Upcoming Metal Releases: 4/2/2023-4/8/2023

Here are the new (and recent) metal releases for the week of April 2nd, 2023 to April 8th, 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.

Things We Missed

Rotten Sound — Apocalypse | Season of Mist | Grindcore | Finland

In which the first album in seven years from the Finnish grind institution is their shortest and most unrelenting full-length—18 songs in 20 minutes. Wisely trading the Entombed-core guitar tone of 2016’s Abuse to Suffer for a beefier one allows for a clearer (and heavier) expression of their unbridled outrage. Vocalist Keijo Niinimaa (a.k.a. G) seizes the opportunity to offer some of his most intense, vein-bursting screams to date, drawing from his limitless well of left-wing anger towards destruction of the environment, society, and the middle class. Finland was just named the happiest country on Earth for the sixth year in a row, but (thankfully?) no one told these guys.

–Steve Lampiris

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Upcoming Releases

Tribulation — Hamartia | Century Media Records | Gothic Metal | Sweden

This new EP serves to bridge the gap between the band’s old material and what’s coming next (with new guitarist Joseph Tholl), but at least for me the biggest selling point is the sick Blue Öyster Cult cover.

We talked to the band about this EP – read Tom Campagna’s interview here.

–Ted Nubel

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Sunrot — The Unfailing Rope | Prosthetic Records | Sludge + Doom + Post-Metal | United States

If you’re looking for heavy, sludgy noise that holds nothing back, look no further than Sunrot’s The Unfailing Rope. It’s hard to capture the feelings of our times, all the chaos, horror, despair, and wonder, in music, but I believe Sunrot have done it with this record. It is at times disturbing and dissonant, but also brilliant and definitely worth a listen.

–Addison Herron-Wheeler

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Devangelic — Xul | Willowtip Records | Brutal Death Metal | Italy

Xul practices a martial technicality with their death metal: sharp-edged riffs full of serrated jabs and blast beats sporadically applied like focus fire.

–Ted Nubel

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Cicada the Burrower — Blight Witch Regalia | Blue Bedroom Records | Progressive + Post-Black Metal | United States (Madison, WI)

Described by creator Cameron Davis as a way to help process the experience of starting HRT, Cicada the Burrower’s newest album takes the project to strange new lands: a realm where electronic trip-hop beats and synthesizers complement murky riffs and metal textures. The result is a perplexingly upbeat sound that builds up a mythos of its own–I don’t have a full promo of this one yet, but I’m eager to dive into it later this week.

–Ted Nubel

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Children of the Reptile — Heavy Is the Head | Independent | Heavy Metal | United States

Lightning-quick, infectious epic heavy metal – an energetic record bolstered by incredibly agile guitar work and catchy, irreverent vocals.

–Ted Nubel

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Thecondontion + Ceremented — Split | I, Voidhanger Records | Death + Doom Metal | International

To quote Chuck D: “Bass! How low can you go?”

This split combines two thoughtful and exquisitely bizarre flavors of death metal, both bass-only: Thecondontion, whose rattling, infuriated rhythm section is backed by fantastical synth, and Ceremented, who turn their low-end power into punky, lo-fi death-doom metal full of gut-rending sharp edges.

–Ted Nubel

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Ayyur — Prevail | Armée de la Mort Records | Black Metal | Tunisia

Hot on the tail of their Hidden Rooms Sessions I EP last year, the Tunisian band continues to explore vast, atmospheric realms of black metal. There’s a solitary, gloomy brand of mysticism to the album that’s amplified by experimental dabbling in doom and ambient sounds.

–Ted Nubel

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Raider — Trial by Chaos | Independent | Thrash + Death Metal | Canada

Imagine the middle ground between DevilDriver and The Black Dahlia Murder, and you’re pretty much there. The Canadian quintet’s sophomore album is a leap forward from their 2020 debut, Guardian of the Fire. This time, the songwriting is sharper, the playing is more confident, and the production is excellent. The result is 39 (more) minutes of thrashy melodeath, with a handful of the hookiest riffs and some of the slickest drumming I’ve heard this year. Many of the lyrics touch on how humanity is destroying itself via technology, like: “Overflowing echo chambers, ad nauseam doom / Drowning in information, gasping for the truth / Deceived, divided, toxically inundated.” Grim but accurate. Look at it this way, though: if we are indeed bringing about our own destruction, at least there’s a kickass soundtrack. Fair trade?

