Upcoming Metal Releases: 3/26/2023-4/1/2023
Here are the new (and recent) metal releases for the weeks of March 26th, 2023 to April 1st, 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.
Upcoming Releases
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Lamp of Murmuur — Saturnian Bloodstorm | Argento Records | Black Metal | United States (Los Angeles, CA)
Lamp Of Murmuur hardly needs any introduction at this point, yet the project has taken on a new identity with this third full-length effort. Leaving behind the gothic tinges and vulnerable states of Submission and Slavery, Lamp Of Murmuur instead looks to the past to draw influence.
Saturnian Bloodstorm is bold in the Immortal worship that takes centre stage in the icy vortex that M. has created. Keyboards are present, as are swirling guitars and the signature vocal from the mastermind himself.
–Cheryl Carter
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Kommand — Death Age | 20 Buck Spin | Death Metal | United States (Los Angeles, CA)
I love that you can preorder this album for 7.77 USD which shows the rate of inflation in the metal world–or 7.77 is the new 6.66. Kommand is from the US and plays death metal in the style of Bolt Thrower and other bands that sound like Bolt Thrower. While this might seem a jab at originality, playing in the style of Bolt Thrower is a selling point and Kommand offers a deal of a lifetime.
–Jonathan Carbon
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Demonstealer — The Propaganda Machine | Black Lion Records | Death + Black + Thrash Metal | India (Mumbai)
While Demonstealer released some excellent EPs during the pandemic years, The Propaganda Machine is their full-length follow-up to 2018’s The Last Reptilian Warrior. Sole bandmember
Sahil Makhija enlists a ridiculous roster of guest musicians to fill out the roster on this record, which delivers intense extreme metal that drives right at the heart of one of humanity’s oldest enterprises: deception. It’s an intense record that feels powered by intense, burning discontent.
–Ted Nubel
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Sermon — Of Golden Verse | Prosthetic Records | Progressive Metal + Post-Rock | United Kingdom
The latest from Sermon, Of Golden Verse, is a beautiful, lilting slice of proggy post rock that might not necessarily be the trending sound these days, but I’m definitely hoping this album inspires a resurgence. The kind of band that you can put on while you need to work and concentrate, but definitely not a band to ignore.
–Addison Herron-Wheeler
Also, check out 10 non-metal albums they recommended to us.
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Gel — Violent Closure | Convulse Records | Hardcore | United States (Denver, CO)
A hardcore band that have been turning heads since their inception. Gel finally unleash their new record onto the world. Only Constant continues in the direction the band has been going in, but with even more brutality and fury. The future of hardcore is both unrelentingly aggressive and unbearably catchy.
–Addison Herron-Wheeler
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Outlaw — Reaching Beyond Assiah | AOP Records | Black Metal | Brazil
Who is ready for black metal about…checks notes…Anti-Cosmic Luciferianism? Outlaw was originally from Brazil and has since moved internationally to craft music which sounds like ritualistic magic. I am also going to say this is the wildest cover I have seen all morning. Please form a line for cinematic black metal with perhaps some violence involved.
–Jonathan Carbon
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Mammon’s Throne — Mammon’s Throne | Brilliant Emperor Records | Stoner + Sludge + Doom Metal | Australia
The avalanche of reverb draped on this melancholic exploration of grim fantasy could be called ‘cavernous,’ but it’s much more of an ‘echoes in a crumbling castle’ situation to me. Mammon’s Throne definitely nails that atmosphere, with snarled growls and yearning guitar leads piercing the rhythm section’s gloom. There’s much more menace here than you’d think, and it phenomenally escalates the phantasmal horror.
–Ted Nubel
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It Is Dead — Brutal Deathrace 2023 | Halo of Flies | Sludge Metal | United States (Milwaukee, WI)
This ‘tour EP’ repackages three songs from It Is Dead’s recent split with Void Me, plus a new one, “Brutal Death.” The new track sits somewhere between blackened sludge and sludgy crust-punk, sharing an undercurrent of rage with the other material.
More on that tour, which will see them traversing the Midwest, here.
