Upcoming Metal Releases: 4/18/2021 - 4/24/2021
Here are the new (and recent) metal releases for the week of April 18th, 2021 to April 24th, 2021. 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
Ice Howl — Erhan’s Quest | Independent | Heavy Metal + Stoner Rock | United States
This D.I.Y.-or-die heavy metal/stoner rock project has been fairly prolific since kicking off in 2016, and yet no two releases have ever sounded that similar, emphasizing innovation as well as consistency. This new release is instrumental and RPG-oriented, offering the chance for a self-guided narrative… I think that still counts as a concept album, right? Anyway, the riffs smoke, and they take on a sort of meditative property with the absence of vocals.
–Ted Nubel
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Beast Mode — Pound of Flesh | Independent | Melodic Thrash Metal | United States
Savage and unrelenting blackened, melodic thrash that rips through the competition: the band’s ability to blend tasteful leads with violent song structures is extremely impressive. While the band is tightly locked together, there’s still enough wild, chaotic roughness to reinforce the bloody menace.
–Ted Nubel
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Upcoming Releases
Paysage d’Hiver — Geister | Kunsthall Produktionen | Atmospheric Black Metal | Switzerland
Editor Jon Rosenthal sang the praises of last year’s Im Wald in two marvelous write-ups ( and here) and he was, without a flinch of hyperbole, correct when he proclaimed it as a perfect album.
Im Wald was the culmination of an artistic vision 20 years under construction and the pinnacle of atmospheric black metal. Thus, Paysage d’Hiver’s follow-up pivots towards immediacy instead of overpolishing the crown of Im Wald. Geister‘s prerelease singles are bonfires compared to the lengthy winter passages of Im Wald. They’re leaner, tighter, and closer to the early sound of Norwegian black metal, and Wintherr’s vocals are higher in the mix as if to suggest Geister will be more ferocious and penetrable than its predecessor.
–Colin Dempsey
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S.H.I. — 4 死 Death | Relapse Records | Punk + Industrial | Japan
In the early 80s, there was Cherry Nishida and the Japanese hardcore punk group Zouo. Zouo hasn’t been around in decades, but Nishida is carrying on with a new group called S∴h∵i (Struggling Harsh Immortals) and its debut album 4 死 Death. If you’re looking for a bludeoning blend of hardcore punk, metal, and industrial, then 4 死 Death is one you’re going to want to turn all the way up. 4 死 Death is utterly restless, in your face at all times, and a testament to Nishida being able to both honor what Zouo accomplished alongside exploring a new sound.
–Greg Kennelty
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Spectral Lore — Ετερόφωτος | I, Voidhanger Records | Atmospheric Black Metal | Greece
Heavily melody-driven and expansively atmospheric, Spectral Lore returns with a new album—technically the first in seven years, unless you count their fantastic (and super long) split with Mare Cognitum from last year. Stay tuned for more on this one tomorrow!
–Ted Nubel
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Bongzilla — Weedsconsin | Heavy Psych Sounds | Stoner Rock + Doom Metal | United States
Bongzilla is set to drop their first album in 16 years on 4/20, which is a supernatural stoner happening of the highest rarity. I think we all know the drill here: load up on snacks and prepare to spin this fucker on Tuesday.
It doesn’t sound like a carbon copy of Amerijuanican, no, but the fundamentals of Bongzilla are there: druggy, crunchy jams and snarls like a hacked-up lung.
–Ted Nubel
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Howling Giant — Alteration EP | Independent | Stoner Rock | United States
Howling Giant have kept themselves busy during the pandemic through a rigorous Twitch schedule, sure, but they also apparently managed to record this trippy, progressive instrumental stoner EP in the meantime — make sure to throw this one on your 4/20 playlist.
–Ted Nubel
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Nyctophagia — Terrified of Tomorrow | Independent | Death Metal + Goregrind | United States
Thirsting for goregrind with a good, pingy snare (or possibly a saucepan, it’s hard to say) that’s much louder than the riffs? Inject this into your veins.
–Ted Nubel
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Plasmodium — Towers of Silence | Transcending Obscurity Records | Psychedelic Black + Death Metal | Australia
It’s strange how space, possibly the least human-oriented domain in existence (statistically speaking) is such fertile material for weird and psychedelic metal, but damn if it doesn’t work. Towers of Silence conjures a hallucinatory trip through hellish voids, as if you’re trapped in a damaged spaceship hurtling towards a slow and painful death in nothingness, all while imaginary demons scream into your ears. Unpleasant to think of, but it sounds pretty rad.
–Ted Nubel
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Cicada the Burrower — Corpseflower | Blue Bedroom Records | Progressive + Post-Black Metal | United States
Post-black metal, both in the sense that post-metal’s escalations and resolutions add weight to its structure and also because it integrates jazzy weirdness to switch things up. Just like its album art, it’s both dark and kind of comforting at the same time.
–Ted Nubel
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Desolate Realm — Desolate Realm | Independent | Heavy + Doom Metal | Finland
From Ted Nubel’s track premiere of “The Circle”:
Finland duo Desolate Realm pulls from the past of [heavy metal and doom metal], hand-picking influences from each branch into a powerful concoction: their debut self-titled album is an aggressive fusion of traditional metal and doom that grants its stately and dour melodies a vicious bite as well.
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Bongzilla / Tons — Doom Sessions Vol. 4 | Heavy Psych Sounds | Doom Metal + Stoner Rock | United States + Italy
Yes, that’s right — two doses of Bongzilla this week, with their new album and their half of this split both landing for your consumption. Alongside Bongzilla is Tons, from Italy’s rapidly-becoming-vital sludge scene, and you can check out a track from their side now, which describes a very real, very serious condition many of us face.
–Ted Nubel
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Odal — Welten Mutter | Eisenwald | Pagan Black Metal | Germany
Classic and impassioned melodies given dark wings through traditional black metal instrumentation, densely layered into a soaring sonic narrative.
–Ted Nubel
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Victory Over the Sun — Nowherer | Independent | Avant-garde Black Metal | United States
Microtonal black metal based on a seventeen-note scale, played on custom-refit guitars. It’s not just unusual in tonality, either: structurally churning and constantly discontent, Nowherer contorts in strange and alien-sounding ways, backed by pulsating drums that only fall back on conventional blast beats for fractional portions.
–Ted Nubel
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Gynoid — The Hunger Artist Show | Independent | Noise + Hardcore + Sludge | Greece
Smart and jagged rock that unifies different seething genre elements under a banner of discontent: the wry humor that’s tangible throughout still drips with poisonous contempt.
–Ted Nubel
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The Circle — Metamorphosis | Independent | Gothic + Black + Death Metal | Germany
A dark and thoughtful concept album that revolves around a journey through an emotional landscape, rendered in a mix of gothic metal, black metal, and death metal.
–Ted Nubel
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