Upcoming Metal Releases: 1/21/2024-1/27/2024
Here are the new (and recent) metal releases for January 21st through January 27th. Releases reflect proposed North American scheduling, if available. Expect to see most of these albums on shelves or distros on Fridays.
See something we missed or have any thoughts? Let us know in the comments. Plus, as always, feel free to post your own shopping lists. Happy digging.
Send us your promos (streaming links preferred) to: [email protected]. Do not send us promo material via social media.
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RHÛN — Conveyance in Death | House of Inkantation | Black Metal | United States (Portland, Maine)
From Jon Rosenthal’s track premiere of “Bone Ornament”:
Moving outside both their perceived comfort zones, RHÛN’s debut album is a chunky, heavy bout of black-and-death metal psychedelia, forged deep within the Maine wilderness.
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Olhava — Sacrifice | Avantgarde Music | Atmospheric Black Metal | Russia (Saint Petersburg)
The longest album from the Russian duo is as insistent as anything they’ve done. The 86-minute (!) runtime alternates between stunning blackgaze that shimmers with the optimism of a sunrise and ASMR-esque, nature-inflected ambient soundscapes. Sacrifice is clearly meant to be listened to in a single sitting—a difficult ask if this isn’t your thing. Still, there’s a certain euphoria in that achievement. Best enjoyed on headphones, so the record can envelop you like a blanket.
–Steve Lampiris
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Exocrine — Legend | Season of Mist | Technical Death Metal | France (Bordeaux)
One of the most agile bands in tech-death, Exocrine continue to dazzle with astonishing musicianship on their sixth outing. With each album, the French quartet gets a little weirder. This time, they bring back the jazz and electronic experimentation from 2020’s Maelstrom and expand on it. It’s all paired with metal ay-eff lines like “I want to feel his wet flesh yielding under my sword / In this tentacle orgy, cathartic violence” amidst the mostly-coherent narrative. So, yeah: Legend sounds like Exocrine.
–Steve Lampiris
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Knoll — As Spoken | Independent | Grindcore + Death Metal + Noise | United States (Tennessee)
Tennessee’s premier “funeral grind” troupe build on the successes of 2022’s all-devouring Metempiric, putting distance between themselves and that lazy, no-good Full of Hell Jr. tag by fermenting an absurdist Portal-like nightmare cankered with scabrous ooze-crust, generously marinated in the band’s customary seethe and brio.
–Spencer Grady
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Lucifer — Lucifer V | Nuclear Blast | Hard Rock + Doom + Heavy Metal | International
Lucifer’s fifth chapter isn’t too dissimilar from the band’s past work, but there’s definitely more of an emphasis on the vocals here. While I liked the indulgent delivery and the bolder song structures that let them shine, they’re sometimes backed up by riffs that aren’t quite as sharp as we’ve seen from the veritable supergroup before. That being said, Lucifer is still unimaginably far ahead of the pack when it comes to capturing their specific strain of proto-metallic, hard-rock-leaning doom.
–Ted Nubel
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Blood Red Throne — Nonagon | Soulseller Records | Death Metal | Norway
Blood Red Throne sound as fresh as a new-born baby on their 11th album Nonagon, released 26 years into their career. Jesus, that’s a long time. Thankfully, tracks like “Seeking to Pierce” are as timeless and welcome as a preserved baggie of loud, upon whose opening your senses are struck with nostalgia and ecstasy. It’s slick, heavy, and groovy; death metal as the One Above All intended.
–Colin Dempsey
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The Infernal Sea — Hellfenlic | Candlelight Records | Black Metal | United Kingdom
The Infernal Sea’s black ‘n’ roll continues to succeed on their fourth full-length album. Hellfenlic is catchy as hell yet never veers into pop territory, balancing rawness with a swagger that more black metal bands should emulate.
–Colin Dempsey
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Cognizance — Phantazein | Willowtip Records | Technical Death Metal | United Kingdom (Leeds)
As we stated in our premiere of Cognizance’s “The Towering Monument,” the band’s strength lay in their ratio of technicality to grooves, which stand in near equilibrium. Thanks to this equation, their knotty death metal is approachable without pandering to those who fear non-4/4 time signatures.
–Colin Dempsey
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Rituals of the Dead Hand — The Wretched and the Vile | Immortal Frost Productions | Doom Metal + Black Metal | Belgium (Limburg)
Black metal and doom metal hybrids should, in theory, eviscerate the listener, whether through crushing heaviness or outright maliciousness. While both elements are present on Rituals of the Dead Hand’s third album, there are also welcome melodies and diversity among the tracks that deepen the group’s repertoire. It’s still chunky black metal played with doom metal’s tuning, but with an attractive sense of forward momentum that keeps everything zesty.
–Colin Dempsey
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Dissimulator — Lower Form Resistance | 20 Buck Spin | Thrash Metal + Technical Death Metal | Canada (Montreal, Quebec)
As a technically inclined thrash metal band from Quebec, Dissimulator easily conjures comparisons to Voivod, the main technically inclined thrash metal band from Quebec. Fortunately, on their debut album, the younger band stakes their claim as merely being influenced by their progenitors instead of outright emulating them by combining Voivod’s peculiar vision with old-school death metal. Think Possessed death metal rather than Morbid Angel, and you’ll get the idea.
–Colin Dempsey
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Kalt Vindur — Magna Mater | The Circle Records | Black Metal | Poland
Some black metal albums benefit from clear production as they embolden a group’s strengths. Magna Mater is one such album. It’s a marble slab of black metal with a hefty rhythm section that Kalt Vindur put to the test. They’re always moving between riffs, solos, and bridges as if challenging their drummer and bassist to catch up. These nuances might’ve gone ignored on a record with lower-fidelity recording, but Magna Mater puts them in plain sight.
–Colin Dempsey
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Vitriol — Suffer & Become | Century Media Records | Death Metal | United States (Portland, Oregon)
The chaotic death metal cohort get even weirder and more chaotic on their latest albumSuffer & Become. While Vitriol are now signed to Century Media, they definitely haven’t turned down the volume, as the entire album is a solid blast of destruction and aggression. Fans of outside-the-back extreme music should take notice.
–Addison Herron-Wheeler
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Cosmic Void — Subterranean Rivers | Independent | Death Metal | Germany (Dresden)
European death metal is at its finest with Cosmic Void’s latest, Subterranean Rivers. While there isn’t much on this record that we haven’t heard before, it still manages to do the job and nail the sound perfectly. It’s also incredibly catchy.
–Addison Herron-Wheeler
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Mega Colossus — Showdown | Cruz del Sur Music | Heavy Metal | United States (Raleigh, NC)
Jam-packed with both insanity and killer riff, Mega Colossus’s new record is another deep-end plunge into high-speed metal that’s delightfully odd.
–Ted Nubel
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Mountain Caller — Chronicle II: Hypergenesis | Church Road Records | Progressive Post-Metal | United Kingdom
Mountain Caller craft engaging, near-incomprehensibly huge-sounding post metal that’s stuffed to the brim with adventure. Each song opens up to the listener like a verdant plain unfurling or a thorny jungle revealing its secrets. I’ve been following this band for a while now and this new release is another immense step forward for the group.
–Ted Nubel
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