New Metal Releases: 12/17/2023-1/20/2024
Here are the new (and recent) metal releases for December 17th through January 20th. 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 12/17-1/13
Bafomet — Baptized In Goat Blood | Nuclear War Now! Productions | Black Metal | Japan (Saitama)
Sleazy, salacious and unapologetically satanic blackened speed metal via Japan’s Saitama Prefecture. Cutting through the fittingly no-frills production, guitarist Branded Rebel rips blizzards of devastating hellfire, decanting belligerent express-paced riffage and bracingly economical solos, as vocalist/bassist, the tastefully-named Vladphemer the Sodomizer, howls his torrents of heretical invective, occasionally straying into an endearingly amateurish Tom Araya/King Diamond-like falsetto. Proving bygone evangelist George Whitefield right again, Baptized In Goat Blood brims with blasphemous bangers such as “Beast of Chaos,” “Leviathan’s Priest,” and NWOBHM-indebted screamer “Heavy Metal Avenger”; lascivious fun-fuelled bait, ripe for ensnaring fans of early Bathory, Midnight, and Hellripper.
–Spencer Grady
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At The Plates — Omnivore | Independent | Death Metal | United States (Maryland)
I’m not usually a fan of joke metal, or joke music at all, but I love food, and I love classic and metallic metal, so for them, I make an exception. And the number-one thing is a joke band has to actually be good—and good they are. If you’re a fan of all those things too, you should check out this release, as it is some seriously solid melo-death for those with discerning taste.
–Addison Herron-Wheeler
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Bull of Apis Bull of Bronze — The Fractal Ouroboros | Fiadh Prod | Black Metal | United States (Colorado)
From Ted Nubel’s full album premiere:
On Bull of Apis Bull of Bronze’s sophomore album, swirling mystery comes paired with cruel, austere tones and somber structures. At points the record feels like a soundtrack to ritual sacrifice; at others, an ode to sleep paralysis demons that tinges on the psychedelic. It is always, however, unsettling, with that sense of disharmony joined by a feeling that the listener is experiencing something they shouldn’t.
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Pile — Hot Air Balloon EP | Exploding in Sound | Indie Rock + Post-Hardcore | United States (Boston, Massachusetts)
Straying from the conventions of hard rock to add in a lot more synthwork, pop influence, and layering, the new record from Pile is a great way to kick off the new year. This won’t be standard fare for the die-hard metal fan, but this is a great one to check out for those not afraid to stray a bit from the expected path. It’s surreal, a bit doomy and shoegazy, and all-around solid.
–Addison Herron-Wheeler
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Oathbringer — Tales of Valor | RTR Records | Heavy Metal | Serbia (Kragujevac)
Good, classic heavy metal is a balancing act that most metal subgenres don’t have to participate in. It’s about having enough edge, catchiness, and energy without going overboard in any category. Serbia’s Oathbringer possess this ideal balance, playing identifiably metal songs about metal topics (wars, courage, magic, etc.) in preserved early 80s fashion.
–Colin Dempsey
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Narzissus — Akt III: Erlösung | Fiadh Prod | Black Metal | Austria (Vienna)
On Akt III: Erlösung, Narzissus finds holes in black metal that seemingly shouldn’t exist and fills them with progressive rock, pop, and even flamenco. It’s quite the feat considering how watertight his black metal is. There’s no atmosphere here, only internal pressure that spills over into other disparate genres when black metal can no longer contain Narzissus’ impulses.
–Colin Dempsey
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Engulf — The Dying Planet Weeps | Everlasting Spew Records | Death Metal | United States (New Jersey)
Engulf’s debut album is an antithesis to both “new year, new me” and to old-school pearl-clutching. It exists independent of time, with clear influences that predate death metal entirely (ex. the closing solo on “Earthbore”) and modern stylings in equal amounts. What distinguishes The Dying Planet Weeps is its organic feel, an intangible quality that aligns Engulf’s influences into a neatly woven web.
–Colin Dempsey
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Escuela Grind — DDEEAATTHHMMEETTAALL | MNRK Heavy | Death Metal + Grindcore | United States (Pittsfield, Massachusetts)
There isn’t much to report about DDEEAATTHHMMEETTAALL that its title doesn’t imply. Escuela Grind’s latest EP only contains four songs, all of which lovingly embrace death metal more than the group has in the past. The tracks are tinged with grindcore but noticeably meaty, especially with Katerina Economou’s vocals, displaying a marginally new (this is death metal-worshipping grindcore after all, which is like a chicken-based egg dish in terms of influence) sound for Escuela Grind.
–Colin Dempsey
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Saevus Finis — Facilis Descensus Averno | Transcending Obscurity | Blackened Death Metal | Portugal
Saevus Finis defines their musical responsibilities as “chants of torment and mortuary clamours, ripper of bones and flesh, patterns of bodily destruction,” which is, 1) nails as hell, and 2) an accurate description of their sound. A million synonyms for complex and heavy apply to Facilis Descensus Averno, slotting it beside the likes of Immolation. Most importantly, Saevus Finis favor overwhelming sonics instead of rampant speed and aggression, finding a middle ground between challenging and off-putting.