–Ted Nubel
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Dai-ichi — Dai-ichi | Crown & Throne Ltd | Black Metal | Unknown
From Jon Rosenthal’s track premiere of “Where the Ivy Grows”:
[On] their upcoming second album, also titled dai-ichi, dai-ichi perfects the raw black metal formula. dai-ichi keeps it simple, stupid, with effective, lean songwriting and a feral spirit.
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Ohhms — Rot | Church Road Records | Sludge + Post-Metal | United Kingdom
The English quintet’s evolution from burly, soaring post-metal to burly, soaring sludge metal is nearly complete with their sixth album. No more album side-length songs—here, it’s nine songs in 37 minutes, limiting the sonic exploration of past records to a pair of songs on side B. So, depending on how you feel about the post-metal self-indulgence of their previous work, either the band cut out the fat or they cut out the stuff that made them interesting. Either way, they still have bitchin’ album covers.
–Steve Lampiris
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Isaak — Hey | Heavy Psych Sounds | Stoner Metal + Rock | Italy
A jubilantly heavy burst of stoner swagger that arrives with all the subtlety of a fully-loaded tractor-trailer.
–Ted Nubel
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Gyrdleah — Spellbinder | Black Lion Records | Black Metal | United Kingdom
Morose, maybe slightly haunted black metal.
–Ted Nubel
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End — Hunter | Cult of Parthenope | Black Metal | Italy
Even visually, Hunter is an intriguing album. The album art, a photograph depicting a cloaked figure wielding a scythe, is a wide, vivid shot (well, whatever the black and white equivalent of vivid is, anyway!). None of the mundane details of the scenery surrounding the focal point are obscured, which actually only heightens the figure’s presence in the scene.
Musically, there’s a parallel there: Hunter combines menacing riffs with dense drumming and a wide, panoramic sound. While it’s not exactly chrome-polished production, there’s still a clarity to Hunter that gives listeners a window into the entirety of the band’s sound and the unnerving pictures they paint with it.
–Ted Nubel
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Desert Storm — Death Rattle | APF Records | South + Stoner Metal + Rock | United Kingdom
Vocalist Matthew Ryan’s extremely clear, yet gruff vocals are an interesting companion to Desert Storm’s mix of progressive-minded stoner metal, which on Death Rattle experiments with blending patient, layered song structures with an energetic, fuzzy core.
–Ted Nubel
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Deadwolff — Heavy Rock n’ Roll | Golden Robot Records | Heavy Metal + Hard Rock | Canada (Toronto, ON)
Well, it’s right there in the name – Deadwolff trade in heavy rock ‘n’ roll, and they earn the title easily. With a mixture of charisma and the sort of down-to-earth meanness one expects from a band spelling ‘wolff’ with two ‘f’s, Heavy Rock n’ Roll is an eager debut that oozes promise (and motor oil).
–Ted Nubel
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Allfather — A Violent Truth | Independent | Groove + Doom + Sludge Metal | United Kingdom
Sludge and hardcore meet an impressive arsenal of heavy metal chops on this new Allfather album, with powerhouse vocalist (and avid shoe collector) Tom Ballard in charge of narrating the vicious proceedings.
–Ted Nubel
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Aara — Triade II: Nyx | Debemur Morti Productions | Atmospheric Black Metal | Switzerland
Aara are one of the hardest working bands in Switzerland, or even the world, at the moment, with Triade III: Nyx already being their fifth full-length in four years. Taking influence from the novel “Melmoth the Wanderer,” Aara use literature to encompass their black metal in elevated tones as their trilogy comes to a stunning close.
The trio use classic imagery and darkness to submerge themselves in the gothic world of the novel and Nyx is awash with tangible drama and elegance.
–Cheryl Carter
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Derhead — The Grey Zone Phobia | Brucia Records | Industrial + Avant-Garde Black Metal | Italy
Derhead folds exciting and intricate melodies into their downcast black metal. Heart-searching and soul-annihilating, it builds a complex landscape of ups and downs that deeply rewards active listening.
–Ted Nubel
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Leidensweg — Wolkenbruch | Two Towers Tapes | Raw Black Metal + Ambient | Austria
Dense and murky raw black metal that spreads out like a slowly billowing cloud–a miasmic storm of antipathy.
–Ted Nubel
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