Upcoming Metal Releases: 10/22/2023-10/28/2023
Here are the new (and recent) metal releases for October 22nd through October 28th. 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.
Autopsy — Ashes, Organs, Blood and Crypts | Peaceville Records | Death Metal | United States (California)
Even Autopsy themselves admit they’re not breaking new ground with this record, but why change what already works so well for the band? Ashes, Organs, Blood and Crypts kills it the way the band always have, with witty lyrics and punishing, catchy death metal.
–Addison Herron-Wheeler
No streaming link yet, but here’s a trailer?
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Yellow Eyes — Master’s Murmur | Sibir Records | Experimental Black Metal + Ambient | United States
This “industrial folk” record is part one of a two-part companion to an upcoming 2024 LP, and if that sounds weirdly complex, well, this is Yellow Eyes that we’re talking about. The band’s erratic yet thought-provoking lyrics and lush alien soundscapes are incredibly immersive here, mostly untethered from the usual trappings of black metal (though not fully) and instead arrayed into a sprawling, dynamic experience.
–Ted Nubel
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Wayfarer — American Gothic | Profound Lore Records | Black Metal | United States (Colorado)
Wayfarer return with another incineration of the American west. Their phenomenal ear for mise-en-scène remains as strong as ever, though American Gothic sees them develop it further, shifting their focus from the first railroads and Sergio Leone tributes to early oil tycoons.
–Colin Dempsey
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The Mountain Goats — Jenny From Thebes | Merge Records | Rock | United States (North Carolina)
This record continues the saga from the band’s 2002 album All Hail West Texas, about a woman who takes care of those society has left behind. But even if you’re not familiar with that legacy, the album is still heartfelt, memorable, and a lot of fun.
–Addison Herron-Wheeler
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Void of Nothingness — The Rise and Fall of the Tower of Babel | Independent | Black Metal | France
The Rise and Fall of the Tower of Babel is not for everyone, though anyone who notices that it contains a single song that runs for half-an-hour has likely already decided whether or not they’ll give it a shot. It’s monotonous and repetitive. These aspects should damn it, but Void of Nothingness repurposes them by visiting and revisiting riffs and melodies to present a journey to the top of the tower that mirrors the fall from its peak. The structure works surprisingly well, though you must give it time to develop.
–Colin Dempsey
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Howling Giant — Glass Future | Magnetic Eye Records | Stoner + Doom + Psychedelic Metal | United States (Nashville, TN)
Howling Giant are doing their damn best to make people who judge music based off genre tags to look like enormous fools. Ostensibly fitting within the “stoner doom” umbrella, their latest record Glass Future is another adventurous step forward for them that runs a gamut from progressive rock to atmospheric sludge. The record builds its own world out of swirling guitars, synths, and soaring vocals, and while that world is heavily anchored to rock’n’roll, it unmoors itself often to astound the listener.
–Ted Nubel
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Tower Hill — Deathstalker | No Remorse Records | Heavy Metal | Canada (Edmonton, AB)
For Tower Hill, ‘cheese’ isn’t a drawback, it’s a lethal advantage. The band’s high-energy heavy metal shines as it embraces gleeful savagery and a total lack of nuance. The Claw is the Law, they say, and I agree.
–Ted Nubel
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Flesh of the Stars — The Glass Garden | Independent | Melodic Doom Metal | United States (Chicago, IL)
What was already an incredibly expansive take on melodic doom metal expands even further: Flesh of the Stars has long been an IO favorite, and their new album The Glass Garden is a massive new undertaking that seamlessly combines doom metal and progressive rock with a host of other textures and influences. In a word, it’s emotional, spanning everything from melancholic dirges to hopeful, glittering choruses, but there’s just too much going on to easily summarize it. Each track holds new delights, so earmark about an hour and dig in.
–Ted Nubel
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Sorceror — Reign of the Reaper | Metal Blade Records | Epic Doom Metal | Sweden (Stockholm)
Bombastic and doomy, Sorcerer’s heavy metal has a singularly dramatic air — titanic riffs come bearing down on the listener like the hammer of a rather angry god.
–Ted Nubel
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Cardinal’s Folly — Live by the Sword | Soulseller Records | Doom Metal | Finland
Witness the truest form of doom metal: the mildly intoxicated sort. If you haven’t encountered Cardinal’s Folly yet, they stumble down the same sort of path as Reverend Bizarre, adding soulful howls to bluesy, somber doom that isn’t afraid to experiment and get enjoyable sloppy in the process.
