Upcoming Metal Releases: 3/12/2023-3/18/2023
Here are the new (and recent) metal releases for the weeks of March 12th, 2023 to March 18th, 2023. 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.
Downfall of Gaia — Silhouettes of Disgust | Metal Blade Records | Atmospheric Sludge + Post-Black Metal + Crust | Germany
Downfall of Gaia paints a bleak, yet enticing portrait on their new record; their crust-tinged post-black metal keeps the momentum up even as it reaches new emotional lows.
–Ted Nubel
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Kamelot — The Awakening | Napalm Records | Progressive/Melodic Power Metal | United States (Tampa, FL)
Intensely cheesy, and almost aggravatingly overproduced–if you’re in the mood for over-the-top power metal, this should hit the spot.
–Ted Nubel
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Kruelty — Untopia | Profound Lore Records | Death + Doom Metal + Hardcore | Japan
It’s hard to disagree with the thick, meaty diet of d-beats and grisly hardcore-mashed-up-with-death-metal riffs that Kruelty provides. Plus, you really can’t top the drum tones here, especially that snare. As any drummer can attest, an unmuted snare drum is a loud, disagreeable motherfucker, and it’s rendered in full furious fidelity here.
–Ted Nubel
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Night Demon — Outsider | Century Media Records | Heavy Metal | United States
Still hell-bent on classic metal, Night Demon’s new record soars along the NWOBHM-aligned trajectory their last two records established. This time around it comes in the form of a sci-fi concept album – we’ve got an interview coming later this week with more info.
–Ted Nubel
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Foretoken — Triumphs | Prosthetic Records | Symphonic Melodic Death Metal | United States
Foretoken’s sophomore album is another volley of death metal that checks all the sub-genre boxes, if we really get into it: symphonic, melodic, technical, and so on. It’s a band focused on pushing death metal to its limits as a storytelling mechanic, though they do make sure to stay grounded. Rather than taking the “power metal with growls” approach we sometimes see in melodic/symphonic death metal, Foretoken is extremely purposeful in keeping death metal an essential part of the equation through jagged riffs and intense percussion.
–Ted Nubel
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Suotana — Ounas I | Reaper Entertainment | Melodic Black + Death Metal | Finland
Suotana combines the epic, honestly-almost-power-metal side of melodic black metal with 2000s-era Gothenburg-style melodic death metal. This is a wild combination, really, but it works.
–Ted Nubel
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Úlfúð — Of Existential Distortion | Dark Descent Records | Black + Death Metal | Iceland (Reykjavík)
Both martial and magical, Úlfúð’s debut full-length weaves spellbinding tendrils as it marches forward–an unusually purposeful combination of black and death metal.
–Ted Nubel
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Mordran — So Falls the Night | Independent | Atmospheric + Ambient Black Metal | Sweden
The band self-describes So Falls the Night as “lo-fi black beats,” and it’s not too far off. Elusive, night-clad guitar tones wash over hip-hop style beats with a combination of frosty and mystical ambience that’s decidedly reminiscent of black metal. This might be a sort of halfway point between lo-fi black metal and dungeon rap (which I promise you is actually pretty neat).
–Ted Nubel
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Hyperdontia — Deranged | Me Saco un Ojo | Death Metal | International
A vicious, shredding death metal EP. Hyperdontia captures a certain harshness that doesn’t align to any particular death metal sub-genre or scene-just a detached malevolence expressed through supremely good riffs.
–Ted Nubel
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Desolate Realm — Legions | Independent | Heavy + Doom Metal | Finland
From Ted Nubel’s track premiere of “Forsaken Ground”:
Plenty of bands play up-tempo doom that crosses over to heavy metal, true, but it’s rarely as fast or as menacing as you’ll find on [Desolate Realm’s] upcoming album Legions. There’s no toeing the line here–expect both high speed, intricate heavy metal and patient, dignified doom, unified by deft tempo-crossing playing and hefty songwriting that gives each flavor ample time in the sunless lands that the band chronicle.
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Green Yeti — Necropolitan | Independent | Psychedelic Rock + Stoner + Doom Metal | Greece
Necropolitan has a B-movie horror feel to its rhythmic, riff-centered doom metal. This campy, occult, fuzz-obsessed doom feels similar to what was coming out of the occult doom scene in the late 1990s and early 2000s – but most of the bands that did that well are either gone or suck now, and Green Yeti carries on the hazy legacy well.
–Ted Nubel
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