Upcoming Metal Releases: 12/5/2021-12/11/2021
Here are the new (and recent) metal releases for the week of December 5th, 2021 to December 11th, 2021. 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.
Things We Missed
Elder + Kadaver — ELDOVAR: A Story of Darkness & Light | Independent | Progressive Rock + Metal | Germany
Collaboration records are always interesting, and it stands to reason that one between Elder, a band dead set on never sounding the same between two records, and Kadavar, a band focused on perfecting their strange vision of rock ‘n’ roll while getting increasingly progressive, would be really cool. And it is.
Eldovar: A Story of Darkness & Light is definitely one of the prog-rockiest things either band can lay claim to, and it’s an absolute delight in that regard. I don’t know if I want to go as far as the Bandcamp liner notes and map out different prog bands as parallels to each song, but there’s clear delineations between what each track wants to achieve and not a ton of overlap beyond that it all sounds sublime. Suffice it to say that you should listen to the whole thing before passing judgement.
–Ted Nubel
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Upcoming Releases
Cadaveric Fumes — Echoing Chambers of Soul | Blood Harvest Records | Death Metal | France
The first and final album from the French death metal outfit follows up a promising decade of demos, splits, EPs, and a compilation: while it’s a bummer that their venture into full-length territory comes as an apparent finale, it’s a mighty work that honors the decade of work that went into it. Enjoy a full-length slab of weighty death metal with riffs that winnow into the brain and exquisitely depraved vocals, a prime offering endowed with sick leads and sicker fills.
–Ted Nubel
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Funeral — Praesentialis in Aeternum | Season of Mist | Gothic + Funeral Doom | Norway
Funeral aren’t quite the originators of funeral doom, but they’re damn close. Thirty years later, their gothic-tinged dirges still capture the charm of funeral doom, splicing crushing atmosphere with deadly riffs.
–Ted Nubel
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Malignant Altar — Realms of Exquisite Morbidity | Dark Descent Records | Death Metal | United States (Texas)
Some bands, like Malignant Altar, just get it. They know what’s up, they don’t fuck around, they give you the goods and send you off with a smile. If a single phrase from Wikipedia’s death metal page appeals to you, then you’ll enjoy Malignant Altar’s devotional demolition.
–Colin Dempsey
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Ethereal Shroud — Trisagion | Independent | Atmospheric Black Metal + Funeral Doom | United Kingdom
Trisagion is lamentation on a grand scale: as the detailed liner notes on Bandcamp convey, the striking immensity and dolorous melodies describe some of society’s massive, ancestral failings. Heavy synths covering the powerful riffs and dynamic drumming with a funeral shroud, though some tendrils of hopeful melody shine through like errant rays of light.
–Ted Nubel
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Inherits the Void — Monolith of Light | Avantgarde Music | Atmospheric Black Metal | France
As cosmically-themed as this is, it sure feels rainy. Which, of course, I love—the more that atmospheric black metal can feel like sitting inside on a murky day and watching thunderstorms, the better, even if it’s about cosmic constructions beyond our understanding.
–Ted Nubel
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Restless Spirit — Blood of the Old Gods | Lifesblood Records | Stoner + Doom Metal | United States (Long Island, NY)
From Ted Nubel’s track premiere of “Cascade Immolator”:
[…] there’s a special place in my heart for metal that deals in both the fast and the slow while excelling at both. New York’s Restless Spirit had a good grasp on this already with their 2019 debut full-length Lords of the New Depression, but their upcoming album Blood of the Old Gods shows a progression from more stoner-rooted heaviness to a turbo-charged, all-inclusive extrapolation of Sabbathian doom with a vicious character and an absolute monopoly on righteous riffs across all tempos, shapes, and sizes.
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Noxis / Cavern Womb — Communion of Corrupted Minds | Rotted Life Records | Death Metal | United States (Cleveland, OH + Philadelphia, PA)
Ah, a delightful study in death metal contrasts. Noxis delivers delicious riffs, corroded and toxic, while Cavern Womb plunges into the depths of disgust. Noxis would certainly not count as “clean” death metal by any normal standards, but up against the subterranean murk of Cavern Womb they’re positively gleaming.
