Upcoming Metal Releases: 4/16/2023-4/22/2023
Here are the new (and recent) metal releases for April 16th through April 22nd. 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.
Things We Missed
Nerver + Chat Pile — Brothers in Christ | The Flenser | Noise Rock + Industrial + Doom + Sludge Metal | United States (KCMO, OKC)
You would think, given that I put God’s Country at #1 in my Best of 2022 list, that I would have remembered to list this split in UMR last week. But no. Oops?
Nerver opens the split with singularly anxious noise rock, where bass lines ponder uncertainties and the guitars act out panic attacks with surprising accuracy. It’s pretty doomy, too, and some of the best moments are when the doom and the maddening gloom coalesce into pure nightmare.
Chat Pile’s side comes with two tracks that ought to delight any fans of God’s Country, and experiments further with Raygun Busch’s vocals and exactly how their instrumentals can sound like sick, twisted parodies of ‘normal’ rock music. I had the pleasure of hearing “Cut” live in Denver-adjacent Estes Park earlier this year, and it translates astoundingly accurately to tape here. Well, listening to it on record doesn’t really translate the live show experience where I was both sick and on a questionable-dosage edible my friend had hooked me up with, but it’s pretty close!
–Ted Nubel
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Upcoming Releases
Dorthia Cottrell — Death Folk Country | Relapse Records | Acoustic Folk + Country + Ambient | United States (Richmond, VA)
Windhand vocalist Dorthia Cottrell releases her second solo album this week. It’s, well, exactly what the album title describes, a brilliantly dark work of folk/country music. Cottrell’s unmistakable voice, gently backed by guitar, organ, and strings, raises hairs on the back of the neck as she sings of death, love, hope, and loss, and the curious intertwinings between these things.
–Ted Nubel
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Dozer — Drifting in the Endless Void | Blues Funeral Recordings | Stoner Rock + Metal | Sweden
A new Dozer album seems almost like a dream. I mean, man, it’s been fifteen years since Beyond Colossal. Now, I’ve waxed poetic about that album not too long ago, so I won’t belabor the point, but Dozer is a magical goddamn band. Fredrik Norton’s vocals are as flawlessly evocative as always, and although they’ve enlisted YET ANOTHER drummer, Sebastian Olsson hammers in the crazy fills every Dozer song demands just fine. This album is more overtly complex and intricate than Beyond Colosal was, which buried its complexity behind songwriting that made it look effortless. There’s a lot going on in Drifting in the Endless Void, and it’s clear that Dozer spent the last fifteen years dreaming of what could be, not what was.
–Ted Nubel
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Smoulder — Violent Creed of Vengeance | Cruz del Sur Music | Epic Heavy + Doom Metal | International (Canada + USA + Finland)
From Brandon Corsair’s track premiere of “Spellforger”:
With only a single mLP since 2019 to whet voracious fan appetites, Smoulder have had ever-increasing expectation to live up to—and now, with their second album release finally looming, it’s time for Smoulder to once again absolute crush fans worldwide under the force of their heavy metal willpower.
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Portrayal of Guilt — Devil Music | Run for Cover Records | Black Metal + Hardcore + Screamo + ??? | United States (Austin, TX)
Andrew Sacher, over at BrooklynVegan, notes:
[Devil Music] features five new original songs on Side A, and an orchestral re-imagining of those same five songs on Side B.
Portrayal of Guilt’s harsh vocals set against orchestral arrangements is both gorgeous and unsettling […] it’s yet another unpredictable move from Portrayal of Guilt.
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Predatory Void — Seven Keys to the Discomfort of Being | Century Media Records | Blackened Sludge + Doom Metal | Belgium
Well, this is a hell of a lot more fun to listen to than its close relative, Seven Habits for Highly Effective People.
Seriously, though, buckle up for a harrowing blackened sludge odyssey – including members of Amenra, Carnation, Cross Bringer, and more.
–Ted Nubel
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Dawn of Ouroboros — Velvet Incadescence | Prosthetic Records | Progressive Post-Black/Death Metal | United States (Oakland, CA)
Intricately merging progressive black and death metal together with emotional missives and excellent clean vocals, Velvet Incandesence feels as lush and intriguing as its name implies.
P.S. Dawn of Ouroboros starts a tour next week!
–Ted Nubel
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Tanith — Voyage | Metal Blade Records | Hard Rock + Heavy Metal | United States (NYC)
Of all the traditional metal out today, Voyage might be the most beautiful. Skillfully combining guitar harmonies with vocal harmonies, Voyage is an excellent follow-up to In Another Time that takes their picturesque heavy metal to new heights.
–Ted Nubel
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Bonginator — The Intergalactic Gorebong of Deathpot | Barbaric Brutality | Death Metal | United States
Add some brutalizing absurdity to your 4/20 rotation.
