Upcoming Metal Releases

Upcoming Metal Releases: 1/2/2022-1/8/2022


Here are the new (and recent) metal releases for the week of January 2nd, 2022 to January 8th, 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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Upcoming Releases

WilderunEpigone | Century Media | Symphonic Progressive/Folk Metal | United States (Boston, MA)

On Epigone, Wilderun blends symphonic might, fragile beauty, and overwhelming emotion into an unusually cohesive effort. Looks like there’s a Radiohead cover as a bonus track, which would be pretty odd in most cases—but it sort of fits here.

–Ted Nubel

Nocturnal GravesAn Outlaw’s Stand | Season of Mist | Thrash + Death Metal | Australia

As they’ve done since their inception early in the 2000s, here Nocturnal Graves spews forth some nasty, but riff-focused, death/thrash fit only for the darkest, unholiest funerals.

–Ted Nubel

Seven Nines and TensOver Opiated in a Forest of Whispering Speakers | Willowtip Records | Post-Metal + Rock | Canada (Vancouver, BC)

From Colin Dempsey’s track premiere of “Throwing Rocks at Mediocrity”:

Seven Nines and Tens opt for post-metal’s patience rather than its gutturality. Despite barely running past the five-minute mark, “Throwing Rocks at Mediocrity” exhales deep from its chest like it’s in the midst of a trance. It’s a moderately-paced affair. On top of a deliberately low beats-per-minute rhythm, Seven Nines and Tens reserve their outburst for the coda, and even that is an exercise in restraint. The drums briefly fly off the rails, and the guitars mount a soapbox for an instant, but the group dashes away the idea that “Throwing Rocks at Mediocrity” requires losing control. Instead, they validate its title with reservation.

RiverwoodShadows and Flames | Independent | Progressive + Middle Eastern Folk Metal | Egypt

Shadows and Flames mixes progressive and folk metal together admirably, capturing a dazzling sense of majesty. String textures drive a lot of the melody, but underneath that is a sturdy metal core with exceptional rhythmic momentum.

–Ted Nubel

WorshipMany Masters | Independent | Sludge-Metal + Post-Metal + Hardcore | United States (California)

Worship’s new EP would still be notable even if they were to simply contain their hardcore roots to an underlying principle. However, that’d betray their mantra of playing loud and going deaf. There are smidges of post-metal in their ranks, but this new project is more of a marriage between hardcore’s immediacy and sludge metal’s septic drawl.

–Colin Dempsey

Ghost CreekII | Independent | Funeral Doom Metal | United States (South Carolina)

Ghost Creek play a remorseless dirge of funeral doom without frivolous amplifier worship nor any unrestrained aggression. Rather, the one-man project seems detached from the human experience, observing it the way a crow studies a corpse – attentively, but with no affection nor malice.

–Colin Dempsey

Bong WizardVulgar Display of Flower | Independent | Doom + Stoner Metal | United States (Los Angeles, CA)

I’m mostly all set on weed puns, thanks to the last twenty years, but Bong Wizard has some good ones, as evidenced by this album title. What’s inside is largely what you expect: hazy riffs, druggy jams, and Bongzilla-style screams that put a little harshness into the high.

–Ted Nubel

PunhaladaSobrevivente | Independent | Thrash Metal | Japan

The Japanese-Brazilian cross-national project Punhalada is a puritan’s dream. This is thrash metal that would pickpocket your wallet, then hold you up at knifepoint when they need bus fare. The vocals are particularly unforgiving, barking more like a death metal pit than anything else under the thrash umbrella.

–Colin Dempsey

Cruel BombMan Made | Independent | Thrash Metal | United States

Cruel Bomb comes in hard on this EP, tossing in lightning quick riffs and slower, neck-breaking choruses that navigate the crossover-leaning boundaries of thrash metal. Lead single “A-10” may not quite match up to the annihilating power of its namesake, the hilariously destructive “Warthog” aircraft, but shit, it gets close.

–Ted Nubel

Batrakos + Plasstphrqncys | Xenoglossy Records | Noise | Italy

Okay, so this one isn’t metal at all, but it is a cool noise release with a pristine wallpaper aesthetic that requires your attention. Batrakos, featuring members of Thecodontion, fully succumbs to their weirdo experimental side here. Listen to this at night with the lights off, or maybe just before dawn.

–Ted Nubel

SothorisWpiekłowstąpienie | More Hate Productions | Black Metal + Death Metal | Poland

Allow Sothoris to kiss your toughened eardrums with lapping black metal fretwork and a dead-as-a-corpse death metal rhythm section. The grooves pretzel and contort around a sturdy songwriting spinal column.

–Colin Dempsey

RGRSSA World of Concern | Life After Death | Death Metal + Grindcore | Canada (Quebec)

Kick off your new year with a profound hatred towards humanity. RGRSS will sap you of any languishing holiday cheer leftover from the holidays with their equally thickset and tactile debut album.

–Colin Dempsey

OARThe Blood You Crave | Blighttown Records | Post-Black Metal | Australia

The way OAR slink through negative space, with their knuckles dragging across the ground and their lips filled with puss, is just as unsettling as when they engage in more standard black metal hedonistics. It’s all veiled by a dozen inches of atmospheric mist, plummeting bass, and raspy howls. Even the slower sections on their new album are far removed from solace of any form.

–Colin Dempsey