–Ted Nubel
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Tuumanduumband — Throne of Grief | Cursed Monk Records | Sludge + Doom Metal | United Kingdom
Don’t let the odd band name trick you into expecting any levity here: Tumanduumband deals in only harsh suffering and creaking drone. Sounding a bit like someone ran an entire band through a Boss FZ-2, Throne of Grief does not pull any punches when it comes to executing sharp-edged funeral hymns.
–Ted Nubel
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Adzes — Inver | Independent | Sludge + Post-Metal | New Zealand
From Colin Williams’s interview :
Inver channels the tension between humans’ goals, methods and instincts against the backdrop of the earth itself. The record is oceanic, and not just in the ways it winks at the Isis record of the same name — Bohrer says “water is a theme that ties much of the record together.” That theme extends to the ways Bohrer has changed musical approaches, favoring big bass, clearer production and a thundering guitar sound over the more raw textures of previous releases such as the Adzes/Putrescine split.
Note: Physical media available via Philip K Discs (CDs) and Euphoriadic (Cassettes).
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Malokarpatan — Vertumnus Caesar | Invictus Productions | Heavy Metal | Slovakia
The weird, wild and wonderful fourth album from these Slovakian spooks fuses traditional heavy metal and primitive blackened tropes with bewitching side-orders of psychedelic folk. At its most vociferous, Vertumnus Caesar sounds like a deliciously deranged blend of Maiden, Mercyful Fate and Master’s Hammer, while its many atmospheric diversions – foggy-eyed bacchanals of carnivalesque synths and narcotic flute toot – come on like a grievous sleepwalk through one of Jean Rollin’s haunted chateaus.
–Spencer Grady
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Peine Kapital — Peine Kapital | Sludgelord Records | Doom Metal + Sludge Metal | France
Across four songs, Peine Kapital cover 45-minutes of plodding, dismal, and punishing doom metal. They’re not quite as barren as Primitive Man, for example, but they drink from the same nihilistic well.
–Colin Dempsey
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Sepulchral Curse — Abhorrent Dimensions | Transcending Obscurity | Death Metal | Finland
There’s no point in dressing up a track like “Among the Wretched Columns.” Although you could explore the technicality at play, the swampy riffs that coarse over one’s body, or Kari Kankaanpää’s subterranean vocal delivery, none of that matters as much as the fact that “Among the Wretched Columns” is enjoyable in the manner that only death metal can be enjoyed–it feeds the basic human need for scowl-inducing music. Abhorrent Dimensions as a whole plays like this, offering a welcome gift for modern death metal fans who enjoy listening to layers upon layers of distortion.
–Colin Dempsey
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Dryland — Weekend in the Swamp | Independent | Sludge + Doom + Heavy Metal | United States
Dryland has an unusually imaginative grasp on fantasy-driven heavy metal, both from their subject matter to their musical execution. While sword-and-sorcery heavy metal can usually be pigeonholed into a few sounds (and mind you, no issues here with that), the Washington group brings punchy sludge into the picture and then start throwing words around like ‘outroverse’ and ‘monomyth’. Heavyweight riffs prove surprisingly versatile in their hands, acting as an expressive backdrop for shouted and screamed stories of esoteric adventure.
–Ted Nubel
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Vokonis — Exist Within Light | Majestic Mountain Records | Sludge + Progressive Metal | Sweden
From Ted Nubel’s full album premiere:
Though the Swedish band packs in plenty of aggressive riffs and often stunning tonal shifts, even [Exist WIthin Light‘s] deadliest sections ride on a tide of uplifting energy. The EP is another step forward in the band’s ongoing journey away from slow and surreal stoner-doom to speedier and, well, less doomed material. To summarize: same heaviness, different execution, and the band is only getting better as they go.
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The Plague — Erosion of Gods | Brilliant Emperor Records | Death Metal | Australia
From Ted Nubel’s full album premiere:
Once the introductory synth track wraps up, it’s all riffs, all the time. The band launches into one HM-2-fueled rampage after another with precious little respite and remarkably expressive growls, keeping their hooks in listeners’ willing flesh the whole time.
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