Upcoming Metal Releases: 2/18/2024-2/24/2024
Here are all the new releases for February 18th through February 24th. 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 2/18-2/24
Borknagar — Fall | Century Media Records | Black Metal + Folk Metal + Progressive Metal | Norway (Bergen)
Five years removed from solidifying their transition to a progressive metal band with black metal affectations, Borknagar return with their 12th studio album, Fall. Their previous record, True North, irked some who pined for Borknagar to remain a black metal band through and through. Fall will not please those people. However, it will more than satisfy those who need big, sexy, arena-shaking vocals, a heavy emphasis on melody, and a few cranks of black metal sprinkled like peppercorns.
–Colin Dempsey
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Morta Skuld — Creation Undone | Peaceville Records | Death Metal | United States (Milwaukee, Wisconsin)
Morta Skuld’s latest LP is meat-and-potatoes death metal with juicy, tender sirloins and charred yams glazed with maple syrup. It may be basic in format, but the execution is where the sweetness lies. Creation Undone comes 30 years after their respected debut album Dying Remains and plays like an old-school death metal record that’s aged three decades. It’s gruff yet polished, stubborn about its faith in its laurels. We’ll have an in-depth interview with bandleader Dave Gregor up soon.
–Colin Dempsey
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The Body and Dis Fig — Orchards of a Beautiful Heaven | Thrill Jockey | Experimental + Noise | United States + Germany
At this point, it’s not necessary to be familiar with The Body’s collaborators. They’ve proven their ear for artists worthy of splitting an LP with them through their track record alongside the likes of Thou, Uniform, and Full of Hell. Berlin-based producer Dis Fig (real name Felicia Chen), the latest artist to join their ranks, seemingly shares The Body’s love for creating hellish noise. In fact, when The Body’s Lee Buford said, “A human can’t be as heavy as a machine,” Chen added, “You could never connect to just a machine as well as you could a human. Which is why the combination is so potent for me. I don’t want to hide.” If those pull quotes make Orchards of a Beautiful Heaven out to be a tortured synthetic soundscape, then they’re doing their job.
–Colin Dempsey
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Darkest Hour — Perpetual | Terminal | MNRK Heavy | Metalcore + Melodic Death Metal | United States (Washington D.C.)
Melodic death metal and actually good metalcore is having its heyday again, and this aging millennial couldn’t be happier. The new Upon Stone got everyone stoked for the classics, and Darkest Hour do not disappoint, coming back from a long silence with some serious heavy, melodic goodness. Recommended for all fans of the band as well as new converts.
–Addison Herron-Wheeler
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Stiriah — Portal | The Crawling Chaos Records | Black Metal | Germany (Berlin)
Stiriah’s appeal is obvious. They play melodic black metal that’s rife with harmonies. Their music rarely steps outside those boundaries, though given how precise and venomous they are in their comfort zone, it’s idiotic to complain about that. There’s no need to beef up your craft with atmosphere or over-the-top performances when the foundation is as solid as it is on Portal.
–Colin Dempsey
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Karkosa — Estoterrorcult | Redefining Darkness Records | Blackened Death Metal | United States (Fort Wayne, Indiana)
From Ted Nubel’s track premiere of “Karkosa Deliver a Lethal Dose of Death Metal on “Poison of God” (Early Track Stream)”:
As blasphemous and corrosive as it is, Karkosa’s new album Esoterrorcult reaches a level of catchiness that blackened death metal rarely nails, but honestly could stand to reach more often. There’s no tradeoffs happening here, as Esoterrorcult is big on impact and vile, crawling riffs–but the Indiana group’s core offering comes with engaging trappings that only add to the experience. Somber spoken word interludes, near-operatic gang vocals, and massive production make every song memorable, though the band’s dynamic songwriting plays a role there as well. It’s interesting to hear scream-along-worthy lyrics next to exacting technical staccato riffs, but damn if it doesn’t work here.
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Job for a Cowboy — Moon Healer | Metal Blade Records | Death Metal | United States (Glendale, Arizona)
Job for a Cowboy have seen and done it all during their career, from metalcore and deathcore to classic and new-school death metal and everything in between. Their new album sees them pairing down and playing straightforward, beat-down-inspired death with hints of everything that came before and some cool imagery. And the theme of false healers and psychedelic promises is all-too-relevant in this day and age.
–Addison Herron-Wheeler
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Iron Curtain — Savage Dawn | Dying Victims Productions | Heavy Metal | Spain (Murcia)
The fifth and heaviest record from the Spaniards has more energy than six cups of coffee. Iron Curtain combine the giddy riffing and soloing of Iron Maiden and the sprinting momentum of Motörhead, complete with lyrics that’d make Lemmy proud: “Nomads of rock, out in the streets / Dirty rockers running town to town.” They clearly had fun writing and recording Savage Dawn, so turn your brain off and turn this up.
–Steve Lampiris
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Toxikull — Under the Southern Light | Dying Victims Productions | Heavy Metal | Portugal (Lisbon)
Toxikull’s amusing third record is their most arena-friendly and least thrashy. Here, the Portuguese quartet lean into the hair metal influence that’s been floating in the background since their debut, 2016’s Black Sheep. Under the Southern Light, then, is roughly the middle ground between Mötley Crüe and Overkill. Take that how you will.
–Steve Lampiris
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Vircolac — Veneration | Dark Descent Records | Death Metal | Ireland (Dublin)
The fiendish fug-swirl perpetrated by this promising Dublin quartet is primed with icky prurience and curiously chaotic deviations along countless musical left-hand paths, all wildly pupating in the bowels of a Celtic-lore mood cocoon. Imagine Slovakian tricksters Malokarpatan conducting rabid packs of Arthur Machen’s rascally “little people” in a narcotics-charged death metal burlesque, or Azagthoth and the Angels ditching Lovecraft for Yeats, and you might get an inkling. If there’s a minor quibble, it’s in the underuse of the album’s aura-enhancing extracurriculars, for instance, the wistful string section and Sarah McQuillan’s Björk-like guest vocals, but that’s pretty meagre beer when confronted with the majestic heft of Veneration’s singular brand of mysticism.
–Spencer Grady
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Traveler — Prequel to Madness | No Remorse Records | Heavy Metal | Canada
It’s been four years since Traveler released Termination Shock, and the face of heavy metal has changed. Traditional heavy metal’s revival is arguably stronger than ever, but even amongst an incredibly healthy stable of competition there’s a fresh edge to Prequel to Madness: optimistic leads and an overall abundance of energy make this high-speed enterprise decidedly exciting.
–Ted Nubel
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Gonemage — Spell Piercings | Independent | Nu-Metal + Black Metal | United States (Dallas, TX)
Yes, you read those genre tags right. Garry Brents (Cara Neir, Memorrhage) pushes his ever-evolving project Gonemage in a new direction here, combining his mastery of weird black metal with his love of nu-metal. Rarely in music is anything truly ‘new’, anymore, but this certainly is a contender: bouncy industrial nu-metal with dark, surreal trappings and a healthy scorched vein of black metal.
–Ted Nubel
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