–Ted Nubel
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Reveal! — Doppelherz | Sepulchral Voice Productions | Black +Death + Thrash Metal | Sweden
From Brandon Corsair’s track premiere of “Clearly, God Damn”:
There’s a certain level of perfection that’s demanded from bizarre, genre-bending music. Any level of flaws tends to mean the entire project falling apart; holes in the veil turn an experience into a chore, and very little genuinely strange stuff works within the metal framework.
Reveal! don’t care about that. They’re talented enough to have carried three albums before now without any strain, their music coming across not as the genuinely chaotic mismatch of sounds that it is and more as a channeling of something more pure—an alternate historical path to develop extreme metal in the first place, or a group of strange beasts attempting to put their own indecipherable slant onto a genre played by mere mortals.
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Phrenelith — Chimaera | Nuclear Winter Records | Death Metal | Denmark (Copenhagen)
The sheer coherence between drums and guitars on Chimaera is what stands out to me the most: every drum fill is locked in perfectly with the barrage of riffs that Phrenelith sends our way, a unified entity hammering in the nails and ensuring the maximum transferal of momentum into our skulls.
–Ted Nubel
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Andrew Lee — Heavy Metal Shrapnel | Nameless Grave Records | Shred + Speed Metal | United States
From Jon Rosenthal’s full album premiere and interview today:
A shred album in the classical sense, Andrew Lee’s Heavy Metal Shrapnel fuses strong songwriting and catchy riffwork with memorable melodies and absolutely face-melting guitar solos. There’s talent to be shared, as well, as the album features guest spots from fellow shredders in Chthe’ilist’s ranks (namely Phil Tougas and Antoine Daigneault), as well as Zealotry’s Alex Zalatan and Hagamoto of Bodies Lay Broken fame.
Pyrexia — Gravitas Maximus | Unique Leader Records | Slam + Death Metal | United States
Slam-fueled death metal with a single goal: to make sure you’re no longer capable of deciphering the Latin album title once you’ve listened to it. With moshpit-ready song titles like “Pawn to King” and “Rule of 2,” this is a great album for turning off your brain and revelling in chug-laden glory. Reject thought, embrace massive, nasty grooves.
–Ted Nubel
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Dessiderium — Aria | The Artisan Era | Progressive Metal + Death Metal | United States (Arizona)
Cowards decry that progressive metal is a genre for nerds who wank away instead of playing actual songs. Dessiderium replies with spellbinding and light tapestries lined with punchy death metal, as if to say “buddy, those are the songs.”
–Colin Dempsey
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Rat King — Santa Hipocresía EP | Within the Mind Records | Death Metal + Grindcore | United States (Washington)
This promo will be brief, just like Rat King’s upcoming EP. Recommended for people who: hate authority, distrust oligarchies, and crave time-tested grindcore.
–Colin Dempsey
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Bloodrust — A Legacy of Violence | Independent | Death Metal | Falkland Islands
Two words that entice most death metal fans are “bolt” and “thrower.” Bloodrust take plenty of inspiration from the British legends but with a greater emphasis on pacing and dynamics. The machine-gun drumming commanders a ship of varying harmonics and pointed bass riffing.
–Colin Dempsey
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Vahrzaw — The Trembling Voices of Conquered Men | Transcending Obscurity Records | Blackened Death Metal | Australia
It’s cool to hear a blackened death act that embraces old-school death metal like Vahrzaw. The Australian outfit eschew the standard wall-of-sound approach most genre contemporaries employ to focus on the basics, i.e. indulgent guitar solos, start-stop riffing, and a thrash metal attitude.
–Colin Dempsey
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Lifelost — Punitive Damnation | Independent | Black Metal | Spain
Lifelost reminds us of life’s simple pleasures like ever-encompassing bleakness, unabashed aggression, and other black metal-appropriate descriptors. His music is particularly athletic, delving deeper into darkness just when you think it’s possible this guy has never seen sunlight before.
–Colin Dempsey
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