Upcoming Metal Releases

Upcoming Metal Releases: 4/12/20 -- 4/18/20

Upcoming Metal Releases

Here are the new (and recent) metal releases for the week of April 12th to April 18th, 2020. 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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Upcoming Releases

Oranssi PazuzuMestarin kysni | Nuclear Blast | Post-Metal + Black Metal | Finland

One of Finland’s most psychedelic exports, Oranssi Pazuzu are back with a new full-length that perfectly captures the band’s incredible live performance (as our show review and photos captured). Mestarin kysni is a modern summation of all that makes this band wonderful. I’ll stop here, though, and leave analysis to Langdon Hickman whose full review will be coming later this week. Stay tuned.

— Andrew Rothmund

KhemmisDoomed Heavy Metal EP | Nuclear Blast + 20 Buck Spin | Doom | United States (Colorado)

This six-track “mini-album” features a Dio cover, an interpretation of “A Conversation with Death,” a special flexi-disc song for Decibel called “Empty Throne,” and three live recordings. It’s a huge perk and kickass treat for Khemmis fans, but I don’t think this release is really penned at new listeners. That said, the Dio cover is especially golden.

— Andrew Rothmund

Ripped to Shreds亂 (Luan) | Pulverised Records | Death Metal | United States (California)

From Jon Rosenthal’s premiere of “白骨精 (White Bone Spirit)”:

It’s 2020, the world is ending, and we’re all inside. What better way to get all this frustrated energy out than some solid, bone-snapping death metal? Bay Area riff-merchant Ripped to Shreds is the among the best catalysts through which one can vent all one’s thrashing cabin fever energy. Move around the room, get a bangover, do something to this, because Ripped to Shreds has made one of the best traditional death metal records of the year, and, easily the best track on the album, “白骨精 (White Bone Spirit)”‘s daunting mass presents a likely antidote to all your COVID-19 anxieties. Oh, and did I mention this features a solo from Takafumi Matsubara? Yeah. Get into this.

The Black Dahlia MurderVerminous | Metal Blade | Melodic Death Metal | United States (Michigan)

A band that can do no wrong. The Black Dahlia Murder strikes again with Verminous, an album which sounds exactly like The Black Dahlia Murder, and that’s the point. This band has been putting on a killer live show, writing super-techy melodies and riffs, and generally being badass for years now. This release doesn’t change the game for these guys, but it does continue their legacy as one of metal’s finest examples of a truly non-perishable performance.

— Andrew Rothmund

At The Altar of the Horned GodThrough Doors of Moonlight | I, Voidhanger Records | Black Metal | Spain

From Jon Rosenthal’s premiere of “Prayer I” and interview with project mastermind Heolstor:

Black metal is interesting in the sense that it can so easily be fused with other genres. Take, for example, At the Altar of the Horned God, whose debut Through Doors of Moonlight successfully melds the genre with darkwave, post-punk, and other gothic styles. Granted, a few decades ago this would be a verboten mix, but black metal’s tabula rasa texture and atmosphere (read as: static, humming) works as a perfect foil to other equally as textured music.

Abysmal DawnPhylogenesis | Season of Mist | Death Metal | United States (California)

Death metal, period. Abysmal Dawn has returned after six years. Prepare to be hammered into a human pulp and then extruded through a sieved waste pipe into an infinite sea of fleshy muck.

— Andrew Rothmund

ManesYoung Skeleton | Aftermath Music | Experimental Rock | Norway

This single is a bit of a disappointing follow-up to the expansive Slow Motion Death Sequence. Where its predecessor was elaborate and hypnotic in its pulsing, electronic rock groove, Young Skeleton is introspective and stripped down. That isn’t to say it isn’t good — by all means it is quality Manes material — I just expected and hoped for something following the line of evolution following Vilosophe onward.

— Jon Rosenthal

Feed Them DeathPanopticism: Belong/Be Lost | I, Voidhanger Records | Avant-Garde Grindcore | United Kingdom

Are you ready to be split in half down the middle by an infinitely powerful cleaver hurl? How about some avant-garde grindcore curated by the likes of I, Voidhanger to do just that. Sign me up. This solo project features numerous guests, a lovely production, and all the punching riffs in the world.

— Andrew Rothmund

HexvesselKindred | Svart Records | Progressive Folk Rock | Finland

After last year’s lovely All Tree, Kindred marks a few returns for this Finnish folk troupe: 1) this is a return to the heavier psychedelic folk/rock sound the band had mastered on 2010’s No Holier Temple, and 2) it marks a return to their original home: Svart Records.

— Jon Rosenthal

AzathThrough a Warren of Shadow | Pulverised Records | Death Metal | United States (California)

Hard-hitting death metal forms the entirety of this entity’s debut full-length Through a Warren of Shadow. This is the exact kind of sweaty, pissed-off, gnarly stuff I’d expect to hear when digging around in the underground. The grindy short-format songs and constant drum barrage are just two perks to this delicious slab of death.

— Andrew Rothmund

ForlesenHierophant Violent | Hypnotic Dirge Records | Doom + Drone | United States (California)

This is… not beginner’s music. It is wonderful, but Hierophant Violent‘s abstract sounds woven into a droning, doomed atmosphere find themselves at a more advanced end of the music spectrum, and, boasting members of Botanist, Kayo Dot, Lotus Thief, and more, this should be expected. Enter listening to this album with an open mind and expanded attention span, because you will be rewarded.

— Jon Rosenthal

UlveblodOmnia Mors Aequat | Consouling Sounds | Experimental Black Metal | Netherlands

From Andrew Rothmund’s premiere of Omnia Mors Aequat:

From the ashes of experimental black metal project Nihill — a band whose uncompromising vision on the avant-garde, experimental, and traditional led to an extremely invigorating take on the genre — comes Ulveblod and their debut full-length Omnia Mors Aequat. This new project comes from the mind of Nihill guitarist/producer Vitriol (his bandmate, Nihill founding member Michiel Eikenaar, passed away last year) — his work now with Ulveblod is no less daring, but fresh nonetheless. This new release comprises five songs (the last of which is 20+ minutes) that form an uncompromising deluge of noise and racket that resolves when it needs to but never when it doesn’t, or shouldn’t.

From the Grave: Reissues and Re-Releases

Virus — Discography CDs | Duplicate Records | Avant-Garde | Norway

Simply put: if you don’t know Virus, you are missing out. Carl-Michael “Czral” Eide’s oddball rock brainchild following the first demise of the lauded and groundbreaking Ved Buens Ende, the now-defunct Virus built upon Written in Waters‘s discord and made it frantic, cartoonish, and groovy. These CDs contain studio outtakes, lost demos, and “new material” which otherwise would have never seen the light of day (featuring bass work by Camille of Dreams of the Drowned and Smohalla fame).

— Jon Rosenthal

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