Upcoming Metal Releases: 10/9/2022-10/15/2022
Here are the new (and recent) metal releases for the week of October 9th, 2022 to October 15th, 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
Ripped to Shreds — 劇變 (Jubian) | Relapse Records | Death Metal | United States (San Jose, CA)
Ripped to Shreds is perhaps the most well known of Andrew Lee’s projects–the same mind behind (checks notes) an anime-themed goregrind band and a modern revamping of 1980s shred metal–though here he uses his dangerous amount of talent and boundless creativity to craft fun death metal that’s free of any gimmick beyond being goddamn sick. Although, 劇變 (Jubian) is far more than mindless riffs, targeting songs towards social and political issues as deftly as it handles penning songs with titles almost as long as that one Nile song. Go woke, go broke get signed to Relapse, right?
It doesn’t take much listening to recognize the simple truth here: 劇變 (Jubian) rules. While the PR hype cycle does tend to imply that the only way to be a ‘good’ death metal record is to do something new (or copy exactly what people were doing 30 years ago, on the other side of the journo-sphere), the truth is you just need to write good songs, something distinctly more challenging and harder to wax poetic about on Twitter.
–Ted Nubel
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Daeva — Through Sheer Will and Black Magic | 20 Buck Spin | Black + Thrash Metal | United States (Philadelphia, PA)
To best sum up Daeva, take this quote from band member Enrique Sagarnaga, from Tom Campagna’s interview:
[…] There’s an old video of Dark Angel playing The Trocadero in Philly. They all look like bad guys on stage and they are just shredding. Even the audience look like people you don’t want to bump into – the bad dudes who showed up to the gig and went into the pit, got into a fight and got their ass beat. Everyone there is doing Demon shit.
So it’s to say that I try to think of Daeva as a representation of Satanic-panic heavy metal and the spirit of unhinged ‘80s Heavy Metal culture. This is almost a love letter to those kinds of bands and the people who carved SLAYER onto their desks in school and threw the horns at any priest walking by.
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Mother of Graves — Where the Shadows Adorn | Wise Blood Records | Melodic Death + Doom Metal | United States (Indianapolis, IN)
From Brandon Nurick’s full album premiere and review:
Where the Shadows Adorn‘s success lies in the equilibrium the band achieves between maintaining melodic death-doom’s core tenets while updating the sound to something a little more modern. Metal fans love nostalgia, but they don’t love when it is packaged so blatantly it becomes too obvious. Mother of Graves is a band who delivers what the fans are looking for but does so in a way that feels fresh again.
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Chevalier — Ancient Metal Attack | Gates of Hell Records | Heavy + Speed Metal | Finland
Chevalier’s delightfully retro approach to heavy/speed metal–I’ve heard it referred to as ‘dungeon speed metal,’ which tracks–is a blast on this atmosphere-heavy, epic and anachronistic release. Really upping the ante for their next full-length, too!
–Ted Nubel
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Stormruler — Sacred Rites & Black Magick | Napalm Records | Black Metal | United States (St. Louis, MO)
The Missouri-based black metal troupe draw a healthy amount of inspiration from Dark Souls, though in a more emphatic fashion than what’s usually associated with the series. On their second album, Stormruler embody the power fantasy of a late-game Dark Souls run with power and fantasy holding equal weight in that sentiment. Their MO includes triumphant riffs and a ripping pace, while the fantasy aspect comes into play with the chainmail armor in their press photos.
–Colin Dempsey
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Sordid Blade — Every Battle Has Its Glory | Cruz del Sur Music | Epic Heavy Metal | Sweden
Sordid Blade’s demo made some major ripples last year, so to see a full-length already is exciting news. Exuberantly melodic and unpolished enough to hold vintage charm, Every Battle Has Its Glory is immensely singable in both lyrics and instrumental, and that’s become increasingly rare.
–Ted Nubel
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Die Sünde — Strega | Drown Within Records | Post-Black Metal | Italy
Haunted, damning, and occasionally majestic, this single-track post-black metal release weaves post-metal and black metal together into a melodic chronicle of pain.
–Ted Nubel
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Dragonland — The Power of the Nightstar | AFM Records | Symphonic Power Metal | Sweden
At a certain point in power metal, especially symphonic power metal, you pass a sort of ‘uncanny valley’ for cheesiness: bands that lack the mettle to power through this and become truly cheesy fall flat and ring false, but not Dragonland–they blasted through that valley at the speed of hyperspace. Do they dare start off their lead single and title track with solo vocals related to whatever story is behind the album? Hell yeah, brother, and you damn well know there’s synthesizers all over this.
–Ted Nubel
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Pilgrim of Fire — An Age of Penance and Oblivion | Naturmacht Productions | Doom Metal | United Kingdom
As always, I’m generally just pleased to have come across more traditional doom metal, but Pilgrim of Light is notably extremely bouncy, full of head-nodding grooves for their antediluvian riffs to lock into.
–Ted Nubel
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Vacuous — Dreams of Dysphoria | Me Saco un Ojo | Death Metal | United Kingdom
Last year, referring to their prior Katabasis EP, writer Greg Kennelty (now the EIC of Metal Injection, go Greg!) described Vacuous as “the perfect cross-section between the chaos of a band like Of Feather and Bone, and the meticulously spacy death metal of Blood Incantation.”
Listening to their full-length debut Dreams of Dysphoria, I’m inclined to agree that Vacuous finds a dangerous middle ground in the realms of death metal: the psychologically-focused death metal these Londoners create isn’t predictably aggressive, nor is it abstract and philosophical: it’s a balanced attack with both physical and mental lethality.
–Ted Nubel
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Grin — Phantom Knocks | The Lasting Dose Records | Stoner + Sludge Metal | Germany (Berlin)
From Ted Nubel’s full album premiere:
The in-the-pocket jams at the center of Phantom Knocks act like a navigator through a delirious sandstorm, stirred up by layers of keening guitars. At almost any moment in the album, there’s something that stirs the mind to wander with thoughts of vast deserts–a stretched-out vocal line, a wistful melody–and then there’s that monstrously delightful bass tone and thick snare to reel listeners back in.
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Earthrise — Until We Rest Beneath the Winter Way | Independent | Progressive Doom + Post-Metal | United States (Minneapolis, Minnesota)
Earthrise return after a ten-year absence with Until We Rest Beneath the Winter Way, the touching and inquisitive story of the world through Laika’s (the first dog to orbit the Earth after she was found wandering Moscow’s streets as a stray) eyes, though that story sounds like it’s coming from the mouth of a band geek who’s spent the last decade blasting SARMs. It’s beefy, progressive, and oh-so cosmic.
–Colin Dempsey
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Rhythm of Fear — Fatal Horizons | MNRK Heavy | Thrash Metal + Crossover | United States (Jacksonville, FL)
If you’re looking for a record that’s a ton of fun after all the serious, heavy releases this year, Florida band Rhythm of Fear are exactly what you need. Their particular blend of crossover thrash is a treat for the ears, as fun and catchy as early Municipal Waste, but with even more raw authenticity.
–Addison Herron-Wheeler
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Lacuna Coil — Comalies XX | Century Media Records | Gothic Metal + Rock | Italy
All self-respecting millennials who got into metal partially thanks to this album, take note! Although my personal tastes have changed since I first heard Comalies back in the early 2000s, I will always credit this record as one of the ones that made me who I am today. As an added bonus, it has been reworked to fit in more with modern, 2022 sounds, but it’s still a classic throwback for those looking to take a walk down memory lane.
–Addison Herron-Wheeler
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