–Steve Lampiris

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Lurk — Aegis | Transcending Obscurity Records | Death + Doom + Sludge Metal | Finland

This may sound reductive, but Lurk’s appeal lies first and foremost in their riffs. Sure, yes, the way that they fuse sludge, doom, death, and much else into a cohesive vision of otherworldly suffering is impressive, but perhaps more impressive is how they manage to fit straight-up bangers into a narrative full of gasps, growls, pensive quiet, and uproarious peaks. There is much to appreciate here in terms of texture and sonic worldbuilding, but also much to adore in terms of nasty riffs. Click “play” on “Blood Surge” and see if you can stop your lips from curling downward in unconscious appreciation into an off-kilter grimace once that riff hits at 00:54.

–Ted Nubel

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Lo! — The Gleaners | Pelagic Records | Sludge + Post-Metal + Hardcore | Australia

Lo! tell stories of corruption, weakness, and pain, and they do so with an obvious taste for blood. Their harsh-edged mix of sludge, post-metal, and hardcore bridges all-guns-blazing riffing with spacier, open-ended chords that ring out like infuriated accusations.

–Ted Nubel

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The Crooked Whispers — Funeral Blues | Ripple Music | Sludge + Doom Metal | United States (Los Angeles, CA)

The Crooked Whispers make their Ripple debut with Funeral Blues: expect swampy stoner jams with a dosage of sludge, but also featuring a significant wildcard in the form of Anthony Gaglia’s (LáGoon) creepy, Edgy 59-like vocals, which help the band craft an ominous, intimidating sound. I know harsh, atypical vocals have never really caught on in the stoner/doom community outside of more direct sludge implementations, but The Crooked Whispers is a leading example of just how killer the combo can be.

–Ted Nubel

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Nekus — Sepulchral Divination | Sentient Ruin | Black + Death Metal | Germany

Grueling, feverish death-doom that howls and groans from the darkest, deepest hells imaginable.

–Ted Nubel

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Lucifer’s Fall — Children of the Night | Morbid and Miserable Records | Doom + Heavy Metal | Australia

If anything cements Lucifer’s Fall as ‘true’ doom, it’s that they have chosen to release this EP and break up at the same time.

Definitely a bummer in some senses, but you can’t knock the EP on its own merits. As always, Lucifer’s Fall engages in heavily dramatic doom with some heavy metal might to keep us guessing. Vocalist Deceiver’s gritty, powerful delivery is an ideal companion for the band’s sinister riffing style, and it comes with no shortage of eccentric outbursts either. Children of the Night is a charming end to a fun band, to be sure.

–Ted Nubel

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Heretic Plague — Context is a Stumbling Corpse | Selfmadegod Records | Brutal Death Metal + Grindcore | United Kingdom

From Ted Nubel’s track premiere of “Pentacle of Broken Teeth”:

The UK band cultivates an air of creeping madness on their debut album, toying with surreal subject matter. It raises the hairs on the back of my neck, but it’s an enjoyable kind of discomfort. Every track is a delightful exercise in weirdness: from the intriguing song titles (“Briefcase full of Broken Cutlery,” “Grandpa’s Hammer”, to name a couple) to the gruesome riffy death-grind inside that often comes with equally odd samples.

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Grin — Black Nothingness | TLD Records | Sludge + Stoner Metal | Germany

Sublimely serpentine riffs are the main attraction here, delivered through one hell of a bass tone and layered against precise grooves.

–Ted Nubel

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Cursebinder — Drifting | Avantgarde Music | Black Metal | Poland

Fraught with tension and a sense of unraveling, Cursebinder’s debut full-length takes a progressive approach to black metal, but it’s one that’s ultimately rooted in the genre’s raw fury–though, the band turns that fury both inward and outward here.

–Ted Nubel

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