If there was any band that should–nay, must– put out an album on 4/20, it’s Bonginator. Taking the ridiculous weed references of stoner metal and upgrading them to not only be ridiculous but ridiculously violent, the band’s energetic and mosh-friendly death metal finally comes to us in glorious LP form.
Side note: This might be the most ignorant snare tone ever committed to tape, and I’m here for it.
–Ted Nubel
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Birdflesh — Sickness in the North | Everlasting Spew Records | Grindcore | Sweden
From Addison Herron-Wheeler’s track premiere of “Chainsaw Frenzy”:
The Scandinavian gore fiends are back with a predictably stacked album of 23 singles. Initially formed in 1992, and somehow still going strong, this song [“Chainsaw Frenzy”] is just what we hoped new Birdflesh would sound like. Thrashy and fun as ever, this song is super catchy despite the aggressive tempo.
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Cave Grave — Unfurling Putridity | Hand of Death Records | Death Metal + Grindcore | United States (Asheville, NC)
Inject this nasty shot of moldy death-grind right into your veins. And then suffer, presumably, but at least it’ll be badass.
–Ted Nubel
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Slung from a Tree — Voyage into Cosmos | Cursed Monk Records | Doom + Stoner Metal | Ireland
I’m never not going to be down for trippy psychedelic doom with harsh vocals. Can’t get enough of it.
Slung from a Tree builds extremely lush and vivid riffscapes, and then fires a cannon-blast of gravelly antipathy right into it to get our hearts racing a little bit. There’s a lot of exciting guitarwork here; apart from the big riffs, there’s gentle leads bolstered by luxurious harmonies and vibrant reverb, which plays well against the band’s more biting, immediate lead vocals.
–Ted Nubel
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Astral Sleep — We Are Already Living in the End of Times | Saarni Records | Psychedelic Doom Metal | Finland
Led by vocals and intertwining layers of guitar-bred misery, Astral Sleep’s fourth album broods and mourns our present circumstances. The band’s brand of psychedelic doom completely sidesteps most others in this genre, opting for a dreamlike atmosphere that’s both crushing and imaginative.
–Ted Nubel
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Blood Star — First Sighting | Shadow Kingdom Records | Heavy Metal | United States
This debut record comes with a great command of classic hard rock melodicism and vintage groove. Admittedly, there’s lots of cool heavy metal revival acts out there today, but Blood Star captures a dark, exciting mood that feels extremely uncommon.
–Ted Nubel
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Century — The Conquest of Time | Electric Assault Records | Heavy Metal | Sweden
Full of dazzling riffs and sword-in-hand exuberance, Century’s debut is an invigorating heavy metal offering that’s got a distinctly retro sound, but with riffs and songwriting that stand on their own and need no comparison. We’ll have more on this one later this week!
–Ted Nubel
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Dope Skum — Gutter South | Independent | Stoner Metal | United States (Chattanooga, TN)
It’s a classic guitar-and-drum doom brew: heavy chords rumble out with fierce, piercing accompaniment. That might be nothing new on its own, but Gutter South feels deeply attuned to the Tennessee two-piece’s Appalachian roots, brimming with a sadness that tinges the edges of the crushing riffs and bleeds into vocalist/guitarist Cody Landress-Gibson’s shouted-in-your-face lyrics.
–Ted Nubel
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Margarita Witch Cult — Margarita Witch Cult | Heavy Psych Sounds | Stoner + Doom Metal | United Kingdom
It’s been a long time since I heard a stoner doom band groove this hard. Huge, thumping shuffles full of fuzz and intrigue–just try not to sway along to the alluring rhythm of “Diabolical Influence.”
–Ted Nubel
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Mezzrow — Summon Thy Demons | Fireflash Records | Thrash Metal | Sweden
Mezzrow first surfaced in the Swedish thrash metal scene in 1990, releasing a single well-received album (Then Came the Killing) and disbanding shortly after with a few pockets of sporadic activity. Not an uncommon story, but surprisingly, they’re back – original vocalist Uffe Pettersson and later-era bassist Conny Welén enlisting new blood for this comeback album. And it’s pretty good, actually – definitely hewing more toward modern thrash and production, but packed with vicious riffs.
–Ted Nubel
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Sintage — Paralyzing Chains | High Roller Records | Heavy Metal | Germany
There’s actually a ton of great traditional metal out this week, I’m realizing. Here’s another one: Sintage’s unusual vocal delivery and up-tempo guitar wizardry are a righteous spectacle.
–Ted Nubel
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These Beasts — Cares, Wills, Wants | Magnetic Eye Records | Stoner + Sludge Metal | United States (Chicago, IL)
From Colin Dempsey’s track premiere of “Nervous Fingers”:
Sludge metal often overlaps with its cousin stoner metal for a slow-burning concoction, but Chicago’s These Beasts have no time to waste. Rather than simmering at a set temperature, the trio propel ever onwards.
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