Upcoming Metal Releases: 3/31/2024 - 4/6/2024
Here are all the new releases for March 31st through April 6th. 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 3/31-4/6
Trocar — Extremities | Selfmadegod Records | Grindcore | United States
These cybergrind freaks, boasting two-thirds of Mortician-worshipping sickos Fluids, live up to their moniker with sharp and surgical focus, slicing and dicing their stomach-churning meat rations like an old Upton Sinclair muck-rake. Grim industrial beats, depraved sample snippets, guest appearances and gargled, pitch-shifted vocal pile-ups add to the prevailing sense of salaciousness on an express-paced full-length debut revelling in its eclectic strains of swivel-eyed, slaughterhouse lunacy, even brokering some rarely-plumbed hybrids pitched equidistant between Men’s Recovery Project and Agoraphobic Nosebleed.
–Spencer Grady
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Korpiklaani — Rankarumpu | Nuclear Blast | Folk Metal | Finland
Korpiklaani has been my personal Shen Yun in 2024. I went from never thinking about them to seeing them everywhere: in my inbox, on concert flyers, on Spotify playlists, in between the cracks of my hardwood floor; you name it, Korpiklaani were there, haunting me with the promise of a jovial time and beer and camp. I don’t think they need to invade your privacy to get your attention as within a few seconds you’ll know whether or not you dig their latest record Rankarumpu. The point is, sometimes overexposure works, as it seems to have turned me onto Korpiklaani, if ever slightly.
–Colin Dempsey
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Austere — Beneath the Threshold | Prophecy Productions | Depressive Black Metal + Shoegaze | Australia (New South Wales)
Last year, Austere re-awakened from the 13-year slumber with Corrosion of Hearts, an album that began where they left off. It’s a little funny then that they’ve developed much more in a single year than they did in over a decade as their newest album, Beneath the Threshold, is closer to gothic rock or shoegaze than it is depressive black metal. Clean vocals are in vogue, the mood is more digestible than overwhelming, and harmonies and melodies preside over all.
–Colin Dempsey
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Acid Mammoth — Supersonic Megafauna Collision | Heavy Psych Sounds | Doom Metal + Stoner Metal | Greece (Athens)
Song titles on Acid Mammoth’s latest full-length include, “Fuzzorgasm (Keep On Screaming),” “Atomic Shaman,” and “Tusko’s Last Trip,” each of which conveys their distortion and riff fetishism better than words ever could.
–Colin Dempsey
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Diabolic Oath — Oracular Hexations | Sentient Ruin | Black Metal + Death Metal | United States (Portland, Oregon)
From Ted Nubel’s track premiere of “Serpent Coils Suffocating the Mortal Wound”:
Diabolic Oath’s new album is massive — it takes up space both sonically and mentally. Hell, even the song titles are excessive. It’s an exercise in overexposure, saturating the listener with black and death metal dialed up to abhorrent (but in a good way) extremes, and behind that extremity is a ton of solid riffs and fascinating songwriting. There’s something almost ritualistic in how it all comes together, actually — if there were a way to summon old deities and terrible, unknown forces, I imagine it would be through something like this rather than some wimpy candles and Latin chants.
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Ingested — The Tide of Death and Fractured Dreams | Metal Blade Records | Brutal Death Metal + Deathcore | United Kingdom (Manchester)
The latest from Ingested proves that the Manchester, U.K. band still have it and that deathcore is alive and well in this year of our lord 2024. The cover art is sick and the songs absolutely rip, but also take a lot of risks and prove the band aren’t just playing cookie-cutter songs.
–Addison Herron-Wheeler
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Locrian — End Terrain | Profound Lore Records | Noise Rock + Post-Metal | United States (Chicago, Illinois)
Based on the singles preceding End Terrain‘s official release, Locrian may finally be releasing music that can be enjoyed rather than immersed in. There are tangible track structures and clean vocals, both of which contribute to an overall lighter mood. That being said, Locrian retains their experimental inclinations, so tracks often dissolve into their patented noise and drone explorations, albeit in a more digestible format than their previous albums.
–Colin Dempsey
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Witch Vomit — Funeral Santcum | 20 Buck Spin | Death Metal | United States (Portland, Oregon)
We’re used to Witch Vomit ruling over the realms of doomy and blackened death metal, but on this new album, they’re also not afraid to get melodic and take a lot more risks. We can’t wait to hear what’s next for the band.
–Addison Herron-Wheeler
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Attic — Return of the Witchfinder | Ván Records | Heavy Metal | Germany
There’s a reason that Attic’s occult-oriented heavy metal is heavily, heavily linked back to King Diamond, and you’ll hear that on this new album too. I wouldn’t treat them as a substitute, though, as they tie together a lot of classic metal influences into a glitzy, riff-packed celebration of how camp and over-the-top atmosphere will always have a place in heavy metal.
–Ted Nubel
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Furze — Caw Entrance | Devoted Art Propaganda | Psychedelic Black Metal | Norway
From Ted Nubel’s full album premiere:
Billed as ‘black psych metal,’ there’s a certain thread of humor throughout the album — from song titles like “Post Mortem Trippin'” to Reaper’s darkly entertaining spoken-word vocals on “You Shall Prevail” — that dovetails with the potent instrumentals to only reinforce a surreal state of being, At times, it can slip the listener into a half-dreaming, subconscious state, only to tear apart that suspension with a bracing, meaty riff.
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Horndal — Head Hammer Man | Prosthetic Records | Sludge Metal + Hardcore | Sweden
Melodic and unpredictable, Horndal’s newest album somehow explores even more niche topics than their previous works, but with the same burning drive to expose their homeland’s rich history and highlight how we’re facing the same challenges today, over a century later.
–Ted Nubel
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