Throatruiner | Technical/Avant-Garde Death Metal | United States
From my premiere of “Trash Talk Landfill”:

Why pretty up chaos? Why lighten the load of rage? This isn’t comedic gore worship, nor is it a pseudo-Laveyan-Nietzschean pit of isolated self-idolatry. This more human bluntness and self-condescension is what drew people like me to extreme music, this denial of popular culture and self-ingratiation in favor of extremity. Pyrrhon is the embodiment of that counterculture. Casting off conventional musicality in favor of unbridled death metal Expressionism, Pyrrhon commands the sounds of falling apart, virtually bursting at the seams, and the confidence of pure, straightforward damnation with the enraged command of harsh diction and lyrical elocution. This is not your dad’s death metal — What Passes For Survival is death metal broken apart, and Pyrrhon uses the shards to build an uncanny valley version of it. It hurts. It is extreme. They don’t care. Fuck your subtlety.

Cormorant – Diaspora | Independent | Progressive Black/Death Metal | United States
From Andrew Rothmund’s premiere of “The Devourer”:

Diaspora bulges with material from across the board but isn’t bloated. Considering the track’s relative brevity, “The Devourer” serves to break up the endeavor of devouring Diaspora as a whole. The album (and track) feels effortless in its execution, a natural output as opposed to machined creation. This rests on Cormorant’s superb transitions, be they drum- or guitar-based, lengthy or immediate. It also speaks to their core nature: a purely rockable metal band featuring dramatic climaxes and introspective interludes. The joy in meticulously analyzing Diaspora equals the joy in just letting it absorb you — it’s an album for both listening and hearing.

Hell – Hell | Sentient Ruin Laboratories/Lower Your Head | Sludge/Drone/D∞m Metal | United States
From Ian’s and my premiere of “Victus”:

“Victus”, the final track from Hell‘s upcoming self titled album, makes use of two different dynamic axes. On its X-axis, “Victus” moves from loud and heavy to soft and reflective, like nearly every modern doom song. Simultaneously, the song shifts along a separate arc, one that is harder to determine simply from following its waveform. “Victus”’s Y-axis is devoted to an emotional shift. The song starts much in a similar vein to its album-mates, bludgeoning the listener with the deliberation of a construction worker hammering a nail. Once the audience has been properly tenderized “Victus” changes tact, pulling away the drums and leaving a buzzsaw symphony of guitars that gradually shifts from aggressive to mournful, aiding by the sudden introduction of a string section.

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OF NOTE

Poison Blood – Poison Blood | Relapse Records | Black Metal/Crust Punk/Psychedelia | United States
From my premiere of “Deformed Lights”:

Much like Horseback before it, Poison Blood’s “black metal” isn’t totally black metal. Yes, it blasts and grates, and, yes, it boasts Krieg’s Neill Jameson’s throat-rending gargle, but there’s a lot more under the surface. Resting on a heavy foundation once led by Nick Blinko, Poison Blood’s mid-paced stomp finds a middle ground between Marko Laiho’s early, stumbling work as Beherit and the previously alluded Rudimentary Peni’s psychotic, minimal punk. However strict and simple, Poison Blood appears to expand outward in a strange sort of mental psychedelia, however foreboding. So, yes, Poison Blood, can be considered “blackened” as much as it can find solace in the “punk” and “psychedelic” tag, but it’s also not quite any of those. Yet again, Jenks Miller finds himself in the grey area to which he consistently holds dominion.

The Lurking Fear – Out Of The Voiceless Grave | Century Media | Death Metal | Sweden/England
Oh man, Tomppa Lindberg fronting another death metal band is reason to celebrate. Many ride the “old school death metal” train and just end up Dismember cover bands, but The Lurking Fear draws from the influences which led to death metal in favor of rote emulation. Much like Lindberg’s Disfear, The Lurking Fear’s hardcore punk approach lends to the overall intense atmosphere and, moreover, a supremely catchy nature. Out of the Voiceless Grave follows death metal’s family tree from its roots and breathes verdant, new life into this new generation.

Atriarch – Dead as Truth | Relapse Records | Gloom Metal [™] | United States
From Clayton’s premiere of “Void”:

Their fourth full-length, Dead as Truth, marks another new stage in Atriarch’s evolution. Moodier and more atmospheric than previous releases, it shows the band delving deeper into their gothic side. On a track like “Void,” which we’re premiering below, the band dials back harsh guitar buzz in favor of a sparser, bass-forward arrangement, no less tense for its relative lack of metallic aggression. Brimming with self-loathing, vocalist Lenny Smith’s darkly emotive, lyrical delivery ensures the song still feels almost unbearably heavy. It’s a different kind of heaviness to be sure, but it retains enough of the band’s core blackened, doomed gothic rock sound to still unmistakably feel like Atriarch.

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FOR THE ADVENTUROUS

because only listening to metal is dumb

Heinali and Matt Finney – How We Lived | Flenser Records | Drone/Shoegaze | United States/Ukraine
From my premiere of “Relationship Goals”:

It should be said that How We Lived is a different face to Heinali and Matt Finney. I suppose change comes with years of stasis, addiction, and withdrawal, and this new era moves with the sluggishness and haze of first waking up. “Relationship Goals”, across its nine minutes, echoes that stasis, rooting itself in a thick, dark drone, which slowly opens and fills itself with the warmth of life. Similarly creaking and listlessly moving is Matt Finney, whose Faulknerian prose is at its bleakest, both in substance and performance. This is the sound of betrayal, disappointment, and self-loathing, but lost in the emptiness of uncertainty. A far cry from the “doomgaze” of Ain’t No Night (2011, Paradigms), Heinali and Matt Finney have effectively shifted their focus from the “doom” half of their self-imposed tag, instead both gazing at their feet in despondency.

Moral Void – Deprive | Translation Loss Records | Sludge/Metalcore | United States
From Ian’s premiere of premiere of “Shadow”:

The majority of Deprive, the band’s debut album due out on August 11th on Translation Loss, is spent locked in a mean-spirited grimace. On “Shadow,” they let that expression sag into something more despondent. The song’s central motif leaves space for notes to hang in the air before decaying entirely. It’s the track’s lengthy bridge, based in a looping bass and drum groove (which wouldn’t be out of place on a Swans record) that sells the track’s sense of despair. In the end, the band return to the haunting main riff before the light flickers out and we’re left with a face hidden in darkness.

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OTHER RELEASES

Khmer – Larga sombra | Wooaaargh | Black Metal/Crust Punk/Post-Hardcore | Spain/Galicia
The perfect mix of Tragedy and black metal. See, this is when it is okay to use the crust tag, friends.

Venom Inc – Avé | Nuclear Blast | Black/Speed Metal | England
So I get this is the Prime Evil-and-beyond Venom lineup, but we could really go without the “band splits up but literally into two parts” thing. Yeah, Venom is fun, but I really think this is excessive.

Olde – Temple | STB Records/Medusa Crush Recordings | Stoner/Sludge/Doom Metal | Canada
Kind of like if Crowbar took a couple notes from the post-metal scene. It’s enormous, and kind of atmospheric at times, but is still rooted in that Crowbar-specific, signature sort of “big guy doom.”

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