Upcoming Metal Releases: 3/23/2014 – 3/29/2014
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“Spring!” she screamed. A snow shovel was snugly embedded in her mitts. She waved it at the plow decimating her front yard as if she was an irate Tusken Raider.
Okay, so, while the calendar tells us otherwise, it doesn’t exactly resemble spring everywhere, this list included. It’s still a touch too cold for the flyin’-V of big bands to return from below. That is going to change. Soon. Mark the date: April 1st. No, we’re not fa-fa-fa-fooling. Although, when you unpack this week’s slate, you’ll notice it ain’t joking around, either. Quality abounds. It’s just a little more concentrated.
Wait, concentrated? True, it’s hard to call anything Horseback and Thou do “concentrated.” Both routinely leap the 10-minute mark with the ease of LeBron James over a pic of Dan Gilbert. But both pay off, rewarding patient listeners via their ingenuity. Similarly, Of Note also has some brainy heads dealing fresh perspectives. Animals As Leaders widdle, Barren Harvest‘s mood is a drizzle, and Sockweb will make you smile more than a tickle. In fact, that last one is where to head if you’re freezing. Nothing warms the heart like- WHAT DO YOU MEAN SNOW IS IN THE FORECAST?
See something we missed? Goofs? Let us know in the comments. Plus, as always, feel free to post your own shopping lists. Happy digging.
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New metal releases for the week of 3/23/2014 – 3/29/2014. 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.
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Anticipated Releases:
Ancient Ascendant – Echos And Cinder | Candlelight Records | Death metal
UK-based blarghers employing an old melo sweep matched by Opethian grandeur.
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Horseback – Piedmont Apocrypha | Three Lobed Recordings | Folk, psych, experimental
The solo band of many faces. Jenks Miller continues his woodsy interpretation of everything from krautrock to drone to black metal, all shaped with an Americana aesthetic.
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Thou – Heathen | Gilead Media | Sludge
Baton Rouge batterers return with their fourth LP of dynamic, longform sludge-phonies.
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Of Note:
Albinö Rhino – Albinö Rhino | Inverse Records | Stoner metal, doom
Finnish trio of sweet leaf riff obsessives.
Animals As Leaders – The Joy Of Motion | Sumerian Records | Prog, shred
Sure to keep budding shreddjers up for many sleepless sessions, this D.C. collective continues to refine their riff calculus.
Barren Harvest – Subtle Cruelties | Handmade Birds | Neo-folk
Darkly lit folk scenes with menace lurking behind the shadows. Collaboration between Lenny Smith (Atriarch) and Jessica Way (Worm Ouroboros).
Coltsblood – Into the Unfathomable Abyss | Candlelight Records | Doom
This Liverpudlian three-piece practices sensory deprivation in doom form, encasing listeners within a roaring tone. Ex-Conan and Black Magician.
Darkentries – The Make Believe | Retro Futurist | Post-metal, sludge
Post-metal without the plod, quickening proceedings via post-hardcore shiftiness.
Ennui / Aphonic Threnody – Immortal in Death | GS Productions | Funeral Doom
Two crawlers plot out 20-minute long processions. Ennui hail from Georgia. Aphonic Threnody are an international outfit, bringing together members of Urna and Wijlen Wij, among others.
Gamma Ray – Empire Of The Undead | earMUSIC | Power metal
Eleventh album of rousing powah from this German institution. If you’re in the market for more killer käse, countrymen Sinbreed are also releasing Shadows this week.
The Graviators – Motherload | Napalm Records | Stoner rock
Swedish downer rockers carved by the desert breeze of Man’s Ruin.
Monarque / Forteresse / Csejthe / Chasse-Galerie – Légendes | Sepulchral Productions | Black metal
Four Quebecois hordes don a grimace and get bleak.
Psygnosis – Human Be[ing] | Self-released | Death metal
Modern death coded by industrial and progressive algorithms.
Restless Oblivion – Sands Of Time | Solitude Productions | Death/doom
A Russian boot to the gut, meant to score those long nights needing dramatic leads.
Shores of Null – Quiescence | Candlelight Records | Death metal
Italian amalgam of clean-voiced melo, sludge, and death metal.
Sockweb – Werewolf | Monolithic Records | Grindcore
Putting the “aw!” in blawrgh. Father/daughter grind unit.
Walk Through Fire – Hope Is Misery | Aesthetic Death | Sludge
Spewing venomous dissonance in the manner of their forebear, Sweden’s Abandon.
Winter of Sin – Violence Reigns Supreme | Cyclone Empire | Black metal
Melodically inclined Dutch quartet with bloodlines to God Dethroned and Prostitute Disfigurement.
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Things We Missed:
Aeon Winds huffed and puffed a blackened bluster.
Beast Within Frosted up their primordial thud.
Benevolent got the machinery whirring with their modern take on death metal.
Crutches propped up their crust with a grungy tone.
Cyanic baked grind until it was blackened. On Transylvanian Tapes, a neat up-and-coming label.
Ewig Frost did black ‘n’ roll with a quirky, psycho crust.
Eximperituserqethhzebibšiptugakkathšulweliarzaxułum made…hold on…*fingers fall off, types with nose* good death metals.
Jackal Headed Guard Of The Dead compelled through the power of the doom.
Minerva Superduty stomped the gas pedal connected to their dexterous, instrumental sludge.
Nibiru found zen by toking on a thick doom tone.
Sinister Oath trained and tremed themselves into a hot prospect.
Suffering Mind‘s sub-one-minute growlers blasted a Kool-Aid-Man sized hole through any speaker.
Suffer Yourself went slower and lower.
Unsacred Seed grooved one out for all slammers.
The Wisdoom pried open a third eyed thanks to green-infused incantations.
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