Upcoming Metal Releases: 3/10/2024-3/16/2024

Here are all the new releases for March 10th through March 16th. 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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Udåd — Udåd | Peaceville Records | Raw Black Metal | Norway (Halden)

Udåd is the latest project from Thomas Eriksen, better known as Mork, a devotee of black metal’s necro roots. Mork’s past two albums, Dypet and Katedralen, kept those roots alive, but it seems they weren’t grim enough for him. On Udåd, Eriksen delivers what many consider quintessential black metal, meaning it’s repetitive, raw, and lo-fi as hell. His desire for painful music separates the project from Mork’s recent ventures into denser atmospheres.

–Colin Dempsey

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Kilter, Andromeda Anarchia, Growlers Choir, and SEVEN)SUNS — La Suspendida | Silent Pendulum Records | Avant-Garde Metal + Jazz | United States

How many of you will listen to this? I don’t know, and I don’t care, but as long as n>0, I’ll be happy. To keep it short, this is a metal-jazz opera about a relationship that continues into the afterlife. Imperial Triumphant’s Kenny Grohowski was one of the lead composers alongside Ed Rosenberg III and Laurent David. An entire armada of metal vocalists, collectively called the Growler’s Choir, is on tap. All of this reveals what you’re already assuming, La Suspendida is out there. Fortunately, it’s not avant-garde to the point that it’s pure theory. There are stakes, climaxes, bass riffs, Grohowski’s fearsome drumming, and moments that incite peril. It also demonstrates how metal doesn’t need to be traditionally “heavy” to be emotionally affecting, albeit in the least conventional way possible. You won’t hear anything like La Suspendida this month or even this year.

–Colin Dempsey

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Defect Designer — Chitin | Transcending Obscurity Records | Death Metal | Norway (Oslo)

One of the weirdest and goofiest bands in death metal offers its third and strangest album to date. Defect Designer have spent their whole career taking seriously not taking anything seriously. Here, the Norway-based duo borrow Fleshgod Apocalypse drummer Eugene Ryabchenko for a wild ride of exploring and expanding their sound using the prog, grind, and post-punk influences that have been creeping in from the periphery since the beginning. Chitin, then, is roughly two-thirds weirdo death metal and one-third anything-goes-experimentalism.

–Steve Lampiris

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Hadit — Metaphysical Engines Approaching The Event Horizon | I, Voidhanger Records | Death Metal + Black Metal | Italy (Varese)

Many death metal and black metal hybrids are punished by over-compressed production, so it’s refreshing that Gabriele Gramaglia produced Metaphysical Engines Approaching The Event Horizon. Gramaglia is a member of Vertebra Atlantis, a group who have sported some of the best mixing in death and black metal over the past few years. Hadit’s second LP reaps similar benefits. Metaphysical Engines Approaching The Event Horizon‘s cavernous, exploratory, and big style sounds good and defined when heard like this.

–Colin Dempsey

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Aardvark — Tough Love | Dying Victims Productions | Heavy Metal | Australia

This fun debut from the Australian quartet is throwback ay eff. Aardvark do an earnest and gleeful take on trad-metal, pretending with all their hearts that the last four decades of evolution in heavy metal didn’t happen. Featuring tight songwriting with smart arrangements, as well as an extremely performative vocalist (Ed Vaark, no joke) with a bitchin’ pornstache, Tough Love is an excellent choice to blast outta your ’81 Trans Am.

–Steve Lampiris

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Aborted — Vault of Horrors | Nuclear Blast | Death Metal | Belgium (Beveren)

This album is solid as hell musically, like all offerings from Aborted, but also like many of their releases, it’s a bit uninspired. Once again they prove they can play circles around pretty much everyone else when it comes to technique, but the horror tribute concepts present here have already been fleshed out time and again by bands like Mortician, and with more finesse when it comes to the references. Still, if technically and heavy is what you’re looking for, this won’t disappoint.

–Addison Herron-Wheeler

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Armagh — Exclamation Po!nt | Dying Victims Productions | Heavy Metal + Black Metal | Poland (Warsaw)

With its scuzzy production and maniacally zestful amalgams of Manilla Road, NWOBHM and proto-black metal, the third full-length from these Warsaw city reprobates hits like a gas-guzzling, grease-spattered hog ride through the labyrinths of Count Orlok’s Carpathian retreat. The vocals of founding frontman/guitarist Galin Soulreaper recall a reedier Rob Tyner, or less psych-addled Duane Warr, while the buzzsaw rip of Maiden-meets-Hellhammer assaults such as “Aftermath” and “Rapid Str!de”, powered by Al Atom Smasher’s ferocious double-kick drums, freight incantatory Gaelic harmonies entirely worthy of the band’s clandestine Ulidian muse.

–Spencer Grady

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Stress Angel — Punished by Nemesis | Stygian Black Hand | Thrash Metal | United States (Brooklyn, New York)

Thrash metal used to be metal’s most dangerous offspring, but much has happened in the 40 years since then, including many major label breakthroughs. Stress Angel’s Punished by Nemesis returns thrash to its former infamy while also indulging its curious side, which sadly doesn’t receive enough love from today’s thrash metal. It’s as gritty as it is flashy, all without stepping too far into proto-death metal territory.

–Colin Dempsey

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Brat — Social Grace | Prosthetic Records | Grindcore + Death Metal | United States (New Orleans, Louisiana)

Barbiecore and bimbocore at its finest, this is not a release to sleep on if you like fast, heavy grind. Each song is a blast fest just like on their EPs, but there’s a little more time and care put into the production, so the instruments and vocals shine through. Definitely a solid first album from this emerging group of badasses, and we can’t wait to hear more.

–Addison Herron-Wheeler

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Vltimas — Epic | Season of Mist | Black Metal + Death Metal | Portugal + United States + Canada

Blasphemer best described Vltimas, his project that includes Flo Mounier and David Vincent, five years ago when he said, “When you create, it needs to be as free as possible, and I wouldn’t like to pigeonhole anything. I don’t even know what to call this at this stage.” The trio’s second album Epic exists in the murky abyss between death, black, and thrash metal. Songwriting isn’t the main focus, and as such, the album escapes easy classification. However, that’s not a negative aspect because each member is in top form, pooling their energy into performing rather than writing.

–Colin Dempsey

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Shock Withdrawal — The Dismal Advance | Brutal Panda Records | Grind + Crust | United States (Los Angeles, CA)

From Tom Campagna’s track premiere of “No Closure”:

The album, which is just over 20 minutes, flies by at lightning speeds with nary a second to catch your breath—that is until the album closer, appropriately titled “No Closure.” The track here is more evocative of a slow, sludgy crawl […]

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DragonForce — Warp Speed Warriors | Napalm Records | Power Metal | United Kingdom (London)

If you’re into power metal that constantly stays one hair’s breadth away from sheer absurdity, you probably don’t need any further convincing to hit this.

–Ted Nubel

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