Upcoming Metal Releases: 1/16/2022-1/22/2022
Here are the new (and recent) metal releases for the week of January 16th, 2022 to January 22nd, 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.
Send us your promos (streaming links preferred) to: [email protected]. Do not send us promo material via social media.
Upcoming Releases
Boris — W | Sacred Bones Records | Boris | Japan
Boris follow-up their 2020 surprise album, which was their punchiest release in years, with a tonal 180. W is a collection of lullabies. Not literally, duh, but it’s gentle in a way that most of their softer works rarely are. The tracks are roughly the same length as NO‘s, making W a vibe to chill with rather than a huge drone trip like some of their earlier works.
–Colin Dempsey
Pre-order an exclusive sea blue variant here.
…
40 Watt Sun — Perfect Light | Svart Records | Doom Metal + Alternative Rock | United Kingdom
Grief-carrying alternative rock of the most British of varieties. There’s patience, a grappling with ghosts, expansive song lengths, and gargantuan vocals as if 40 Watt Sun answer the question, “Why does it continue to hurt?”
–Colin Dempsey
…
The Ferrymen — One More River to Cross | Frontiers Records | Power Metal | International
Featuring Magnus Karlsson (Primal Fear) on guitars/keys, Ronnie Romero (Rainbow, Lords of Black, etc.) on vocals, and Mike Terrana (ex-Artension, ex-Axel Rudi Pell, much more) on drums, this is sort of like a power metal super group, and the result is as finely polished and impressive as you’d expect. Whether or not it really has the all-important staying power is harder to say, but the atmosphere and approach hits just how I was hoping.
–Ted Nubel
…
Pensee Nocturnes — Douce Fange | Les Acteurs de l’Ombre Productions | Avant-Garde Black Metal | France
Avant-garde black metal is tight because you never know if you’re going to get some dudes with undercuts in black military apparel shrieking about their deepest solaces over flamenco-like rhythms, or if you’re going to go to the circus. Just look at Pensees Nocturnes’ artwork; you can practically hear the accordions. Damn, even the decapitated pig looks like he’s having a good time.
–Colin Dempsey
…
Dødskvad — Krønike II | Caligari Records | Death Metal | Norway (Oslo)
Muddy and bloodstained like the battlefield that adorns its cover, Krønike II is an old-school blast of death metal built for vicious war.
–Ted Nubel
…
Bongtower — Oscillator II | Independent | Stoner Metal | Russia
This is an Indica-heavy strain of stoner metal that plays into weed’s ability to open the mind to what’s beyond our grasp. Bongtower are the guys who ask you about alien life and the worlds beyond our clouds after they pass you the roach.
–Colin Dempsey
…
Abyssus — Death Revival | Transcending Obscurity Records | Death Metal | Greece
Always nice when the album title checks out, right? Abyssus faithfully pursues an old-school approach to death metal with tightly-packed riffs and nasty tones that drill through the skull.
–Ted Nubel
…
Chaos Perversion — Petrified Against the Emanation | Sentient Ruin | Death + Black Metal | Chile
Looming, hateful black/death with some incredibly sinister-sounding riffs to match the cavernous atmosphere and obscenely long song titles. That last part might not seem like an obvious correlation, but I feel like if you’re going to throw down a thesaurus at listeners, your riffs should sound like elongated incantations to forgotten gods or something equally impressive—and here, they do.
–Ted Nubel
…
Hazemaze — Blinded by the Wicked | Heavy Psych Sounds | Doom + Heavy Metal | Sweden
From Ted Nubel’s track premiere of “Ethereal Disillusion”:
I always appreciate aptly-titled bands, and Hazemaze are top-tier purveyors of some of the trippiest, foggiest psychedelic doom out there. Furthermore, their upcoming album Blinded by the Wicked focuses on subject material perfectly suited for their hypnotic, intoxicating grooves: cults and their manipulative, sometimes demented leaders.
…
Noisecult — Seraphic Wizard | Metal Assault Records | Doom + Stoner Rock + Heavy Metal | United States (Nashville, TN)
Groovy, retro riff-worship with rad basslines and satisfyingly gruff vocals to top it off. Make sure to listen to “Forever Nevermore” loud enough to hear the tasty ghost notes on the snare, too.
–Ted Nubel
…
Sunczar — Bearer of Light | Argonauta Records | Stoner Rock + Doom Metal | Germany
Sunczar practices a nasty, Southern rock-influenced brand of stoner rock that swaggers and lurches its way along. The Sunczar demands your inebriated reverence.
–Ted Nubel
…
Fiat Nox — Demanifestation (Hymns of Destruction and Nothingness) | The Crawling Chaos Records | Black Metal | Germany
The multiple vocal styles in play add interesting depth to this record, which generally aims for the ‘thin and evil’ approach to black metal, adorning barbed-wire rhythms with foreboding melodies.
–Ted Nubel
…
Truculency — The Dome Collector | Coyote Records | Brutal Death Metal | United States (Illinois)
Death Comes Lifting podcast co-host Zak Bellante once said (to paraphrase) that there’s no greater joy in life than heavy deadlifts and death metal. His words were so honest that they might’ve summoned Truculency into existence. This is exactly the nasty, invigorating, and gamey death metal you’d want in your ear when your body is inches away from imploding.
–Colin Dempsey
…
