Upcoming Metal Releases: 11/22/2020 - 11/27/2020
Here are the new (and recent) metal releases for the week of November 22nd to November 27th, 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.
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Surprise Releases + Things We Missed
Drowns — We Will Not Survive This EP | Weed Cabinet Records | Noise Rock + Doom | United States (Chicago)
From the underground of Chicago comes Drowns, or, perhaps more accurately, from the sewers: file this under “bass tones you can clean a sink drain with,” as the corrosive low-end will scour out your ears nicely. This 10-minute EP offers up three doomy, discordant rockers that revel in noise and volume.
–Ted Nubel
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Upcoming Releases
Sodom — Genesis XIX | Steamhammer/SPV | Thrash + Speed Metal | Germany
2018 was a year of change for German thrash metal legends Sodom as lone founder and mainman Tom Angelripper replaced his stable trio lineup with a new quartet that included the return of old time guitarist Frank Blackfire, who played on such 80’s classic as Persecution Mania and Agent Orange. Two years later, and after a couple EPs of material mostly collected here, the reforged Sodom assaults the world with their 16th album, Genesis XIX. After almost 40 years since Sodom’s inception, most should know what to expect from their work in that you’ll get some war themed Germanic thrash attack with a wisp of blackened air like napalm in the morning. That’s certainly still the case here, but one can’t help feel a bit more hunger and rawness in the band on this round. Songs like “Indoctrination” and “Friendly Fire” both pack a wallop of punkish energy serving as a fine burst of thrash coda for the album while “Sodom & Gomorrah” likewise opened the album with a real punch to the face. However, one criticism that can be levelled is the album’s length, standing to be tightened up by maybe somewhere cutting ten minutes off, especially from some of the rather lengthy seven-minute tracks. Regardless, it’s still a welcome sight to see Sodom rising once again, reminding the world that “the saw is the law!”
–Joe Aprill
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Empyrium — …der wie ein Blitz vom Himmel fiel… | Prophecy | Dark Metal | Germany
A reissue of Empyrium’s genre-transcending demo which got them signed to (and started) Prophecy Productions. Check back later this week for a lengthy interview with project mastermind Markus “Ulf Theodor Schwadorf” Stock.
–Jon Rosenthal
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Sainte Marie des Loups — Funérailles de Feu | Amor Fati Productions | Black Metal | France
From Jon Rosenthal’s full album premiere:
Opting for a more minimal approach to black metal, Sainte Marie des Loups’s backbone is all about this innate ferocity. Featuring putrid vocal incantations and wild, unbridled instrumentals, Funérailles de feu’s take on black metal is all visceral/no cerebral. This is quite literally body music, something you feel in your gut and fists more than your brain, and the physicality of the music itself certainly feeds into that.
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Revolting — The Shadow at the World’s End | Transcending Obscurity Records | Death Metal | Sweden
Another buzzsaw-packed record from Rogga Johannson’s horror-and-HM-2-obsessed project. Get your Swedeath fix.
–Ted Nubel
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ÔROS KAÙ — Imperii Templum Aries | I, Voidhanger | Black Metal | Brussels
Two weeks after their split with Precaria dropped, Ôros Kaù’s full length debut (originally released in June) finally hits vinyl. Warm, engulfing, and deeply terrifying in all the right ways, Imperii Templum Aries summons ghastly apparitions from the past and sets them loose in your mind. Also — super neat Pink Floyd cover at the end of this. If you missed this release in June, like me, now is a good time to check this one out.
–Ted Nubel
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Precaria — Nigraluminiscencia (Compilation) | I, Voidhanger | Black Metal | Mexico
Precaria offers up a compilation album — nothing new here, but their contributions to two recent splits are finally unified in a single vinyl package.
–Ted Nubel
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Within the Ruins — Black Heart | eOne | Progressive Metalcore | United States (Massachusetts)
I used to be super into Within the Ruins, and yes, they still rip — it’s just that this new album sounds like the days of old, and while I am happy to hear this sound again, it’s not compelling me like it used to. Things change, I guess.
–Andrew Rothmund
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Obscurae — To Walk the Path of Sorrows | American Decline Records | Atmospheric Black Metal | United States (Virginia)
Lovely, soothing atmospheric black metal from the mind which gave the world the variety of Anu and Hour of 13. Hear the album in full via our premiere today.
–Jon Rosenthal
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Black Pyre — Winter Solstice | Independent | Black Metal | United Kingdom
Wintry black metal, but not so much of the “icy cold stabbing into your veins” sort as much as the “warmed by a fire as a blizzard roars outside” variety — frostbite snaps at your fingers, but it’s chased away by full-bodied production and an innate fury.
–Ted Nubel
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Bather — Phantom Guilt EP | Independent | Black + Death + Doom Metal | United States (Ohio)
Phantom Guilt retains a savageness that’s unusually undiluted by the massive layers of excoriating sound involved. Swinging from bludgeoning black/death over to what feels like brutal death/doom, each song holds its own mixture tailored to get you right in the gut without letting up.
–Ted Nubel
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Autumnblaze — Welkin Shores Burning | Argonauta Records | Depressive/Gothic Rock+Metal | Germany
I was really hoping this would sound like Autumnblaze’s earlier, more blackened material, but, alas. Here is a sad pop album.
–Jon Rosenthal
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Avlivad — Avlivad | Invictus Productions | Death Metal | Sweden (Gothenburg)
Death metal — the kind where you hear the brief crack of the snare wire more than the resonance of the drum itself, leaving more room for the nasty riffs (of which there are many).
–Ted Nubel
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Névoa — Towards Belief | Independent | Atmospheric Black Metal | Portugal
These masters of long-form atmo-black are back — their prior release didn’t make the waves that maybe it could have, but this new album sees the act back in tip-top shape, ready to vacuum your mind into their sparkling atmospherics.
–Andrew Rothmund
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Ingrina — Siste Lys | Medication Time Records + A Tant Rêver Du Roi | Post-Metal + Post-Hardcore | France
A comforting blanket of heavy music, poured into your eardrums without any additional processing required.
From my track premiere of “Now”:
Sometimes, what I need from music is magnitude and direction: a sound that’s vast enough to fill up the cracks in my mind and arrest all the troublesome motion within, while at the same time propelling my weary brain on a trajectory that needs no course correction. French post-metal/hardcore sextet Ingrina supplies just the right vector — packing two drummers and an overwhelming wall of reverb-drenched riffing, their upcoming album Siste Lys tackles a lofty concept of change and survival with the sheer scale of instrumentation needed to express it.
— Ted Nubel
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Paysage d’Hiver — Im Traum | Kunsthall Produktionen | Atmospheric Black Metal | France
Originally slated to only be heard by those who attended the special Im Wald release party/gathering earlier this year, these two ambient remixes of songs found on the album in question highlight Wintherr’s mastery of atmosphere and wintry ambiance.
–Jon Rosenthal
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Assault Sorcery — Discernment in Viscera EP | Independent | Black Metal + Death + Doom | United States (Kansas)
Esoteric, lo-fi black metal with some doom and death scattered amongst the unusual soundscapes that draw from similarly unusual literary sources for inspiration. I particularly liked the bizarre leads that pop up from time to time, towering over the mix and defying the normal rhythm and melody — like an insane narrator changing the plot. A strange listen, in the best sense of the term, and strange black metal is never something to miss.
–Ted Nubel
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