Upcoming Metal Releases: 10/2/2022-10/8/2022
Here are the new (and recent) metal releases for the week of October 2nd, 2022 to October 8th, 2022. 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.
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New Releases
Goatwhore — Angels Hung from the Arches of Heaven | Metal Blade Records | Black + Death + Thrash Metal | United States (NOLA)
If you’re looking for an album that completely breaks and reinvents the mold, this is not it. On the 25th year in their career, Goatwhore definitely have an established sound. However, this is still a solid ripper of an album. If you’re already a fan of the band, this is definitely not one to miss.
–Addison Herron-Wheeler
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Cloud Rat — Threshold | Artoffact Records | Grindcore | United States
Despite being a relatively new band, Cloud Rat have released a plethora of short and furious releases, each a bit more expansive and artistically inclined than the last. This new offering, Threshold, is no exception, as it captures the band’s constantly evolving sound and expands on their heavy, fast assault. Definitely recommended for fans of the band and of creative, experimental grind.
–Addison Herron-Wheeler
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Lamb of God — Omens | Epic Records | Groove Metal + Metalcore | United States (Richmond, VA)
I suppose, if anything, Lamb of God has remained remarkably consistent. Whether or not that’s a good thing depends on how you and metalcore are getting along in 2022. But hey, Morton and Adler can still write some sweet riffs.
–Ted Nubel
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Queensrÿche — Digital Noise Alliance | Century Media Records | Progressive Heavy + Power Metal | United States
Todd La Torre continues his track record of putting out pretty decent Queensrÿche records. Certainly not a mind-blowing release, but it does seem to strike the right vibe: technical-but-not-wanky-bullshit heavy/power metal, lots of indulgent synths.
–Ted Nubel
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Faceless Burial — At the Foothills of Deliration | Me Saco un Ojo | Death Metal | Australia
Despite coming from the land down under, Faceless Burial are top-tier modern death metal.
Partnering with indelible Dark Descent Records (and Me Saco un Ojo), the Australian band’s third album At The Foothills of Deliration features a sound that is techy without feeling masturbatory and has enough earth-shattering groove to rattle the floorboards. It’s a little bit of everything, but it’s all done right.
–Brandon Nurick
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The Lovecraft Sextet — Miserere | Debemur Morti Productions | Experimental + Jazz + Black Metal | Vatican City
The newest project of Jason Köhnen formerly of The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble, The Lovecraft Sextet is a further exploration of jazz’s darker applications, combining a sultry noir atmosphere with inhuman shrieks and doom-ridden dirges to create a suspense-filled nightmare soundtrack perfect for ringing in this year’s All Hallow’s eve.
–Brandon Nurick
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CNTMPT — Von Unreiner Willkür | Into Endless Chaos Records | Black Metal | Germany
The Metal Archives page for this band lists their lyrics as instrumental. This is perhaps due to their 2014 which had swirling atmospheric black metal as the centerpiece. Von Unreiner Willkür, the bands third record, most certainly has vocals as well as a swirl of vicious decay that floods an afternoon forest. CNTMPT is many things and predictable is not one of them. From lo-fi black metal, to lustrous operatics, to dissociative band photos, Von Unreiner Willkür is the sound of one coming undone and it is fantastic to be a part of.
–Jonathan Carbon
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Homeskin — Itch Ecstasy | Independent | Avant-Garde Black Metal + Grindcore | United States
The written-in-a-flash, almost improvisationally chaotic approach Garry Brents takes for Homeskin lends itself well to the anxious fever pitch that new album Itch Ecstasy reaches. From the uncomfortable song titles (“Encrusted Jacket in the Bath”, “Yellow Film Formulating”) to the buzzing, hyperactive black metal that it contains, everything perfectly builds up this frantic portrait of nervous energy.
–Ted Nubel
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Coffin Torture — Blennoid | Sludgelord Records | Doom + Sludge + Death Metal | United States
Though the band is dubiously labeled as doom and sludge metal on Metal Archives, Blennoid is really more like death metal run through an absolute gauntlet of psychedelics, fuzz pedals, and irradiated sewer waste. Doom and sludge metal alone can’t really lay claim to the utter lethality that seethes below the toxic exterior.
