Upcoming Metal Releases: 11/1/2020 - 11/7/2020

Here are the new (and recent) metal releases for the week of November 1st to November 7th, 2020. 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.

Surprise Releases + Things We Missed

They Came from Visions — Cloak of Darkness, Dagger of Night | Bloodred Distribution | Black Metal | Ukraine

To quickly summarize: black metal that puts you in the shoes of a peasant fleeing unholy terrors in the night. Mostly raw-feeling atmospheric stuff, but every once in a while there’s some killer riffs clawing out at you from the shadows.

–Ted Nubel

…

Upcoming Releases

Fates Warning — Long Day Good Night | Metal Blade | Progressive Metal | United States (Connecticut)

Modern Fates Warning is more of an emotionally intense approach to progressive metal than the riffy, power-metal-leaning stuff that put them on the grid. That’s mostly taken them off the radar, really, but if you’re into the former this could be interesting.

–Ted Nubel

…

Dark Quarterer — Pompei | Cruz del Sur Music | Epic / Progressive Metal | Italy

If you were a fan of Ithaca, you’ll probably like this. However, it’s likely not a fit for everyone: somewhat unintuitive progressive metal with odd vocals and epic sensibilities.

–Ted Nubel

…

Loudblast — Manifesto | Listenable Records | Death Metal | France

Some death metal is filthy, grimy, unclean — this is stainless steel death metal: polished and refined, but still deadly. Nifty amounts of melodic leads in here that slot in nicely with the gruff rhythm tones.

–Ted Nubel

…

Sólstafir — Endless Twilight of Codependent Love | Season of Mist | Metal / Post-Rock / Post-Metal | Iceland

Sólstafir doing what they do best — being, uh, Sólstafir. Post-rock, traditional metal, a little bit of black metal, and most things inbetween, all meshed up into some killer, heartfelt jams you won’t get anywhere else. I’m loving the drums on this one, personally — cowbell, fills packed with feeling, and a hell of a snare sound.

–Ted Nubel

…

Eternal Idol — Renaissance | Frontiers Records | Symphonic Power Metal | Italy

The glossy production and symphonic nature might turn people off, but beneath the highly-polished exterior there’s some fun riffs here that the symphonic elements actually accentuate, besides just piling on the drama. Plus, the male/female vocal mix works very nicely without feeling overbearing or gimmicky.

–Ted Nubel

…

Shaidar Logoth — Chapter III: The Void God | Sentient Ruin | Black Metal | United States (Minnesota)

From Andrew Rothmund’s track premiere of “Consume Pieces of God”:

These Minnesotans blend two dominant approaches in black metal: “be faster and louder than fuck” and “how about some actual riffs?” The genre is not without riffs, oh no, but Shaidar Logoth take riff-writing to another plateau in relation to the music’s various other characteristics — this does not damn atmospherics, as your mind is torn between shedding tears at beautiful riffage and sitting in goosebumps because of the sheer abstract density of the result. Combined with well-balanced clean/rough production, and tons of moments that feel like gut-punches (like the two-minute mark in the song streaming above), Chapter III: The Void God leaves basically nothing else to be asked for.

…

Hanging Fortress — Darkness Devours | Redefining Darkness Records | Death Metal + Hardcore | United States (Ohio)

From Ivan Belcic’s track premiere of “Killing You”:

Hanging Fortress’s death metal is hardcore-informed, but it’s not deathcore — at least, not the way I typically imagine it sounding. Instead, the group keep their death metal on the classically oriented end of the spectrum, marrying the slams, vocal delivery, and spacious production of their forebears with the straightforwardness and downbeat-centric approach of their hardcore peers.

…

Jucifer — نظم (Nazm) | Independent | Experimental + Doom/Drone | United States (Washington, D.C.)

I have to admit, I haven’t followed Jucifer too much in the past decade, but they’ve continued to innovate impressively on expressing heaviness through music. نظم (Nazm) is a weird departure into, as the band says, central/south/west Asian traditional and pop music cultures, but it’s still got an innate doominess to it. Check out the streaming track and perhaps that’ll make sense.

–Ted Nubel

…

Mountain Caller — Chronicle I: The Truthseeker | New Heavy Sounds | Instrumental Post-Metal + Doom Metal | United Kingdom

Wildly expansive instrumental music that still tells a story, blending doom and post-metal feel into their own creative mix. Stay tuned for a track-by-track and full premiere of this on Wednesday!

–Ted Nubel

…

Rosaries — Anomie | Independent | Doom Metal + Shoegaze | United States (Illinois)

The second EP from this Chicago-based doom band finds them continuing their haunted form of doom-gaze, but this time around the production is cleaner and the instrumentals more technical, more menacing. Put that up against the unusual riffing, unnerving atmosphere, and soulful vocals — the result is supreme musical tension. I dug 2018’s Decay EP and its fuzzy washed-out feel, but the sharpened gloom of Anomie progresses the band’s sound along its own darkened trajectory.

–Ted Nubel

…

Eleanora — Mere | ConSouling Sounds | Post-Metal/Hardcore + Sludge | Belgium

Top-tier screamo-sludge-post-everything that brandishes never-ending riffs on its journey to noisy cathartic nirvana. Maybe it doesn’t push the boundaries too much, but if you’re into this kind of thing, you’ll be into this.

–Ted Nubel

…

Clouds Taste Satanic — The Satanic Singles: Volume I | Kinda Like Music | Doom Metal | United States (New York)

A fun idea for a singles series — musically heavy covers of spiritually heavy music, and done in plodding doom metal fashion as well. Perhaps not their definitive offering, but if you’re a newcomer, it could be just the thing to get you deeper into their massive sound. Actually, “Also Spake Zarathustra” was arguably already doom, but, y’know, without the amplification.

–Ted Nubel

…

Feed Them Death — For Our Culpable Dead | Brucia Records | Death/Grind + Experimental | United Kingdom

From Ted Nubel’s full album premiere:

For Our Culpable Dead plays out like a journey into another plane of existence: a trip accompanied by steadily increasing chaos and mayhem. The opener “A Subjective Tragedy” is a slab of boisterous death/grind, but near the end brief dissonant electronic tinges appear — almost brief enough, really, to wonder if they were even there. That thought disappears as the title track gets underway, dialing up the grinding ferocity and marrying it to digitized howls. Just after the climactic midpoint of the song, we pass into that new reality: a land of harsh noise textures and dissonant piano chords that construct a leering parody of melody. It’s a startling transition, but that’s what makes experimental music like this so interesting: even without the full-band instrumentation that had been there seconds ago, the second act of the song is just as gripping, and integral to the whole.

…

Shattered Hope — Vespers | Solitude Productions | Funeral Doom/Death Metal | Greece

Boy, the album art on this really undersells the vileness and riff density here. It’s certainly got the doom and gloom to live up to the icy landscape, but there’s also an undercurrent of nasty death metal.

–Ted Nubel

…

Déluge — Ægo Templo | Metal Blade | Black Metal + Post-Hardcore | France

Ugh.

–Jon Rosenthal

…

Malfested — Shallow Graves EP | Independent | Death Metal | Belgium

Death metal somewhat reminiscent of vintage Swedeath, with an interesting doomy spin on their riffs and leads. The production, which is full-bodied and warm while still capturing the sawtoothed tone on the guitars, is probably a bit more modern, but the mix of old and new sits nicely in my ears.

–Ted Nubel

…

Support Invisible Oranges on Patreon and check out our merch.