–Colin Dempsey
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Upcoming Releases 1/14-1/20
Kontact — Full Contact | Dying Victims Productions | Heavy Metal | Canada (Calgary, Alberta)
By cruising the lesser-roamed wormholes connecting Manilla Road’s Crystal Logic with Voivid’s Nothingface, these Canadian sci-fi kooks, featuring members of fellow cosmonauts Traveler and Hrom, have annexed a decidedly idiosyncratic parcel of the cosmos. Here, on this debut album, old-school metal wiles and brattish effects-laden vocals become confounded in a brain-bursting rush of new-age synths, psych-saturated prog arrangements and dueling Maiden-esque guitars; a frolicsome haemorrhage in the space-time continuum, coming on like an alternate score to some 1950s Roger Corman retro-future.
–Spencer Grady
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Sgàile — Traverse the Bealach | Avantgarde Music | Progressive Metal | Scotland (Glasgow)
The second full-length from Tony Dunn’s one-man prog-metal project is 63 minutes of superb majesty. Traverse is stunning in its ambition, pacing, songwriting, arrangement, and musicianship. Every song—indeed, the album as a whole—soars through the stratosphere with grace, and then glides to a satisfying conclusion, offering an immensely rewarding listen. This is the first important (metal) album of 2024.
–Steve Lampiris
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Boundless Chaos — Sinister Upheaval | Dying Victims Productions | Thrash Metal + Death Metal | Germany
Absurdly fun debut from this hyperspeed death-y thrash quintet outta Germany, featuring tidy compositions with slick riffing and a busy rhythm section, as well as appropriately anti-authority lyricism—“The fundament of nationalism has to shake and crumble / Leave no place for growth and salt the fucking earth”—that’s breathlessly growled and barked at you. In other words, Sinister Upheaval answers the question, “What if Dark Angel bothered to streamline their songwriting?”
–Steve Lampiris
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Sovereign — Altered Realities | Dark Descent | Death Metal + Thrash Metal | Norway (Oslo)
Sovereign’s demos already kicked all kinds of ass, but with the band’s debut album, the limiters are off. Inspired by your favorite early 90’s death and thrash metal bands (yes, even some of the weird ones with dedicated synth players), Altered Realities riffs and tears like a cybernetically enhanced hesher given new life as a shock trooper.
–Alex Chan
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Vemod — The Deepening | Prophecy Productions | Atmospheric Black Metal | Norway (Namsos)
Vemod returns with The Deepening, their first full-length album since 2012’s Venter på stormene. The frosty atmospheric black metal of the band’s early material is now supplemented by elements of post-rock and post-punk, creating a much more dynamic sonic palette that still retains that sense of fragile, wintry beauty.
–Alex Chan
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Abhoria — Depths | Prosthetic Records | Black Metal | United States (Los Angeles, California)
On their second album, Abhoria continue to demonstrate how technicality can integrate into modern black metal. It’s incorrect to label them technical black metal because their proficiency kneels at the altar of Immortal and Emperor and, as such, enhances the ambiance (not the atmosphere, an important distinction here) and texture. Most importantly, Depths rips, no matter how you cut it.
–Colin Dempsey
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Upon Stone — Dead Mother Moon | Century Media | Melodic Death Metal | United States (Los Angeles, California)
While Upon Stone have already made their mark via the tour circuit, they had yet to release a full-length album… until now. Their blend of death metal, hardcore, metalcore, and melody is both nostalgic and immediate, and every song on this record is incredibly memorable.
–Addison Herron-Wheeler
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Resin Tomb — Cerebral Purgatory | Transcending Obscurity | Death Metal + Grindcore | Australia (Brisbane)
Promoted as “dissonant death metal and gravelly grind” by their PR, you’d expect Resin Tomb’s debut album to be unlistenable in the best way. You know, dense, ludicrously fast, and complex; all characteristics that deny easy entry. They’re all there, but Cerebral Purgatory‘s guiding light is a bass tone so audible that you can hear it in your sleep. It’s the Rosetta Stone that guides you through the album, helping you parse what would otherwise be glorious messes of distortion.
–Colin Dempsey
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Slift — Ilion | Sub Pop Records | Psychedelic Rock | France (Toulouse)
If you hear a distant shout of “Let’s go!”, it’s me, away in a frigid alcove, ripping the new Slift, awash with joy, picturing how I will tell my grandchildren how this was my Hawkwind, my interstellar psychedelic hard rock, and my retort against the notion that prog is for nerds because this is the coolest music humanity can manifest.
–Colin Dempsey
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Lord Dying — Clandestine Transcendence | MNRK Heavy | Sludge Metal | United States (Portland, Oregon)
Lord Dying continue their epic trilogy through the character of The Dreamer on this record, which pulls in all the doomy, sludgy goodness the band are known for. In addition to continuing the saga, it still stands strong as a solid album without its companions.
–Addison Herron-Wheeler
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