–Ted Nubel
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Thundering Hooves — Radiance | Mercenary Press | Black Metal | United Kingdom
The UK band’s second album continues to weave all manners of heavy metal into a gloomy black metal core, like with their debut Vestiges, but (as the band themselves note) traditional heavy metal takes an increased role in shaping it all into a belligerent, riff-focused charge.
–Ted Nubel
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Blind Illusion — Wrath of the Gods | Hammerheart Records | Progressive Thrash Metal | United States (San Francisco, CA)
The last time I wrote about Blind Illusion for one of these upcoming metal releases articles it was in the support of an anthology of their oldest demo days as a killer heavy metal band. I think you should go buy that instead of this new album, based on this awful first single. Sorry, Marc Biedermann, this is bad groove metal and I can’t believe you thought this was a good idea or that fans would like it after how panned Demon Master was back in 2010. Is there a little bit of thrash in there? I guess. Did we need the acapella bits about flying crowbars? Probably not.
–Brandon Corsair
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Siren — A Mercenary’s Fate | FHM Records | Progressive Heavy + Power Metal | United States
One of my favorite early United States Power Metal 7”s is Siren’s illustrious “Metro-Mercenary” single, which is a masterpiece of understated and riffy progressive power metal that’d fit comfortable on shelves alongside early Fates Warning or Savatage; “Terrible Swift Sword” is an anthem of nerdy fantasy power and we’re all here for it. After reforming a few years ago to play at Keep it True in Germany (as many of these great reformations start!) the band decided to keep the train rolling and write some new tunes. This is now their second album since that comeback and the title of it directly references that first killer 7” (hey, see, I wasn’t rambling about old stuff for no reason!) and the music is loosely in the vein of that old material- sort-of progressive heavy metal in the same vague way that many old bands were, shiny and proud of it without being progressive rock or glossy modern power metal. I need to listen to it more to decide if I’m going to buy it, but it’s at least making me think about doing that, which is a lot more impressive than most of these unexpected old band reformations. Maybe Blind Illusion should have taken a nod from Siren and tried to write something decent like these brave Brandon, Florida (home of Nasty Savage!) lads did.
–Brandon Corsair
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Ensanguinate — Eldritch Anatomy | Emanzipation Productions | Death Metal | Slovenia
Ensanguinate’s whirling, murderous death metal captures a sort of primal violence that seems to come from far, far, before the band’s founding in 2020. This is some medieval shit.
–Ted Nubel
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Lady Luna and the Devil — Vampiric Visions Vol. I: Living Blood | Swamp Records | Doom Metal | United States (Detroit, MI)
Concept-driven doom is never in sufficiently supply, and Lady Luna and the Devil offers up some exquisitely gothic horror-themed material. Expressive clean vocals help sell the gloomy mystery that lurks behind the riffs.
–Ted Nubel
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Midnight Rider — Beyond the Blood Red Horizon | Massacre Records | Heavy Metal | Germany
Heavy metal that hits with a charming, nostalgic rock sound: groovy, punchy drums, guitars with warm, not-too-distorted tones, and lovely bass licks. Think early UFO or Judas Priest, I guess – a sound that’s still mostly notably absent from all the 70/80s revivals going on.
–Ted Nubel
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Unto the Earth — The Dawning | Independent | Stoner Rock + Doom | United States (Chicago, IL)
The Dawning makes good on the potential that I’d gleaned seeing Unto the Earth play live here in Chicago. The band combines stoner rock and doom – an obvious pairing, of course – with elements of grunge and alternative metal – less obvious, maybe. Hazy tones and a wide-open production set the stage for a space western, perhaps: heat, dust, and mystery abound.
Everything, from the laconic, almost-drawled and often cleverly harmonized vocals to the phaser-touched guitar tones hints at a band unafraid to step outside the sphere of purely metal. These influences help shape the record into a suspiciously progressive package, bearing grievances, worries, and fears in its midst rather than just riffs alone.
–Ted Nubel
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